Conversationware

This is one of those ‘prediction’ posts for comms solution companies.

Talking to a couple of integrator partners today about the change of IPT solutions from hardware to software, and about software upgrade renewal plans, it became clear there are issues bubbling away for the unwary.

These maintenance and support plans are designed to give the customer a better deal on continuous upgrades, and encourage a well supported customer base - presumably to higher levels of customer satisfaction over the period.

As a customer you get to know your upgrade costs in advance, and don’t suddenly have to ‘find’ money you didn’t know you needed for an upgrade. Manufacturers get more revenue to fund further research ….so all well and good all round.

There’s a seemingly small issue though, one that can bite you

• The customer only wants to start their support contract from the completion of install, which can be months after original kit order
• The manufacturers start the 12 month clock when they ship

Renewals are sent from the kit manufacturer three months before you’re likely to see the revenue from your customer - and paying out months before you even know if you’re going to get your contract renewed isn’t much fun. 

This is compounded when lots of suppliers on the same install are going live at different times.

So, if your suppliers aren’t flexible about go live days for your orders - as opposed to ship dates - there will be trouble about 9 months later. Sounds about right when dealing with some manufacturers.

Our company supplies workflow solutions, so we can manage the lead times for solving the issues (saving a personal headache). But I bet there will be more than a fair few accounts in the industry on stop this time next year.

With young children you sometimes worry about education. 

Well, beyond just the paying for it, you also wonder if ‘the powers that be’ can possibly keep up.

For instance I heard on the radio the other day that the establishment is worried about plagiarism by students from the internet. It reminds me of how worried they were when calculators came out (in my time), but eventually they worked out that machines weren’t going away and stopped worrying about basic math being practiced by older children with calculators.

Older children moved on to more advanced subjects.

I think we’re going to have to stop worrying about information - facts? - available on the internet, when discovered by older students. Why bother learning things by heart when the facts are available on wikipedia.

….arguable perhaps?

Meantime, I hope there are classes being planned on blogs, wiki’s, RSS feeds, linking, tagging.

Scott Karp talks here about why he, historically a very literate person, doesn’t read books anymore. He finds Networked thought much more powerful.

Me too.

Blogging and linking are a kind of thoughtful shorthand for ideas. If I don’t understand the squiggle - I click through, read the linked material - and then click back to continue the reading. Multiple people’s thoughts are then combined and blended and leveraged.

It’s just like you, as the single pupil in the class, having dozens of lecturers in front of you all building on each other’s ideas. No wonder that’s more powerful than a single linear, non-interactive ’broadcast’ by a single professor to 150 students. 

This video is worth another airing - it’s been watched 1.5 Million times so far.

I saw a great movie about 13 years ago.

I didn’t forget Groundhog Day, and apart from featuring one of my favourite actors, the film also featured one of my favourite subjects - philosophy.

A number of my friends however just found the movie irritating, so I’ve mostly kept quiet…in the main. Anyhow, I’ve just discovered that I’m not the only amateur philosopher who liked it!

Someone, Paul Hannam to be specific, only went and wrote a book about how profound the movie is…another wierdo…hurrah, I’m not the only one.

So I feel utterly vindicated (how unusual) and if only my friends still read this blog, we might schedule another viewing.

I’ve had this link to an interview with the author open in a browser for about half an hour (whilst I wrote my previous post). What’s amusing is that the interview replays every five minutes, so I’ve heard it about 7 times now…..It really is Groundhog Day.

I could talk all day (who’d have guessed) about the movie - but just go and watch it.

I pinched that phrase from AVST.

We’ve been dreaming about usable mobile working since forever.

Anyhow, having been wandering around with a Mobile Broadband connection from Vodafone for a couple of weeks, I now think that working anywhere is finally a reality!

- at least for us in the UK - I’m not entirely sure where else this might be available at such reasonable cost - £25 per month according to the website.

Vodafone’s website also lists further down the page that it limits users to a 3 GB monthly total. It then refers to the terms and conditions - but I defy anyone to find the T’s and C’s that apply.

Typical huge company website - completely useless to navigate.

I reserved judgement for a while, but everywhere I’ve been for two weeks has been fine. No mountain tops or anything you understand, but Burton on Trent was ok, a typical middle england place. So, hence this mini review.

Everything is great with Mobile Broadband.

My only small gripe is a nagging system tray piece of software that displays 7.2MB at all times, even if a speedcheck does show most places to be giving me 250kb download.

It almost looks designed to hoodwink the user, which is probably not the intention, although, when you look at the marketing spiel on the website….you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise.

There is no need to hoodwink us Vodafone.

That’s because 250kb download is enough for most everything, including picking up voice messages via Outlook and VPN (although I would stay away from web development, as your browser will choose to fool you by showing a reduced bandwidth version of your site).

So, finally I am free from those useless wireless hot spot business models that drove my irritability through the roof. Why on earth wouldn’t Hotels provide their guests with broadband access, when it is obvious to the casual observer that it would attract more business for them?

Beats me. And now, Mobile Broadband will be beating them.

Here’s me in a hotel room testing a You Tube video across the modem…..no problem!

Software rollouts are always fraught.

Something to do with the users being overwhelmed, apparently its been going on for years.

Watching star trek in the early days, as a young boy you understand, it’s been nice to see some of the technology come to fruition.

So, Communicators came along in the 90’s, and now look - we’re close to teleportation.

These items were successfully teleported from one continent to another. Although, the ability to teleport humans isn’t just around the corner or anything.

(I picked this up from the Dezeen blog, and if you like design, the website is very worth a feedscan)

Ok, I cheated a little - but if you didn’t know. This is usually just where the Arthur C Clarke phrase is usually trotted out, but it’s not magic, it just looks that way if you squint.

I saw a fair few spelling mistakes today, and it reminded me of the link below.

Perhaps your punctuation is slightly off, and perhaps all it takes is a little reflection and modification.

A dash in time saves nine maybe?

http://www.upassdriving.com

Is this post just mean, or is it a salutory lesson for all of us bloggers/publishers?

Wasn’t it Seth Godin that told us to be remarkable in our marketing? See a link to Seth’s video on my Great Conversations Page.

A very worthwhile watch indeed at 17 mins. I just watched it again.

Google helps fight crime.

Mr Canoe man, (John Darwin, Anne Darwin’s husband) is probably saying already - “I would have gotten away with it, if it wasn’t for those pesky kids” (Sergey Brin and Larry Page)

Can you imagine a better story to dine out on for the next few years

“I googled and found a dead man.” That would keep the evening going with a swing.

Apparently, someone googled “John Anne Panama” and Google images instantly delivered a 2006 photo of the fraudster, and his scheme unravelled from there.

I’ve heard hundreds of jokes already….it’s got legs, as they say.

More here about the googler, at the daily record.

I stole this from Dan York’s blog.

Whatever you put up on the interweb is no longer your own Dan.

Thanks You tube

I guess this is a modern take on the public information films of our childhood.

Remember Charley says?

You can always feel a bit of an idiot using earpieces in public places - the bluetooth devices are so small, that other people think you’re talking to yourself.

Now there is a solution, from Robert Stadler

 The designer’s webpages are here