EN Race Weekend Communications Testers/Ideas Needed
Hi All:
Helping RandP out and looking for a few testers to help with comms testing for EN race weekends next year for people who are at the venue. Need folks to be testers for group texting service like GroupMe and any other services we may be able to use to keep people at the venue updated on race weekend (meet-up locations, where EN is camped out during the race, etc). We used GroupMe at IMAZ two weeks ago and it appeared to work well.
Testers will work with me over the winter to identify, test and review the best service(s) so we can implement the best fit at EN events next year.
Also, if you don't t want to be a tester but have ideas on how to best communicate to athletes, families and friends electronically at the event during race weekend, please throw them out here. Love to hear any and all ideas.
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks.
John
P.S. You don't need to be a tech-geek to be a tester. In fact, it would be useful for non-techies to help help out so we know it would be user-friendly.
Comments
I'd be happy to help John
Carrie
@JT - Yes, ask your buddies.
@Dave and Carrie - Thanks.
Here are a couple of examples of what we want the tech to do:
Coach Rich says he is gonna be camped at 1st and Main for the bike and the run on race day and he does. After a couple of hours the police come and close off 1st and Main and Rich has to move to 7th and Main. How does he let everyone know where he is moving to?
Or,
There is a post-race pow-wow scheduled at Rula Bula starting at 9:00 PM and Rich is buying beers. Rich shows up and Rula Bula is packed with no tables available. He then walks to Monti's and there is plenty of room and it has dark beers for Tucker to enjoy. :-) How does Rich communicate the location change?
We want it to be instant and easy for everyone. Having people signed up for a group text dealio (like an email distro list) seems to be the easiest? But I am not sure.
John
Just good beers John! I actually am not a huge fan of dark beers. Unless of course you compare the beers I drink to Dave's, then yes I guess I do like "dark" beers!
Let me think about this. I am trying ot picture my wife at IMCDA next year and how this will work for her. My guess is that she will need to do as little as possible but still receive the texts/emails. Almost like some magic genie would need to sign her up. I will get back to you.
I would love to offer my non-tech expertise!
Thanks, Carly.
FYI - I am just waiting to chat with Rich about a few things and once that happens and we can move forward.
Will keep ya posted.
Thanks all.
John
I'll be happy to help too. I know that Yahoo has a group email service that another club I belong to uses. Basically if one person sends an email to a specific address, everyone that has subscribed will receive it.
What does Rich want the service to do that can't be accomplished with tweets?
Thanks, Chris!
The issue is that a lot people don't use Twittter, a lot don't use Facebook and a lot don't get email on their phones. For those of us who do use this stuff it seems like a no-brainer.
But what people seem to use more than Twitter and Facebook is text. Even if they don't have a smartphone. So this seems like a good path to start down, unless someone has other ideas?
Again, just waiting to have a chat with Coach Rich about this and other things. Once that is done we can start tinkering with stuff.
Thanks,
John
I don't use Twitter either and it seems easy enough, but it does require mobile internet access which not everyone has. Texting might be best. It is also instantaneous and doesn't require you to log in or "check" another type of service.
It sounds like we're looking for a mass texting service. A quick web search returns WeTxt as a free service but you have to wonder what they want in return.
The cost is $0.05 per number that you send it to.
The good parts are what you ahve mentioned - texts are ubiquitous and can be received more passively than twitter. Also, these services can be set up so a person can sign him/herself up without intervention of the administrator.
However, my experience has been that there is a surprisingly high number of "drops", i.e., people that do not get the texts. I am told by the companies that this has to do with how they are sent, but i do not know the technical details. I contacted several places at the time I signed up for the service that I use and I got the same story from all of them.
There was, at the time, a higher price-point at which you could also find services that "guaranteed" delivery and another route to "guaranteed" delivery was to know the carrier for each phone number. The reason for the latter is that they can be sent directly through the carrier's system via direct email, e.g., anyone can send a text to me by sending me an email at xxxxxxxxxx@txt.att.net (where the xxx.. is my phone number). All the carriers ahve this. It would thus be possible to do it "manually" via a spreadsheet, or I imagine that there are now services available that might do it more easily if you have the carrier information.
x2 with what William said...
As far as I know, after 15yrs in the wireless industry, each and every carrier accepts emails and converts them into text messages. All you have to do is track down that email address.
Now, I also know, that most companies bill differently for a text vs MMS vs email vs web. So you have to be very careful about how it's done, and how you share "you won't be billed". I've learned that "SHOULD not be billed" is better used - because, at the end of the day, we cannot say for sure how each and every company will bill each and every subscriber (which is why I won't even allow my CC to be billed automatically by my own company, if that tells you anything at all about my confidence level).
Also, if you do it this way, it's really "announcement only" in all likelihood.
If you use an automated service, you wouldn't want just anyone to be able to spend the money out of the account (and clutter up people's texts). If you do it by a "by hand" method using an excel-type sheet, then you again probably wouldn't want to widely distribute the list. It's just different philosophically than twitter, which is by definition more multidirectional.
The software to do this sort of listserv is readily, and freely available.
It would also be ideal if all the traffic were published statically somewhere. So if my phone dies I can go to a web page (like in a hotel lobby) and scroll through the messages. Some of us at home might also want to "listen in" on the chatter.
Going a step further, I bet someone could get their geek-fu going and route a Twitter feed to the listserv address as well. So on the subscribe page, there could also be a section for inputs to the listserv - either #workworks, OS a specialized #enimlp2011. This way, people can tweet, but the info will automatically ping out to all the subscribers, even if they are not twitter users.
Mike
Love it, love it, love it. Good, good stuff. Keep it coming.
I know we aren't at the place to drill down yet, but something to think about as we discuss:
- Do we want to make this an internal social channel (people just send messages as they like)? Or limit it to just race day comms (Where's Waldo - aka RandP)? Can we have two options, one for each based on user preference?
It was very cool to get texts at 8:00 PM the night before IMAZ from racers wishing everyone good luck, etc. and the back and forth. And at 2:00 AM there was a text from another member saying they just had their 2:00AM chum and another with pic of them on their PC cuz they couldn't sleep. But not sure if Joe Smith's wife who knows no one and just wants to know where EN is during the day will appreciate all that? So a race day only comms may be a better choice for her?
- Also, I like Mike's idea of an option for email (me) or text. And I would assume a max. of 75 people on the "listserv" for each race so the spreadsheet route wouldn't be too hard to manage. Just like the spreadsheet for signing up for the pre-Race dinner, we would have a spreadsheet for race weekend comms as well. People would opt in.
- As far as a "listening" web page or Twitter feed, I am not sure how complicated that would be to put together? Sounds like a good idea, but would it add an extra layer of complexity to what we are trying to accomplish? I am not the sharpest tool in the shed for the deep dive tech stuff, so I yield the answer to others.
- And yes, a disclaimer that your carrier may hose you with charges "may apply."
Thanks again and keep it coming.
John
I think that we can separate this into two separate areas of functionality which may have two different solutions.
1) mass messaging from RnP keeping anyone that cares up to date info on meet ups, announcements, etc. There are lots of choices out there for sending mass text messages.
2) race tracking and updates. In this scenario we have "spotters" (family, friends, etc) covering the race course. Using Twitter hashtags everyone can post and receive updates, photos, etc.
That said, Twitter and special hashtags does (e.g., #ENWI, #ENAZ, #ENID, or even just #teamen, etc) seem to be a reasonable solution for mobile and/or spotter updates. You have to assume that someone interested in this is willing either to carry a smartphone or sit down at a terminal to receive this. That could be arranged to go to texts as well, but I think the audience is more limited [i.e., the people who want the texts and cannot receive twitter] and there are the other practical problems/issues involving the multiple broadcasters with the text solution.
Yep, agree. I think we have a framework to work through. Now we need to find a solution/service (preferably free) that will accommodate this. Any thoughts?
FYI - I did have an "aha!" moment last night and played around a bit. I figured we could set-up a GoogleVoice account and a GoogleGroups account. Have the GV texts forwarded to GG and the distro list on GV would consist of would consist of the end-users preference of receiving an email or a text using the xxx-xxx-xxxx@sms.att.net, or whatever. But alas, GV doesn't let you forward texts to GG.
So, I used my Windows Live email account as a middleman. GV >> Windows Live >> GG, It worked! I tested it with my my mobile and my wife's and made the changes in GG from sending texts to email and visa versa and it worked. The down side is that when a text comes in the number that showed was 1(410)000-0001 for the first text, 1(410)000-0002 for the second and so on. So to respond back to the text the end-user would need to remember to send from the original text number. In this case 925-386-XXXX.
This is totally cloodgey, I know. But I am tinkering.
Anyone else have an idea/service?
TYPO - Its says: Have the GV texts forwarded to GG and the distro list on GV . . .
Should say: Have the GV texts forwarded to GG and the distro list on GG . . . .
Hi All:
I saw this service the other day and CoachP also sent me the info.
http://www.belugapods.com/
It has apps for iPhone and Android and look like it will simply do SMS as well. Created by some ex-Google geeks. Totally private for folsk included on the "pod" and has location.map services and the ability to send pics.
If you wanna join me with a test, please PM me you mobile number and I will send you an invite. The more the merrier.
Thanks.
John