Archive for February, 2009

175 Million Lawyers to Work for Facebook

Friday, February 27th, 2009

They needed to do something. And they needed to do it fast. Only Facebook could seek 175 million opinions, and they are all free. Change that headline. 175 million lawyers working for free to help Facebook arrive at a Terms of Service (TOS) document. I don’t see a problem. This should lead to some great legal advice.

OK, so it could be a bit scary. Hey Facebook, could you like maybe make any references to my old girlfriend go away– and her too, if possible. She was so totally lame, she shouldn’t be allowed on Facebook. 175 million request pouring in. I really hope most don’t arrive after closing time. Maybe they should require all views to be faxed in… –to a single ancient fax machine. Hey dude, where can I find a fax machine? I got an idea for Facebook.

Maybe this is just what you deserve after a sequence of bonehead moves. I dread having a committee come up with a mission statement. What can this do? A well thought out TOS should consider the user community needs and seek a respectful, supportable and conscientious position. That would be great. I am hopeful that this public sausage-making process can address issues of concern. What would be ideal is for Facebook to set a new standard, not for process, but a TOS that can be used for all community services.

As users we routinely check the box, yes I can accept your draconian TOS if you will just let me use your services or whatever is offered. Users don’t really agree with the TOS. The system is broken. Facebook just got caught trying to break it in a most grievous manner. In some sense companies have been at the mercy of legal advice (not the 175 million kind) that may have a basis in protecting the corporation. There just have never been 175 million who are so well connected and dependent on the TOS. Well, every dog has its day, and just maybe 175 million finally with have their day.

175 Million amateur lawyers is indeed a scary thought, but let’s see if Facebook can find a sensible relationship with the user community. Maybe we can get a resulting landmark TOS from this awkward situation. This dog would be pleased and impressed with proof that social networking has the great future I think it does.

Posted in Social Networking, Tech Life | 992 Comments »

Ignorance, Innocence and Greed at Facebook

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

Facebook is powered by a huge group of bright young faces, so we might expect some missteps, but they are adding up. We are already aware of malfeasance involved in the founding of Facebook. At some point in Silicon Valley we let bygones be bygones. Continued questionable actions do raise second thoughts.

Facebook could use a supply of towels to keep the youthful group a bit dryer behind the ears A gray hair or two in-house seems highly unlikely to be heeded at this point. One lesson that appears to not be learned at Facebook is the concept of business stakeholders. Customers are often given short shrift in the stakeholder pecking order. Nothing could be a bigger mistake at Facebook.

Every business owes much to customers, but none more than a social networking site. The reason I am a huge fan and bullish on Facebook, and social networking in general, is because of the role of users, the most critical of “customers” in this game. Without us, Facebook is dead. Hello Mark. –Not reduced in value or importance, but dead. I believe it is a self-correcting system. Facebook has shown this with each significant mistake. How many “mistakes” will it take?

Of course you can expect a strong reaction from some when these blunders are caught. Fortunately while most are aghast that Facebook could be out of touch, the proxy outbreak serves to put Facebook back on track. I confess to being a bit tired of the routine. This is NOT rocket science. I offer my free gray-hair advice. Facebook should have an internal mantra and it should be about the most important stakeholder. That is not the stockholder, but your stockholders will not be happy if users are allowed to migrate away from what has been a tsunami of endorsement. I can’t imagine more than ten words and it should be in front of everyone inside.

On this subject I was inspired by a thoughtful commentary on Network World, that bastion of social networking. When critical comments are appearing from far, the reach and importance of the mission should be clear. Don’t screw it up.

Posted in Product, Social Networking, Tech Life | 769 Comments »

Let Me Take a Bite from My Hat

Thursday, February 5th, 2009

Magicjack is a remarkable story in some sense, and that may cause some to lose a grasp on common sense. A new story connects Magicjack to the loss of landlines in the U.S. If you are responsible for landline retention I would think you have too many other concerns to think that Magicjack is responsible for a decline in landlines. If that were the case I would think Magicjack should be more concerned.

The Magicjack bundles hardware with a network terminating solution in hopes that users will buy upgraded services. Without upgrades Magicjack can only hope most users make few calls which is a pretty good bet. If users are making all household calls in a traditional landline sense, they are probably losing money.

Long before Magicjack appeared TeleVoce offered PC-to-telephone adapters. There has not really been much change in this market opportunity, except for the TV pitch infomercials that today have a greater of finding viewers with a PC connected to broadband at home. It is easy to get excited about such an offer, but the light of day has shown that most users do not replace regular phone use with such devices. By light of day, I mean years of user behavior records of real use of PC-connected phone use.

PC-originated phone calling is not new and incoming calls are not revolutionary either. Magicjack, as much as TeleVoce, serves users who make international calls (long the stronghold of VoIP) and users who have use for an alternative to mobile for any number of reasons. Magicjack probably has recruited a new segment of users who imagine a substitute phone service. Let me just state the obvious simply. A PC with a MagicJack is not going to connect to the multiple phone jacks in a typical home. It is a personal tool, not a household solution. Let landline providers worry about real issues.

Posted in NextGen Telephony, Product, Telephony, VoIP | 853 Comments »