Monthly Archives: April 2006

Drive-Through Remote Call Centers

Posted on by Kathy E. Gill

The NY Times (via cNet) has an update on the novel concept being tested by some McDonalds restaurants: using a remote call center to take drive-through orders. The VoIP-based business surfaced in mid-2004 (BrandAutopsy), with followups in early (CommWeb, MSNBC) and mid-2005.

An early headquarters contract with Oak Brook, IL SEI Information Technology (relationship to Verety?) promised “professional order taker[s] with strong communications skills whose job is to do nothing but take down orders.” A Colorado franchise-holder, Steve Bigari, expanded his call center so that it could serve more than his own McDonalds stores. Bronco Communications is featured in the current NYT article — suggesting there are at least three firms providing this service to hamburger chains.

Hardee’s — a regional fast-food chain — began testing remote call centers for order-taking in early 2005, according to the Dallas Morning-News (via the Tennessean). The jury remains out at Wendy’s, according to the NYT.

Is this the modern day equivalent of piece-work?

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BBC On Podcast Adoption

Posted on by Kathy E. Gill

Courtesy of one of my COM300 students -> The BBC reports aForrester assertion that the podcast audience is primarily "tech savvy, young males" … "despite the hype surrounding [podcasts]."

Harrumph. We are in still in the early adoption stage of this technology! I’m certain that I could examine popular press reports less than two years after Tim Berners-Lee created HTTP (and, thu, the web) and find equally dismissive headlines/research/forecasts.

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Color Me A Minority Vote. Again.

Posted on by Kathy E. Gill

I don’t like it … "it" being the "new" New York Times. I am NOT a Windows person. I’m not accustomed to nor do I want anything taking up 100% of my screen unless I say so. The NYT has taken that option away, at least on this Windows machine, where my (not very old monitor) says it needs the whole damn thing. :-/

It certainly may be appealing to the high-tech-geek crowd with 21" monitors and the equivalent of 6 point type. My eyes are older than that, thank you very much.

And then … the clutter. The columns! They’ve taken "let’s put everything on the front page" to an entirely new level. Of clutter. Ugh.

I was looking around for the "most blogged" box that’s all the rage. Hmm. It’s halfway down the page – way below the fold. (Pause. I didn’t see the tabs at the top – until I shrunk the window to a manageable (to my eye) width. And they’re above a horizontal "blocker". Ugh. Again.)

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They Have Been Assimilated

Posted on by Kathy E. Gill

It’s a logical step from pay-per-view …. Monsters&Critics reports that five studios are now allowing movie downloads — some on the same schedule as "home video" (DVD/VHS) release. Check out Movielink and CinemaNow. Cost is comparable to full-price DVD (but at what quality?). More on DRM, etc. later. (Tip: one of my COM300 students today!)

Update, 5 April.Well, they haven’t quite been assimilated. Contrary to the rosy picture painted by the techPubs,there are some serious drawbacks. The biggie? You can only play the thing on your computer — yeah, you can burn a DVD, but current reports are that the format can’t be read by your TV’s DVD player.