I met an interesting gentleman in Detroit once — his name is Collin LaLonde and he’s a recruiter. I liked him because, while everyone else seemed to try to do a sales job with no substance behind it, he listened to my skill set, assessed how solid I was as a worker, and placed me well. He’s got a new blog, Changing Fast, which chronicles the development of the tech workplace.
Archive for February, 2009
Changing Fast
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009Offering free Wi-Fi makes enduring customer relationships
Saturday, February 14th, 2009Offering free Wi-Fi can get a cafe more customers, and they’re browsers, not table-hogs, according to a study of Paris coffee shops.
The study tracked Wi-Fi usage at five Paris branches of coffee chain Columbus Cafe over three months.
According to the chain’s Wi-Fi provider Free-HotSpot.com, the sites attracted three to five times more users per day than paid-for rivals, but those users stayed online for less time on average than paying users. ^
Simple business logic: people don’t want to have many accounts to manage, as with each account they have, they increase their risk of getting victimized or simply paying for something that they cannot get organized to use.
So pay Wi-Fi, unless there’s an AOL for it — or one company that works across the globe in most coffee houses — is going to fail.
Free Wi-Fi attracts a diversity of users. Some are jerks who want to leech; others are normal people who are popping in to check email. Still others are the target audience: people who want a neighborhood haunt.
A haunt is a place you go when you have no other ostensible activity. It’s a place you feel comfortable, and you feel comfortable spending money. It’s also a place you go to when home is too lonely, or too busy.
If you want return customers… make yourself a haunt. That means spaces that allow different activities, both noisy and quiet. Unobtrusive music and staff. Maybe some books, comfortable seating. Be friendly to those who are coming for meetings, especially those who are relatively broke.
The convergence of netbooks and ebook readers
Tuesday, February 10th, 2009The ebook reader wars are heating up, just as the netbook wars are peaking.
Amazon has just announced the Kindle 2, an update to one of the better ebook readers I’ve seen:
Its nearest competition, as far as anyone can tell, is the Plastic Logic reader:
The Kindle 2 has a lot going for it: easily held, has a keyboard (version 1 did not), and has Amazon.com behind it to sell the hundreds of thousands of books needed in its format. The Plastic Logic reader, however, has two huge advantages: it’s got a completely onscreen interface, no keyboard, and is huge — full page size.
My prediction is that these devices are going to converge with netbooks rapidly, as people realize that for checking email and browsing the web, it might be nicer to have 12 hours of battery life than color screens.
Incero
Monday, February 2nd, 2009A friend of mine locally has started up a new gig doing cutting-edge hosting and complex app development in Austin. His company, Incero, aims to cut itself a share of the lucrative market at the intersection of web design, application development, and interface/interaction design. These should be highly functional websites with an eye for ease-of-use, and that’s why you should keep an eye on Incero.