The more important result is to understand Skype's Edge-connectivity. It's an example of how communities can stay connected independent on the accidental properties of the Internet and the gatekeepers. Because the relationships are maintained at the edge mobility is fundamental. You don't need the network to do meshing when the applications maintain their own relationships. Meshing then becomes a low level technique for pooling routers rather than a way to make applications mobile.
This edge approach can also allow the Internet itself to be simplified since the IP address can be used to facilitate routing rather than being overly constrained by having to also serve the role of stable (and dynamic) identifier. Since the identifiers are stable you don't need a mechanism like the DNS to provide stability. Unlike the DNS, the Skype directory is a directory though it also maps identifiers into handles to facilitate rendezvous.
OK, so what is the guy saying here? Basically, that endpoints on the Skype network can be entirely mobile. What he's suggesting is that if you empower the edge of the network with a smart way of knowing how to contact other endpoints regardless of the connective infrastructure, then lower-layer routing and gateway devices become inconsequential to the application. DNS becomes irrelevant, too. Fine for Skype, right?But what if we were to start tunnelling data THROUGH Skype endpoints? Not just a VPN, mind you--Skype endpoints are entirely mobile and use a peer-to-peer routing scheme that operates at the application layer. So data tunneled through them isn't subject to the same logistical restrictions as that which is tunneled through a VPN. Plus, unlike a VPN, Skype's protocol is very sticky to block.
Sounds like a great way around this whole two-tier Internet messery. Of course, the analogy is sort of like driving a ten ton truck in the fast lane. Once you get the truck in that fast lane, how do you make it go FAST?
