Zach Beauvais

Talis: We’re Excited

// February 1st, 2010 // Comments // Semantic Web, emergent, interesting, tech

This post was originally published on Nodalities Blog.
The Talis offices, for the past few weeks, have been awash with geeky excitement—that kind of near giddy excitement that comes with eager expectation. We’ve all been waiting for something important.

For some, this was no doubt augmented with the announcement of Steve’s new iPad; but that’s not what’s gotten us all worked up.

For months, we’ve been looking forward to the launch of data.gov.uk; and last week, the wraps finally came off. The official press release put it:

A major new website has been launched to the public which gives anyone who wants to use it unprecedented and free access to government data in one place.

This doesn’t quite capture the coolness of the launch, for me. Yes, it’s a major new website, and it’s point is to publish information. But, the exciting thing is that this information is being published as data: data that can be used, reused, remixed and enriched. Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s perspective was more exciting:

Making public data available for re-use is about increasing accountability and transparency and letting people create new, innovative ways of using it. Government data should be a public resource. By releasing it, we can unlock new ideas for delivering public services, help communities and society work better, and let talented entrepreneurs and engineers create new businesses and services.

The point is that this public resource is finally getting a home on the web, and an infrastructure to make it not just available, but useful.

The exceptional team behind data.gov.uk have striven to adhere to web standards in its production: including Linked Data as a priority, as Professor Nigel Shadbolt explained:

We are also going to increase the use of ‘Linked Data’ standards, which allows people to provide data in a way that is as flexible and easy-to-use as possible.

Back in November, Leigh Dodds wrote a post explaining how we’ve been involved, and there’s an official Talis Platform press release too. Basically, we’ve been working with the data.gov.uk team to help with the Linked Data part of the site—hosting the SPARQL endpoints and providing consultancy and training, for example.

I can confidently say that we’re very proud of data.gov.uk, the team behind it, and our involvement with it. We’re excited by the prospect of this data being used as raw material for clever people to make interesting, useful, even world-changing things with it. We’ve seen the beginnings and proof-of-concept projects already.

Now comes the really exciting stuff. What are you going to build?

Image: “Yay for happy days!” by le vent le cri via flickr (CC: By)

Wordpress Woes

// July 6th, 2009 // Comments // blogging, tech

So, Wordpress 2.8 is great! I love the interface, the drag/drop, the ajaxed admin area and loads of other features. Unfortunately, it’s also broken.

My problem occurs when I update plugins. Whenever a WP plugin needs updating, the automated system has failed to reactivate it every single time. Unfortunately, it also removes the plugin entirely, leaving  me without that functionality. This is particularly annoying when it removes tracking codes, so I can’t see how many folks have been on my site!

So, I’m going to have to reinstall it from scratch. If the theme is jumpy, or something’s missing, it’s probably for that reason. Hopefully, it’ll all be back up and running soon, with plugins working nicely, and all my content secured.

… hopefully!

Image: “Bench Removed for Maintenance” by andyrob Creative Commons Licensed via flickr.

Outsourcing Lunch

// April 12th, 2009 // Comments // blogging, perspective, tech

There are many things I want to do to improve the way I live. My little plot of the world should be made greener through fantastic gardening skills. My waistline should be happily withering while my biceps should be steadily broadening—despite the physical reality that I’d entirely lose my middle that way. Dinner parties should be thrown matching an excruciatingly-chosen bottle of wine with exquisitely-prepared, locally-sourced, organic food followed by exciting coffee preferably prepared using some seldom-seen flavour-extracting gadget.

The reality is that I tend not to have much time to get the very basics of social-acceptability complete before forcing myself to sleep. Much of this is by choice, no doubt.

Facts: I’d rather read than sleep; I’d rather train the dog to retrieve three different dummies than wash up; and I’d rather cook an exciting dinner than pack a mundane yet healthy lunch.

Much of the time I have, however, is spent working and travelling to work, and trying to get done the things I (and my wife) feel need to be done. A bit of gardening to keep the neighbours from tutting, a bit of washing up so dinner can be made, and walking/training the pup so he doesn’t go mental and eat the cat, our house and the whole world…

I have realised, over the past few weeks, that much of my lifestyle is dependent on a web-connected world. That last sentence reads a bit like an obvious reality from a blogger and someone employed in web innovation; but I mean more than just “My job is dependent on the web”. I work from home half the week rather than commuting the 60+ miles to the office every day; and this requires web access, a vpn connection to work, and various communication services. But I also live in rural Shropshire, and tend to do most of my shopping online. I phone my family back in the states via Skype and keep in touch with friends, colleagues and acquaintances on Twitter. I even plan meetings, arranging transport and buy any travel tickets online. It would be impossible for me to live here and work as I do without a web-enabled life.

The web is part of this lifestyle, though, and there is actually more to this “connected” living than just the links on the web. You see, there is something more about organisation involved. It’s not just that I have a connection to a retail site, but that they’ve innovated their organisation to the point that I can buy most of what I need and want, have it delivered to my door the next day, and still save money and a HUGE amount of time. These connected companies (more in another blog post, probably) are taking advantage of scale to bring a service to web-enabled shoppers.

But its only recently that more interesting services have begun to spring out of this connected cloud of companies. I’ve talked about kiva.org, which organises charitable micro-finance loans through the medium of web-connection and building upon the shoulders of giants like PayPal, who were early innovators in organising payments online. But what about little things? Sure, we can change the world, but can we make a difference to, for example, how we eat tomorrow?

Enter: graze.com. Rob at the office jokingly calls them SaaS (Snacking as a Service). Graze sends a box of healthy and tasty snacks through the post to arrive on subscribed days of the week (i.e. I have mine delivered to the office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays). Graze mixes fresh and dried fruit with nuts and other healthy snacks, for £2.99/box including postage. This is great, healthy food delivered regularly to my desk in time for lunch for less than £3/day!

Graze mixes a few recent innovations to produce this service. Rob’s comment surfaces the “as a Service” ethic, which essentially fills a particular need on a subscription business model via the web. It’s also reminiscent of jukeboxes or music subscriptions applications like Spotify or even iTunes, in that you can choose the level of detail you want to use in organising your snacking, or you can simply “shuffle” them, being surprised but putting no effort into planning.

The long/short? I’ve actually saved money, because I no longer pop out to a petrol station to spend £4 on a barely edible sandwich and snack. I feel better, because this food is actually, truly great for me and It feels nice to eat something light but sustaining when sitting at a desk for hours. I don’t skip lunch, so I’m less inclined to trough when I get home, and all by simply outsourcing my lunch!

What else needs organising in life? Tidying as a service? No? Clothing? Wardrobe as a Service? Ooh, if anyone wants a startup, I’ve got a great idea for a service that delivers clothes perhaps monthly to keep your wardrobe refreshed, or allows for special days (weddings, balls etc… too). What would you outsource, and what service would you provide?

How not to communicate

// March 1st, 2009 // Comments // blogging, tech

As you know, I’ve been emailing my ISP recently to find out why my connection drops every evening to around 500k. Following every email I’ve sent since January, I have received this automatic response (ISP name removed, for now…):

Hi,

Thanks for emailing us.

Our Broadband team have received your email and will get back to you in the next 48 hours. We’re sorry to say that we’ve received more emails than normal over the past few days and this is why it might take us a bit longer to reply to your email.

Our call centres are also very busy just now so please don’t call us for an update on our email reply. Don’t worry, we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

Thanks for waiting.

In the mean time, why not check out our broadband help pages…(link)

A few notes on why this is unsatisfactory:

Firstly, an automatic apology (“we’re sorry to say”) means nothing; and I would advise any customer services to not include one. It is cut from the same cloth as the oddly cheery recorded announcements broadcast at rail platforms: “We’re sorry to announce that the **** service to Manchester has been delayed by 45 minutes. We are extremely sorry for this delay.” It raises the blood pressure with its disingenuousness.

Secondly, to say you’ve received many extra emails is foolish in the extreme. It puts me in the role of one in a mass of unhappy customers who must all be receiving the same service; and I feel more than ever like shopping elsewhere. Additionally, an automatic response saying “over the past few days” for two months is hardly accurate. In fact, it’s a lie. If it’s been higher than “normal” for that long, it’s a new normal. Gradually, the meaning becomes something like: “We receive many, many emails of this nature each day—far more than we’re prepared for; and we’re don’t see this as a problem. We are happy with the level of service we supply enough not to expand our team. Join the club, and we’ll get back to you, eventually.”

Thirdly, the opening paragraph is contradictory. One cannot promise 48-hour turnaround in one sentence, then follow it with a sentence explaining it might take a bit longer. It illicits the thought pattern: “Longer than what? Longer than 48 hours; then you shouldn’t say it. Longer than expected; then I will expect less than 48 hours and be disappointed if it is around two days.” It doesn’t make sense.

Moreover, this email abruptly cuts off communication channels with the users: “Our call centres are also very busy just now so please don’t call us”. This is a slap in the face, especially for someone experiencing connectivity issues. I cannot stress enough how important it is to be open with customers, even for a large service provider. Perhaps, actually, especially for a large service provider. Telling customers in need of support not to phone is extremely unadvised.

I will not go into the grammar (team is singular, I therefore expect “Broadband team” to be predicated by the singular stative verb: has; and why is Broadband capitalised?), for this way lies pedantry (and I don’t want anyone even more pedantic pointing out all my mistakes!)

This is the first communication your customer receives after a complaint, it should be crafted with care. It’s not just an automatic reply; it’s the immediate face of your company. And, as it stands now, it’s not an attractive face at all.

I’d be more than happy to outline suggestions for such an email, and I welcome comments.

Open Letter to my ISP

// February 12th, 2009 // Comments // Topical, tech

“Headache by magandafille“

This evening I sent this letter to my ISP in response to their support followup (I’ve removed the company name):

Please, please don’t give me a list of troubleshooting tips again…

The broadband router is attached directly to the test socket, therefore guaranteed by BT.

My microfilter is fine, and I’ve had different units at various times (of different makes and even colours); and, before you ask, I’ve got one on every phone line in the house.

I’ve reset the router in the past (though I’ve been informed that this can actually cause up to 5-days delay, it’s been more than a fortnight since the last reset).

My speeds are the same.

Nothing changes them.

I have nothing else running when I run speedtests, and have used multiple sites.

I’ve double and more checked all settings on the router itself, and have even switched SSID channels just for grins (no change).

I receive the same speedtest results on different more or less identical systems (OS X 10.5.6 each) though not at the same time, and receive the same result.

My iPhone also grows excessively sluggish between 5pm and bedtime.

My last ISP supplied me with a list of 13 troubleshooting tasks, and I completed them duly before each escalation… none of them resulted in any increase in speed whatsoever. The only thing I could think to do further is to construct a DIY parabola booster to increase the signal from the router to my Mac, though, since I write this from less than 3 meters from the router, I doubt that would help much either.

The speeds drop at peak times. That means there’s too much traffic for the infrastructure you supply. I’ve had no problem with (name of ISP) so far, and am fully aware that the West Midlands is low on its priority list (or, at least, BT’s list), and have come to terms with the low bandwidth that entails. However, you advertise speeds in my area (and have said in correspondence that you expect speeds in my area) to be at around 3MB/s. This is not true, daily.

Not only have my speeds routinely dipped below 1.5MB, but have even dipped below 500k on several occasions. I’ve not experienced “broadband” of that quality in years.

I appreciate your prompt replies, and hope you find whatever it is that’s causing this slow-down, though I can save you some trouble. It’s my neighbours, and their neighbours—all using limited bandwidth which you and other ISP’s continue to degrade by accepting more customers than you can supply.

Regards,

First ever iPhone post

// January 14th, 2009 // Comments // Apps, blogging, tech

Ok, so I thought I’d try something. I thought I’d try writing an entire post on an iPhone. I’ve downloaded an app… Think it’s ingeniously called something like “blog writer”. I can tell that my typically long-winded style and use of punctuation will be a killer here!

Surprisingly, however, this feels easy. Whether that’s the second pint talking, however, would require further experimentation.

I should say: it’s easy enough to TYPE. Thinking at the same time, I feel, will take some time. So, my devoted reader, you’re in for a treat of mindlessness…

Still, it’s as well getting used to using mobile interfaces, I think. With it being this painless to finally BE online through such a small portal leads me to think it’ll be a limited time before this is the default for simply connecting.

Now, this isn’t THAT easy… It is so very much faster to type. But, this is fine, and it’ll only get better. However, there are some things which are necessary for this to be my default:

*I need the use of all my fingers. This screen is fantastically good-and I find it very much better as an interface even than my beloved trackball. But the keyboard… It’s too slow.

*Faster app switching. This will surely improve with time, but it’s a bit of a train-of-thought killer.

*Copy/paste. I mean: Come On!

*Finally, the way to navigate among text is to hold one’s finger somewhere near the text, and drop the resulting cursor somewhere near the letter. Arrows alongside this would be very useful.

So, there you have it: my first iPhone post. Not sure I’ll rush out to to it again. But it’s possible. I need more practice with the interface, but I’m not sure if I will.

One last thought: there’s limited to no file handling. This is a mistake, I think. I would very much hate to lose this much thumb-written text now…