contentious.com Amy Gahrans news and musings on how we communicate in the online age.

Time 2020-10-20 11:03:55

Web Name: contentious.com Amy Gahrans news and musings on how we communicate in the online age.

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I am so, so sick of the way U.S. wireless carriers totally rip off smartphone users by locking them into expensive 2-year contracts with the lure of getting a high-end smartphone for only a couple hundred bucks up front. For most customers, the math just doesn t work.So I m casting off the financial and technological shackles, to be a mobile consumer on my own terms. I will never again buy a subsidized phone or sign another long-term carrier contract.This month I bought an unlocked Nexus 5 smartphone direct from Google, and I m now switching to my first no-contract plan. Yes, I paid more up front for the phone, Plus I ll have to pay a hefty screw you early termination fee to ditch my Verizon contract. It s still so worth it.Why? Here s the short version: Considering all costs to make this switch, and the savings I ll get, I ll see about a 4-month payback plus savings of nearly $70/month thereafter! Plus I ll have tons more flexibility in devices, carriers and plans from here out.Hell yeah! Here s the math behind this choice… Continue reading One reason mobile technology fascinates me is its ubiquity across all levels of society. That makes it potentially a very powerful tool to engage and empower people who don t necessarily sit at the top of the U.S. privilege food chain.On Thursday, July 26, I ll be delivering the following presentation at the Social Media for Nonprofits Silicon Valley conference: 5 affordable ways nonprofits can use mobile technology. (Follow the conference hashtag: #sm4np)This presentation is meant to be just a quick overview, to let nonprofits know what s possible today, and where they should focus their attention. 5 affordable ways nonprofits can use mobile from agahranWhy the focus on affordable? Well, mobile technology isn t free Continue reading I ll admit it: Contrary to my own expectations I ve grown to  use Facebook much more than I thought I would have mainly because it s the most common point of connection across my many social and interest circles. And I use it more despite Facebook s persistently horrid user interface.But Facebook is especially horrendous on mobile. For instance, the Facebook Android app won t let me share items from other people s streams, the way the Facebook standard website does.  Also, on the Facebook Android app I can t tag someone in a status update (like saying Joe Schmoe loves this kind of sushi. ) I can only indicate whether I m with someone, which often isn t the case.Argh. Gah .Anyway, today while I m researching and writing about Facebook s various mobile problems, I found Kevin C. Tofel s May 15 GigaOm post: Does your Facebook mobile app suck? here s whyHe summarized findings published in the Mobtest blog. These only looked at problems with Facebook s iOS app, but they re interesting even though I m an Android user. In a nutshell, Facebook s app relies heavily on web technology (HTML) to deliver content.  There are good reasons for this, but on iOS devices it causes problems.Here s how Mobtest summed it up:Why would Facebook use HTML technology inside a native iOS app?HTML is easier for displaying fluid content. Objective-C really sucks when it comes to fluid display. An image with text around it, buttons with varying text labels are really hard to create yourself in Objective-C as you have to calculate dimensions and positions of all elements yourself. In particular for a timeline HTML will be much easier.Creates code that can be shared across different platforms. iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone are all different technologies and a developer’s nightmare. Sharing some content/functionality in the form of HTML makes sense.HTML is much more in line with Facebook’s continuous deployment process. FB developers are responsible for their own QA, and part of that is to push code out to a limited set of servers, see results and then push it out to more and do this each day if not more often. With Apple taking as least a week of review, rolling back a code change is a nightmare.They can get away with it. Yes Facebook is not a bank, there are no other iOS FB apps out there and we will still use the service as it has a virtual monopoly on social networking with 900 million users now. We just have to suck it up.Feature phones is where growth is. A very high percentage of iPhone and Android users already have the Facebook app installed. The next frontier is feature phones, in particular in non-western parts of the world. These new users will first encounter Facebook on their mobile, and it will not be a shining iPhone.OK, that doesn t explain the boneheaded lack of key features in Facebook s Android app that I noted, but it could help explain some of the poor performance I ve experienced slow load times, lagging updates and push notifications, and lots and lots of crashes.Tofel, an iPhone user, closed his GigaOm post with this observation: For the time being, I’m going to switch to m.facebook.com in my smartphone browser. I did some testing this afternoon and the experience is far faster, up to date and generally offers the same features as the native mobile app. Recently I was telling a group of publishers that, unfortunately, much of the business that has supported journalism (advertising) has always been smoke and mirrors. Advertisers took it mostly on faith that they were getting what they were paying for (i.e., increased sales or influence). I don t doubt that they got some of those benefits, but probably never nearly as much as the people selling ad space promised.That s a problem: If integrity is supposedly what you have to offer your audience or community, then it s bad business to shaft your customers (the advertisers).Then along came the age of digital advertising, and finally some direct evidence of advertising s impact started creeping in to the picture: clickthroughs, etc. These metrics were flawed and digital advertising mostly sucked (but then again, so did most print and broadcast advertising), but it was a step toward accountability, at least theoretically.And then there was a development that purported to go even further toward helping advertisers and marketers ensure that they were spending their money usefully across all media, digital and otherwise: the demand-side platform. Wikipedia currently defines this as:A system that allows digital advertisers to manage multiple ad exchange and data exchange accounts through one interface. Real time bidding for displaying online ads takes place within the ad exchanges, and by utilizing a DSP, marketers can manage their bids for the banners and the pricing for the data that they are layering on to target their audiences.DSPs are unique because they incorporate many of the facets previously offered by advertising networks, such as wide access to inventory and vertical and lateral targeting, with the ability to serve ads, real-time bid on ads, track the ads, and optimize. This is all kept within one interface which creates a unique opportunity for advertisers to truly control and maximize the impact of their ads. Sounds good except that DSPs can be mostly smoke and mirrors all over again, just with more data attached.Check out Confessions of a Demand-Side Platform Salesperson, from Digiday this week:Anyone that has not worked at a DSP or a trading desk, consider yourself lucky. It is the cesspool of our industry, with the DSPs racing towards an acquisition or IPO and the trading desks trying to validate themselves as valuable within the holding companies. It is a sweatshop environment on both sides, with workers who are bludgeoned from the top down. I think it is time for the major advertisers to get in and take responsibility for how their dollars are being spent. There is double-dipping within many agency/trading desks, and your advertising dollars are not as impactful as they have been. The tires need to be violently kicked at a trading desk before agreeing to allow your dollars to go through there. Also, the big publishers need to man up, regain their integrity and pull out. Madoff pulled off his scheme under the watchful eye of the SEC. You think the same thing isn’t happening under the oh-so frightening eye of the IAB? On Saturday April 28 I ll be in Philadelphia to help with the BarCamp News Innovation unconference and Open Government News Hackathon. These events are sponsored by the Center for Public Interest Journalism at Temple University, and are part of Philly Tech Week.Temple is my old stomping ground; I graduated from journalism school there in 1990. And I m rather stunned at all the huge new buildings that have sprung up around the campus. Good to see the school grow!The reason Temple brought me in to help with these events is because I m passionate about mobile and about the Philly area. I grew up in South Jersey and still have lots of family and friends in the region. So for me, helping more people in the Greater Philadelphia Area access more useful local information, news, and services via their cell phones is not just important it s personal! This is especially pressing given the continuing rocky status of Philadelphia Media Network, which publishes the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Daily News, and Philly.com. My grandfather Len McAdams worked on the editorial team of The Inky for decades. He d be furious to hear that earlier this month PMN was sold for the fifth time in six years at a fire sale price of $55 million. Sheesh.Here are a few points I d like participants in tomorrow s barcamp and hackathon to consider Continue reading I m planning a move from Oakland, CA back to Boulder, CO. Clearly, one factor in this project is: how to prepare for the zombie apocalypse, wherever I am.I checked out Map of the Dead  a great map mashup that helps you find the closest zombie survival supplies. Just enter your address to find the locations of the closest gun store, liquor store, grocery or convenience store, hardware store, outdoor store, gas station, doctor, pharmacy, military, police, radio tower, harbor, or airport.They also list the locations of places you d probably want to avoid during a zombie outbreak: Hospitals and shopping malls (zombies LOVE those places), cemeteries (obviously) and campgrounds (not really defensible).I checked out the Temescal neighborhood in north Oakland, where I currently live. Here s what I ve got to work with, considering running distance and it s not looking good. I m pretty close to several major hospitals, which tend to be ground zero in an outbreak. And not too much in the way of nearby supply locations. And, believe it or not, no nearby gun shops.My north Oakland neighborhood: Not looking good in case of zombies. (Click to enlarge)In contrast, downtown Boulder, Colorado seems a smarter bet for waiting out the zombocalypse. Within a few blocks there are several outdoor shops (which is probably also the best place to get survivalist food, water filters, etc.), grocery and liquor stores (if I m facing zombies, I will need a large supply of good tequila), AND a gun store!Downtown Boulder, Colorado. Better bet for surviving the zombocalypse. (Click to enlarge)Also, the closest hospital is over a mile away from downtown Boulder not even shown on this map. That s a bonus.The mobile version of this website isn t bad, but could stand some further optimization. In fact, this is one of those cases when an app really would be a better option. You d want to cache this information offline, for when the internet and cell networks go down following mass chaos. And maybe build in an option to use the phone s antenna as a walkie-talkie, or to listen to radio broadcasts. And, of course, get the latest CDC updates on the status of vaccine development and deployment.Plus an app could store a library of tutorial videos showing key zombie survival skills, like this: I cover technology for CNN.com and elsewhere, so I get a lot of pitch e-mails from PR folks. Some of these are very useful and well targeted. Most are rather meh. And a few are utterly stupid.Here s one such e-mail I received today, in its entirety. Name of the PR person, PR firm, and client are removed to protect the guilty:I’m writing today on behalf of [LINK TO CLIENT] a leader and innovative provider of device-centric, [TECHNOLOGY] solutions. They wanted to offer you the opportunity to receive some news which is under embargo until 9 a.m. CET on Monday, Feb. 27. If you are open to receiving news under embargo and agree to this embargo time, I would be happy to provide you with the news.Seriously: I never heard of the company, I don t know what this might be about, and I have no way to gauge whether their news is important or interesting enough for me to check out at all yet THEY want ME to agree to an embargo in advance, before I have any idea whether they re potentially relevant?Folks, you always have to prove your information or news is worth somebody s time. Just tell me why I should care, why this is relevant to me or my work. Always. There is no point in being coy.And no, I m not going to click the link in your e-mail to find out more about the company. I don t know you. This looks like spam.So I flagged this message as spam. Social media, digital communication channels, and cell phones often get accused of alienating people, enabling bullies, and breaking down the human ties which are the foundation of society.Bullshit. Personally, I am far happier on a day-to-day basis thanks to these technological tools. They have added considerable love, meaning, joy, and value to my life. With their help, I ve been able to offer nurturing and support to far more people I care about than ever would have been possible otherwise.So I wasn t surprised when a recent Pew study found that 85% of adult who use social networking sites say that people are mostly kind. Also, 68% reported they d had a experience on social media that made them feel good about themselves, and 61% had experiences that made them feel closer to another person.I know I m not alone in this Continue reading Making some lemonade here. Had a rather unpleasant interpersonal experience lately, and decided I needed to set some clear entry requirements (emotional maturity and communication skills) for people I let very far into my life. So instead of just chalking it up to Been there, done that, got the t-shirt, I actually GOT THE T-SHIRT! A friend is working on a better line art version which I ll be selling online. But for now, here s the concept. Whadya think?You must be at least this tall to ride this attraction. Custom ordered from Zazzle.com. Better line art version to follow. No, really:Associated Press opens news bureau in North Korea | World news | guardian.co.uk. As if the news business wasn t already Kafkaesque. Well, AP is an appropriate choice for this. Having done some critical coverage of several boneheaded AP strategies in digital media over the last few years, I think they see eye to eye with NK regarding the dangers of criticism, and how to respond to it.I m not kidding: See the response from Paul Colford, AP s director of media relations, to a 2010 KDMC story I wrote about the controversial AP News Registry program

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