This is not how you write a tweet. *major facepalm* – View on Path.
This is not how you write a tweet. *major facepalm* – View on Path.
Author: Aulia Masna
Former tech journo, used to write for Macworld, DailySocial, e27. Ex , ran a national startup initiative program in Indonesia. Very much into the news.
This was probably the greatest thing I’ve seen all day!!!
Ladies and gentlemen, my new favorite gif.
On becoming relevant to consumers
A company asked me for advice about innovation, relevance, and the consumer. This is what I told them. The entire advice sounds to me like a whole load of corporate speak and essentially things that they should already know, but hey, they asked.
===
Now, whatever the company does, few things are more important than its products, so if a company wants to be relevant to its market it needs to have compelling products, something that has the values and characteristics desired by the intended consumers.
Most of the time consumers don’t know what they want so it’s important for a company to take calculated initiatives to discover what consumers really want. You can’t just throw everything and the kitchen sink into the product because that would be highly inefficient and not to mention wasteful. It takes research and some difficult decision making to arrive at that product.
Product communications strategies always follow the reasons behind the product’s existence. Why was it developed and created? What sort of issues or pain points are the product meant to address? If a product is badly conceived, it’s never going to have a good story and while it’s not impossible to create a story post conception, it would be difficult. Stories sell products, it’s crucial to have a good story to push products to consumers.
A breakthrough to me isn’t always about something new but about achieving better ways to accomplish an existing task. Example, a bucket with a spout and a handle which makes it a much better bucket to use. In other words, through innovation. A breakthrough is something that changes the behavior of consumers.
Innovations aren’t always breakthroughs but a breakthrough is always born through innovation.
As to how [the company] can be more relevant, do a lot of product and consumer behavior research, find out their pain points as well as their pleasure points and work on a way to address them.
I don’t know how much input does [the local office] have in product development but having a fast follower strategy might help to address the gap with the market leaders but at the same time also develop a strategy to transition if the company manages to catch up with the leaders. Fast follower doesn’t work without anyone to follow.
On the Vimeo ban in Indonesia
Jakarta Globe asked for my views on the banning of Vimeo in Indonesia which started on Sunday, May 11 2014. Globe reporter Benjamin Soloway wanted to know what the effects might be to tech and innovation in this country, whether it would lead to other actions of the same magnitude, and what is going on with the inconsistency in its implementation. The following is my response.
Hi Benjamin, I actually wrote a piece about this a couple of days ago and some of my thoughts are already in that article, feel free to quote it.
The reasoning behind the decision to ban Vimeo, which isn’t the first time, is a slippery slope that I hope is going to come to a halt once his term as minister expires and a new, more progressive, more technologically sensitive government is installed.
The fact that a small range of nudity and sexually suggestive videos exist on a public service that does not actually promote such themes should not form the basis of a blanket censorship that involves the banning of the entire service.
It’s entirely possible that the very logic and reason that drove this decision will be used to block other services such as Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, or even Google. You can easily discover porn and nudity on any of those services if you know the terms. These are content platforms for the public to use and the public will use them in any way they like.
Banning Vimeo entirely is affecting people whose livelihoods depend on having access to the service such as advertising professionals, students, educators, journalists, filmmakers, animators, and so on. We’ve seen agencies complain that their portfolios are now inaccessible. There’s a video going around of an Al Jazeera cameraman complaining that he cannot complete his task because the instructions were posted on Vimeo.
This decision to ban Vimeo entirely is akin to banning DVD players because there’s porn on DVD.
If Tifatul Sembiring or someone like him maintains the position as the highest authority on technology regulations in this country we are facing a brick wall with regards to tech progress and innovation
Back in 2008 when current education minister Mumammad Nuh was the communications minister he moved to ban YouTube because it had insisted on not removing Fitna, a movie that was deemed as offensive to Muslims.
In 2010 Sembiring threatened to shut down access to BlackBerry services because it’s possible to access porn using the device. How much more absurd can you get?
In 2012 he asked what would people do with a 4Mbps internet connection
He asked a similar question in January of this year
The tone that he used to ask the questions seemed so mocking and condescending that it was a shock that someone of his position would even pose them to begin with.
Back to the Vimeo situation, the inconsistency within the situation, the fact that APJII wasn’t included in the mailer, that not all ISPs and carriers received the instructions at the same time, that the implementation even within Telkom’s own network is extremely inconsistent speaks volumes of the quality of the organization and personnel.
The fact that a Kominfo director general was contradicted by the ministry’s newly appointed spokesperson within 24 hours says a lot about the coordination within the ministry.
I can only hope that the next government has no such people holding key positions.
Sorry it’s taken a while to form my reply, I’m trying hard to be civil. The very fact that the last two communications ministers have enraged me with their decisions makes it very difficult not to get emotional.
It’s almost like they have no interest in catching up with the best in the world as quickly as they can with regards to technological progress. When South Korea is already rolling out Advanced LTE and developing 5G wireless connection, we only just completed settling the 3G band allocations.
This Nokia X looks like a pretty fun phone to use for those who have specific needs for an entry level smartphone and not too bothered by the lack of Google services.
Battery life that lasts about a couple of days between charges, basic apps like Mail (Outlook) Opera mini, Facebook, Twitter, BBM, Line, a bunch of games, and sporting dual SIM cards, although I think only one slot has 3G access, and a Nokia Store that is decent enough for the most part, should be sufficient for the intended market, not to mention having OneDrive support as well as MixRadio and built in FM Radio.
Sadly despite having 512MB of RAM, the sluggishness in response times, in even the built in apps, makes the phone a less attractive phone to have compared to the similarly spec’d and priced Lumia 520. Nokia needs to really optimize the OS to have it operate apps a lot smoother. The OS itself runs just fine but there are noticeable lags when running apps such as delayed typing response, which can be crucial.
On the other hand, people’s tolerance towards the lag may differ and the intended market for the phone may give it a pass. What may go against the phone’s success would be the alternatives at the same or similar price and people’s willingness to use non Google services. If the Microsoft, Nokia, and Here apps are acceptable to consumers, then it’s one less major hurdle to deal with.
Thought via Path
Anyone noticing that American couples started calling each other bae? Why are they doing that, is babe too difficult to pronounce? They both contain only a single syllable. Is hun for hunny/honey too quaint these days? That last b at the end of the word causing difficulties?
Of course, intimate couples haven’t called each other by names for decades. They use words like darling, sweety, honey, cupcakes, and in the 90s and 2000s, they try to scare each other by using the word boo. Remember that song by Usher and Alicia Keys, My Boo? That song comes up, my head gets filled with images of that ghost from Super Mario.
Anyway, they already shorten homeboy to homey or homes, so I guess if they call their significant others bae because babe is “old”, then they’re gonna call their friends ho? – Read on Path.
AuliaSays 