Ditchmail(May
30, 2007) Innovation ranges across a pretty broad spectrum from universal
cultural alteration (like the Internet, planes or indoor plumbing) to broad
process improvement (the browser, jet engines or flush toilets) to nuanced
incrementals (free email, in flight movies or non-abrasive toilet paper). On the
practical users' end of things, it's the small nuanced incrementals that matter.
If, for example, RSS were to really take off as a user tool, it would need some
user friendliness (softer and fluffier).
What makes innovations percolate (some call this
viral marketing bit the terminology is not very helpful), is ease of access,
ease of use, bang for the buck and resource requirements. The last item,
resource requirements, is my attempt to get at the overall cost of using
something. Pricing is an important part of the innovation stream.
TCO calculations have become widespread but are
totally biased towards the product and never reflect the real costs of using a
new tool. Money out of pocket is the tiniest part of the introduction of a
product that requires change management to make it work. The implications of
change are hard to quantify but are the very real costs associated with doing
something new.
Rolled and perforated toilet paper as we're
familiar with today was invented around 1880. Various sources attribute it
to the Albany
Perforated Wrapping (A.P.W.) Paper Company in 1877, and to the Scott
Paper company in 1879 or 1890. On a side note, the Scott Company was too
embarrassed to put their name on their product, as the concept of toilet
paper was a sensitive subject at the time, so they customized it for their
customers... hence the
Waldorf Hotel became a big name in toilet paper. (VTPM)
In the emerging universe of
always-on-personal-media, this sort of sensitivity and the costs associated with
managing it are a part of the game. Remember
Kristi Young
from yesterday's
article? Her blog is a
fantastic example of the related issues of identity management, personal
disclosure, and changing public/private boundaries. It's really not dissimilar
from the question of how to market TP. One more social barrier falls prey to
changing times. (Oh, and here's
her Jobster profile for those who noticed the missing link)
Sometimes, the introduction to a piece takes on a
life of its own. The last salvo was a workup to a short bit of information about
a new offering called Ditchmail. It's service provided by "YouMail",
a clever voicemail management tool. You mail provides the capability to manage
voice mail messaging on a per number basis. You can leave clear working messages
for your project team while telling the rest of the world that you are on
vacation. You can tell your Mom that you love her and ensure that she's the only
one who gets that voice mail. You can program separate messages for an infinite
number of boyfriends, disgruntled applicants and so on.
And then, there's Ditchmail. This part of the
offering gives you the ability to leave a customized message for a specific
phone number while refusing to take a message. It's really handy in complex
breakups, personal misunderstandings and relationships that you want to close
out.
The thing we liked about the
video resume on Kristi's site was the way it realistically dealt with
identity management issues. The world is vastly more complex because of the
freedoms and capabilities we've been given. Youmail and Ditchmail offer a
glimpse of the real customization we're about to see.
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