Disqus - Latest Comments for Michaelob

Re: The telephony service for the global mobile elite arrives in 2 weeks

Michaelob — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 08:53:34 -0000

Ewan,

Sounds very interesting.
By esoteric, I assume you mean mysterious as opposed to obscure.

Best regards,

Michael

Re: Bullying by SMS - take the survey please!

Michaelob — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 05:00:17 -0000

So the survey is completed and the results have been tabulated. Easy job really as I only asked a few questions as the survey was conducted by SMS. Having said that I received a fair few answers that were emailed to me. As good as you think you explain or outline the instructions, some people will see them differently.
When asked if bullying by SMS was a reality 94% or 387 respondents said yes proving that the wider mobile telecoms community accepts that fact. 91% or 391 believe that mobile operators should provide a service to assist in preventing bullying by SMS and on the issue of price and who would pay for the service, 75% or 307 respondents said they would. This leaves 1 in 4 mobile professionals that would not be willing to pay for the service which places the spotlight on the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) policies of the mobile operators and how they are advising subscribers to deal with bullying by SMS. The bottom line is that the survey results show that there is a groundswell of support for installing preventative measures and also that the overwhelming majority of subscribers are willing to pay for the service.

You can look at the results in detail at http://www.openmindnetworks.com/operators/Bully...

Re: “Is there any way to turn the SMS feature off?”

Michaelob — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:31:33 -0000

The feature you refer to is commonly called 'family controlled walled gardens' where you predefine a set list of numbers that are blocked from either calling or texting a mobile number. I assume if you want to prevent someone from texting, then you would also want to include voice calls.
Daft as it may seem, mobile subscribers have no way of preventing either calls or texts from friends or 'non friends'. When you turn a mobile on you will receive all the missed call alerts and the text messages on top.
There are solutions available from vendors such as www.OpenmindNetworks.com but the market is slow to adopt them for various reasons and the main one being – would you pay for this service? For the mobile operator this is dangerous territory as messages that are not delivered can not be charged for or if they do, then you will have a lot of disgruntled subscribers. Sort of shooting themselves in the foot.

Re: SOS: Samsung helping the victims of bullying and crime.

Michaelob — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 06:00:21 -0000

Interesting concept but please play the scenario through. The child presses the volume button four times thus alerting their parents to their predicament. The parents now know that their child is in some form of danger. Then what? The parents may know where there child is and rush to help them but most importantly they may not which will lead to a deluge of calls to the police from panic stricken parents.
Unless I am missing something this service is akin to placing a lighthouse in a bog - great tool, wrong location.
From Samsungs' point of view, you should not go to market with a serious piece of functionality that is not tested, tested, tested in the marketplace. That being said, Samsung should be congratulated on introducing this service and combined with other measures such as prevention of bullying by SMS (http://www.openmindnetworks.com/operators/Bully...), it will go some way to ensuring a more protective society for our children.