Open Gardens

About Open Gardens

Open Gardens is published by futuretext

Rated 8/10 on Blogged.com

About The Open Gardens Blog

I (Ajit) founded the blog on May 26, 2005 based on my vision and philosophy of OpenGardens i.e. the philosophical opposite of 'walled gardens' especially as applicable to the mobile data industry.

Today, the OpenGardens blog is one of the few blogs that span both the Web and the Mobile domains.

The blog covers wireless/mobile applications, open networks and mobile web 2.0. My vision behind the OpenGardens blog has been :

The blog is about the Mobile data industry and Digital convergence('Mobile web 2.0')
Analysis is more important than story/controversy. I don't believe that bloggers are true journalists. The blog is not about the latest 'story' but it's more about independent analysis/viewpoint
The OpenGardens blog is broadly about opening up the networks, growing digital usage and digital businesses i.e. we don't advocate closed networks, broadcast media etc
It is about disruptive digital technologies

Founder & Chief Blogger Ajit Jaokar

Ajit Jaokar is the founder of the London based publishing and research company futuretext (www.futuretext.com) focussed on emerging Web and Mobile technologies -including Web 2.0 and Mobile Web 2.0.

His thinking is widely followed in the industry and his blog, the OpenGardensBlog (www.opengardensblog.futuretext.com), which was recently rated a top 20 wireless blog worldwide

In 2009-2010, Ajit was nominated as part of the Global Agenda Council on the Future of the Internet by the world economic forum. He hopes to use this opportunity to further extend the pragmatic viewpoint of the evolution of Telecoms networks in an open ecosystem.

(Note: The Network of Global Agenda Councils plays a significant role in shaping the global agenda by monitoring global issues and elaborating recommendations to address them. Each Council, comprised of 15-20 Members, serves as an advisory board to the Forum and other interested parties, such as governments and international organizations. The Global Agenda Councils also act as the intellectual drivers of the World Economic Forum's Global Redesign Initiative, an unprecedented international, multistakeholder and multimedia dialogue that aims to develop a 21st-century vision of global cooperation. Members of the G20, the UN and other International Organizations have pledged their support for this initiative. )

Ajit is best known for his books Mobile Web 2.0, Social Media Marketing. Two new books ('Open Mobile' and 'Implementing Mobile Web 2.0') are being released in 2009.

His consulting activities include working with companies to define value propositions across the device, network, Web and Social networking stack spanning both technology and strategy. He has worked with a range of commercial and government organizations globally including The European Union, Telecoms Operators, Device manufacturers, social networking companies and security companies in various strategic and visionary roles

His recent talks and forthcoming talks include: CEBIT 2009;MobileWorld Congress(2007, 2008, 2009); Keynote at O Reilly Web20 expo (April 2007);Keynote at Java One; European Parliament – Brussels – (Electronic Internet Foundation); Stanford University's Digital visions program;MIT Sloan;Fraunhofer FOKUS ; University of St. Gallen (Switzerland); Mobile Web Strategies (partner event of CTIA in San Francisco)

Media appearances include BBC – Newsnight – 3phone launch; CNN money; BBC digital planet

Ajit chairs Oxford University's Next generation mobile applications panel and conducts a course on Web 2.0, Social networking, Mobile Web 2.0 and LTE services at Oxford University.

Ajit lives in London, UK, but has three nationalities (British, Indian and New Zealander) and is proud of all three. He is currently doing a PhD on Privacy and Reputation systems at UCL in London. Ajit is a fan of animation especially Tom and Jerry, Tintin and Asterix and likes the music of ZZ Top and other rock bands

You can contact me at ajit.jaokar at futuretext.com

You can follow me on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/AjitJaokar

See a video of my talk at CEBIT in Hannover
(intro in german - presenttion in english)

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July 11, 2007

Sprint-Nextel – Banning top 1000 complaining (paying) customers

Tomi Ahonen is very upset and has a long blog about this issue : For industry accused of arrogance, pinnacle of conceit: Customer comes last at Sprint Nextel

Tomi says ..

>>>

CNN has just a few moment ago reported that Sprint Nextel, in its infinite wisdom, has sent 1,000 of its customers a letter informing them that because they have placed too many calls to the calling center asking for help or complaining about the Sprint/Nextel services, they are terminating the customer relationship.

Sprint Nextel must immediately apologize and invite all cancelled customers to return. We cannot allow ANY business to arbitrarily punish customers who call the calling center “too much above the average”

Shame on you Sprint Nextel ! This will go down as the most moronic marketing move by any company ever, worse than New Coke. The Marketing Management at Sprint Nextel better offer their resignations and the CEO better accept them. This is shameful for the whole profession of marketing, not just wireless telecoms.

We will monitor this story and report on its developments. I will dig up Sprint Nextel’s CMO name etc next. But all of you, please join us, blog about this now and condemn this abusive action. No company can get away with this. Not in this new age when Communities Dominate.

<<<

The report is HERE

The report says that Sprint ‘needed to cull its customer base to improve services’.

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Filed under: mobile web 2.0 — ajit @ 7:26 am

Comments (3)

3 Comments »

I wrote about this and one user commented that it was a smart way to terminate the contract without paying the $175 fee.
http://telecompk.net/2007/07/08/what-happens-if-you-call-customer-service-too-often/

Comment by Babar Bhatti — July 11, 2007 @ 10:09 pm

I think that before you pass judgment on SPrint/Nextel, you need to do more research on the full extent of the activities these 1000 customers were involved in. Anyone who complains as much as these people did can’t possibly be happy with their service, and it was apparent that no matter what SPrint/Nextel did, it would not satisfy these customers. Let’s face it, there are just some people who are like this. Sprint/Nextel felt the best resolution was to stop doing business with these people, and after reading all the reports on this I could find, I have to agree with that decision.
If you ran a business and had a tiny proportion of customers who were ultimate pains in the ass, wouldn’t you start to feel that having their business just wasn’t worth it? 1000 custmers out of how many millions? That’s not a lot.

Comment by Mark in CA — July 12, 2007 @ 7:43 pm

Why demand that “Sprint Nextel must immediately apologize and invite all cancelled customers to return”
Any business should be free to turn away customers if it wants – that is a natural freedom. Why should they be compelled to service bad customers ?
Frankly – if a company told me it did not want my business – I would be off like a shot, why would anyone go back to Sprint/Nextel even if they offered ?

Comment by Andy Wise — July 16, 2007 @ 5:34 pm