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IM2 Sucks. Big Time
Go on Facebook, Twitter, Plurk or any other social media and you will hear a resounding disgust with IM2′s 3G HSDPA service.
Of late it has gone so slow and so difficult to connect that it is more than useless; it is a continual source of frustration.
The reason, as someone pointed out in a previous posting in this blog, is that Indosat’s increased its customers and therefore its speed has gone down.
A little like Jakarta traffic where the cars keep increasing but the amount of roads remain the same.
You wonder where is the sense of shame where Indosat’s directors are concerned. If I were them I’d be so ashamed to put out a product like this. I would also apologize profusely to my customers.
But do we hear a peep from Indosat IM2?
If there are any readers out there who are as disgusted as Unspun with IM2 please leave a comment on this posting to let them know how you, their customer, feels.
And while I’m on a rant, here’s another piece of stupidity. Go to their website and what you will see is a faux customer service friendly message like this:
“Give us a call”, with graphic of a voice operator usually implies that you can make voice contact. But is there a phone number? Who does these things and get paid for it?
Accredited citizen journos in Indonesia?
Update: a conversation on this subject is going full tilt in Bahasa Indonesia at Ndoro Kakung
An outfit calling itself Persatuan Pewarta Warga Indonesia (Indonesian Association of Citizen Journalists) is touting Citizen Journalist Cards for those inspired to take up the calling on their own steam.
The PPWI is housed at Gedung Dewan Pers in Kebun Sirih, Menteng and is touting the idea of Citizen Journalist Press cards which would function very much like an accredited Press card by professional journalists.
Unspun’s has no idea who is funding the PWWI and is all for Freedom of Speech, Press Freedom, Apple Pie and Koala Bears but but it’s a scary thought that there might be several dozens of self-proclaimed journos running around brandishing Press Cards and demanding access to all sorts of functions and events.
In the old days you could tell the difference between legitimate journalists and Bodrex (sham journos who’s only purpose is to demand, extort or ask for money from companies at public events) because the latter do not have accredited Press Cards but the line gets pretty thin if we have all those Citizen Journalists running around.
What should PR flacks and corporate communications people in large companies do about them?
The long tail of Pesta Blogger 2008
This something that the Indonesian Ministry of Culture and Tourism should be particularly pleased with. It’s more than two months since Pesta Blogger 2008 and its decision to sponsor the Pesta Blogger 2008 Roadshow – where five foreign bloggers were invited to visit and interact with bloggers at Bali, Jogjakarta and Jakarta – is still paying dividends.
Chef Mark, one of the invited bloggers, has just released the second of his Indonesian Adventure video series. This time he shows and tells his viewers about Prambanan, Borobodur and Yogjakarta.
This video will now float about in the Net almost forever and will become one of the reference videos for people thinking of visiting Yogjakarta or its neighboring attractions. Its also credible because it comes from a third party.Now, if other tourism authorities are smart enough to latch on to this idea…
What good is Press Freedom?
Unspun recently had a very depressing conversation with a senior Indonesian journalist.
The conversation started when Unspun asked the editor of a large newspaper, let’s call him NK, what it would take to get journalists to dig below the surface in a case that has all the elements of a good story – a rich conglomerate tycoon, abuse of power, abuse of the institutions of State, bribery, corruption.
The story, or parts of it, has been in the news because of a well-publicized case involving a top business executive being caught red handed. All indicators, to anyone with even rudimentary powers of inference, point to a tycoon behind everything.
Yet, the media, even the established ones, aren’t interested in covering the story apart from what’s happening in the surface.
“This is insane,” said Unspun. “Here you have, a businessman so powerful and corrupt that he is using the institutions of State to force the business outcome he wants in his dispute with another group. This is the story of how an individual can hijack the state to do his own bidding. Why is no one interested to dig deeper?”
“Well,” said NK. “You have to understand that the papers these days do not have the manpower to do this.
“They are not doing well financially and cannot hire quality reporters. Also there is no one to do the investigation.”
“No one? How can that be?” asked Unspun incredulously.
“No one he said,” a pained expression crossing his face because he felt strongly about journalism and what it can do too. “First off there is not enough people around. Not enough journalists.
“Secondly, there are very few quality journalists who are able to do any type of investigative journalism. Those who used to do it have moved on and there are very few of them left.
“The result is tha the papers have only the resources to chase the issue for the day or the week. Any older issues get left behind and forgotten. Then when the next issue breaks, they divert all their resources to chasing the new issue,” said NK.
“How has this come to pass?” asked Unspun.
NK explained that the deterioration in quality journalism, what there was of it, began when the conglomerates took over the media. These days most of the papers and TV stations are controlled either by the MNC Group, the Jawa Pos Group, the Gramedia Group, the Lippo Group or other businesses.
“They have no interest in quality journalism,” said NK. “All they want is either to make money from their media or to wield influence by controlling the coverage of their media.”
The only hope, he said, lies with the more reputable papers like Tempo and Kompas. But Tempo’s been experiencing flat revenue growth so does not have much money to spend o hiring and training quality reporters. And Kompas has chosen to be extra careful over everything. So we have nothing.
“If someone or some business feels that they have gotten a raw deal by the courts, the police or any other state institutions they are on their own. They shouldn’t expect the Press to play its role as a watchdog of society,” said NK.
“This is sad and ironic,” he added. “Indonesia has all the freedoms that the Press could want but we are not making use of this freedom.”
Unspun was depressed in the drive home.
At last – a reliable and fast ISP?
Back in December Unspun asked readers what’s a good ISP – Internet Service Provider – in Jakarta. There were some useful suggestions and then Jeremy Wagstaff, whose knowledge of loose wires and connected ones surpasses mine by tons, suggested that I should chat with Andre O. Halim, the president director of netZap.
Initially Unspun was not keen because an initial brush with their customer service did not yeild the best of results. Plus Unspun’s office was now subscribing to a ISP with a microwave link, which was not too reliable. But considering the choice out there it was worth a shot.
So Unspun trooped over to Andre’s office sometime in December to have a chat with him. A good start was that he was not defensive about the bad service we had earlier but sid that he wantd to understand the problem so he could fix it. We then talked about matters technical (of which Unspun pretended to understand) and at the end of the talk Unspun, head spinning, decided to try our netZap.
We tried the Group Package on offer which is meant for “gamers, SMEs etc” and comes with a tag of Rp900,000 per month. You could set it up for up to eight people. So far, Unspun is happy to report, the service has been reliable and very fast. How fast? According to the Indosat IM2 speedtest the Upload speed was 760kbps while the Dowload speed was 731kbps. Not too bad. This means you can actually watch YouTube without interruptions as the computer tries to buffer.
Unspun then tried to check the speed of our broadband with our Uninet connection. Uninet also uses microwave and what I got was an Upload speed of 622kbps and Download speed of 531kbps.
So netZap wins heands down for now. Unspun‘ll post in a couple of months to see if netZap will maintain its speed and quality. In the meantime, to be fair, not everyone is happy. My brother-in-law in Kebun Jeruk who’s also a netZap subscriber says that his speed has gone down in the past month or so and when he called them they said that this was because they were saturted with subscriptions for the area.
On a related matter, what gets Unspun’s goat is how S_L_O_W the HSDPA connection for IM2 has become in recent weeks. On bad days it is almost impossible to get a connection at all and on good days the internet is so slow that it takes you back to connection speed ala Suharto days.
What Unspun can’t understand is why doesn’t the YLKI or other consumers associations go after Indosat for failing to live up to their promise of a 3 Gigabytes/second speed. What’s happened to all those lawyer who are so quick at filing class action suits?
Quixotic tilt at the Post?
Update: the Jakchatters, especially Kukukukacha seem to have got their knickers in a twist over this posting, aying that Unspun is displaying racist tendencies and being unethical (question: if anything that appears on Jakchat is supposed to be private, why don’t you make the forum private, for members only?) Amuse yourselves and be disgusted by misogynistic males here.
One of the contributors of the Globe, Aulia, has also Twittered/messaged Unspun to say that he’s been paid for all his work, and Simon has posted comments below to say that the check’s now in the mail).
The International Herald Trubune has carried a story on James Riady’s decision to launch The Jakarta Globe in such troubled times. Read it here.
But what’s also equally interesting is that Jakchat has the Metro Mad columnnist Simon Pitchforth complaining that he hasn’t been paid for two months now. Simon moved his column from the Jakarta Post to the Jakarta Globe some time ago and he’s now wondering if he’s made the right move. Read here. (Thanks for the tipoff in the comments to the last posting, BBill)
Not one to tell one side of the story only Unspun has Twittered the Jakarta Globe, which has been extremely active on Twitter, posting reports, sports matches etc. let’s see if they will use Twitter for answering queries from their readers as well.
In the meantime Unspun‘s been told that Gita Wirjawan, the co-chairman of Ancora Capital, was also not too happy with being a columnist at the Globe and has decamped to the Post. Unspun supposes that money is not the issue with Gita, who probably thought he woudl have a better audience with The Post. He started appearing in the Post last week writing about Black Swans, if Unspun is not mistaken.
A shrinking Globe?
Unspun hears rumors that The Jakarta Globe is considering changing its format to American broadsheet from its current full broadsheet size. If these rumors are true then it would be a bizarre decision as the Globe launched but only a few months ago and to do so at this point in time would make it look like it was following The Jakarta Post, that revamped its format to American broadsheet and changed its layout for the better.
In the meantime Unspun’s also been told that Ahmad Pathoni, who joined the Globe from Reuters has for some unpublicized reason left the Globe to join Dpa, the German news agency where one of the Globe’s editors, Joe Cochrane, came from.
Toni’s departure leaves Bhimanto Suwastoyo as the only senior Indonesian editor at the Globe who commands professional respect. There is also another rumor that another editor might be leaving. So what’s happening there?
Wiping your friends from the face of Facebook
Unspun thinks Burger King may be on a good thing with the Angry Whopper. They are offering to send you a voucher for a free Angry Whopper if you manage to get rid of 10 useless friends in your Facebook account.
Now, that’s New Media marketing with a twist. Apparently 217.273 useless friends have been gotten rid off from Facebook as a result of the campaign so far.
TEMPO Interaktif, San Francisco:Ada-ada saja cara orang menaikklan volume dagangannya. Burger King baru saja meluncurkan program Whopper Sacrifice. Program ini adalah membagikan kupon makan di Burger King gratis dengan syarat Anda menghapus 10 teman Facebook.
Caranya, pengguna Facebook harus mengunduh aplikasi Whopper Sacrifice Facebook. Selanjutnya dia harus menghapus 10 teman “yang tidak beruntung”. Imbalannya adalah sebuah burger yang disebut Angry Whopper. Bila semua proses ini selesai, Burger King akan mengirimi kupon lewat snail mail alias surat konvensional.
Tentu saja, sebuah pemberitahuan akan dikirim ke teman Facebook Anda. Siap-siap saja kena damprat atau mendapat cap teman tak setia!
Read more here.
Former WSJ Jakarta correspondent goes in for operation today
Tim who was the WSJ’s correspondent based in jakarta till a few years ago goes in for hi second operation in Brussels today. Tim had his first operation in Singapore when doctors found a malignant tumor. The operation was a success and he relocated to Brussels.
Now doctors have found another growth and Tim goes in for operation today. Some of us in the JFCC got together and sent him a get Well card and this is what Tim had to say via e-mail:
Many many thanks for the card from you and the Jakarta gang! I received it on Friday, just before heading off for a last weekend away in the Ardennes. It was lovely there – snow covered hills, great food, tasty local beer. Just what I needed.
Now I’m back in the hospital, getting various tests and jabs ahead of tomorrow’s surgery. It’s really a drag to have to go through this whole process again, but the doctors here are confident they can remove the new growth, which apparently is fairly accessable. So I’m in good spirits, and even more so after receiving your card! Please give everyone my most profound thanks. And if anyone is ever passing through Brussels, I’ve got a spare room that’s always available!
All the best, Tim
We wish you all the best and a successful operation Tim.
Indonesia’s first Bloggership recipient
At Pesta Blogger 2008, the committee and Microsoft Indonesia came up with a neat idea to offer a bloggership.
What’s a bloggership? Think of it as a scholarship for bloggers. Announced at Pesta Blogger, Microsoft has been busy selecting the applicants for its inaugural bloggership and after going througha rigorous slection process involving Enda nasution as one of the judges, has decided on Anandita Puspitasari, a junior researcher at the Center for HRD and Applied Technology.Dita or better known by her blog name of Nona Dita is from Bogor and she beat four other candidates for the bloggership.
She’s now entitled to a Rp 15 million fund, a Windows mobile smart phone and expenses paid trips to three provinces. All she has to do is post whatever she wants, so long as its on education, human resources development and the private sector’s contribution in helping society find economic opportunities.
Congratulations Dita!
Below is the prss release posted at the Pesta Blogger site.
SIARAN PERSAnandita Puspitasari: Peneliti Junior LSM Jadi Penerima Bloggership Pertama di Indonesia
Jakarta, 13 Januari 2009—Anandita Puspitasari (23 tahun), seorang peneliti junior pada LSM Center for HRD and Applied Technology (CREATE), berhasil terpilih menjadi penerima Bloggership pertama di Indonesia, setelah menyisihkan 4 orang kandidat lainnya. Di dunia blog, perempuan muda asal Bogor, Jawa Barat ini lebih dikenal dengan sapaan Dita atau Nona Dita, seperti URL blog-nya di http://nonadita.com/.
Read more Here.
