Bill Bennett

While this isn’t about paperless journalism, it is relevant to my paperless journalism project.

Last Monday I went to see Pavement at the Auckland Town Hall. Although the sound was shaky at first, it was an excellent night out.

The night was almost spoilt by the quaintly old-fashioned internet ticketing system used for events at Auckland Town Hall.

I ordered tickets on-line through the Edge web site. It’s not the world’s best e-commerce system, but that’s not my gripe.

A few days later I found an undelivered parcel card from a courier in my letter box. The card was timed and dated – a time when I was definitely at home. In fact another courier package delivered by the same company arrived 30 minutes before the time on the card.

Stupidly I assumed this was just a mix-up and left the matter. A few days later the Pavement tickets hadn’t arrived. When I called, the Edge told me they had been couriered. The courier company told me to pick up the tickets from its depot – a ninety minute trip across the city.

It was much harder than buying tickets in person at the box office. And that’s just wrong.

And, am I the only person who thinks sending couriers around town with tickets in tiny envelopes is a grossly inefficient use of resources?

Can’t we come up with something better, something more reliable, something paperless?

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I’ve just discovered Rapportive a Gmail add-on which adds information about the person who sent an email. Think of it as a very basic CRM system.

The data replaces the right-hand advertising panel on a Gmail screen – which probably won’t endear Rapportive to Google.

There’s a similarity to Xobni, which works with Microsoft Outlook. But Rapportive is lighter. Xobni runs on your PC, which Rapportive lives in the cloud.

Rapportive pulls its information from social media accounts linked to the person’s email. This means the results are variable. I’ve noticed there is plenty of information and even photographs for some of my contacts, but for many there is nothing at all.

I’ve written before about Xobni and about Gist, which is another, far more complex, variation on the same theme. I prefer Gist to Xobni.

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The New Zealand Herald reports workers who stay after a round of redundancies suffer as much stress and anxiety as the people who lose their jobs.

I doubt this is always true.

Redundancy is never fun. Having your livelihood snatched away, facing a mortgagee sale and wondering where the next meal is coming from is about as stressful as things get.

As someone who has been in both positions, I can speak from experience on this.

Nevertheless, the Auckland-based researchers do have a point. Things are extremely stressful for people left when companies trim their staff numbers. Not least because they’ll have to cope with extra work. And, as the story points out, they’ll be wondering who is next for the chop.

Staff who stay suffer from stress – National – NZ Herald News.

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It’s only short, but  Managing projects through email sucks by Chance Bliss is a timely remind that email is not a miracle cure for all your communications needs.

It doesn’t even come close.

Bliss writes:

There are many ways to sabotage a project, but the one I find the most effective is email. Every email sent to a developer, designer or copywriter is a invitation for distraction which in turn increases mistakes and decreases productivity.

Quite right. If you’ve got a message a phone call, or a personal visit are so much better than email. Both modes of communications more efficient and less open to misinterpretation.

I’m indebted to Jack Vinson who pointed to this at Managing via email fails on his excellent Knowledge Jolt with Jack site.

Jack says:

The struggle for many people and organizations is that they see no other way to work than via email because it has become so deeply ingrained in the way of doing things.

Which is a good reason to try communicating through a more nuanced medium.

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I use Skype to stay in touch with friends and family overseas. I rarely use it for business calls because it is unreliable.

The problem isn’t Skype’s technology, but my broadband connection. My Telecom NZ broadband speed is unpredictable because I’m on a plan which gives me uncapped downloads but for most of the day means I share pooled bandwidth with other users on the same plan. In other words, one minute my connection is 3.5Mbps, the next minute I’ve got only 100kbps or so.

Google’s Gtalk voice over IP service copes with the fluctuating bandwidth better than Skype. I suspect this is because it chews through less data.

In general I find there’s otherwise little to choose between the Skype and Gtalk experience. Skype can give better quality audio, but there are times when it is just appalling. Gtalk never reaches the highs or the lows.

For me Gtalk almost beats Skype. Consistency is a good thing. I also like the way it integrates smoothly with Gmail – which is my main email client, and the Gtalk instant message tool.

However, there’s one big problem. Almost nobody I know uses Gtalk for voice calls although a lot of people use it for messaging. I have dozens of contacts on Skype, but scheduling Skype calls is much harder.

Which means I need to keep both programs installed for the foreseeable future.

Jim Sinegal is the boss at the US Costco chain. Costco’s stock price has doubled while he has been in charge.

Apparently:

• Sinegal’s name tag just says ‘Jim’.
• He answers his own phone.
• His headquarters office doesn’t have walls.
• He earns an annual salary of US$350,00. He reckons he should be paid more than 12 normal company workers.
• He has a one page contract which says he can be sacked if doesn’t do his work.
• His employee turnover rate is the lowest in the retail industry, over five times less than rival Wal-Mart.

I’m impressed. That’s leadership.

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My paperless journalism project ground to a halt this morning.

I’ve switched to Xero’s online accounting software. Xero needs authorisation to access my bank account. This means downloading a PDF, printing it,  filling in the form, signing it and sending to Xero.

The process went smoothly until the last stage. There were no envelopes in my paperless office. I had to make a trip to the local Post Shop and buy more paper.

Damn.

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My weekend search for a boxed copy of Quicken Home and Business 2010 drew a blank. I wrote about this earlier in Packaged software is dead, deceased, pushing up daisies.

When I couldn’t get anywhere with physical shops I went to the Quicken web site, then clicked through to the point where I could, in theory, buy a packaged copy of the program online.

I stopped when I reached the confirm purchase page which told me; “Quicken will send out your purchase within 7-14 working days after payment”.

That’s 14 working days AFTER receiving payment.

Do these people want to sell?

As I wrote in Paperless journalist: Business cards, it took nine days for Moo cards to accept my money, print my cards and send them from California to New Zealand.

So why is Quicken so slow? Perhaps someone has to get the CD burner out of the cupboard to make the discs.

Next. I went back through the site, found a contact email for Quicken’s ‘presales’ department to query this speed. I needed the software fast, the end of the financial year is approaching and I had a GST return to get out.

On Saturday I emailed this message to presales@quicken.co.nz:

I’ve been all over the North Shore looking for Quicken Home & Business 2010. There are boxed in Harvey Norman at Wairau Park, but no disks. Otherwise no-one seems to stock the software. Is it still available? If I buy direct from Reckon can I come and pick it up from the office?

It’s Thursday morning and I haven’t heard back.

I’ve had my money in my hand waiting to give it to these people and they just don’t want to take it. Something is wrong here.

In the meantime I’ve switched to Xero.

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