I’ve been thinking about the idea of crowdsourcing a lot this year. Last month, I wrote about giffgaff’s unique approach of crowdsourcing not just marketing and R&D, but also customer service. And, for the 33rd and last “The Social Nerdia Show!“ of 2009, I spoke with Robbie Hearn, the Chief of Member Experience at giffgaff to learn more about how this MVNO from the UK operates. Prior to joining company, Robbie was Head of Retention at Be Broadband, a O2/Telefonica subsiduary where he first realized just how powerful it was for a company to have a very engaged community.

Listen to the entire conversation with Robbie on the Flash player below. You can also subscribe to us on iTunes, stream from mobiles on Stitcher, and listen to upcoming shows LIVE on blogtalkradio.

giffgaff officially launched on Nov 23rd. “The project as a whole started to take form 9 months ago,” Robbie told me. “It’s gone from nothing to full launch in that period of time, which is very quick for a mobile company.” At first glance one might assume that giffgaff is just a regular MVNO, but giffgaff is truly changing the way a mobile company interacts with its customers.

I asked Robbie to explain what makes giffgaff so unique. ”We see a need and a gap in the market for a new model. We’re what we call people-powered,” he said. “In essence, we’re trying to really leverage all the great new trends and technologies around crowds; we want to engage our members more than any other mobile network in the UK.” Unlike other companies that try to control everything related to their brand, giffgaff lets its ‘members’ interact with the company and with each other online, and allowing them to be part of the company’s “marketing, R&D, and customer service; recruiting members and especially helping answer questions.”

Crowdsourcing Customer Service

Thanks to Wikipedia and companies like Doritos and Starbucks, we’ve all come to know about various forms of crowdsourcing, especially when it comes to marketing and R&D. But crowdsourcing customer service? Now that’s a new idea.

“Crowdsourcing customer service is almost like a misnomer. You don’t need a huge crowd, just a small group that’s absolutely motivated by helping other people; they are the super users,” Robbie told me. ”We don’t have a call center,” he added. “You go online, you type in whatever question you have, and the integrated search identifies an answer based on information giffgaff has submitted as well as information provided by users on the forum.”  (more…)

People-powered. Those two words joined by a dash immediately remind me of Wikipedia. And Wikipedia might be the biggest inspiration for GiffGaff, a new MVNO in the UK running on the O2 network, that promises to change things in the mobile world. MVNOs have come and gone for many years, usually with little more than clever branding and low prices.

However, we already established that GiffGaff was inspired by Wikipedia, remember? And Wikipedia is a very social site… that’s, well, powered by people. So maybe this MVNO has something new that’s worth looking into.

GiffGaff, whose name comes from a Scottish expression  that means “You give something, I give you something back,” claims to also be powered by people. They haven’t launched  (the plan is to become available before Christmas of this year) and no customer phone calls have been made, but the company is already leveraging the wisdom of the crowds. GiffGaff’s in-the-making community has already provided ideas such as “copy to Twitter” functionality for text messages. So GiffGaff is not crowdsourcing ideas, but that’s only the beginning. They are also going to crowdsource their marketing (again, not a huge deal). But more importantly, they are going to crowdsource customer service.

There are a lot of intelligent and passionate people helping each other out on forums and blogs all over the web, from cell phone geeks to home improvement DIYers, so it makes sense to think that people could help each other out in such a way that a company no longer needs a call center. I can imagine that PowerPoint presentation going something like this: 1) Customer service is difficult. 2) Customer Service is expensive. 3) Let’s make customers serve each other. (more…)

It’s been more than 3 months since I first got my hands on the Palm Pre. Yes, I’m technically a blogger, and yes, I received this awesome phone from Palm so stop worrying FTC. As one of 10 winners of the “Real Reviewers Program,” Palm provided me with a Pre (along with an unlimited plan) for 6 months! Palm did not tell me to blog about it, but I can’t help myself. The truth is that I was a believer since the day it was announced and I am totally a fan. Popular Mechanics ranked the Pre as one one of the 10 most brilliant products of 2009 so I don’t think I need to tell you that this phone is amazing.

Palm has made some really interesting announcements recently, including the Palm Pixi, the second WebOS device on the roster. The Pixi is a more affordable, more artistic version of the Pre that should be released soon. Palm is also releasing the Palm Pre in various countries and networks, including a GSM version in Spain on October 14th.

In addition, paid apps are now available and Palm is going to allow open and closed source version of Pre apps to be distributed (which is drastically different better from Apple’s app approval process). With over 120 apps and soon to grow exponentially, Palm is finally able to say that it has a good quantity of apps on its catalog. And the quality of the apps is great so far (see below for examples).

Also exciting is the fact that Adobe Flash might be coming to the Pre much sooner than I expected. Yes, you heard that right. Flash Player 10.1 tailored for the Palm Pre. That means Hulu, YouTube, BlogTalkRadio, etc. Sweet. Double Sweet.

But, what’s it like having a WebOS phone? Good question…

Here’s a summarized example of how I use the Palm Pre on a regular basis:

7:00am- Wake up. I’m not very good at waking up so I have 5 alarms that go off every 5 minutes with different songs.
7:25am – Check my Gmail account, which is beautifully integrated with the device.
7:28am – Check my Hotmail account, which is integrated almost as nicely, but with 5 times the spam. (more…)

After befriending children with no shoes in Argentina, Blake Mycoskie decided he wanted to help. He started TOMS Shoes in 2006 with a simple idea: With every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need. One for One.” The shoes were designed after the Argentine “alpargata” and 10,000 pairs were sold in the first year. The company has given away over 150,000 pairs of shoes to kids all over the world.

At the young age of 33, Blake has not only created an admirable brand, but he has also built a platform that allows anyone to provide a basic need to those that are often forgotten and ignored.

1. I love your quote: “I don’t want to be remembered for what I did, but what I gave away.” Have you always had this philosophy or did it develop over time?

As you grow and have different experiences, you learn what you want out of your life and what direction you will pursue. The things I have learned and people I have met over time have shaped my philosophy and have guided me to where I am now.

2. Designing a new type of shoe, starting a non-profit and building a brand that incorporates both seems like a lot to take on, did you ever consider partnering with a brand that already existed?

TOMS was such a unique model from the start, and we broke the mold in some respects of how most businesses operate, so we wanted to show others that this idea of incorporating giving could work on its own. It’s great now to be at a point where we can do some amazing collaborations with other brands like Ralph Lauren, Element Skateboards and even Dave Matthews Band. (more…)

Just as it was rumored earlier this morning, Palm is releasing the “digital-age-defining” Pre on Saturday, June 6th.

It will be available nationwide at Sprint stores, Best Buy, Radio Shack, some Wal-mart stores and online at Sprint.com for $199 (after a $100 mail-in rebate), which we think is a fair price for the coolest smartphone release of the year.

There’s a chance you disagree (about the coolness). Sure, there are a few points to consider (mail-in rebate is not exciting, SERO plan users are wondering if they’ll be able to get it, and this might mean a switch to Sprint and away from GSM).

However, the Pre has more than enough to make you change your mind: The much awaited webOS, Palm Synergy, great design, user-friendly touch screen, 3G speed, and the delight to be constantly online  at a recession-friendly price. 

(more…)

The Windows Mobile 6 Facebook App was released today. While WinMo users have been able to check out Facebook using a mobile web browser at m.facebook.com, a downloadable app has been expected for a while.

The good news is that it’s finally out. The sort of bad news is that it was developed by Microsoft (not Facebook).

As usual with Windows Mobile apps, this one came out later than other versions (iPhone, BlackBerry), and without all the hype.

So, here’s our take:

- Intallation: Not as intuitive as anyone would like. You need to connect your phone to your computer; download the app; open it with File Manager, and hope it installs.

- Performance: The first time we loaded it, it froze. This has Windows all over it. It did ok the second time, but it was a bit slow.

- News feed: This might be a matter of preference and the device you’re using, but we believe the mobile web site is simply smoother and easier to view. The mobile web version also gives you the ability to “comment” and “like“, while the WinMo app does not. Not cool. (more…)