I signed up for Quora because many geeks won't shut up about it. Blah blah blah algorithms, blah blah blah game changing, blah blah blah powerful search engine ranking. Whatever. Naturally, I had to check it out. My experience thus far has been underwhelming. When you are searching for answers, you just need a quick answer, not a dissertation or thirty. Most answers to questions I've seen are long essays full of personal opinions, anecdotes, and discussions. Who has time for that? The main problem is that many of the questions are statements in question form. In addition, questions aren't really single questions, they are multiple questions with only one question mark at the end. To get anything out of it, you have to read a series of answers that may or may not even attempt to answer the question(s), or go off on an entirely different direction. I read the guides on how to use Quora. Nobody follows the guide; nor do I. If everybody used the service as it was intended, I could see how Quora would be useful. As it stands, the sensation I get is that of an opinionated mob at the other end. I'm already opinionated, I don't need more of it. I need answers. I can see the intent of Quora; but, what I'm getting out of it is a completely different experience. The questions I have are practical. How do I edit the template for SuchNSuch CMS? Does anybody sell the recovery disks for a specific computer model? What are possible causes of a Windows machine hanging at mup.sys on bootup? I did ask one question, "How long can I record audio in Evernote?" I could not find the answer anywhere online. An Evernote employee answered the question, 90 minutes. Done. If that's what others were doing, Quora would be much more useful for me. As it is now, it's too much noise and too much of a time sink. While it may have excellent SEO, I value time and good, actionable information. Google addresses those nicely.
My initial reaction to AT&T's purchase of T-Mobile is one of concern. This has very little to do with the technology and everything to do with company culture. I am very happy with T-Mobile mainly because of their customer service and pricing. I used to work for T-Mobile in their customer care department years ago. I can tell you that they have something good going on there. Let's start off by clarifying that the buyout is not all gloom and doom. It actually helps out both customers of AT&T and T-Mobile. Both companies use GSM, so they are technologically compatible. The only thing that separates them are the frequencies they use, and not much beyond that. Plenty of people have jailbroken iPhones running on the T-Mobile network. You can currently buy unlocked GSM phones that will run on any GSM network provided you have a SIM card. From experience, I can tell you that AT&T has better rural coverage than T-Mobile. When T-Mobile customers roam, they hop on to AT&T towers. Most services work while roaming, except network-centric features like the free mobile to mobile calling. While you are roaming, those calls are straight anytime minutes. So, this is a win for T-Mobile customers. The doubling of frequencies and availability of network capacity is a definite win for customers of both companies. Where I have issues is that I'm a big fan of T-Mobile customer service. When I worked there, they treated us very well. Of course, they expected us to treat our customers well too. At the end of the day, many of my co-workers were not eager to leave as you see in other companies. They would stick around for another hour or two. In short, T-mobile has a great company culture that comes through in what they do. Do you remember T-Mobile's Get More campaign? That campaign is gone; but the spirit lives on. T-Mobile has always strived to give customers more minutes and features at a lower cost. In addition, they have always aimed at providing handsets with the greatest features. Of course, this has not always translated into the biggest or fastest network until their recent drive to HSPA+. I'll admit that I've never been an AT&T or Cingular mobile customer. I've been a Sprint customer, and I've met with engineers from Nextel, a company Sprint acquired. In fact, I'm currently a simultaneous customer of Boost Mobile and T-Mobile. When I was with Sprint, I hated calling customer service. Each rep would tell me something different concerning my account. They would always nickel and dimed me into huge bills. I would always have to call two or three times to sort things out. When Sprint acquired Nextel, Sprint's company culture simply crushed what was otherwise a growing business. My engineer friends would show me maps of their drives looking for dead spots when they were just Nextel. They would tweak their towers to maximize coverage. Once Sprint acquired them, they had to standardize all towers, even if it meant poor reception in some areas. What Sprint did to Nextel network coverage, they worsened through their customer service. This is my concern for my own T-Mobile experience. I worry that AT&T's company culture will carry over to my own mobile experience. With T-Mobile, I was willing to do with a little less because they treat me right. This is really important when it comes to data products. I mentioned earlier that I have service with TMO and Boost. I'm using Boost for my voice service and the walkie-talkie feature. I have no problem using voice service with the lowest bidder. Boost currently has an offer where your bill goes down to $35/mo for unlimited voice/text/data. I use my T-mobile phone on the lowest voice plan and have unlimited data. I can live without reliable voice; data is my livelihood. With Boost, the consensus is that they have terrible customer service. Fortunately, their handsets are very affordable. I think, rather than troubleshoot a problem, I would buy a new handset, move the SIM card, and go about my business. Most of what I need to do can be done on their website. Data is a different issue. If you have a data problem, you MUST call customer care. So, in those rare instances where I've had problems with my data service, I have had no reservations calling T-Mobile for help. For this reason, I would have stayed with T-Mobile forever. I worry that my experience will decline after the acquisition like the experiences of Nextel customers after Sprint. I don't think AT&T will try to instill T-Mobile customer care standards in their own people. To the victor go the spoils, after all. Having dealt with AT&T for their other services, I can't say that I've been mistreated. They have been helpful; but it always seems like I'm just a number to them. T-Mobile practices "one and done"; they aim to limit your need to ask for help to one phone call. In other words, they want to ensure your request is fulfilled by the end of the phone call. If it isn't, that rep is charged with following through to take care of the problem for you. If, and this is a big IF, my customer service experience deteriorates, it seems I'm running out of options on where to take my service. I think AT&T will do OK, perhaps not as magical as T-Mobile. But, IF things get bad, I'm definitely not going to Sprint. I guess that just leaves Verizon. But, I don't think we'll get to that point, right? I think the technological benefits will likely outweigh the plain vanilla customer care experience. Related articles
Upon arrival in Austin, I immediately made my way to the office. In my anticipation and planning of the Social Media in Disaster and War event, I did not realize how close the date is to the state legislature's bill filing deadline. Our office is working to get our last bills in; we were receiving copies of our bills as late as 8pm. Social Media Clubhouse is geared up to start with the coverage of SXSWi. That means I should get as much information about what is happening in Austin for today's livestream. Then, of course, there is the mini-conference at the capitol. We need to prepare with snacks and drinks. I expect we will also have some kind of South Texas meetup somewhere. Lots of action this weekend. I expect to have a good time. So, I guess I'll get started.
Here I am on the Greyhound bus headed to Austin. I dozed for a couple minutes; but after a pit stop in Falfurrias, Texas, I'm awake again. I was sleepy before departing McAllen. Not sure what's keeping me up. Since I'm awake anyway, I'm thinking about what I'm doing. I'm an easy going guy. Ask anybody, they'll tell you I rarely get my feathers ruffled. Years ago, somebody told me I'm a type A personality. I thought, "bullshit". I'm not very competitive, don't have a natural sense of urgency, and don't feel compelled to boss people around. Looking back at the time since then, I look at where I am now and what I have taken on. Wow, maybe I am type A-ish. I think my skepticism came from the fact that I enjoy what I do. It's strange that I'm awake, anticipating the coming days. I have projects awaiting. It's self inflicted, mind you. I could just get a job and blend in; but, I can't seem to do it. Oh, well. Let's see where this road goes. In the meantime, I need to wait for sleep to sneak up on me so I don't drag all weekend. More self-infliction. Ha!
I'm starting to see the trickle of applications that are being announced for SXSW. So far I am seeing apps for iOS, not for Android. I know the iPhone has a die-hard fan base; but come on. Android outnumbers them. Being left out in the cold like this by developers only means one thing; when your app comes to Android, it better be able to get me a beer from the fridge. Otherwise, I have no use for it.
When I first learned about Beluga, I was excited. It seems like a good concept. It's clean and easy to use; but, I could never find anybody willing to give it a try. It is understandable, to some degree. Nobody wants yet another login, app, social network.
I thought perhaps SXSW would be the test that would make or break Beluga. But, Facebook bought them out, which is a kiss of death. It's not just Facebook; Google buys companies and assimilates them. Facebook simply lays acquisitions to pasture. I would have loved to put Beluga to the test; but there is no point now. When it comes down to it, I realize that Google Buzz pretty much does the same thing as what made Beluga interesting to me: private group messaging and location awareness. As it turns out, groupme.com just added location and photo sharing too. So, there are alternatives.
One of the problems that I have, which I realize only a small percentage of people have, is getting content out reliably and consistently.
Each platform has its advantages and disadvantages. Twitter is simple, easy, and viewable by the world.
Facebook has a bigger "potential" audience, not all 500 million users follow me. Small detail.
My blog is running Wordpress. It's OK; but, I'm becoming more and more mobile, which can be a hindrance.
I would like to rely on Posterous to fill the mobile gap; BUT, how the hech are they making money. I got burned by Utterli going under and taking my content with them. I'd rather trust a company that I know is making money.
Going back to Twitter, though they're not making money, tweets are ethereal anyway.
Video is another problem. Youtube has the big audience; but I can't livestream. There is also the issue of posting videos less than 10 minutes. Yes, they've raised the time limit; but other services have not updated their scripts to match.
When it comes to audio, I like Blogtalkradio; but, there is the scheduling issue. Cinchcast is good to avoid scheduling problems; but, you can't upload audio or take callers.
In short, there are a lot of different mediums I enjoy using. The problem is that I have to jump from service to service to accomplish the things that I want to accomplish at that time.
Then this leads to another problem; if I have the time to sit at a computer to put together all the bits and pieces of content into one single outlet, then I would not have bothered using any of the other services. I could have just produced things a bit better and uploaded them to my blog.
Consequently, my stuff is scattered everywhere. Theoretically, they reach out to different audiences; but, they're all me. I try to automate and link as many accounts as I can to make distribution easier; but, it can quickly become a mess.
I'm almost tempted to move out of Wordpress; but, there are all those old links. Maybe I ought to just rip off the bandage.
In the end, my presence on the web is a mess.
|
