The Billy Joel song reference on this story's title is just to acknowledge the fact that I am not quite the first to have started the speculative "what-if" scenario regarding Global IP Sound.  Rodrigo really gets the scoop about one of the key ingredients that makes Skype attractive: a bona fide CODEC, namely GIPS (Global IP Sound).  This Swedish company is top class in the VoIP CODEC market - and its performance is great in the Internet.  No wonder Skype calls sound so great.  Not too many companies could match GIPS' quality (albeit there was a pretty good one in TeleSym - except that there were some turf battles once more VCs joined in and/or other technical issues were identified, resulting in the company having to wind down its operations).  But like Rodrigo and DG Lewis, I also wonder what kind of deal GIPS gets when it licenses its CODECs to the likes of Skype, Microsoft, etc.  And it would be a great move for some company out there to buy GIPS.  I would say that such an acquisition is not only great due to the technology being acquired, but as a bonus, to the disruption it would bring to all companies licensing the CODEC.

Skype Journal had an interesting story on "buddycasting", the newest variant of "casting" something out into cyberspace (after Podcasting and Skypecasting).  Turns out this concept by Gogelmogel's Uri Levanon is pretty neat: this Skype mini-cast would sort of work like a personal avatar, enabling a user to share a single short voice message with members of his/her contacts list.  This can be a joke, saying, or an excerpt from a favorite song or program.  In the spirit of the Business Week story, I like this idea quite a bit - since it's all about creating a personal experience.