customer service

verizon has just launched FIOS (Fiber Optics to the home or building)--high speed internet access
plus reliable phone service--and most heralded of all-- FIOS TV--the promise of fiber bringing nearly unlimited capacity and choice of video content into the home...

this is very similar to 1994 when DirecTV launched, followed swiftly by Dish Network and Primestar...digital spectrum to the home...what could be better? especially in non cabled areas, but also everywhere due to the presence of the exclusive NFL package on DirecTV and international packages on DISH....so, cable finally had competition...

pent up frustrations at cable company customer service sent folks scurrying to the stores to disconnect cable...satellite customer service edged out cable service in all industry surveys

when I lived in the burbs of westchester i had one of the first ever directv systems installed (another story!); and later on I had DISH as well...for the Russian channels and because the management of that company (EchoStar) were my business friends and I wanted to try their product...

so i have had3-4 cable companies, 2 satellite companies and of course for many years, the bells, baby bells, kinda bells, us west etc....and verizon for land line here in nyc and wireless...

when we moved into the loft, I decided to go with TWC's triple play...for lots of reasons...I had pretty good internet service form them at 30 Park, and of course my channel wa son their system, so I took the plungr...

well several outages and repair calls later, and some with escalated help from supervisors due to my complaints to a sr exec friend...I have had to disconnect the phone..and the slow internet...

so here comes fios yesterday but of course they got the order wrong...and only had the "phone number " win back from TWC for one of my numbers...at one point we had five techs from verizon here, plus verizon on two lines and twc on one phone line

so my hope for an effortless customer service experience were once again dashed...why can we get this right???

customer service on phone --bad enough...in the home for 9 hours..shame on verizon

oh well here we go...another service provider...

2500 hours of Olympics online

prime time ratings are excellent, nonetheless..nbc has extended Olympics coverage as far as it can in 2008...especially given time zone and piracy issues...but the costs and the commercials...oh my...4 min on, 3 min in commercial sometimes....coca cola's semi commercial free sponsorship of the redeem team was appreciated and probably creates more positive brand recognition...it's like 18 days of super bowl ads, but i am getting kind of bored already....and enjoying the coverage mostly in prime on the 'ol cable receiver...great to see shots of china...a murder/suicide in Beijing and a war between russia and georgia have occurred since 8 8 08 ..day 1 of olympics..and the yankees and mets continue to lose ground...

we've been having quite a few storms lately..this one moved in and out quickly this morning..i captured it at various times
media=my media

digital communication and education

setting up the proper avenues of communication and using email outreach to all constituents of any company, university, college or building is critical . knowing how to use the avenues for proper and respectful communication is key.

colleges and universities should be marketing themselves regualrly and politely to alumni base via email...especially recent grads...keep them connected to the campus and eventually donations will add up

just thinking about the impact of email marketing on institutions with a built in network; increasingly broadband equipped

Happy Slip

A couple years ago, I discovered Happy Slip's videos. (www.happyslip.com) She is an American of Filipino descent. Also an actor who has created a unique genre of character video. She portrays her family--her mother, aunt, father, sister. By using one idiosyncrasy of each tita and lola (aunt/uncle, grandparent) and her parents, Christine creates a funny world of filipino life in the US.

As a disclaimer, I am interested in part because of my filipina girlfriend, Mila.

But while appealing to a strong, niche Filipino audience, Christine takes on multiple characters and recently chronicled her experience on www.explorephilippines.com. All expenses paid; as her videos have become widely popular, and often get a million or more views on You Tube and her site.

She's a good storyteller and comedienne, and has built her own production team from amongst friends, family, etc. She does most of the work herself.

She attends You Tube conventions, etc and is clearly becoming a popular character.

Not sure what her comprehensive revenue model is; but she seems to be parlaying her work steadily into the right distribution.

Can she become mainstream? Possibly not. But that's not important...she is creating her own vision at low cost for an increasingly wide audience.

I met with her once several years back --purely exploratory; but I was interested in aggregating local content, and felt she had a place in what I was doing. The good news for her is she found it herself!

go to www.happyslip.com

just watched some of her blog tv appearances...she is her own brand; constantly reinventing, reformatting, re-digitizing and refining


she also blogs live on blog tv tonight she's performing and singing and playing guitar in her kitchen in Queens

http://www.blogtv.com/People/HappySlip

like a modern day troubador who travels via digital 1's and 0's from the comfort of her home, her city and on location

digital communication

as I was riding my bike the other day, somehow it struck me that I have participated in a huge technology swing from the 50's to the 00's (1952)...from those images in my memory of my father plowing our field in Kinderhook using horses (on video tape and dvd thanks to 8mm transfer systems) to the horse drawn Freihofer's bread wagon in Troy from 1954, to now with my cell phone/camera; digital camera, blackberry, webcam, flip tv etc...

content is easy to create and distribute...

analog to digital transformation

3 channels-on demand

we built the sci fi world that we saw on tv..nasa..twilightzone, etc

...social media...online communities..constant updates and twitter facebook have taken communication to a level I never imagined or even dreamed of: CONSTANT UPDATING
..like A GPS roadmap of MY DAY...

i am sitting at my computer in my home office overlooking railroad tracks, LGA landing patterns, the LIE, BQE, IDCNY Building LGCC

and writing this
that's my UPDATE

for now

Climbing to Work

queensboro bridge on a hot saturday morning 7/19
taken with my cell phone camera as I had decided not
to bring my digital camera

kind of cool how they're lined up

I ride by them often on my 7am rides while on the bridge's bike path; now I know how they get up...I thought they walked from queens plaza..but the field office is in the park; so the scaffolding gets them up and down faster

this is queensbridge park which by the way was really trashed out today
bbq'ers should clean up

nearly sunset

LIC to Manhattan
7 17 08












here's a view of sunset from loft last night...very hot in nyc

i wonder how common it is for bloggers to say:

"Well I haven't been blogging this week...blah blah lazy etc."

true in this case, a very busy week as I think through options

in media and education. And fund raising.

Always about fund raising.

Listening to Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead play All Along the Watchtower

from Dylan and the Dead on ITunes of course. Headphones. No I Phone for me yet.

I own a very early Macintosh computer. From 1991? circa..Haven't been able to part with it, so it's in my MEDIA CLOSET...early kids games, and who knows what else is still on the hard drive?

PC PC PC PC PC PC PC my last 10 computers or so (circa)

used to have macs at hbo but when we switched to PC's I stayed on the track

Last Rock Concert: Eagles on May 30 (circa, maybe 31) at MSG

also Farm Aid 2007
Cream 2005
Stones 2x in 05 and 06

and now "Knockin on Heaven's Door" is playing
Jerry Garcia, Bob Dylan et al (not circa)
never saw this combination

Billy Joel is playing his last Shea Stadium concert tonight which is also Shea Stadium's last rock concert ever as it will be torn down after the new Citi Field opens next year...well Billy is from LI and is KING OF LI...I have funny billy joel stories...I have been mistaken for him several times (looks--not talent!)...and I saw him with Elton John in Denver in 2001-2 (circa)..he was great and I am not the biggest fan..he did hit himself above the eye with a microphone and needed treatment I think so Elton played more than usual..maybe..(memory fuzz)

where I saw the Grateful Dead:
Lancaster F and M wow in 1971
Washington DC at American Univ circa 73
Philadelphia several times 72-74
Watkins Glen Festival with Band and Allman Brothers..am I right on The Band?? (more fuzz)
Denver 91 circa

where I've seen the Rolling Stones:
Philadelphia 71 with Stevie Wonder maybe still little Stevie Wonder as first act and he and Stones sang Satisfaction at the end...
NYC 2 times
Albany 1
Denver circa 2000

where I saw The Doors
-saratoga 1966