The new SPOT
It’s always nice to see a good product get even better. I reviewed the original SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger back in 2008 and was thrilled. It would have been perfect for my trip to Death Valley the previous year, on family camping trips, and anywhere else there might not be mobile phone coverage. So I bought one and it has seen a lot of travel over the past two years. It’s reassuring to know that I can contact help from almost anywhere, and with the addition of their very reasonably priced US $30 per year roadside assistance package, my “help” button will no longer require my friends and family to look at a map and figure out what I might need.
For those not familiar with the original SPOT, it has four buttons. Power, OK, 911, and HELP. OK sends a predefined check-in message, along with the user’s current location, to a programmed list of email addresses or mobile phone numbers. HELP either sends a different predefined message or contacts roadside assistance if you’ve purchased that option. 911 sends your current location and a distress message to their International Emergency Rescue Coordination Center, as it did in this case.
According to the manufacturer, “The new SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger is 30% smaller and lighter than the original SPOT Satellite Personal Tracker, offers additional custom messaging modes, and uses a state-of-the-art GPS chipset and satellite communications to provide enhanced reliability and performance.” While I never considered the first model particularly large, SPOT 2, as many are calling it, is smaller in all dimensions and felt just bit larger than a deck of cards in my hand.
Other noteworthy changes are covers over the emergency button (now labelled SOS instead of 911) and the HELP button. Two other buttons, one to transmit an additional customized message, and one to activate the optional $50/year tracking option have also been added.
I had the opportunity to test-drive the new SPOT for a few weeks, and like with the previous model, I’m impressed. We didn’t have snow, so I couldn’t toss it in a snow bank like I did while testing the original model, but it’s obviously just as tough, and even easier to carry. And it works.
“Since its introduction, SPOT has helped in more than 450 rescues and sent millions of check-in and tracking messages around the world, making it an ideal personal safety device” said Jim Mandala, General Manager, Globalstar Canada. “Active outdoor enthusiasts such as hikers, back country skiers, snowmobilers, campers, pilots, fishermen, hunters and remote workers will appreciate the smaller compact size which makes it ideal for portable use. The improved ease-of-use will appeal to the family on-the-go or anyone who travels in remote areas or spends time outside cellular coverage.”
LoJack for Laptops revisted
Last year I wrote about LoJack for Laptops, software that periodically checks in with a central server to help locate your laptop if it is stolen. One of the LoJack features that caught my attention is that, when installed on compatible computers, a bios agent is activated. The bios agent is supposed to reinstall LoJack if the thief removes it by, for example, reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling the operating system.
Around the time I wrote last year’s article, Vancouver-based Absolute Software sent me a copy to try out. I installed it on a HP Pavilion dv4 laptop, checked that it was working a few times, and promptly forgot about it. A few weeks ago, my laptop required a warantee repair, and prior to sending it in, I used DBAN to thoroughly wipe the hard drive. When I got it back, HP had reinstalled the original operating system. So I deleted both partitions and did a fresh install.
Over the weekend I remembered about LoJack and I was curious. I logged into their web site and was informed that my laptop had checked in earlier the same day! LoJack survived every bit on the hard drive being overwritten and two operating system installs. Had a thief stolen my laptop and reinstalled the operating system, it would be checking in every time it was connected to the Internet. And we’d be tracking it down right now.
OnlineFamily.Norton: Setting the House Rules
When it comes to children and the Internet, there is no substitute for parental supervision. It’s certainly not wrong to use parental control software, but parents must understand that software is intended to assist, not do their job for them. The problem is that many vendors don’t seem to appreciate the difference. Thanks to Norton, that’s changing with today’s launch of the OnlineFamily.Norton service.
According to Jody Gibney, Group Product Manager of OnlineFamily.Norton, many parents don’t understand what their children are doing online and only about 20% of parents with kids aged 6-18 use technology to help.
It should be no surprise to parents that kids do a lot online:
- They consume, create, and share web content.
- They socialize one-on-one and in groups.
- Kids who use social media have an average of 145 online friends.
- They often have multiple complex online identities.
It’s no surprise that parents have a hard time keeping up.
Parents also may not realize where the real dangers lie. While pedophiles have lured children across the Internet, such occurrences are very rare. Much more common is, as Jody put it, “plain kid-on-kid meanness.” Social media sites allow kids to post hurtful words, images and videos that can result in real-world embarrassment. Parents need to know what sites their kids are using and decide if and how they should monitor it. Rather than simply prohibiting access to sites, Jody suggests that parents negotiate age-appropriate solutions with children. For example, a teen may be allowed to use Facebook on the condition that they ‘friend’ Mom so that she can see what is being posted. If the child sets up a second Facebook account, it’s important that Mom have a way of finding out about it.
Some elements of Norton’s approach, like categorizing web sites and reporting on use, are similar to other products, but their philosophy is different. Norton’s service is designed to encourage dialog and negotiation between parents and children. For example, Norton encourages parents to log in to OnlineFamily’s web-based interface with their children and discuss the various choices and options. The selections made for each child become “house rules” and include web site categories as well as rules relating to the use of instant messaging, what times the Internet can be used, for how long, and what happens when rules are violated.
Most rules and limits can be configured as hard or soft. Hard time limits log the child out after giving a 15 minute warning, while soft time limits simply report the activity. Similarly three options exist for web sites: Monitor use but don’t block, warn the child first but let them proceed to blocked sites, or actively block access to sites that violate the house rules.
Norton’s approach, Jody explained, is to “understand intent, guide online behavior and discuss online activities.” When a web site is blocked, OnlineFamily gives the child options that include “Oops, I made a mistake! Let me go back.” and “I want to tell my parents why I tried to go to this Web site.” There is also an option to dispute the categorization of the site. When a child researching a homework assignment is prevented from accessing a site, he or she can explain why they want access and the request is sent to parents in real-time.
I’m often concerned about the ethical implications of monitoring software and I believe that spying on family members can erode trust and damage relationships. OnlineFamily avoids that issue completely. Not only does it display a notification every time the child logs on, but the child can also click on the application’s icon and display a summary of house rules, including information on what types of activity is being monitored.
Last week I created an account on OnlineFamily.Norton.com while it was still in beta. I downloaded the program and installed it on our family computer. Then I logged into the OnlineFamily web site, added my daughter as a family member, identified which computer account she used and sent an invite to my wife giving her ‘parent’ access. Next I set the rules and explained the system to my daughter. Overall, I’m impressed. I did run into a few rough edges with the beta, but by the time you read this they will have been fixed.
OnlineFamily.Norton is the first product in this space to actively involve parents and that makes it a winner. It officially launches today at http://Onlinefamily.Norton.com and is free until January 1, 2010. Norton hopes to receive feedback from parents and say they will consider it carefully before deciding on the future pricing model.
Radian6: Monitoring Social Media
The explosive growth of social media is changing how companies interact with customers. Those that understand social media know that what is being said about them online can have a huge impact on their bottom line.
There are a number of ways to monitor a brand online. Some free services will monitor search engines for mention of specific keywords and other medium-specific tools can be used to monitor media like Twitter. But when I asked the pros what they use, the name Radian6 came up — over and over again.
Radian6, founded in 2007, is based in Fredericton, New Brunswick and has 45 full-time employees. Amber Naslund, the firms’s Director of Community, explained,
“Radian6 provides the social media monitoring platform for marketing, communications and customer support professionals. The company’s flexible dashboard enables monitoring all forms of social media with results appearing in real-time as discovered. Various analysis widgets give users the ability to uncover the top influencers as well as which conversations are having an impact online.
Radian6 gathers real-time-as-discovered information from across the social web, including blogs, video sharing sites, boards and forums including LinkedIn Answers, and emerging media such as FriendFeed and Twitter.”
After a brief online training session that Radian6 provides to all new customers, I logged in to their slick web application and began to enter some keywords I wanted to track. And that’s where the similarity with free tools ended. Radian6 provides powerful tools to drill down in results and analyze them. For example, I could quickly sort hits based upon the level of engagement (measured by comments) or inbound links.
While savvy companies will obviously want to read everything written about their products, it is often necessary to prioritize. Radian6 not only finds relevant information and conversations, but they also provide the tools needed to analyze and prioritize.
While monitoring their brand is an obvious priority for Radian6’s 300+ customers, I can imagine many other uses. For example, by choosing the right keywords and leveraging Radian6’s powerful widgets, I was able identify and begin to track key influencers on specific subjects. A similar approach could also be used to track competitors, business partners or a key industry.
It didn’t take long to understand why PR pros pointed me to Radian6. Behind their advanced software is a team that not only understand and embrace social media, but they also ‘get’ customer service. When I needed help, one Tweet and Amber had me sorted out in a matter of minutes. It doesn’t get better than that.
Bus Strike? Bad Weather? Work at home!
Businesses, transit users and those of us who drive to work all suffered during Ottawa’s transit strike. However, we can learn valuable lessons about business continuity planning that are equally applicable to an influenza pandemic, severe storm or even a terrorist attack.
There is a segment of our population who simply must get to work: Police officers, fire fighters, teachers, bankers, assembly line workers and those in the health care, retail and hospitality sectors. But many of us can — or could, with the right solution — work from anywhere we have access to a computer and telephone rather than sitting in traffic.
Now, before I give you the wrong impression, I do live in the real world. Face-to-face meetings are often more desirable than teleconferences, and some companies aren’t set up to support remote workers. Some corporate cultures are such that working from home is seen as a euphemism for a day off and having one’s buttocks pressing upon a chair for the requisite number of hours is considered far more important than actually getting work done. As a result modern day office martyrs drag themselves to the office when ill and consider sprinkling their viral load amongst colleagues a badge of honour.
When we step back and look at the issues from a broader point of view, it’s clear that during a transit strike we would all benefit by keeping the roads clear for those who must go to work and spending our time working instead of sitting in the car.
From a business perspective, not only are there advantages during transit strikes and severe storms, but the capability also allows the organization to function despite other emergencies such as fires, building evacuations and localized power failures. Enabling employees to work at home also helps to retain top talent by promoting a better work-life balance. And less commuters is a better thing for the environment as well.
Enabling remote work — like any other infrastructure change — does have security implications. Some organizations already have fundamental components in place such as laptops with VPN connectivity and the ability to forward phone lines. For those who don’t, products are available to specifically address the issues.
One company seeing increased interest in their products is Route1, the Toronto-based firm that developed the MobiKEY product. “The user simply plugs MobiKEY into any computer with Internet access and within seconds they are able to access their home or office computer through the TruOFFICE service,” explained Tanieu Tan, Director of Marketing. “With MobiKEY, all information remains behind the corporate firewall and no footprint of the work session is left on the guest computer. In the event that there is malware on the guest computer, it can not be introduced into the corporate network, making this a very secure solution.”
The product also offers other features to facilitate secure access to Web portals or specific applications instead of an entire remote desktop environment. These solutions also tout a high level of security by eliminating dependence upon applications on the user’s local computer.
So, whether you blamed the City, OCTranspo workers or, perhaps, both, we did get a great lesson in business continuity planning. Acting now can better enable you and your company to cope with similar events in the future.
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