PressPass Tries To Easily Connect People And Businesses To Journalists

PressPass is in beta testing and has just launched a directory of vetted journalists with the goal of creating a platform for startups, street reporters, small businesses, and everyday people to connect with them and share stories. The database boasts over 5,000 journalists reporting for about 250 publications.

The idea is rock solid, but the functionality and effectiveness fail in my opinion. Before I get into specifics lets take a look at what it purports to do.

PressPass wants to provide a benefit to journalists by proving them with new stories to write about, and to the individual by helping them find the best reporter to get their story in front of for coverage. "I’m hoping that everyone who has a newsworthy story will be able to not only find the right reporters to get their word out, but build trustworthy relationships with them." says co-founder Valencio Cardoso.

When arriving at the website you will begin to browse through the journalists, their media outlets, beats (topics), and geographic regions with the goal of finding the best reporter(s) to contact about your story. This is where things start to go astray for me. First you must know that this is built around Twitter with heavy integration and is the primary data source and communication channel. Cardoso says the reporter's profile is there "to help you to get a more in-depth understanding of the reporter, ensuring that you’re pitching your content to the right people. It also helps journalists receive leads on stories they’d be interested in."

To the right is the PressPass profile page for Matt Brian, a writer for The Next Web (click it for a closer look).

Let's say you didn't know that his Tweets were behind this and you came to the page without reading any information about PressPass; what is your initial though about the stories listed? That Matt wrote them? If so, you are like 90% of the everyday (non-techie) people I asked. Given that misconception you may think he writes about football/soccer, used to be an alcoholic, and uses Twitter.

Even if you do know these originate from his Tweets it still does not really provide substantial information for me to base my decision on about approaching him to write an article about a new iOS app. (He writes mostly about Apple at TNW by the way.) What is mostly peculiar is that he has shared numerous stories he wrote, but they do not show here. As for these 5 items:

• Tweetbot was shared at 10:00 AM on February 13th
• The drunk one was actually something he Retweeted on February 4th
• He Tweeted The Register item at 3:21 AM on February 14th
• Striker was also a Retweet from January 31st
• I could not find the fifth one, but the article is from January 31st

The chronological order seems to be modified based on a Tweet's influence (favorites and Retweets). That still does not explain why the articles from the Tweets below are not shown.

• Google+ article written by Matt for TNW - Tweeted at 3:01 AM on February 14th
• Tweet about Angry Birds article Matt wrote at 9:32 AM on February 13th
• Sports post on TNW by another writer was Tweeted at 8:08 AM on February 13th
• Apple Tweet about a story by Matt at 8:44 AM on February 13th

It seems to me the articles a writer publishes, especially for their publication, should be given a much higher weight. Seeing articles they Tweet or Retweet may help me know more about the writer personally, but it does not provide value when looking for someone to give my story to. For many publications an author will have a page that lists all the stories they have written (here is Matt's). Tapping into that would provide a wealth of information about the journalist.

In addition to the articles on a writers profile you can see other information from the links shown on the top of the page. None are very useful for me.

• Topics - Gives the top hastags used in their Twitter stream
• Spotlights - Shows the people they mention the most
• Ranking - Simply ranks people overall and by beats based on their total follower count

When I want to contact Matt I press the "Contact this journalist!" button which initiates a Tweet box. For him it shows as "Hey @m4tt >> YOUR MESSAGE << via @presspassme"; your message total obviously can not exceed 140 characters. With Matt there may be a chance of him seeing your message, but imagine trying to get Anderson Cooper to even see your message, never mind reply to you!

I believe for a startup to succeed it needs to create something completely new, greatly improve upon a current service or product, create a new method of thinking, or make a task exponentially easier. As it stands now I can just as easily send an @mention on my own and the author pages do not offer enough insight. The idea behind PressPass is a good one, but I strongly feel they need explicit participation from the journalists and other ways to contact them to succeed. This is just the beginning and I will certainly keep an eye on their progress.

PressPass is based in Dubai and was founded by Valencio Cardoso and David Haddad. You can keep up with them on their blog, Facebook, and Twitter.

SendHub Brings Simple Group SMS Subscription Services To Everyone

Earlier today I almost skimmed right passed a post about SendHub from TechCrunch. Based on the name I initially thought it was just another service that brings all your phone numbers together like Google Voice. I am beyond happy to have taken a moment to read more about it and to try the service out.

SendHub offers a group SMS (text message) service that could not be simpler. Within ten minutes of signing up a new way to subscribe to this blog was available. This service can be used for families, clubs, companies, classrooms, churches, sport teams, and a broad range of other groups. They use Twilio's reliable API to power the communications. The venture actually started as InfoRate in 2010 and received some press back in September 2011 and only recently changed its name to SendHub. The team is made up of the three co-founders Garrett Johnson, Ash Rust, and John Fallone along with Ryan Pfeffer; (Michael Siedlecki recently left the company).

On initial sign up you will verify your cell phone number by using a confirmation code that is sent to you. After verifying your number will be linked to a new number from their system that will most likely have the same area code as yours, or you may select a different one. Their number is the one people use to subscribe to and will be the number they receive text messages from. You can send texts to your group members through SendHub from your personal cell number.

Lets take a look at how I am set up to better illustrate how this works:

• My number, as found on my contact page, is 413-342-1082
• SendHub assigned me with 413-315-4418
• I set up a new contact group named Dain Binder's Technology Blog and enabled the Text to Join feature using Keyword TECH

Now anyone can text TECH to 413-315-4418 to join my SMS group; when they do:

• A message is sent saying "Welcome to Dain Binder's group: Dain Binder's Technology Blog - please respond with your full name to complete the subscription."
• Then, "Thank you, your subscription is complete. To cancel, send 'unsub tech' to this number. To stop all messages text STOP at anytime."

An example of a message I recently sent is:

• "Like Secret Finds Romance Within Your Social Circle - http://goo.gl/1YTww -rate http://j.mp/xtJlGZ"
• The "-rate" and link are automatically added by SendHub and will be used in conjunction with an upcoming analytics feature
• I sent this from the website, but it can also be sent from your cell phone by sending a text to your SendHub number and precede the message by, in my case, "@tech".

As you can see this is a really powerful and solid way to communicate for many reasons. The SendHub number can be replied to and even called; if called it connects to your linked number. There are options to disable incoming messages and/or incoming calls if you choose. If you have contact lists and permission to use cell phone numbers you are able to import and add them to your groups. This entire setup can be used for individual communications also.

Join SendHub on Twitter, AngelList, and Facebook. If you want to try it out feel free to use a test group I set up by sending TEST to 413-315-4418, or subscribe to my TECH group. I will send out test messages from time to time under the test group and you can unsubscribe whenever you like.

ClassPager Classroom Communication

ClassPager is a very useful communication tool for classrooms created by Brain Racer. It allows teachers and students to text message each other while not divulging either person's cell phone number or email address. This is perfect for teachers to broadcast schedule changes, homework assignments, and even conduct live classroom polls or Q&A sessions. The teacher uses a web interface for all actions while the student uses their cell phone as normal. An iPhone app is in development for use on both ends.

Reading their FAQ section reveals that there are some thoughtful restrictions in place. Only the teacher can send a message to the group. If a student replies, then the teacher is able to have an individual conversation. The teacher can not initiate a private conversation themselves. (I am not sure how this is controlled; maybe a timeout period where the text and reply text are no longer actionable? I have reached out the them and will let you know what they say.)

Lets take a look at the signup, layout, and features with a full screen by screen review.

1) Email and password

2) Add your name (it will be used in some of the messages), and provide the course's name

3) Setup is complete! A teacher could print this page to post it in the classroom as instructions on how to sign-up. The phone number student's will text the class code to is on it.

4) Here you see me subscribing to the class updates. ClassPager asks for my name (I used Jimmy) and confirms I am now setup and that Dain is my teacher. To unsubscribe at anytime a student can text "stop" to the number.

5) The teacher will now see the student on the dashboard and has the ability to modify the name and remove them. Notice that the student's phone number is not shown. (An email was not dispatched to the teacher, me, when Jimmy signed up. It would be a really good addition to the service.)

6) Text messages up to 140 characters can be broadcast to the classroom.

7) Sending a message

8) The message is saved on the screen

9) The student receives the text

10) The student can respond

11) The teacher sees the reply in the dashboard. (Again, an email notification would be excellent.) Since the teacher is not on the monthly plan they are not able to reply. This is OK as long as the teacher explains they are not able to individually reply. Otherwise it would be nice if ClassPager could send back a text message saying the teacher can read, but not reply. It would be bad if a student thought the teacher was ignoring them.

Teachers get one classroom for free with unlimited messaging. For $9.99 a month they are able to add five classes, also with unlimited messages, and the feature to reply to individual students is activated. There is no fee for students to use this beyond their regular carrier fees. Twilio's SMS API is used to power the messaging capabilities. Keep up with ClassPager's progress on Twitter; they have plans beyond the individual classroom and are are currently testing school and district level programs.

Email or SMS, Which Will Fall First? Will They?

With Facebook's launch of Facebook Messaging I find myself wondering what the next communication tool will be. Not just a re-envision, but a full fledged new way to communicate. Facebook Messaging (Beluga), Kik, Disco, GroupMe, etc. are all different plays on instant messaging and SMS organized intuitively across many platforms.

Do you consider a service built over, and using, an older service a new service? No; at least I don't. In a way you could end up making things more complex. People may just gravitate back to the underlying (simpler) technology, even if it means having more separate services to use.

That is not to say you can't innovate on, and make, current communication channels more streamlined, simpler, and interconnected. That is the current trend we see today.

Lets look back on the major widely adopted ways to communicate to gain a better perspective:

• Smoke signals
• Mail
• Telephone
• Fax
• Cell phone
• SMS
• Internet
• World Wide Web
• Email
• Instant Messaging
• Social Networking

What do each of these have in common? They are each in use today! It is hard to come up with a new way to communicate, and even harder to eradicate one. Email and SMS will be around for generations to come. They will fall, SMS first, but it will take a long time.

For now I do hope a company comes up with a service that seamlessly merges Email, SMS, and IM that is transparent to the end user. To work it needs to be headed by a non-profit using public protocols that gains massive adoption.

Then again, it may just be easier to come up with a brand new way to communicate.

Google+ and Gmail Integration

Gmail's user base is around two hundred million while Google+'s is around ten million. Bringing all those users to G+ will certainly help the new network expand and with the plus bar they are working towards that. The blending these two could make Google in to a communication powerhouse. Below are some of my thoughts on how to do that.

• On a reply or when sending a message (email), have the ability to send to a Circle much like things can be sent to email groups today. I could type "Family Circle" and when I send the "email" the message would post to Google+ to that circle. It should also be possible to direct a message to an individual on to the G+ platform. Any combination should be allowed; I should be able to send one message to one person via a G+ post, to another's email, and to a full circle. (Signature lines and quoted text being replied to should not be allowed when posting to G+.)

• My "from" option in Gmail should have an option to send it from my Google+ account so a reply to my email comes in to G+ as a limited post to me.

• If I choose to send from my Google+ account to a Circle it essentially becomes only a Google+ post; not an email. But, a history of the message/post should be kept in Gmail. Comments on my post would then follow my email notification settings inside G+.

• Add/integrate Google+ profile and profile data to the new area in Gmail, top right, that shows recent interactions and contacts details. The person's profile image, recent posts, and other things could be shown. This could be done for everyone, not just contacts. You could see what circles they are in and also manage the circles right there to be able to add people you do not have in circles or change what circles people are in. When mousing over the sender of an email you have open, it would display a pop up like today, but show this information.

• Gmail could automatically tag emails received from from people you have in your circles with the circle name(s).

• Have the ability to highlight an image, text, or link form an email and click on Share in the +bar. What was highlighted would automatically be pulled in to the share window for fast posting. Similar things can be done from chat to post to G+

• Have the Chat that is inside Gmail show the circle chat friends we see in plus.google.com

My vision is for Google to blur the line between emailing, messaging, and posting into one seamless communication platform.