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Bloggy Question 22 — A Real Issue: Blogger Justice?

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What if It Were You or Me?

For those who come looking for a short, thoughtful read, a blogging life discussion, or a way to gradually ease back into the week, This question comes from a piece that Chris Garrett wrote in August. The piece began with this paragraph . . .

What would you do if someone wronged you in a blatant way? You would probably have words and if that didn’t produce an apology would more than likely as a next step blog about it, right? And probably invite your blogger friends to also blog about it? Of course a lot of them will anyway, particularly if what the dude did was dumb, damaging or both. And of course their readers might well pick up the story. Then what if the guy, instead of getting the point threatens you with lawyers and all kinds of legal threats? — Revenge of the Bloggers

It wasn’t hypothetical. Real bloggers did and said real things that completely ruined a person’s name. Did he deserve it? He was wrong, so wrong. Does that make them right?

Who gets to decide? It’s an important issue.

Click the title below to read the story. I’ll wait until you come back.

Revenge of the Bloggers

My bloggy question is what do you think about all of this?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Bloggy Question 21 — Are You California Dreaming?
Bloggy Question 20 — A Significant Other Says “No Blog”
Bloggy Question 19 — A Blogging Life of Fiction
Bloggy Question 18 — Suddenly You Have

Extreme Customer Service? I’m Still Telling the Story

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Extreme Times Call for Extreme Customer Service

Customer Think Logo

I have never worked for FedEX, nor do I know anyone who has. . . . I wrote this because Meikah asked whether I knew any stories about extreme customer service and this is the one that I know. I know it because I lived it

The Flood

We stood on the deck of our second floor condo, watching the flood waters rise. The rains had caused the river to rise by 12 feet. It overflowed its banks, wiped out the highway, covered the streets, and was overtaking our parking lot. Word in the building was that we would be evacuated some time that day.

“We” was me, my husband, our 2 year-old son, and a 7-year-old cockatoo named Chicken.

Rescuers were coming, in rowboats on streets of suburban Illinois, to take us away from our home. The rain had stopped — not the flooding. We stood most of the morning on the deck watching the water rise and get closer. It was already up to the seats of our cars.

Deadlines Don’t Care About Floods

My husband and I were working freelance on a deadline project. One part was due that day at a publisher about 12 miles east of us. It couldn’t be late. It was part of a program costing $millions being submitted at state level. The state had no give to the cut off submission date.

My husband and I had the work done. We didn’t know how to get it there. Our cars were useless. We didn’t know where we’d be that night. We got the package ready in hopes of finding an answer before we were evacuated.

The FedEx Guy

About then the phone rang, it was a young man. “Excuse me, this is FedEX,” he said. “I have a package. Do you need it?”

The package was the next part of the same project. Who knew how it would find us, if we didn’t take it now? I said, “I’m sorry, but yeah, we really do need it.”

“No problem, Ma’am.” he said. “I’ll walk it over to you.”

I put the phone down and took my husband out on the deck. Coming through the water — at one point it was chest deep — was a guy in a FedEx uniform, holding a package above his head.

Our neighbors started cheering and applauding. The young man was smiling and waving. He made it look fun.

When the FedEx guy got to our door, we traded packages. My gratitude was all over him, explaining. He was all smiles still, saying it was his job. (I took his name. I wrote the company about him.)

Meanwhile, our neighbors had gathered everyone they could. The crowd was much larger when the FedEX guy left. As he opened the building door to go through the water, the applause started again.

FedEX man raised the new package high above his head and said very loudly, “Fed EX we deliver. We pick up too!”

What a gift that guy was. Every one of us was worried about what was happening, what damage would be done, when the water would stop. FedEX man did more than deliver a package. He walked right through the scary water to us, smiling.

He got us to laugh.

THAT is extreme customer service on every level.

That happened almost 20 years ago, and I’m still telling the story . . .

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Net Neutrality 9-24-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

Pro-Net Neutrality Nuggets Are Buried in Verizon’s Poll

On behalf of the Net Neutrality community, I’d like to thank Public Opinion Strategies and the Glover Park Group for their recent survey on Net Neutrality. And a fine piece of work it is. On one hand, some of the poll was so over-the-top that it’s easy to discredit. On the other hand, if you look a little deeper, it appears that the Verizon-sponsored work not only bolstered our case, but provided the seeds to start a wider discussion of a new broadband policy for the country.

[ . . .]

There is a common theme through the first three crucial questions.

The first question — “How important is it to you that (Insert State) residents have a choice of service providers when it comes to cable TV – in other words, that there is more than one company to choose from?” In the overall survey of 800 voters, 73 percent said the choice was “very important Separate surveys from 400 voters in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Missouri had similar results.

The second question — “How interested would you be in having more companies to choose from for your cable TV service?” The response was that 50 percent were “very interested” and 26 percent were “somewhat interested.”

For the third question, a multiple choice one, 56 percent of those surveyed said more choices would bring about lower prices, 50 percent said better customer service (not exactly a vote of confidence) and 40 percent, new technologies.

The central theme, and what these questions show clearly, is that consumers want choice. Let’s look at this on two levels. Consumers want choices in Internet applications and services. They don’t want a telephone or cable company deciding for them what Web sites or applications will function better than others. They don’t want a telephone or cable company cutting an exclusive deal . . .

We can look at the choice issue in another way with a word substitution. Imagine if the question read: “How important is it to you that (Insert State) residents have a choice of service providers when it comes to high-speed Internet service – in other words, that there are more than two companies to choose from?” Or what if the second question read: “How interested would you be in having more companies to choose from for your high-speed Internet service?”

[ . . . ]

Once upon a time we had a flourishing, competitive Internet industry, with thousands and thousands of Internet Service Providers. Little by little regulatory decisions . . . whittled the once-flourishing industry down to next to nothing. Most of the country has no choice in broadband. Some places don’t have broadband, and won’t for the foreseeable future.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Net Neutrality 9-23-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

Congress is clueless about the internet [via The Blog Herald]

So why am I not worried?

Because soon the next generation of elected officials are going to be people my age, people who grew up with the internet, people who instant message their friends. In the next 10, 20, and 30 years the people that are elected to office are going to be people who “get” the internet, people who understand why net neutrality is important.

Laws aren’t irreversible. In 25 years the justices on the supreme court will understand the internet – they can say that laws enacted today are unconstitutional. The people who grew up logging into Facebook and checking email will be more powerful.

The next guy in charge of the RIAA might understand why downloaded music isn’t such a bad thing. . . .

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Life, Weekends, Memories — Finding Time for the Time of Your Life

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I've been thinking . . .
One Friday ritual that happens in offices is that people ask What are you doing this weekend? I’ve never been good at small talk in general, but I had to study to answer that question.

I kept a list of responses that sounded somewhat normal.

“I’m going for quiet and relaxation.”

“I think a good book is in order.”

“I have an appointment with my pillow.”

“I’m just so happy to be having a weekend.”

You might note that all of my answers basically say the same thing that my friend, KB, once said, “Liz doesn’t do weekends.”

I used to say, “Hey, I made my quota of decisions at the office. The last thing I want to do is come home to make more of them — decide what to do, where to go, what to eat, where to eat it, when to go there, what to wear.”

So instead I’d stay home and let life happen.

Sometimes life happens in ways worth remembering. Most often it doesn’t. Time just passes.

That’s what I’ve been thinking about lately. I don’t make plans — too many options. I can talk myself out of almost anything.

“Do something.”

“Do what?”

“I don’t know. What do you want to do?”

“How about this. Too crowded.”

“This? Too expensive.”

“This? Too far. . . . too early . . . too late . . . too extravagant . . . too boring . . . too edgy . . . too too.”

I think I should stay home.

I care more about who I do things with than what I do. So when someone suggests anything, I go. Most cool things I’ve done have been because someone invited me.

That sure is a passive way to live life, waiting for it to come to me.

I’m getting back in the driver’s seat. Plans are now part of my personal navigation. I’m finding time for the time of my life.

Life isn’t made of weekends. It’s made of memories.

I’ve decided it’s time to start making some outstanding ones.

Liz's Signature

Net Neutrality 9-22-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

Net Neutrality: Letter to Lorelle

. . . if everything and all the content that was being accessed, was in the same network, nobody really cares. . . . The person who laid that infrastructure is also the one reaping the revenue out of it.

We are talking about a world, that in another few years is going to look very very complicated and simple at the sametime. I could switch between my television and “mobile communication device” in ease. I can flip my video conferencing session from my mobile phone, to the big screen television to get a better view and perspective if I wanted to… all this means, I’ll have to hop between networks, and the amount of effort, energy and money that needs to go into making sure that interoperability is achieved, is enormous – not to mention the billions of dollars that are invested towards that infrastructure.

Simply put, nobody is going to make that investment, unless operators can be sure that out of all these services, they can get some money. . . . Since all the devices will be on IP . . . there cant be a way to differentiate what these services are. That’s basically the reason why these “walled gardens” are being raised – just to make sure that there is some basis for charging your usage, in a fair manner.

. . .

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE