Innovation/Strategy

More on Jaiku and Twitter

Posted on by charlie

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.

Strategy/The Narrative

Today’s two cents on Twitter (and Jaiku)

Posted on by charlie

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.

The Narrative

Designed to obfuscate – the Byzantine tariff structures of operators

Posted on by charlie

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.

Innovation/The Narrative

Overloaded on touch

Posted on by charlie

Ooh, touch me baby!

Touch-sensitive surfaces have been bubbling in the background, for those in the know. But the Apple iPhone catapulted them into the forefront. And, now that it is respectable to talk about them, it’s been great to see all the amazing ideas and concepts popping up all over the place.

Well, I use the full touch capabilities of my MacBook – single-click, double-click, click and drag, two-finger scroll, two-finger contextual menu.* I also have a Mighty Mouse, with its own touch sensitive surface and multiple positionings of the finger.

Needless to say, I am now overloaded on touch, occasionally trying to use the Mighty Mouse like the Trackpad with two fingers.

What will happen when I have even more surfaces on personal devices for me finger and touch and slide over?

Oy.


*Heck, I also used the limited touch pad on my, ugh, IBM T41p, and also eons ago on my Apple Powerbook 3400c.