Saturday, January 21, 2006

Hello, my name is... Scott Ginsburg has a contagious idea that could break a lot of people out of their inertia. By simply brandishing a stock Hello, my name is... nametag, Scott bucks the system of formal introductions, proscribed networking and trite business interactions. Sure, it takes a lot of people out of their comfort zone of privacy and guardedness, but there are many instances where a viral icebreaker could save a lot of time and effort. Think about seeing nametags when you move to a new neighborhood, start a new job, join a new club or participate in a community activity. The mere presence of a name badge indicates that you (outsider) might be welcome. The absence would definitely show that someone feels threatened by you. 11:23:11 PM    comment []

Friday, November 04, 2005

Reducing the size of the World Wide Web The clutter on the web is overwhelming. Search has helped us filter down to only result that are relevant, but it only goes so far. Hundreds of billions of pixels are merely filling up space, often with outdated and  erroneous information. This might inspire the algorithm writers at Google to new heights, but for the average user, the clutter decreases much of the productivity he gained when he got access to the world wide web. Some ideas that came to mind to resolve this problem are: Webocratic oath - sort of like the Hippocratic Oath doctor's take. Instead, web publishers, from webmasters to cat bloggers, would make a commitment to their fellow man. "I shall publish no crap, regardless of the price of storage." Web Day - As with Earth Day, where good citizens make a noble effort to clean up their home planet, denizens of internet would take a few hours of their time to remove what is no longer useful. 5 blog posts that really didn't make any sense. That free home page that came with your earthlink account. That copy of your department newsletter from 1998? Let them go. Let them all go. Didn't that feel good? 10:36:00 PM    comment []

Monday, October 24, 2005

Could this response from Comcast be any more impersonal? When I saw Brian Roberts at Boston College a few years ago, I believed the speech about franchises developing relationships in their local area, and about not exerting corporate dogma on local enterprises. But now I don't. Customer service is essential to the development of a healthy business. Even though Comcast, in many areas, has a monopoly, it won't be able to compete with municipal wi-fi operations unless it, at the very least, answers questions like a human, not a machine. Dear David Kluskiewicz, Thank you for taking the time to write us. At Comcast, we constantly evaluate ourselves against other ISPs to ensure that we can continue to be the industry leader in speed, reliability and value.  Our pricing structure and promotional offers are determined by our findings and are based on many factors, such as network maintenance and our ability to provide choice services to our subscribers, such as McAfee Anti-Virus, Rhapsody music, and PhotoShow Deluxe.  Because we are always re-evaluating our offerings, it is difficult to make any long-term projections about our pricing structure and promotional practices, particularly our frequently-changing promotional offers. We understand that you demand exceptional value from our services.  We are pleased that you have presented us with the opportunity to demonstrate to you why Comcast is the number 1 Broadband ISP in the US.  We Deliver Value!  Our Comcast High Speed Internet service provides you more for your money than any other service can. We have the fastest speeds 6 Mbps standard and the option to purchase 8 Mbps services with the most reliable-always on connection.  We have recently added Rhapsody radio and Music choice services A complimentary subscription the the McAfee security suite as well as a variety of new features on our homepage.  We will continue to offer the industry best products and services that you have come to expect.  Comcast is not satisfied with just giving you the best service today, we are always looking to bring you even better service tomorrow. Comcast customers receive the exclusive features and content of Comcast.net where they can take advantage of special offers from the Comcast Photo Center and access their online storage, personal web page and email from any PC connected to the Internet. Comcast.net is constantly being updated and improved to enhance our customers' experience.   Each account can have up to 7 email accounts, which come with 250 MB of storage space, giving a combined 1.75 GB of storage-an industry best.  Our subscribers can also create personal web pages to share family photos, or post their resumes; our subscriber can store important files online so they can be accessed even when away from home. In addition Comcast has recently launched video mail service at not extra charge. We have even further increased the value of our services through partnerships with many of the top web service providers available including: Match.com - Comcast and Match.com are dedicated to connecting people online quickly and efficiently, and this partnership provides Comcast users direct access to Match.com's global network of singles. Comcast Arcade-Powered by RealOne, which offers hundreds of free games. Games On Demand- offers our subscribers a way to play full-version PC games without CD-ROMs. It provides a tremendous variety of games, ready to play, on demand. EA Sports- Which offers our subscribers the best fantasy football on the web. T-Mobile-Partnered to provide discounted use of Wireless "Hot Spots" at local Border's, Starbucks and Kinko's stores in the region.  T-Mobile has over 3,900 hotspots in North America and 122 in the Boston area alone! I hope that I have helped you to understand what makes our service the best.  If you would like additional assistance, please reply to this email or call us at 1-800-266-2278 (24 Hour customer support). Thank you for the opportunity to assist you.  If you need further assistance with any of your Comcast services please reply to this email and we will be happy to assist you.  Thank you again for choosing Comcast we appreciate your business. ***** Like many others in our community we have been greatly effected by the recent disaster in the Gulf Coast area. If you would like to join us in assisting our fellow citizens in the disaster areas  please visit our Comcast Hurricane Relief site at:  http://www.comcast.net/hurricanerelief/   Here you will find many options and ways that you can help. ***** For immediate resolution of your issues, we offer our customers the ability to  Secure  Chat with a  Live representative: Internet Related Issues: http://www.comcastsupport.com/sdcxuser/lachat/user/userchatstart.asp Cable Television Video Related Issues: http://www.comcastsupport.com/videochat Did you know that Comcast offers free Antivirus, Firewall and Privacy software for all of our Comcast Internet users?  You can find this great McAfee software at:  http://www.comcast.net/security/mcafee/ Sincerely, Joanna 9:06:05 PM    comment []

Monday, September 19, 2005

Wow. Quick response from Comcast, albeit mostly canned. Here, I pose the question: Dear "Dave S.", I am going to take the chance of sending you my question because clearly, you took the time to write "I apologize however there are a number of email addresses the response could come from." into the body of the pre-written email support response, which incidentally is completely irrelevant to the question I sent. Dave, I was a Comcast package (internet and cable) subscriber before, but haven't purchased it here in CT because I find the long-term price structure a little troubling. Comcast discounts packages for the first 3 months, then raises the price for essentially repeat customers. Honestly, I think this is insulting. Why not reward your customers who stay with you? I'd be ready to sign up for ip phone/cable/internet in a heartbeat, if I knew that I wasn't going to be penalized for staying with Comcast. It is especially annoying that Comcast continues to send direct mail to existing customers letting them know of sales deals for which they are not eligible. Is there any chance that Comcast will change this practice? Thanks, David On 9/19/05, Digital Phone - New England <digitalphone_bos@cable.comcast.com>; wrote:Dear David Kluskiewicz, Thank you for taking the time to write us. I apologize however there are a number of email addresses the response could come from.  For information on promotional offers, please contact our sales department at 1-888-266-2278 or visit us at www.comcast.com. Thank you for the opportunity to assist you.  If you need further assistance with any of your Comcast services please reply to this email and we will be happy to assist you.  Thank you again for choosing Comcast we appreciate your business. ***** Like many others in our community we have been greatly effected by the recent disaster in the Gulf Coast area. If you would like to join us in assisting our fellow citizens in the disaster areas  please visit our Comcast Hurricane Relief site at:  http://www.comcast.net/hurrica nerelief/   Here you will find many options and ways that you can help. ***** For immediate resolution of your issues, we offer our customers the ability to  Secure  Chat with a  Live representative: Internet Related Issues: http://www.comcastsupport.com/sdcxuser/lachat/user/userchatstart.asp Cable Television Video Related Issues: http://www.comcastsupport.com/videochat Did you know that Comcast offers free Antivirus, Firewall and Privacy software for all of our Comcast Internet users?  You can find this great McAfee software at:  http://www.comcast.net/security/mcafee/ Sincerely, Dave S. Comcast Electronic Customer Care - New England 10:47:17 PM    comment []

This is a test of the customer service department. At Comcast. Deep down I want to know why Comcast engages in a marketing strategy, whereby customers who faithfully stick with them are forced to pay higher rates, while new ones are offered discounts. It smacks of desparation. Sell your product low (not that there is any good competition) and then crank up rates for those you retain. Use those hikes to provide discounts for new subscribers for 3 months. It doesn't make sense. So, I'm going to do a little exploring. I'm interested in their services, but I need to put this issue to rest before I subscribe. Here is my first email, with a clear indication that I could be their next customer. I am very interested in adding several of your services (internet phone and high speed internet), but before I take the time to write an email with my questions, could you please let me know the email address of a person at Comcast who could respond? Thanks. To be continued... 9:43:49 PM    comment []

Friday, September 16, 2005

I swore I wouldn't panic, but after paying $3.59/gallon I actually considered going for 2 wheels - in style of course. It doesn't quite work with the suburban design around here, but it definitely makes you think about what to build into future developments. I'm willing to bet the bike lane gets a little wider next time. 10:27:50 PM    comment []

Sunday, September 11, 2005

Paranoia. It just dawned on me that there could be a dark side to mapping applications. While watching EPIC for the 5th time at a conference Friday, I thought, "What is the first address a user would type into a cool map application?". One's own of course. So for at least a short point in time the host has an address match for IP addresses. That's a valuable asset to direct marketers. 10:33:51 PM    comment []

Thursday, September 08, 2005

With so much blog content, one has to wonder. If all this content is free, how valuable can it be. You get what you pay for, right? But then, authors like Seth Godin start publishing free books. Nothing huge, but definitely content that at least a couple thousand of us would buy. So why give it away? I have some ideas: When you give away something that you're competitors charge for, it looks like you have nothing to lose. In fact it might make people think, "if he gives this away, he must only charge for the really good stuff." As Americans we're feeling uber-confident about high value work. After all, most of us know there's not going to be any money in assembling widgets, or providing commodity type professional services, from law to accounting to marketing to teaching. We might as well shake out all the commodities and soon-to-be commodities. Who knows? We might uncover something we overlooked. Either way, the idea sharing helps infinitely better than the canned content of the past. How many people do you know that created value by reading Steven Covey? 12:01:13 AM    comment []

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