Geek Speak: Do you have a voice?

Steve Pham — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 12:17:00 GMT

Google Voice that is... but wait, what is Google Voice?

Google Voice is an internet based call forwarding service, FREE of charge unless placing international calls. It's currently released by invite only but it's pretty easy to get an invite. Just ask me how if you're interested. Now, I am sure your thinking "Whoopty Doo", what can it do for me? Well, here is what it did for me.

It gave me a local number (you can choose any number you want, from anywhere in the US). This helped a lot. I moved to Charleston not too long ago from another state and do not have a house line. Now I won't get a confused look when I give people my phone number.
It also seconds as a business line. I can make outward calls using the Google Voice number.
Another awesome feature from Google Voice is the option to screen all calls before answering. By screening, I do not mean caller-ID. I mean Google Voice informs you of who is on the other line and blocked numbers will not go through unless they announce themselves. No more random phone calls you send straight to voicemail.
Google voice also has phone management, which is similar to email management. If you are familiar with Gmail, then you will be familiar with Google Voice. You can manage all calls, voicemails, text messages, and contacts using Google Voice.
You also have a block list. You can block any calls from annoying telemarketers, relatives, exes, etc.
Oh yea, did I mention it transcribes your voicemails for you? Well it can! You can get an email, text, or both of your voicemail. No more "wait, what number did they say?" or "what do they want?"
A feature I haven't used yet but can see myself using in the future is the ability to add multiple lines to the Google Voice number. So instead of just forwarding it to my mobile, I can forward the number to my house, work, another sibiling (in the case it's your parents), and more.

As you can see, I've discovered a lot of great features and I just started using it on Tuesday. And knowing Google, I'm sure they will continue to develop it. One key note... Google is very smart about adding a revenue model into the majority, if not all, of their products. Make sure to pick a number that you like or otherwise it will cost you $10 to get a new number.

Don't forget to comment and let us know how you use Google Voice and what benefits or flaws you see. My one wish right now? I wish they would let you have more than one number.

Is Social Media Ruining My Attention Span?

Lindsey Robbins — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 20:56:00 GMT

I was a child who spent hours and sometimes days reading. I could actually sit still (in one place) and get absorbed in a story. Now, I can't sit still to read a book I know I will enjoy without bouncing up to check the news, sports, weather, friend updates, and messages (all on my computer). With social media, stories are broken up into tiny pieces. You either have to get the entire story out of a tiny bit of information or you absorb over time in fragments. Sometimes those fragments don't even come from the same people.

As a result, I bounce around from website to website, from social medium to social medium, collecting information all day long. I'm sure somewhere in there I'm making sense of what I'm reading and learning, right?

Alan Porter responded to our Documentation blog post on Google Chrome's Comic Book Documentation on twitter by sharing his thoughts from his own blog.

A point he made about why the comic book doesn't work got me thinking. He wrote… "There is no single voice and no narrative."

And for some reason his thought stuck in my mind and started weaving it's own weird interpretation in my head.

Social media is the opposite of single voice. Social media's narrative is not traditional. Alan is, of course, correct that all communication is about a story, a story told through a conversation (synchronous or asynchronous). However, I'm now thinking about how emerging forms of social media change the rules around stories and conversations.

Can we still read stories the "old way" or will social media in its friendly-sized chunking ruin our attention span?

Do you find yourself bouncing from screen to screen, sign to sign, and visual cue to visual cue (You might want to do a little self-examination at work and at home)? Does Google Chrome's comic also not work because it's just too dang long. I mean, who got beyond page 5 of the book? I did but only because I was just looking at the pretty pictures and not the text.

The question I have then is, how do you communicate and how do you teach when the rules around stories and conversations are changing?

Chatterbox : communication

Geek Speak: Do you have a voice?

Is Social Media Ruining My Attention Span?