Why Skype Hacks?

The term hacking has a bad reputation in the press. They use it to refer to someone who breaks into systems or wreaks havoc with computers as their weapon. Among people who write code, though, the term hack refers to a "quick-and-dirty" solution to a problem, or a clever way to get something done. And the term hacker is taken very much as a compliment, referring to someone as being creative, having the technical chops to get things done. The Hacks series is an attempt to reclaim the word, document the good ways people are hacking, and pass the hacker ethic of creative participation on to the uninitiated. Seeing how others approach systems and problems is often the quickest way to learn about a new technology.

Skype has very little in the way of documentation, particularly for the Skype user taking any steps beyond the basics. So in one sense, Skype Hacks is a how-to guide for getting things done with Skypelike a road map to Skype's basic features and beyond.

On the other hand, it is also a book that shows you how, with a little imagination, you can make Skype do interesting and new thingsfilling in the details on the map where before, there was only "here be dragons." Hacking around with Skype is easy, fun, and rewarding. Skype is a technology that encourages experimentation, so the book helps to equip youthe readerwith the mindset and toolset for you to hack around with Skype on your own.

Skype is a new technology, moving very fast and definitely worthy of being written about. Moreover, it is a technology that needs to be written about now, given the dearth of available independent sources of information. By being published now, Skype Hacks aims to be one of the first sources for useful and timely information on Skype. And, by being constantly updated in print and through the book's web site (http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/SkypeHacks/index.html), it is hoped that it will remain a useful resource for all Skype users for a long time to come.