Infocult: Uncanny Informatics

Bryan Alexander: the graph, and a mysterious connection

I think I've found the perfect chart describing myself.  After a couple of days when I hurled large rocks, schlepped multiple beams, and conversed with many people, I came across this graphic:

I've never seen glaciers as brethren before.  Or are they... competition!

(thanks, Thomas Beckett)

Moyra Bernadette Davies, 1937-2007

My mother-in-law, Moyra, died today.  Just a few days before her 70th birthday. 
We - my wife, myself, and our children - are heading to Michigan.
Blogging will be slower this week.

Mysterious boom in Vermont

An explosion shook our house yesterday afternoon.  The sound erupted into the afternoon, and the house shook.  I checked for damage - found none - then ran down our lane to check on neighbors.  Puppy and I found everyone ok, but wondering about the noise.  I called 911.  Police had received many calls from across the county, but had no clue as to the cause of the boom.

Turns out to have been... a sonic boom, caused by a US military jet breaking the sound barrier 40,000 feet up.

A moment of rural mystery, sounds racing across the mountains, plummeting from near the edge of space.

On the road to points near and far

Infocult may enter a light posting phase for the next week, since I'm traveling to Morocco for a conference.  Internet access and, more importantly, battery power might be uneven.  Will post here, and in Flickr, and Twitter, etc., as possibilities occur.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying Typepad's "post on" feature, which lets me enter a week of Draculablog now, each dollop scheduled to manifest automatically.

Vermont Herald on social software for teaching

A local Vermont paper did an article on social software and teaching.  It's the Vermont Herald, and the article covers a lot of ground.  Barbara Ganley is quoted, as am I.

World Without Oil launches

A political alternate reality game (ARG), World Without Oil, has just launched.  The trailhead, or entrance point to the game, is this World Without Oil site.  That's been up for a while, but now has revamped content and design.  There is also a WWO YouTube channel.

ARG player creativity is already engaged, with a players' wiki and an Unfiction forum.  The latter has quickly accumulated a list of in-game sites.  Jenkins' transmedia storytelling is clearly in play.

The design team blogs in LiveJournal.  I don't know how much game content is there.  Same for this MySpace page.

Is this the most political ARG ever run?  The implications are fascinating, especially as we see web 2.0 storytelling grow, and political campaigns take to social media.

On a personal note, various factors are consuming my time this season: office move, workshop/travel in overdrive, and family illness.  I'll try to focus on this game as best I can.

How to offend and lose customers, lessons from Capital One

How can you alienate customers? Capital One can teach you an effective method.  They offered a lesson to our household this week, in fine, sequential detail.

Last week we paid into a Capital One loan using check-by-phone.  Easy to do.  And the rep emailed me confirmation.  Nice and smooth.  Then, a few days later, a Capital One rep calls.  "We haven't received payment on that loan."

Me: "I just paid this to you guys.  Let me find the confirmation email."

Capital One: "Well, your bank didn't send the funds."

"Holy cow!  Is my bank in trouble?  I know I have enough funds to cover it."  Did we make a mistake?  Did we get hacked by identity fraud?  Brief panic at our house.

Pause on their end.  "Um, yes, you, er, did in fact pay us.  The payment was, ah, misapplied to the wrong account."

Passive voice is usually the sign of culpability.  Don't people know this yet?  I replied: "OK, was that a mistake on my end?"

Embarrassed pause.  "No, that was, ah, internal."

"So we're fine, right?"

Etc.  I eventually got him to apologize for wasting my time and causing a brief panic, then went about my business.

This morning, they called again.  "We haven't received payment on that loan."  I sighed, summarized the previous conversation. 

Capital One rep, right away: "Ah, I see that in my notes.  Um, no problem.  Sorry to bother you."

"Is something wrong with your system?" I worried.

Quite cheerfully he replied:"No, we're fine."

"You're certainly not fine."  I harangued the poor chap, mentioned "harrassment," then hung up.

Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for Capital One's Customer Service: Contact Us page to load.  It's been stalling for ten minutes.

One of the keen details of this little affair was how easy it was for the second and third reps to find out their mistake.  It didn't take putting me on hold, connecting to another office, hunting around.  The correct information was right there.  At best, this reflects some disorganization or poor rep training and support.

Capital One: now at the bottom of our list when we seek our next loan.  Are you listening?

Stomping through Georgia

I'm in Savannah, Georgia for the next few days, to attend and address the delightfully-acronymed SIGUCCS conference.  In a few hours I'll be ranting about Web 2.0, trying to mix up description and provocation.

Travel notes:

• My two flights were nearly on time.  As in, not cancelled, not spending hours on tarmac, neither gushing fuel not deplaning.  No airport lost my luggage.  No agent misdirected me, refused to inform me, abused me, or caused me to miss a flight.  I wasn't sent to a motel to wait for tomorrow's flight.  I didn't have to fight my way through a crazed phone tree and surrealist voice recognition system on another lame airplane phone line. 

It says something about airlines in the US when having this sort of experience, of basic competence, is noteworthy.  Breathtakingly weird, in fact.

• At this hotel I witness another confirmation of Bryan's Iron Law of Hotel Internet Connectivity.  It's a fine place, so naturally... internet is only available for a fee, and isn't very fast.

Birthday thanks

Many thanks for the kind birthday wishes, Steve, Steve, Gardner, Steve, Clancy, Laura, Jamie, Carol, Chris, Barbara the kid, Nick, Hugh, Andrew, Elke, Greg, Clopin, Stephanie, soobrosa, Mike, Anne, Tom, Jennifer, and Brenda.  (Still reading this, Hugh) 
 

Thanks to Tanya, Ben and Jo, Sean and Jo, Steve, Brent, and still more friends from out of town, who braved Vermont in February to attend our firehouse bash.  Thanks to my many friends from town, too.

Thank you, above all, to my splendid wife for arranging, cat-herding, and hosting the party!
 

Birthday 2007

Today I turn 40.