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Nokia Talks More (Much More) About US Service Problems

May 16, 2008 – 12:34 pm
Nokia Conversations Blog
Nokia’s Conversation Blog has launched an extended discussion on its myriad US service problems.

I’m happy to report that there has been some progress (small, but real) from Nokia in terms of addressing it US service problems, which I’ve written about extensively.

First, here’s their most concrete step forward so far: Today, Nokia announced that the long-awaited firmware update for the US N95-3 should be available by early June.

Note that this does not mean Nokia has improved its firmware update process — which (as Beth Kanter, Robert Day, and I noted) is PC-only and very cumbersome, confusing, and annoying. And, in my experience, Nokia’s firmware update process is also risky — it’s what bricked my N95 in April.

…But still, a lot of US N95-3 users have been waiting (and waiting) for this firmware update. News that it’s coming soon appears quite welcome in that community, judging by the initial comments to the announcement.

Also, I’m encouraged to see that Nokia’s Conversations Blog yesterday launched a series of posts on its myriad US service problems. So far, there’s been:

I think the fact that Nokia has made this discussion so public, and is respecting and addressing concerns raised by users, is a very positive step. Frankly, this is far more than most major companies are willing to do. Nokia is willing to publicly acknowledge its significant problems, and doesn’t seem to consider this inherently risky or bad for business. Many, many companies and organizations could take a lesson from Nokia on this front.

That said, Nokia’s blog does try (understandably) to put as positive a spin as possible on its US service problems. As far as I can tell, they’re not painting a specifically inaccurate rosy picture — but so far they haven’t directly tackled the hardest issues.

Therefore, it’s still up to current and would-be US users of Nokia N-Series phones to keep pushing for clear answers to our most pressing questions and concerns. This is going to take time, folks.

Here’s what I mean…

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Amy Gahran | Conversations, Mac, PR & marketing, accountability, blogs, business, collaboration, community, conversational media, critical thinking, forums, help needed, mobile, problems, processes, software, transparency | Comments (1)

links for 2008-05-16

May 16, 2008 – 9:36 am

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links for 2008-05-15

May 15, 2008 – 9:36 am

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links for 2008-05-14

May 14, 2008 – 9:33 am

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links for 2008-05-13

May 13, 2008 – 9:35 am

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Following Chinese Earthquake via Social Media

May 12, 2008 – 12:13 pm

I just posted this item to Poynter’s E-Media Tidbits by our correspondent in Shanghai, Fons Tuinstra (who blogs at China Herald) about the surprisingly important role Twitter is playing in the unfolding coverage of today’s major quake in southern China. Check out Fons’ post

Also read what UK Tidbits correspondent Paul Bradshaw has to say about this phenomenon on his Online Journalism Blog. He offers a ton of links to places where social media-based coverage and analysis of the quake is happening

Meanwhile, from Seesmic’s Newspod video alerts I heard that there’s a lot of on-the-spot video happening on YouTube. Here are a couple of videos I found…

News is going to be more and more like this, I think…

Amy Gahran | journalism, social media, video, world | Comments (0)

links for 2008-05-12

May 12, 2008 – 9:34 am

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I’m trying out Seesmic: Twitter meets YouTube

May 12, 2008 – 9:27 am

I’m trying out the new video-based social media service Seesmic, based on recommendations by Paul Bradshaw and other colleagues. It seems kind of rough so far, but I’m used to rough.

Here’s what I like and don’t like about it so far…

(UPDATE: Heh… OK, another thing I don’t like.. Apparently embedding a Seesmic video in a Wordpress blog like this one isn’t as easy as it should be. Obviously, it’s not playing. Bummer. For now, here’s a link to my video post.)

Also, I haven’t yet investigated how mobile-friendly Seesmic is. Would be nice if you could combine some of the live/mobile functionality of Qik here.

Follow me on Seesmic: I’m agahran there. Send me a video! Tell me what you think of Seesmic so far. I’ve also enabled the Seesmic widget for this blog ,so you can see my latest video posts in the sidebar. I’ve also activated video comments for this blog.

Amy Gahran | Amy's Adventures, Microblogging, experience, exploring, mobile, social media, video | Comments (2)

Dale Willman on radio in Indonesia

May 10, 2008 – 10:23 am
Dale Willman
Borobudur, a Buddhist temple on the island of Java.

For a change of pace, here’s an audio podcast. My good friend and environmental journalism colleague Dale Willman just got back from a three-week trip to Indonesia where he was training radio journalists there how to do an environmental radio show — and just how to do radio production, period.

Yesterday Dale and I had a fun conversation about his trip, the state of media in Indonesia, and why text messaging is so popular there.

Listen now! (Or right-click to download)

Dale Willman
In the studio: One of the Indonesian radio journalists Dale helped to train.

Amy Gahran | Audio Show, culture, education, environment, experience, interviews, media evolution, mobile, podcasts, world | Comments (0)

links for 2008-05-10

May 10, 2008 – 9:37 am

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