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December 28, 2003
Captain's Log: Quality of Service Expectations from things that are FREE
Human nature is an interesting thing.
I remember living thru an experience years ago when my mother decided one summer to start selling her chocolate chip cookies to the parents of kids at sleep away camp, after hearing years of praise from my friends and the visitors to our home.
For a modest sum, and for an amount which turned out to be below cost, my mom would take orders to send freshly baked cookies to the sons and daughters of her friends.
But once people had to pay for these cookies, the same: "great", "delicious", "wonderful", cookies all of a sudden started tasting: "burnt", "too hard", "crumbly", and just about any other word you can think of that describes something that is overly criticized.
After one summer of experience, many years ago, my mother has never tried "going commerical" again.
With FWD the stakes are different and unlike my mother I have no intention of trying to charge money for the service, yet there are already people complaining about our infrastructure, QoS issues on related free resourcess and more. ;-)
If Scotty the Engineer (from Star Trek) was working with the FWD Team, he would have advised against us moving forward at warp speed of to enable the free end-of-year experiement due to anticipated server loading and other issues.
And while I agree we can never have enough "dilithium crystals" to drive FWD faster, I went forward with holiday promotion anyway since I felt "the needs of the many outweight the needs of the few or the one" (Star Trek III) and in the end the intended effect of our sharing would benefit many people.
So while there will always be people who complain about a free gift or service, I've realized that all of this is to be expected anyway and in many cases, it is I who is not understood.
Overall, this experience has continued to weave an interesting dynamic into the social experiments which continue to drive Free World Dialup.
Posted by jeff on December 28, 2003 11:23 AM | Permalink
Additional resources: #140conf events | Watch the Jeff Pulver Show | Jeff's Qik Videos
Comments
Well FREE IS FREE
Not that hard to understand, Shacher...
What you never stopped and Changed a tire for someone because you could???
I offer FREE Help Desk support for three or four Non-profit groups in my area, One which I have done tons of work and provided hundreds of dollars in routers and computers.
Not once have I told any of those Groups That I charge 65.00 for hour for those services to the public.
I have a business side but I also have a personal side I hope the two never meet..cause then i think I would be more like you, who I can assume never does "something for nothing".
Those who give, get it those who only take, Just do not it.
The promoting of VOIP is what is going on here.
The awaking of the masses is what the intended response is.
So if more folks sign up at VONAGE then his little free gift to us all paid him back.
Posted by: bubba at December 29, 2003 08:50 AM
Hi Jeff,
Your comment seems strange to me. Isn't FWD a commercial company expecting to make money? If so, how?
Now, I can understand a company that will charge me to call, from my computer, any number in a few countries for a charge considerably lower than the standard telephony rates. I'd even consider paying.
To me, it sounded like you were trying to promote this line of business by giving a freebe - perfectly acceptable marketing approach, and one that can be quite successful too.
I missed the holidays special, so I also didn't complain about it. I will say this - had I tried the offer, and found it inadequate, I wouldn't have complained. I would have said "I won't be giving this service my money now", and moved on.
As such, if you are indeed trying to sell a service (nothing wrong with that) by offering it for free for a limited time (nothing wrong with that either), those people complaining are a goldmine. They are offering you an invaluable feedback I wouldn't have given you. You would likely never get my money if not for them. In other words - I think you concluded the wrong conclusion from your mom's tale.
So far, it all makes sense. Now, however, you are trying to say that there is no intention to go commercial with this service. That seems strange to me. Running servers costs money. Hooking up to local phone networks costs money. Unless you are very rich (that is, "Bill Gates" kinda rich), I don't see how you can expect to keep up with that cost over time. A service that does not operate is less useful than a service that costs money.
In other words - I don't understand what you are trying to say or do here.
Shachar
Posted by: Shachar at December 29, 2003 03:49 AM
yeah, Jeff you are right... but dont get disturb and upset to those people who criticize you and yet they are still continuing using your service as well as your technology..... We know and you know God abandon his people because of their stubborness yet till today they still asking and ask why they are suffering..... You are only Human being were patience is much lower than the One who created us.... Just keep on moving and set aside all those criticism that you are hearing and go on.... Many of us here are proud and still amaze on this kind of work... keep it up buddy you are doing great.....
its me Neo,
FWD# 96029
Posted by: Neo at December 29, 2003 12:20 AM
אין לי מושג מה לכשתוב
Posted by: tomer at December 29, 2003 12:02 AM
Good job Jeff! Don't be affected by those negative people. Like the saying goes, it takes all sorts of people to make up this world.
I hope to learn more about setting up VoIP gateway, and hopefully someday, I can donate some free lines for others to use during the holiday season.
Cheers!
Posted by: Daniel at December 28, 2003 08:03 PM
Good Job Jeff !
Posted by: NaBiL at December 28, 2003 06:11 PM
Keep up the good work Jeff! We really do appreciate what you are doing, it is very interesting how all these people can use FWD to make PSTN calls. Good to learn that you are a ham! Thank you!
Stuart W.
VE3SWF
Posted by: Cybo at December 28, 2003 05:52 PM
Jeff,
I am thankful for many things this season, one of witch is for your enthusiasm.
You are a Ham Radio operator, businessman at the forefront of technology.
You are not just sitting and working a job, but appear to love what you do.
You have motivated many people to emulate your actions and through this unity in sprit we have all come together to become "Free World Dialup".
As for those that complain, I can only repeat what has been said to me. "There are no problems, just opportunities to excel".
Thank you!
Tim,
Posted by: Tim Blalock at December 28, 2003 04:56 PM
Don't get discouraged Jeff! Yes, there are a lot of problems with FWD. But it works most of the time. And considering the price that's quite amazing.
Now, what would it take to make this permanent? I would like to donate to this social experiment, and I think it would send a great message to the established telco's that their business model needs massive reform.
I will be the first in line to donate $20-50 a month to make this free. I don't care if it costs me a little more than a regular phone bill, because everybody gains. If each person offers a small bit we'll have a roll your own phone system.
If you need volunteers to do the work, just let us know and you'll have dozens.
Thanks,
B. Bradford
Posted by: bigdavediode at December 28, 2003 04:35 PM
wqw
Posted by: itai at December 28, 2003 04:33 PM
allo
Posted by: vlad at December 28, 2003 04:12 PM
Jeff,
I am very glad to hear that those critics are not taking your mind away. Keep up the good work. I enjoyed the free calling to UK and US for this holiday season and I encouraged all my friends to use it to have a feel of VOIP. People who were hesitant before using this are now fascinated about your service. Good luck with all your endeavors.
--Nazeer
Posted by: Nazeer at December 28, 2003 03:26 PM