Learning After Doing

Blown Away

Everyone seems to hiss at the use of Flash on websites, but here is a killer example of Flash used to deliver content correctly. Mandy Robinson Photography did an outdoor photo shoot of my 2 sons for a Christmas picture. Instead of compiling a hardcopy photo album, she delivered on the web. You don't have to watch long, but I was blown away. Watch it!

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Thanks to Rosa for quoting some comments I made regarding 360 feedback.

WiFi and Air Conditioning

The consultant made an interesting analogy yesterday at the Milwaukee airport. I made the comment that soon it will be commonplace for wireless Internet access (WiFi) to be available free. He remarked, "It will be expected, like air conditioning."

Unfortunately, the announcement on the PA system in the Milwaukee airport announcing airport WiFi coverage perturbed me. Upon firing up my laptop, I discovered that it was "pay to play", with a 24-hour access period costing $9.95. Needless to say, I passed on that opportunity. ($240/month? Shame on Milwaukee airport officials.)

"Yes. It's totally free"

The headline article in the local section of the local paper reads "WiFi up and running on the Square" this morning. The company that provides the service, free of charge, is the local fiber net provider. The city negotiated the public service as part of a deal when it sold the network to a private company last year. This is a big step for a small community. Expect to see more of this. Why? Read my previous thoughts.

Kudos to the City of Marietta and American Fiber Systems for making it happen and kudos to the Marietta Daily Journal for covering it.

FlyPittsburgh

I was finishing up a 2-day trip to Pittsburgh today and arrived at the airport after a business lunch to catch a 3:45 flight. I hate sitting in airports. Typical of summer afternoon flights home to Atlanta, my flight was delayed due to Atlanta conditions. So, I opened up my laptop to bang out a couple of e-mails and review some downloaded articles before we began boarding.

Open my suitcase, pull out my laptop, power it up, log in, check just in case there is wifi...

There is never wifi. Well not never. To me, wifi should be a decent wireless connection and it should be free. Airports especially because there is such a high concentration of business (middle class economy drivers) travellers with laptops in the airport.

Most public sites today are pay to play. Try $7 to $10 per day for access. Hardly free. I pay $350 a year for a Crown Room membership, and they still make me subscribe to T-Mobile's service for another $350 a year for wifi access.

Broadband "last mile" connections in the US suck. According to the OECD, only 13 in 100 US inhabitants subscribe to broadband connections (we rank an astonishingly low 12th in the world).

Why? Thomas Bleha in Foreign Affairs says this is because "most U.S. homes can access only "basic" broadband, among the slowest, most expensive, and least reliable in the developed world, and the United States has fallen even further behind in mobile-phone-based Internet access."

To my pleasant surprise today, Pittsburgh International Airport offered free wifi. Again, I must ask why? Allegheny County Airport Authority Board Chairman Glenn R. Mahone said,

“We are very excited to bring a Wireless Communications Access System to Pittsburgh International Airport. This will especially help the business traveler deal with the demands of traveling for work. For Pittsburgh International Airport, it is another way to enhance its already glowing customer service reputation,”

Networks are not necessarily cheap. Las Vegas' McCarren International Airport implemented a new system recently for coverage in approximately 2M square feet. Total cost: $70,000. But, the cost over 41.4M travellers is less $0.0017 per passenger.

But, let me give a suggestion. Google. Should they gift wifi networks to public airports and city centers for free. Sure, it will generate good will and publicity, but they have the technical know-how to make it work smoothly.

Even more important, it will increase Internet traffic and usage which will boost the times google.com is visited which increases the likelihood that their advertisers sites will be hit. Translate: more revenue and higher share prices for Google.

Remember, those laptop carriers and business travellers are the "middle class economy drivers". Doesn't it make sense?

Where's Mom?

We were waiting for 'Mom; to come home from her girls' weekend in Chicago. We started googling and came up with this picture:

Check out FlyteComm to track a flight of your interest. And by the way, it looks like she's almost back to Atlanta!

Extending the Bars

My former boss, Lee Bates, left the company in February to go after greener pastures. In his quest, he landed at Wireless Extenders where they have brought him on as the king salesman to get this infant off the ground and running.

I have not yet tried this tool, but hope to get my hands on a unit during our renovation of the house. It would be great to have better coverage inside my house. Currently, I get about 60% strength outside and probably 25% or less strength inside. Calls are garbled or dropped and it is very annoying to have to walk outside in the winter to talk on my business phone.

Now, for the business model: how will they ever get this thing mass marketed? Their website says "Order Now for Only $299.99". $300? Are they crazy? Most offices of decent size would need multiple extenders because the coverage area inside is approximately 2500 square feet. Why? Because "According to the United States Census Bureau, in 2003, the average size of the American home built was 2,137 square feet." Therefore, the real target audience is the home user. Not many home users are going to fork out $300 for this thing without ever seeing it or trying it for themselves. And companies covering this high expense for their employees, one at a time, would be a very pricey proposition.

My recommendation is to get the Wireless Extender in the hands of every IT and trade publication possible, then start targetting the personal high-tech sections of major newspapers and local news programs. They need to produce 500 or so and get them out as trial editions across the country fast. My first suggestion to Lee was to go to Russell Beattie and get his feedback.  Then, they need to drop the price to approximately $100 to make it affordable for someone like me to take a risk on the unknown.

The target audience could be a nice one as more and more people are considering losing landlines in favor of mobile phones. But without high recommendations and a more affordable price point, I think they have some challenges making this a mass market item.

Smoke some Crack

I've got to admit, I love this piece of equipment. I had the honker of a Crackberry 7280 before, and was ready to toss it in the trash, but 2 major things happened. First, my 2 1/2 year old hid the 7280 so I had to pick up a new one and the sales rep showed me a 7100. Nice move! Second, the company installed the Blackberry Enterprise Server. If I delete an e-mail on my Crackberry, it is gone from my Inbox. If I file it away on the Crackberry, it is filed away on my Inbox. Now, I don't have to worry about returning from the road to face 100's of e-mails. They are dealt with on the fly and I can dive right into things upon my return.

The only concern for me is that nobody makes a BlueTooth headset with noise cancellation. My 2002 Accord is too loud at 75+ to talk with any of the current BlueTooth headsets. 

I heart GOOGLE

After checking out the Blackberry Blog, I found a nifty feature that anyone with a Blackberry or text messaging enabled phone can use, Google SMS. Simply send a test message to 46645 (GOOGL) with your information request  in the body of the message. "pizza marietta ga" will return all the pizza restaurants in my hometown. You can get business and residential listings, movie times, pricing on items and definitions for words. For more details on how to use it, go to Google SMS.

I'm Free

One of the neatest tools I've found for mobility within the office is the Plantronics CS50. This lightweight headset connects to just about any office phone with a handset and in conjunction with the HL10 handset lifter allows me to answer my desk phone from anywhere in our office. It uses digital 900Mhz technology that in the perfect conditions allows for conversation 300 feet away from the base. Personally, it reduces the number of missed calls, operator pages, and time spent listening to and noting voice-mail messages. The headset has an easy to push button on the side that triggers pick-up and hang-up. On the back is a volume control that when pressed mutes the headset.

The battery life is excellent; I let mine charge overnight, wear it all day, and have never had an issue with the charge. Instead of spending over $100 on a wired headset for ergonomics, strongly consider upgrading to this handy device. But, beware that the return can be significantly reduced if you choose to answer your calls in the restroom.