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The genius of Craigslist is in its governance system. It is its lightweight governance system that allows 21 people to administer 300 sites in 35 countries. I believe that the basis of competition in web services will shift from the data to the system tha
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That always produces different user habits — just as it did with the telephone. The first bunch of users in their 30s/40s/50s regarded it as a sort of business tool, a precious resource to be used sparingly, and with formal protocols. The generation of k
A new way of charging for 3G data
I recently got a letter from my operator Sonera stating that they had changed their general data plan from 6 euros a megabyte to something like 0,9 euros a while hour (domestic, only, though). The hour would be calculated from the first event of the session. The data is unlimited during that hour.
They even have some bulk packages to buy data hours in advance.
This sort of is similar to the way WiFi is billed, so that’s refreshing. Too bad they didn’t give me this last month when we ran up a 240 euro data charge.
It’s not so bad if you cluster your access, such that over time, you have few moments. But if you spread out your activity throughout the day, you could run up a few euros a day, leading to tens of euros a month. Also, it’s a bit more understandable and easier to manage your bill.
In reality, mobile Internet use is usually bursty throughout the day (short times, but many times spread out), so this tariff is really not amenable to the true mobile use of the Internet.
Sigh.
Ok, not so bad as 240 euros for a few hours of downloading.
What do you think of this model?
What happens when you have your browser in the background refreshing a page every hour for a few day without you noticing?
A page from Alex’s scrapbook – urban miami
I don’t know exactly what he’s up to, but it is intriguing. It’s clearly a scrapbook-style page he created from some photos he has on flickr. And it looks so real.
It seems related to stuff I used to talk about back in the Nokia Lifeblog days – The Future of Memories.
Alex, xará, looking forward to your unveiling.
Thinking about the Web 2.0 Expo 2007
Eh, I’m not so interested in this conference, but I’ll be on that side of the world just the week before.
In any case, this workshop might be reason enough to go.
Link: Web 2.0 Expo 2007, April 15-18, 2007, San Francisco, California:
The Iterative App: From Discord to Design
Kelly Goto, Principal and Founder, gotomedia
Track: Design and User Experience
Date: Sunday, April 15
Time: 9:30am – 12:30pm
Location: 2003Due to the diverse demands of clients, bosses, engineers, and designers, web application design has reached a new level of frenzy and discord. Kelly Goto can help you refine your application development process and project management to an art form. Learn the behind-the-scenes techniques for rapid prototyping and learn to include iterative usability testing cycles in your project development.
But, $1500 for a Web 2.0 conference? Am I cheap or is that a lot?
Come see what’s happening on WINKsites all over the world
David Harper knows how to catch someone’s interest.
His WINKsite is growing well and he pointed out some of the cool little views of what’s happening on WINKsites.
Here is a map to view all the conversations happening across the globe.
Here is a map that shows people joining mobile chats in real time.
And here is a tag cloud to connect to people in different Metros.
And you need to open one of them and lurk in a chat (see image below). OK, so it’s just the usual chat room type of conversation. But note the little icons (‘visitor’ is me from the desktop) – everyone is on their phone!
And here’s me playing with my WINKsite profile page.
More on Jaiku and Twitter
As many others, I’ve been playing with Jaiku and Twitter, getting a feel for what they mean to personal connections.
I think Jaiku fits the always-on world much better that Twitter. It’s a rich interface to many aspects of presence, without being overly intrusive or detailed. But, it really only works if you have an unlimited cellular data plan. I haven’t used it with WiFi, but my experience with WiFi so far on mobile devices suggests that Jaiku would not be too interesting if it had to depend on WiFi for a connection.
Twitter, on the other hand, is more amenable to current telco tariffs (certainly in Europe). Also, the cost is much more visible when you use it. And its simplicity means it can be used on all phones.*
So, I predict, Twitter will rule in adoption, until Jaiku can figure out how not to cost a half a meg of data a day, for a few SMSes worth of Twitters.
But, if better data plans ever materialize, then I think Jaiku will fly.
*There is SMS access to Jaiku. I think I need to check it out.
Today’s two cents on Twitter (and Jaiku)
Ok, so everyone and their analyst is talking about Twitter (or Jaiku). And some are concerned with how these apps are making it quicker to get interrupted.
Eh, it’s probably been said before, but what I see is actually these apps taking over what other apps, such as blogs or feed readers were doing.
These apps are making it easy to more closely ‘ring-fence’ (not my term) one’s relevant social network. People are willing to invest personally relevant communication (twittering) with fewer folks. I’ve been seeing people’s public blogs make way for Vox and Twitter and Jaiku as folks try to get a handle on the real reason they are out flying the Cloud: connection with people who want to connect back.
That’s the next wave of the Internet.
Internet, wave 1 – mass broadcasting and publications
Internet, wave 2 – it’s about the youniverse, many to many
Internet, wave 3 – it’s about me and mine, few to few, in relevant and closely tied connections, making my First Life vibrant via my Second Life tools.
Hmm, perfect stage for the mobile phone.
🙂
*Heh, heh. As I was writing this, I did a search for Jaiku and Twitter and the first link is none other that redsoda, Henriette.
Designed to obfuscate – the Byzantine tariff structures of operators
Last year Finland took a step back by bringing back year (or two) long lock-in contracts.* I capitulated, to avoid a 4,5 cent per call surcharge.
Well, my contract is coming to an end and they were kind enough to SMS the phones on the contact the it was time to decide if I wanted to continue the contract.
I poured over the offers from my current operator, Sonera. Seems like now in addition to everyone getting the 4,5 cent surcharge per call (contract or not), we are now stuck with a 1 minute minimum per call or about 7,9 cents, which with the per call surcharge comes to about 12,5 cents for the opening minute of each call. That’s a pain, because my kids make many sub-minute calls.
Last year, I took the contract to avoid the surcharge. So I went to the store to clarify what I would get for continuing on contract. All I get is a max charge of 1euro for all calls on Sunday. Looking at my bill, we don’t make many calls on Sunday.
Ticked off with the surcharge and first minute charge, I decided to check out Elisa, a competing operator. I was thinking of moving to them, since I’ve been having some connection issues with Sonera and was a bit miffed with them.
Turns out Elisa also charges the 4,5 cent surcharge, but not for folks on contract. Oh, a two-year contract. And for a bit more, the sales guy enticed, I could get a new phone (he didn’t mention the fine print that these would be SIM-locked phones, which absolutely shocked me). And they had some talk-time packages. You know, the kind the operator gets your money whether you use up the time or not, so they don’t have to have good service.
I don’t know what I’m going to do, since both operators have irritated me. I’ve got a few days still to decide, but I must cancel or I will be placed on a contract automatically. I think I’ll just cancel and monitor the effect on my bills. I predict my bill will go up at most 10 euros, which is about 10-20% of my regular bill.
Sure, I understand that they want to maximize their money per customer. In the past year, my bill has actually gone down. But, I think their tariff structures are so convoluted that even folks who take the time to figure things out are still confused and unable to really make a decision.
My take: they don’t give a flying hoot about the customer.
*There was a positive knock-on effect, since only 3G phones could have contracts – more 3G phones can now be seen around town.