| Ben Betts is...

#1 by vinny at March 31st, 2010

Anyone who has not been paid and who has not had redundancy payments can get it from the government.
also note that redundancy is from when you started with the company regarding of who owned it so if you started even before the days of nestle you claim from then.
Suggest you contact the insolvency website where the details should be available
#2 by vinny at March 31st, 2010

Strongly suggest that water cooler companies that are local are better than national
#3 by redundant powwow employee at March 31st, 2010

are there any companies who require customer services agents or even someone required to work from home with maybe a link that can be set up to book orders or make calls from home? i was there for over two years have a nvq in customers services and customer recommendations. I live in Oxford so anything near as possible as i do not drive. please leave your contact details. I am avaialble full time.

MANY THANKS
#4 by Recruiter at April 1st, 2010

i’m currently recruitng for a couple of scottish based roles for a couple of query resolution roles and credit controllers. if you are an ex-powwow employee and worked in one of the roles above, please contact me on 0141 223 8650. these roles are for a start week beginning the 5th of April. Own transport essential.
#5 by Stephen Outhwaite at April 3rd, 2010

Powwow drivers required in the East Midlands area . We run an independant water cooler business and have been trading locally for 11 years,always striving on customer service.
Call Steve Outhwaite on 07900 915345
#6 by Stuart Atkins at April 6th, 2010

We would potentially have a vacancy for ex Powwow staff who serviced the South West. We are a growing water cooler supplier who focus on quality of service.
Please give me a call, Stuart 01202 828317
#7 by *Noah at June 2nd, 2010

Thanks for the mention in this post Ben. I hope to spend some time with the new update later this week and put my initial thoughts on screenr. I am very eager to see the social improvements. I was wondering how to connect and form relationships through the environment.
#8 by Jeffrey Keefer at June 26th, 2010

This is really insightful; great food for thought here as I am about to transition to a Mac myself. While I think of myself as being somewhat tech savvy, I hate having somebody tell me how to use equipment. In a way, it reminds me of why I am moving from Windows in the first place!

Jeffrey
#9 by Ryan Tracey at June 27th, 2010

I agree with you, Ben. I have seen Apple slide slowly, slowly in the wrong direction. Not only is the statement “just avoid holding it in that way” rediculous, it’s the latest in a series of (in my view) gaffes. Remember the heavy handed response to that lost iPhone 4 – and it was Apple’s fault!

Having said that, I’m not sure if going mainstream is the root of the problem. I think Apple focuses too much on product per se and not enough on customer service. They have gotten away with it for so long because they have been relatively small (compared to MS) and their fans have been astonishingly defensive.

Since the launch of the iPod, however, Apple’s sales have gone through the roof. They simply can’t get away with bad service any more because there are way too many customers to pipe up about it.

I have noted recently, too, that the most vocal complainants against Apple have been Apple loyalists that have been using their products for years. Suddenly Mac laptops die after a month, some iPhones are lemons etc. That’s to be expected given the volume of production, but the customer support is sorely lacking.

Apple’s biggest problem? They’re not the underdog any more.
#10 by Rob Kennedy at June 27th, 2010

Great post. I am a Mac User and love it. I have an iPod but I own an Android phone. Admittedly, the Android ownership is more related to AT&T’s service than it is to my desire or lack of desire for an iPhone. But, I also must admit that I think Jobs & co are turning into the very thing that caused users to begin turning away from PC’s in the first place. They wanted choice. THey wanted something that worked. They wanted less hassle. They wanted no viruses, etc. But now, Apple is turning into “the man”. Tight locks on a lot of things and limited choice. While that works well for some things, from a customer service standpoint, once the cloud 9 experience wears off, you will start to wonder why some of the problems still exist. I agree with Ryan about the “heavy handed” response to losing the iPhone in the Bar. Sending the SWAT team to raid Gizmodo dudes house? SERIOUSLY?? Wow!
#11 by Amit at June 28th, 2010

Great post! I was considering the iPhone 4 as my next but not anymore. Android seems to the future and as you rightly mentioned Apple is probably not ‘culturally’ ready to fight them.
#12 by Ben at June 28th, 2010

Ryan Tracey :

Apple’s biggest problem? They’re not the underdog any more.

Really like that phrase Ryan, nice insight
#13 by cynan at July 15th, 2010

Music in the streaming/SaaS model annoys the hell out of me.

Storage space is staggeringly more cheap and limitless than bandwidth is, especially when you move away from OECD landline pipes to mobile networks and countries with poor infrastructure. Even think about how quickly your local cafe’s free wifi would spazz out for other uses if 50 customers were streaming from spotify to their iphones and netbooks?

I don’t think the move to streaming “non ownership” is due to consumer desire not to own the music, nor any particular inherent efficiency, but ultimately its being driven by copyright holders who don’t want consumers to own on their PCs any digital copies of the music they’re paying for.
#14 by cynan at July 15th, 2010

Otherwise a great post all round though!

Except do you really think publishers are trying to make money out of their *back* catalogues? I thought textbook publishers (and the academics who write them and prescribe them for their own courses) were actually in the business of creating artificial obsolescence in their back catalogues, in order to suppress the used textbook market and increase sales of their *new* items?

I guess textbook publishers might have to make some radical decisions though in the way that newspaper owners are – it may be grossly unprofitable to give up that £1200/student/year in revenue in favour of (say) £300/st/yr revenue in e-textbook “rental”, if you’ve still got to maintain the hard copy infrastructure regardless on a much lower revenue base. It may be an all or nothing proposition?
#15 by Ben at July 15th, 2010

Cheers Cynan!

Back-catalogue was actually a poor choice of words. I was more referring to the long tail. A lot of Publishers lists are somewhat carried by a few big titles, but they have hundreds of smaller titles that shift only a few units.

Agree RE: streaming, non-ownership comment. I think it was the iTunes move that opened the door here – when we moved away from physically owning a ‘thing’, then copyright holders saw the open door to take away that possession.

Its a big attractor to the book publishers – as you mentioned, destroying 2nd hand value has been a big issue with them for years. If the consumers can be weaned to live with the move, then its attractive to push the issue.

In this case I suspect it is an all or nothing proposition, which is why the “e” or not textbook question is somewhat irrelevant in my opinion. It won’t be the choice between a textbook and an e-version of it, it will simply be a different product all together.
#16 by David Harrison at August 4th, 2010

Hi Ben,

interesting article, especially as I comission in the Healthcare sector now (Nursing & Health).

Noticed you’d blogged a little about ACE. I’m looking to get a sample developed for my list. Now if only somebody could make the development of content easy and cheap!
#17 by Ben at August 4th, 2010

Hey David,

One of the games demo’d for us in this was Triage Trainer (see: http://www.trusim.com/?page=Demonstrations).

Looks great, cost a fortune to develop. I’ve always found the trouble with content is the hard work it takes to make it!

Let us know if you get something worked up via ACE, would be good to see it!

B
#18 by Valentina Dodge at August 16th, 2010

Thanks for your interesting article. Only now catching up on this and your Curatr project – super idea and potential. Not sure that the pricing model is accessible to all though?

Without wanting to sound like I’m commenting for self-promotion reasons I do think it’s a shame that the publishers involved in granular delivery of content are often not mentioned so allow me to add another great solution to your list: English360 http://www.english360.com , it’s a Cambridge University Press joint venture that is based exactly on the “grain” concept you outline so well. It also ties in the social and personalised paths to allow bespoke learning. All content is delivered in granular format which can be fully re-sequenced and combined with user-generated content or public domain resources. The project started with English language learning/teaching in mind but the platform can be used for any type of content/focus.

Shape, size and modes of delivery, I agree, really do have to be totally flexible and in the hands of the users… this is how things are moving and it’s exciting to see the new advances.
#19 by Ben at August 17th, 2010

Thanks for your thoughts Valentina, and I look the look of English360.

We’ll have some exciting news on the Curatr pricing model for education shortly, so watch this space!
#20 by Valentina Dodge at August 18th, 2010

Thanks Ben! Looking forward to hearing more about the new pricing model and finding out more about Curatr.
#21 by Boubacar at August 26th, 2010

Hi there!
I have just discovered your product and I would like to know if you would be interested in being involve in a school where social constructivism is the base of our education philosopgy.
As the school is at a very early stage, you could actually have an impact that would truly show how Curatr should be used to be at its best.
If you are interested, please contact me so that we can discuss it further.
Regards, boubacar.