Overly Broad Generalizations From the News: Useful Transparency and More
July 8, 2009 :: Joe LoongHere’s a quick roundup of some social media-ish things in the news:
* Airline transparency pays off: This BBC News article (link via… everywhere, it’s been making the rounds) tells the story of vacationers returning from the island of Menorca (off the Spanish coast, in the Mediterranean), who faced an eight-hour delay because a mechanical problem popped up, requiring an engineer to be flown in from England.
After the flight crew made the groan-worthy announcement, a qualified (and eligible) engineer stepped up, fixed the problem in about a half hour, the flight took off, and Bob’s your uncle (as the Brits might say).
This is, admittedly, an improbable event, though I will use it as an example (okay, a wildly extreme corner case) of corporate transparency paying dividends to all involved. As airline passengers, we feel powerless enough as it is (beaten down through security, our fate in the hands of the people in the cockpit), so getting any bit of true (even truthy) information is usually enough to help quell incipient passenger insurrections — or at least make us feel a little better, like we’re all on the same side.
Of course, navigating this can be tricky business — we don’t want to be condescended to; we need to be told enough detail to be useful, but not enough to lead a layperson to a wrong conclusion. This may sound a little paternalistic, but there’s still a role for expertise and experience as it intersects with honesty and empathy on the way to not just transparency, but useful transparency.
* Yet Another Article about food trucks using Twitter. Only instead of taco trucks in LA, this one is about every other kind of food truck — only it’s in New York, so it’s a completely different story.
Folks, I know it’s Twitter, and it caters to technically-savvy hip urbanites and all, but let’s not get overexcited. Granted, using Twitter and mobile devices means it’s more convenient, flexible, targeted, etc, but ultimately (as the article notes), it’s just an updated version of when the coffee cart lady (she happened to be a lady) used to ring her bell as she made the rounds in the office building where I used to work, or when the ice cream truck goes around playing Turkey in the Straw (or In da Club, or whatever ice cream trucks play these days.)
Sure, it scales a lot better (that is, it’s a whole lot less annoying, you can include more territory, plus it’s completely user opt-in), and you can hear it from your enclosed, air-conditioned cubicle, but let’s not lose perspective here.
* How Free is Free? Lastly for right now, we’re in the middle of a bit of sturm und drang as to the limits of free as a business model. I, along with many others no doubt, are still percolating on this. There are many aspects, as well as many aphorisms to regurgitate, so consider this a teaser for an item later this week. (Sneak peek: The acronym “TANSTAAFL” will most likely make an appearance.)
Have you had a run-in with a Twitter food truck? Do you have “Turkey in the Straw” stuck in your head now? Is the airline transparency story a useful example or a one-off fairy tale (or both)? Please leave a comment.
Comments are moderated and will appear shortly. See terms.
