cernio

Free/cheap web telephony?

noreply@blogger.com (cernIO) — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 07:05:00 +0000

Not much time to write on my blog these times, anyway: I found this interesting article on how to make free/cheap calls from web browser and I regret to notice that Sitòfono is not listed there.
But I guess this is due to the "free" model that has been considered: free calls that nobody pay, except the VoIP company holder of the free web telephony product.

BUT this is not a sustainable model, it needs to gather some revenue stream, which is not VC funding!

On the other hand, Sitofono is based on a more realistic revenue model: Sitofono is bought by companies/professionals who want to be reached from the web by various media channels (email, chat, voice call). Caller does not pay for the call, which is offered by the sponsoring company/professional.

Just one more point: one of the disadvantages of web call back model is the possibility of making call tricks or jokes to some victim. In this case, the offender puts the number of the victim in one of the boxes, and starts the call. The offender is not immediately recognizable, unless by asking the VoIP company who started the call.
There is no "perfect" answer to this, but one strategy is better than none :)

Why Nokia should wink at thunderbird

noreply@blogger.com (cernIO) — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 00:02:00 +0000

Nokia is moving steadily on a wholly new terrain, that of Mobile Internet Users.
MIUs are not business people. They don't use blackberry. They do have some sort of business to do of course, but their usage of mobile phone is a mixture of work, family, love, friends, games.

People will have different profiles of their digital lifestyle.
They are TV consumers, on the couch, with their media center.
They are news consumers and producers, at home, with their internet tablet or laptop.
They are dwellers of an on-line village, and they send messages, write scraps, do some twittering, participate in a chat and, last but not least, they read e-mail.

Therefore, people have many devices and use them to do many activities. Sometimes you need to switch from a device to another, and you need your activity to be transported on the other devices. Then, you need synchronization so as to keep the same information in more places.

Just think about all the various kinds of information you produce/consume on your mobile phone:

addressbook
agenda
notes
messages
photos

Nokia is already doing a great job with Lifeblog, which allows me to sync my SMS, videos and photos on the PC and online, in a true mobile blog. Even the sync conduits that are currently present on PCSync work well, but the point is: where is Thunderbird synchronization?

Trying to flip the question: why Nokia is not focusing on the eldest and the more widely spread internet communication system, e-mail? Why Nokia is not working on a PC calendar system that integrates with Lifeblog?

My digital life would be marvellous if I could sync my contacts, their photos, the conversations I've had with them, the dates I planned to see them?

Nokia has acquired intellisync (enterprise mail and PIM synchronization), avvenu (remote locker), navteq (navigation technology), Loudeye (digital music aggregator), Twango and recently Trolltech (widely used GUI technology).

Therefore, Nokia intention is clear: "put contents online, use Nokia mobile computers and live with them".
OK, fine mr Nokia, but I also want a docking station, a bigger monitor and a full size keyboard :) And that's my PC, and my PC has thunderbird, and -guess what? Thunderbird is powerful and open source...

Estara more and more on e-commerce

noreply@blogger.com (cernIO) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 19:20:00 +0000

As you already know, eStara is becoming more and more focused on e-commerce solutions and aligned with the incorporating company, ATG.
A clear sign of this is the announcement that the estara blog "Multichannel musings", a fruitful reading for my mind, is going to be merged with the more specialized www.ecommerceinsights.com

To continue bringing the strengths of ATG’s and eStara’s market insights together, beginning February 18, eStara MultiChannel Musings will find a new home within ATG’s eCommerce INSIGHTS blog, since the coverage areas are so complimentary.

This is a clear sign that "action-to-ease-purchase" tools are becoming more and more important.
As Chris Andersen states in his book "The Long Tail", infinite choice is an advantage, provided that you support your customers with tools that give hints and support, without confounding them with a multitude of undifferentiated products.

I think that ATG is doing really well, by providing the powerful combination of recently acquired CleverSet and eStara click-to-call and click-to-chat tools.

mastercard parody :)

noreply@blogger.com (cernIO) — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 08:45:00 +0000

Getting expert advice on how to gather visitors to your website and increase traffic: 3000 $, with WebMasterCard.

Planning a full fledged web marketing campaign with web advertising so as to put banners and ads on Google Adsense and Yahoo search marketing: 8000 $, with WebMasterCard

Changing your website behavior, by continuously publishing updated content and periodically revamping its look and feel, 12000 $, with WebMasterCard

Installing customizable KPIs on Google Analytics and aggregating e-commerce sales data with website statistics: 2000 $, with WebMasterCard.

Watching your 5000 new visitors per day disperse everywhere and abandoning the online sales path like rats on a sinking boat, just to earn 1 purchase per day... priceless

Would you NOW consider some smart mechanism to engage your customers and keep them on your online shop?

I can help you: just call me, it's free!

The power of crowds: wis.dm

noreply@blogger.com (cernIO) — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 17:16:00 +0000

It seems to me that there are more social networks than users. It's a joke, of course, but it's also partially true.
Indeed, each social network specializes on some kind of "environment". I am a passionate product manager with a focus on online communications, I like sailing and windsurfing, and I love torturing my family and neighbors with my clarinet.
That means that I belong to three environments, to the least:

Online techno geeks and community passionates
Sailing
Classical music

For each of these environment, I feel I belong to a network. It'l like the "networks" of Facebook, or the "communities" of Orkut, or the "tags" of Spock. Sometimes people (elements of the network) overlap, sometimes they don't. But they are, and will be, mostly the same elements. It's just a collection of people I won't improve my relationship with by using the social networking tool.

But then, how can I socialize with people that share an interest in common with me? How can I do this without pretending to add people to my network in the hope that he or she will be a good "network element" to be friend with?

The wise answer is: ask.
In wis.dm you ask lots of questions. People ask lots of personal, political, religious questions.
Everybody has an opinion, you have to answer a simple "yes" or "no". It is addicting.
You can make a choice by asking the crowds, they will give you the results: like flocks protect themselves from predators using their collective behavior, we humans can use our common knowledge to empower our own decisions with the power of wisdom of crowds.

Moreover, the magic that's under the hood of wis.dm computes an affinity score. People who think alike are matched and grouped. Clusters and "sub-flocks" form, and new groups with a strong cohesion on certain topics arise.

It's like the principle of cross-selling, isn't it?
What a pleasure for a marketing manager, all these profiles available... Even Google, with its immense archive of personal taster would be interested in this kind of data...

Customer care - who does really care?

noreply@blogger.com (cernIO) — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 15:52:00 +0000

My current focus is on customer support. Proactive customer support.
Pro-active: it means that I start doing something before somebody asks me. I do not react, I precede the other party. I would play the usual plot that shop assistants are so good at: "Hello sir, how can I help you? Would you like me to assist you?". This is acting before your customer (potential or acquired) falls into the pit of indecision.

Proactive customer support is going to be the future for online marketing, internet firms must be aware that they cannot lose more visitors on their websites. The definitive year 2008 resolution for online shops is: increase conversion.

OK, we are ready to give customer support, so we have equipped our e-commerce site with everything needed, our weapons loaded and shields up but...

(ahem, too much Star Wars during the holidays!)

...but what happens then?

Your customer starts a dialog with your "operator". Operator of what? Would she be just nice and well-prepared by reading the whole documentation about your products?
Does she know about all the possible technical questions?

Let's suppose you sell homebrewing products. Does Laura, your wery well prepared "online operator", have a passion for homebrewing? Is she the right person to talk to, when it comes to passionate technical questions? Would she advice adding hot acid water to the mash-out phase, to ease up the sparging phase and stop enzymes? There is somebody who takes it very seriously

Normally, she does not. But then, is she instructed to pass the call over an expert? What if experts were customer champions?

What if Dan, a passionate homebrewer and satisfied customer, agrees to offer expert advice (paid, of course) about your products for selected people? This behavior is overhyped, it would be called Web2.0, User Generated Content, WikiSupport. Fact is, human beings tend to cooperate. It's our nature.

Getting back to Dan... what if Dan does this expert advice job on his phone, without the hassles of installing CRM software or operator clients?

Everybody click to call!

noreply@blogger.com (cernIO) — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 18:43:00 +0000

Markus Goebel writes a post about click to call applications, this time TringMe is the star.
(BTW, thanks for mentioning Sitòfono, among the similar services)
The curious thing is that Markus is experiencing funny calls from all countries around the world. That is the "power" of real free calling experience, and we have to cope with it.
Whether we filter calls by selecting certain countries or hour ranges, as long as we behave as worldwide reachable people, we need to manage all calls, and to understand that click-to-call buttons are powerful instruments that can shoot in your foot.

Bloggers like me and Markus tend to be online most of the time and happy to answer but, sometimes, things can go in unexpected manners:

I am OK with such calls, but please understand that I can only answer during working hours in my time zone. The rest of the calls goes to the voice mail box. The yesterday's caller didn't even understand that he was talking to an answering machine. He thought that I was on the phone with him but refusing to answer, so he got a little upset.

That is not a big problem for Markus, or for me, but if it were an online shop that could mean "a customer to be managed".
I think we still have to learn how to use our click-to-call. And, perhaps, click-to-call applications need much more than just click-and-speak.

Technorati Tags: cernio,

SPOCK - Social network Mash Up

noreply@blogger.com (cernIO) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:38:00 +0000

It's natural. One is not enough.
Having one TV channel or one political representative or one idea or clothes of one color is not good.
Having kazillions of everything is worse. When it comes to information management, you feel lost.

Kazillions of websites
Kazillions of blogs
Kazillions of Newspapers
Kazillion of business directories

Now think about social networks and communities:

OK, don't pretend I write a complete list here. Ask Mashable for that :)

But this time we have a collector. A gatherer. Something really interesting.
It's called Spock.com and it's the "Who's Who 2.0".

Basically, it's an Identity search engine. But this is a simplistic definition.

Spock is actually innovative, and these are the most intriguing features:

tag yourself, tag other people
spock robot auto-tags you. And it is usually good!
build a trust network over more social networks
vote whether a tag is relevant or not for that person
review and mark relevant/irrelevant tags attributed to you
link people by adding tags to the link: "Bob is Alice's [friend/colleague/boss] That's semantic folksonomy!

My advice? Give it a try now!

What's missing? A click-to-call application, like Sitòfono :)

[Updated] Release Review: "3CX Proves That Soft Is Better Than Hard - When It Comes To Phone Systems" :)

noreply@blogger.com (cernIO) — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 14:09:00 +0000

I already talked about 3CX some weeks ago.
It is a dynamic company which produces a Windows based software PBX that could replace the highly expensive hardware ones.
It is also a company with a kind of sense of humor: if "3CX sounds like Free Sex" could be in doubt, their press release title clarifies everything :)

They just delivered version 5 of their 3CX Phone system. From their Press Release:

3CX Proves That Soft Is Better Than Hard - When It Comes To Phone Systems

3CX Phone System allows businesses to completely break free from the shackle of hardware-based, proprietary phone systems. Built on the open SIP standard, 3CX Phone System interoperates with all popular SIP phones, VOIP Gateways and VOIP providers.
Nick Galea, CEO at 3CX said, “We are excited to deliver version 5 of 3CX Phone System at a time when the market is realizing that proprietary, hardware-based PBXs are becoming obsolete. 3CX IP PBX is a modern software based PBX that evolves the communication of businesses to the 21^st century, by delivering mobility, productivity and cost-saving advantages”.

I think they can make 3CX Phone System a real success if:

They target small offices and business that have branch offices, esp. worldwide.
They plan to specialize their application on at least one direction. It could be an add-on, so that the general purpose version can still work unaffected for the broader market.
They plan to give phone support, along with online chat and e-mail. You know, if something is not working, it's bad. When it comes to phone systems, it's really bad. If something is not working on your phone and you cannot receive support, it's DOOM!
Customers are aware that 3CX is not responsible of any service interruption/problem on the data pipe. "If your ADSL is down, your phone is down. Just make sure you have a B plan for your phone system, if you need high availability". Most of offices don't, anyway.

Having said that, I think 3CX new release is really putting a highly competitive challenge among the other players. As usual, 3CX phone system is released as Free and Business editions, and here you can compare them by feature availability.

To me, the Business edition is worth just for these features, among others:

Call recording
Bridging with other 3CX servers (branch offices)
Firewall friendly VOIP client with included mini VPN – ideal for remote users
Voice mail messages via e-mail

Anyway the have a full fledged set of features, some of them are already present in Sitòfono (like Firewall friendly client, voice mail messages via e-mail, call log...)

What I would like to see in this PBX is some more... "specialization": what about a specialized version for Sales Force Automation? What if the call log could be mashed up with geolocalization and, for instance, SugarCRM? Could you imagine a direct telemarketing firm which builds a "conversion efficiency map" based on call duration, position, and customer acquisition data?

And (obviously for me) what if 3CX-powered companies could put a simple button on their websites and let their visitors call them, for free?
How do you see a synergy/a mashup between 3CX and Sitòfono?

Just one note. Since I still pretend to be a web developer, I've a running copy of Apache HTTPD server on my PC. 3CX tried to install a new one and this produced a conflict (it's the service name registration, I think). Now I need to rename the new HTTPD service in order to access the management console.

Anyway, if 3CX is going to be installed on some kind of windows server, I expect there will already be an Apache installation on it. I'd like to see an installation option like:
"Apache HTTPD detected: would you like to use this version or install a new one?"

Alternatively, I'll put some other lightweight HTTP server in the installation package.

[Update]: I am sorry it wasn't explicit about the fact that 3CX does really take into high consideration their customers. I already knew that, but I haven't written that clearly. What I wanted to write is to suggest is some more immediate, more engaging contact between customers and 3CX, like phone contact, for a company that's so keen on customer relationships.

In facts, few hours after I published this post, I've received an e-mail from the local distributor which offered help to install and to solve my issues.

Moreover, I've been contacted by 3CX PR thanking me about the suggestions given in this post. Regardless of the product's future evolutions, this means that 3CX is strongly oriented to customer feedback and does not leave out any suggestion.
That's what I consider a great customer care job!

Sitòfono Christmas present!

noreply@blogger.com (cernIO) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 09:05:00 +0000

Sitofono - Online customer contact tool.
Hey, this Christmas I am going to offer one free click-to-call to a tourist agency, a hotel, or a restaurant, with unlimited calls for three months!
Put Sitòfono in your website and in your e-mail signature, and receive immediate feedback by talking to your customers, from the Web.
Sitofono gives voice to your online business!

Just send me a brief description of:

your activity,
your website,
the phone number you want to be connected to Sitofono,
and where you would like to position the call-button.

My e-mail is enrico.marongiu [_at_] abbeynet [_dot_] com

I'll contact the winner on December the 15th.

More info on Sitòfono here: http://www.sitofono.com/
Please forward to anyone interested!

Technorati Tags: cernio, click-to-call, Christmas offer, contact management,

Sitòfono Social: because relationships matter

noreply@blogger.com (cernIO) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 18:31:00 +0000

Sitòfono is undergoing a major restyling, these days.
We realized that relationships between a firm and a customer cannot be just "phone calls". After all, the phone call is just the medium to achieve a result.

In the Real world, customers notice you on a printed ad, look for you in the yellow pages, get your name by some friend's advice. Anyway, since customers are usually located in the same place, they are naturally bound to move within a limit.
Time passing by, they will notice you again, and get information which is persistent and durable. They will remember you, and you have somehow captured their attention.

But what happens on the Web? People move, literally flock from a content to another. The very same happens on e-commerce sites, or "online shops": customers are like a frenzy swarm, some bounce on your website and do not come back again.
Customers have to cross a lot of barriers on your site.

The first "shield" is distraction: customers can go off track if they don't get a clear focus
The second barrier is lack of comprehension: do they understand clearly what they are looking at? Can you assure them that they got the message?
The third barrier is lack of persistence: will they come back the next day?
The fourth barrier is mistrust: can they judge a book by its cover? Don't they need direct contact to be assured that you are a trusted person? Visual contact will be the best, but even voice contact can make the difference
The fifth barrier is hesitation: when facing the payment form, they can get scared, or they need some more information that hasn't been found on the website. At least, it wasn't noticed before

People need direct contact to resolve uncertainty and to dissolve some of these barriers.
Sitòfono addressed very well the barriers that involve direct contact, like hesitation, mistrust and lack of comprehension.
But now, with the new "social" features, Sitòfono becomes a tool which engages your customers in a more social-oriented behavior: your visitors can give advice about your website to their friends, bookmark the call-back button for future reference, share the URL on the most common social bookmarking tools...
In word, they will remember you.

Luca Filigheddu published a great review of Sitòfono with the new social features, check it out!

If you want to discuss about the new features with me,
just call me

Technorati Tags: cernio, sitofono, social, marketing, engagement,
Luca Filigheddu,

Google Android for Italy? It seems so

noreply@blogger.com (cernIO) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:09:00 +0000

It seems that there is a feeble possibility that Google Android Developer Challenge will be for Italians as well.
The news, in Italian, has been published also by Repubblica.it, the most read Newspaper and the most visited news site in Italy.

Guido Scorza, a researcher in the IT field of law, suggests that Google can work around the limitation, because the Italian norms and rules for prize challenges allow easier set up for creative and engineering challenges.

What Guido Scorza worries about is that neither Google, nor the Italian government took a clear action upon the matter, giving the impression of superficiality and talking the talk without walking the walk.

Of course his blog writing is done during commuting times, therefore is approximate and partial (so it is mine). He states clearly this fact in a post scriptum, because he talks the talk and walks the walk. And, anyway, nobody pays him to look for alternatives and workarounds in this matter.

Technorati Tags: cernio, android, italy, innovation, Guido Scorza,

Google Android Developer Challenge not for Italians

noreply@blogger.com (cernIO) — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 09:53:00 +0000

You know the news about Android, don't you?
Check the android developers blog

We're really looking forward to seeing all the amazing applications that developers will create on an open mobile phone platform. In fact, you may even want to enter your application into the Android Developer Challenge -- a USD$10 million challenge sponsored by Google to support and recognize developers who build great applications for the Android platform

Nice, I want to participate. Because Italians do it better.

Yes, Italians do it better, and the original way. When there is a competition on innovative products, we are able to cut ourselves out in a sweep. The ADC FAQ page states that:

The Android Developer Challenge is open to individuals, teams of individuals, and business entities. While we seek to make the Challenge open worldwide, we cannot open the Challenge to residents of Cuba, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Sudan, and Myanmar (Burma) because of U.S. laws. In addition, the Challenge is not open to residents of Italy or Quebec because of local restrictions.

Local restrictions for challenges and prizes are mainly bureaucratic:

Register your prize challenge to three public administrations. You've to fill up a separate form for each one
You need a notary. Well, in Italy you needed a notary even to sell your bike, recently this procedure has been simplified.
Just to let you know, prize challenges cannot damage Italian government's monopoly on ability games and gambling.
Last but not least: you need to give a cautionary 20% of total prizes to Italy's government. It's called "to bail out", it translates "I do not trust you've got that much", doesn't it?

More information on this thread

Technorati Tags: cernio, android, google, local restrictions,

Italians do it better. But via e-mail!

noreply@blogger.com (cernIO) — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 08:56:00 +0000

I am not talking about the sexual performances of Italians (at least, those self-proclamated latin-lovers that tell tales of great effort and sacrification), but the customer attitudes at calling a call center, help desk, or something that keeps you "holdin'on a sec".

According to this report (ItNews, Italian), people prefer e-mail offline contact when engaging with a potential seller, or when they are asking for support or assistance.

Alternatively, they'll consider the possibility of being recalled in ten minutes, but they are fed up with long queues in the jungle trees of IVRs.

The key point is: if somebody wants to talk with you, it's because he/she wants immediate contact. If you cannot engage him/her instantly, better say "I'm sorry, I'll call you back in a while". And recall him with a smiling tone!

Technorati Tags: cernio, click-to-call, CRM, helpdesk,

iPhone PTT - NikoTalkie

noreply@blogger.com (cernIO) — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 13:24:00 +0000

Now iPhone has its VoIP application ready. It's called "nikotalkie" and works like a walkie-talkie or any other PTT (Push To Talk) software.

Now what I am wondering is:

Is there a plan to make it work on other phones OSes, like Symbian (it makes me think of Nokia E65, for instance)?
Is there a Utility in walkie talkie feature "as is"? How many people have PTT installed? How many do use it?
Is there some plan to extend the "walkie" function like, uh, ya know, mobile micro-video-blogging?
is it complicated to install the iPhone "installer"? It seems it is not that straight

(My source: http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/ )

Technorati Tags: cernio, voip, iphone, nikotalkie, push-to-talk

TringMe - Another player in the click-to-call space

noreply@blogger.com (cernIO) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 21:10:00 +0000

TechCrunch announced a week ago a new click-to-call service: TringMe. TringMe differentiates from other services because it adds more flexibility to the traditional "phone-phone" connection:

Callers can ditch their phone and call directly through their Flash widget to your mobile phone, landline, and GTalk (Yahoo and Skype coming soon). All they need is a microphone and one click

Hey, nice job. I haven't tried yet (there is some sort of answering machine) but I assume call quality is excellent and call setup time is nearly instantaneous, isn't it? How do you cope with network bandwidth limitations? After all, it's the consumer pipe the *real* problem: that's why Sitofono (as MyBlueZebra and Jajah) introduced the third party call control, just to avoid any problem with the consumer's crappy ADSL.

Technorati Tags: cernio,
click-to-call, TringMe,

VoIP as emerging technology-AGAIN?

noreply@blogger.com (cernIO) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 20:39:00 +0000

Hey, VoIP is going to be the technology behind Unified Communication, one of the 10 emerging technologies to keep monitored -AGAIN!

I've been ~~playing~~ working with VoIP since 2001 and each year was the year of VoIP. Now journalists cannot use it once more, so they changed the term in "Unified Communication".

Well, the best unifying communication device is still the telephone. It's working well and it does all it's needed to communicate.

Why should I change it? Why do I have to install a new box, new power plug, new wires, new installation problems?

Why should I bother with instant messaging? Why should I write messages when I can talk?

Why should I be blamed by an acquaintance for not disclosing my "online status" to everybody but only to some friends? Why do I need to state "hey I am here" and "hey I am disconnected". If I am always connected, why do I have to say that I am "disconnected" or "away from pc"?

Why do I have to trust your VoIP thing is the data network (on which the VoIP service is based) is not sufficiently reliable?

Please answer these questions before thinking of crossing the chasm.

Technorati Tags: cernio, innovation, voip, unified communications,

Irrelevant corporate websites

noreply@blogger.com (cernIO) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 18:32:00 +0000

Giacomo Vacca found an earth-shaking article on traditional SEO and Google ranking:
How to evolve your irrelevant corporate website

They use instant messaging, facebook, (and other social networks) and rarely directly type in a domain name to corporate website. If this holds true, then it’s assumed that prospects make decisions on other websites BEFORE they come to the corporate website to get factual information.

This is clearly true. Before going to visit the official website of a product I am interested into (let assume a digital camera), I'd go on a product-review website (just as an example, Revoo) and select the most appropriate comments to have a quick glance about the available products.
When I go to the official website, I already know nearly everything. In few occasions, I found a n official support forum that made me choose for that product: online support and general good feedback from users are key points in my consumer habits.

You’ll no longer only be the only one publishing to your website, customers, prospects, and other members of the community will have direct access to publish on your website.

To summarize: customer feedback and engagement. That's what Sitofono is meant for.
What if you can even talk to a customer? What if you can call him free and ask him a general review of the product?
Do you think letting visitors call other consumers is a valuable feature? Since it can be done as a special adaptation of Sitofono, my company product for customer engagement, I'd like to discuss with you the feasibility and the scenarios.

Technorati Tags: cernio,
sitofono, ugc, customer, feedback, engagement,

FR33 53X

noreply@blogger.com (cernIO) — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 14:21:00 +0000

It seems that even VoIP services follow the fad of fiddle with product and brand names. Here are few examples of product names that were given birth as a pun or a similar sounding word>

Twitter was Twttr, internet ages ago, just recalling the "twitter" name
ICQ means I seek You
CUSeeme was See You See me
Italian chat program "C6" by tin.it meant "are you there?"

The last application, the mentioned VoIP application, is called 3CX Phone System (a free, upgradable software IP-PBX, check out the review from Luca Filigheddu ).

3 C X
||
V
Three See Ex
||
V
Free Sex
, to me.

Was it intentional or am I just too pervert to see free sex everywhere? ;-)

Technorati Tags: cernio,
3cx, free sex, pun,

Truphone on iPhone: call setup time too long?

noreply@blogger.com (cernIO) — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 14:09:00 +0000

Take a look at the Truphone on iPhone video on Andy Abramson log: do you consider 20" call setup a reasonable waiting time?

I do not. Most of you do not. And the poor man's thought is: "Truphone is no good, I want to call and instantly be connected, this does not happen with traditional telephony! Truphone service is bad".
But the truth is that Truphone is not the real culprit. Its only fault is that it relies upon a VoIP wholesale carrier, whose service is usually offered as "best effort".
Therefore there is no guarantee, no performance metrics, no quality figures: no way to assess the overall quality of phone calls.

As Luca already stated, VoIP service providers are subject to slavery by wholesale carriers.

On a Porterian point of view, the VoIP market was born in danger due to

the high rivalry from other competitors,
the lack of customer lock in (except for Skype, standard SIP means no lock in),
the easeness of new player entrance.

Now, the VoIP market situation is aggravated by the enormous power of suppliers, which can decide the destiny of a service by simply providing (or not providing) a sufficient quality of phone termination.

Trying to explain your customers that the fault is on your service provider is not wise: on the contrary, giving such an excuse yields the customer the impression that you are just a cockdodger.

Technorati Tags: cernio, truphone, iphone, voip, carriers, cockdodging,

Push or pull?

noreply@blogger.com (cernIO) — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 12:46:00 +0000

Seth Godin talks about push and pull methodologies. Apart from the marketing considerations, I see that push and pull are fundamental tasks in the work process and both have to be balanced well. But what captured my attention is this sentence:

I can't use internal wikis. "It's on the wiki" is a dumb thing to say to me.

I expect my team to check on the wiki because it's not useful to broadcast each information to everybody. Except when needed, information has to be stored on a "pull" mechanism. Luckily, most of the wikis provide a RSS feed on the latest changes.

Usually we forgive someone's lack of discipline if the element has some creative behaviour, in this case we justify everything with a sentence: "he's a genious, you cannot trap his mind in this or that process". Most of the creative people I've met are totally inept at managing simple tasks like:

retrieve a document previously stored in the document management system, however it is categorized or tagged, even by means of the custom search engine
complete tasks in an ordered way and notify the rest of the team
remember decisions and keep coherent behavior when analyzing scenarios. If you've changed your mind, notify others that you've changed your mind and why
before answering "it's not my duty" think. re-think and be completely sure that it' not your duty
make a move before someone asks you about the status of a project,
avoid replying that you're waiting for X or Y to complete a task when somebody questions about the task status you're responsible of (That's what I call cockdodging!)

That's something that you can balance with a smart, ingenious mind, charisma and a really good idea that makes the rest of the team happy to work with...
But if you're not that kind of person and you just behave as "creative", you're just a dead corpse on the boat.

Since good ideas do not happen here and there, I advise the reader to do the best to behave well in a team, be cooperative, and organized.

Technorati Tags: cernio, creative, push-or-pull,
cockdodging,

Sitofono at the EADP Paris Congress

noreply@blogger.com (cernIO) — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 08:52:00 +0000

We are presenting the Sitòfono product at the EADP Congress, the international conference on Phone Directories and Yellow Pages, held in Paris at the Westin Hotel.

The place is fantastic, luxurious furniture and great staff.
I've taken some pictures, have a look on my Flickr EADP tagset

Just a note: yesterday we were looking for a good, cheap restaurant. We looked at the Pages Jaunes, the printed version. As an "always connected" person (sort of), I've missed several things:

Customer rating: how can I judge the quality of the restaurant? At last, we had to personally check with a stroll to the place
Enhanced details: opening hours? Available places? Does it provide vegetarian diet?
Promptness: look for the street address in the list of streets, get the map page number, x and y coordinates, look for the street in the square, elaborate directions
Check with a phone call: in this case, since I don't speak french I hadn't called but I usually call the restaurant and ask few questions if I cannot get all the information presented above, and eventually I book a table.

What if all this happens in a single web page?

Technorati Tags: cernio, eadp, yellow pages, directory

Bad rabbits are here!!!

noreply@blogger.com (cernIO) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 17:38:00 +0000

You know, Hictu! is the microvideologging platform I like most. I know, I work for the company which develops Hictu but I've chosen to have no insights of what's going on it and it's real fun to discover the new features as a "normal" user.
That's my worst video post on Hictu, grabbed after a really tough week, check it out :)

Technorati Tags: cernio, vlog, hictu, microblog, tagline,

That's really a blog!

noreply@blogger.com (cernIO) — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 09:36:00 +0000

This is really a funny blog! Look at his post "9 things I learned about the world according to anonymous stock photo models" and laugh out loud! Yes, it is a bit... direct, but it's worth a read if you do not suffer for some swear words in the text.
On the left side you can see a simple multiple choice test regarding the choice of model images for helpdesk services.

Technorati Tags: cernio, maddox, parody,

Call me free, Call me free, Call me free...

noreply@blogger.com (cernIO) — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 16:21:00 +0000

In implicit reply to Imran Ali's article "Phone from HERE", Luca Filigheddu presents a practical use of Sitòfono in the two most active social networks: LinkedIn and Facebook.
I've posted a comment on Imran Ali's article, but it's still under approval, and it says something like this: I do not see anything new in the Corraleta move, since Sitòfono (and other web based click-to-call services, to be honest) can be embedded in every HTML page by following few, simple instructions. I mean, it's good that "Phone from Here" provides a link to be placed on LinkedIn, but to be honest I see that as a "me too" move, something like "jump on the social network hype".

Besides, Jaxtr, which just raised 10M$ of funds, is providing a call me free button that clearly aims at social networks and which targets people with low or zero knowledge of HTML. Indeed, Jaxtr provides a "wizard" to ease the publishing procedure for the most famous web sites and applications, like:

Facebook
Orkut
MySpace
Hi5
LinkedIn
Blogger
LiveJournal
Xanga
Flickr
Craigslist
eBay
AIM (away screen)

Moreover, it presents a simple step-by-step instruction to embed the "call me" code in your e-mail client. That is really a fantastic user experience!

What's different in the Jaxtr move? They are targeting the community users, the millions of users that cannot speak HTML, by providing an it-cannot-be-easier procedure that hides all the techie stuff.

I consider it a really good move, as far as the quality of user experience is concerned. However, I pose a question: what will be the "returning value" for such a nice feature? Will it be money (it actually captures paying customers), reputation (it strengthens the corporate identity), experience (it's the starting point for future, better services)?

Other thoughtful questions are hidden in Luca's comment on the Jaxtr funding in his article "Challenge: make pay for a valuable service"

Technorati Tags: cernio, jaxtr, venture, capital, VC, sitofono,