photography, technology & wordology
Aug17
According to Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, we are creating as much information every two days as we did from the beginning of human history until 2003. Yeah, that's a lot of shitty YouTube videos, terrible photos on Flickr and mundane, boring blog posts. Unfortunately mixed in with all that noise is a lot of beautiful, awe-inspiring and important stuff as well. The problem is how do we separate the wheat from the chaff.
Apr2
Every now and then something happens that reminds me why I love the Internet so much, and why I love working in the web industry. Yeah, it’s a little geeky but it’s also full of real people doing real things and having real conversations — which sometimes get quite heated.
Point in case: Jason Fried from 37signals posted this blasting of Get Satisfaction on Signal vs. Noise, 37signal’s massive soap box company blog. The comments on the post quickly ran into the hundreds with people on both sides of the issue, though comments siding with Jason clearly outnumbered those sticking up for Get Satisfaction.
But the amazing part comes next. The guys and gals over at Get Satisfaction first responded in the comments,
Gosh, we messed up on the wording of that badge and are changing it pronto. The wording on that badge was actually intended to explicitly state that the space was NOT OFFICIALLY SANCTIONED by the company, but that doesn’t come off at all. The idea is to encourage openness, and provide a badge for companies that want to be associated with it. This was just unfortunate phrasing (one small part of an ongoing redesign effort), and doesn’t reflect our values, as I think many, many people and companies who’ve used our service can attest.
— Gus* Thor Muller, Get Satisfaction
Then, within just a few hours they had arranged a live video cast, with the sole purpose of answering questions from the public. Anyone could sign in and ask a question and get live, on-screen answers. After that, they penned two thoughtful responses to the situation and posted them on their blog, an Open Letter to Jason Fried and a post to their blog, talk plainly about the whole affair and what they planning to do to address the problems that Jason pointed out.
Name me one other industry and prides itself on transparency so much that the founders of a company would come out and say, multiple times, in no uncertain terms, that they were wrong. Not misunderstood, just flat out wrong. It actually seemed, as Garrett Dimon pointed out, that the Get Satisfaction employees were fighting amongst themselves to take the blame on this one. What?! Fighting to take blame? What the hell are these guys smoking?
Finally, today, Jason Fried posted again on Signal vs. Noise, noting that Get Satisfaction had begun addressing some of his concerns and giving, what I would characterize as, an explanation of why he was so annoyed with Get Satisfaction in the first place. Customer Experience. Two companies, both with very large online audiences, having a very heated and very public discussion because they are both doing their best to stick up for the customer (albeit in slightly different ways).
So, yeah — the internet might be a little geeky and I’ll be the first to admit that I spend way too much time in front of the screen, but every now and then stuff like this reminds me that it’s not a faceless, empty void that I’m sinking hundreds and hundreds of hours into; it’s a vibrant, opinionated and very real forum full of real people. And I like that.
* Oops, I wonder who Gus Muller is and why his name was in my head. Thanks for the comment Thor and the correction, sorry about that.
Jul14
Is it just me? Or do other people get annoyed at how poorly most of the world works?
I am part owner of a couple of rental houses here in Blacksburg. As part of that we have to pay mortgages, pay insurance, pay home owners association dues, pay bills and sometimes we even have to collect rent too! Of all the managerial tasks that must be done each month, only one of them can be accomplished online. One of the two mortgages can be paid online with a credit card. And it’s even the smaller of the two mortgage companies. The big one, who is also a huge bank and provides merchant services to a huge portion of the businesses out there, can’t accept credit cards. Only snail mail checks, and ACH (electronic checks) for a fee. A fee?!! Are you kidding me? No? You’re not? Ok, I’ll continue wasting paper, paying 42 cents and risking a check stolen each month.
Are we becoming spoiled as consumers? Has the internet’s cadre of small companies made the world of commerce too easy? Is it too much to ask that companies function well, with a human face? Or is it just me, am I just incredibly inpatient with corporate bureaucracy?
I think that Gina and I moving to Italy is going to be scary…
Mar18
Hulu. Television and Movies on the web. Free. With minimal ads. Nicely designed site as well.
And for a taste, a movie that we all love dearly.
Feb15
I got a nice email from Ari, one of the GumGum principles, yesterday thanking me for my blog post and answering each of my questions in turn. Sounds like they have most of their bases covered when it comes to keeping the control in the hands of the photographer. The image is actually an embedded flash file. Right click on it and it gives you the name of the photographer, clicking on that sends you to the photographers profile page at GumGum. Ari did tell me that they are working on a way to get a clickable web address for the photographer into the right click menu as well. Not bad…While GumGum in it’s current iteration lacks the look and feel of a mature web-app, I’m sure this will change as time goes on. I for one hope this takes off and gives photographers a way to escape the horrid, boring, under-paid world of micro-stock! I hope everyone had a great Valentines Day!