2008 February 05

MSNBC’s awesome Super Tuesday primary coverage

This, my friends, is the future of television.

Saw on Twitter a couple of hours ago that Ed Kohler (from Technology Evangelist) recommended MSNBC.com‘s coverage of Super Tuesday. “Click on the red dashboard button” he said and up popped the window with live, streaming video and constantly updating primary results you see at left.

Using this dashboard let me move out of the family room (where my son was finishing homework and was distracted by the TV) and head upstairs with my laptop. I surfed other web sites while keeping tabs on what was happening.

Constantly updating and refreshed “Race results” along with the live video feed was just awesome. Really fabulous execution and it worked flawlessly.

The player was Flash and this was the best streaming I’ve watched yet (assume H.264). I still want a form factor that is bigger than an iPhone, smaller than my laptop that I can carry about with me like a portfolio (no, the Macbook Air isn’t it since you still have a lid to open), but well packaged content like this is viewable fine on a laptop or desktop machine.

The smart aspect of MSNBC’s delivery — and why I say this is the future of television — was the total experience of “the dashboard” instead of just the streaming video. It provided me, the viewer, with a comprehensive perspective of near real time results along with the commentary, interviews and banter of live television coverage. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve missed some scrolling race result on live TV and been bugged that I have to wait for another cycle until they display the results again. This time, it was all at my fingertips. Great job MSNBC.

Now imagine watching PBS, National Geographic, History or Science channels where they always scroll text that says something like, “See more about _________ on our website” but I never do. This way it could automagically appear alongside the video at the right time and augment my viewing of the video providing me with a much richer experience.

Six Apart: Lessons in how NOT to blog and serve customers

When I advise my clients — especially my senior executive ones — about how to blog and do so strategically, there are a few basic requirements: be authentic; handle the tough issues in a transparent fashion; open comments and leave up even the bad ones; and enjoy this self-publishing medium that can communicate like no other. Also, make certain that if you publish your email address you deploy an auto-responder so that you have time to get back to people instead of just leaving them hanging.

I therefore find it incredibly ironic that Six Apart, the parent company of the blog host engine I use for this blog (Typepad) and several other properties (LiveJournal, Vox and the Movable Type software) and the most successful company in blogging doesn’t adhere to the most basic tenets of blogging!

Three examples:

Co-founder, Mena Trott, has a blog without comments turned on so no one can engage in conversation under one of her posts and it’s been this way for as long as I can recall

New CEO, Chris Alden, sends out an email blast to all Typepad customers on 1,30/08 that ends with, “Weâ€™d love to hear what you think is most important for TypePadâ€™s future, which features and functionality youâ€™ve been wishing for, and what you need to be successful as your audience grows. Here are a few ways to give us your feedback and get involved: Email me personally at chris.alden@sixapart.com.“

So I email Chris with a forward of an email with suggestions and comments I’d sent a few days earlier to Six Apart VP and evangelist, Anil Dash. Neither Dash or Alden have bothered to respond (though this post has comments and is directly related to the email)

Moments ago I receive an email with a “Tell Us What You Think” (see above) and a request to participate in a survey. Instead, I reply to the sender, usability@sixapart.com, but the email is instantly returned….”user unknown”.

Now let’s compare-n-contrast that with another example…a competitor of Six Apart: Automattic (WordPress and other projects).

UPDATE: Received an email this evening from Chris Alden, appreciative of my comments, chastising me for my lay psychoanalysis of Ben and Mena (and he vigorously defended them and I consider myself deserving of the bitch-slap) and it gave me the opportunity to send him a reply that hopefully adds some value to they Typepad-cats he’s herding as the new sheriff in town.

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