SpinGate
So now, if you read my first post about Spinvox, and are still reading, you know all my background thoughts and interactions with Spinvox and some of the context.
Now I can come on to the recent furore of the 'exposure' by the BBC News technology team fronted by Rory Cellan Jones their Technology Correpondent. I didnt particularly like the wooly way it was written but I wasn't surprised by this as the standard of commentary and reporting on technology isnt too high at the Beeb in my opinion. I thought it was just more of the same old shallow non-comprehension of technology issues by the BBC technology teams. I cant bear to watch BBC Click for example. I'd have to swear and throw things at the TV too often its so woefully bad.
But I am puzzled by the story. Its such a non story yet its spun out of control.
The original BBC blog article, publicised on twitter by Cellan Jones alter ego @ruskin147 boiled down it seemed to me to a badly mis-connected set of dots drawn from a bunch of disgruntled folks with axes to grind giving opinions. There wasn't much substance: -
"the central claim of the company - that it's getting machines to translate audio into text - doesn't really stand up, because most of the work is actually done in call centres dotted around the world."
Eh? Doesn't really' and 'most of the work' - hardly facts that John Simpson would report from some war zone on the News. Just weasel words, half facts and sloppy text which the BBC only have 'some confidence' in. Isnt this supposed to be BBC news? Doesnt that mean we should be able to put whatsit says in the bank as authoritative. This is not that. Its no different to any startups actions. Look hard at Twitter Corp for example - a much bigger story - but its halo is intact because its still so very fashionable.
Cellan Jones acknowledges that Spinvox rely upon "human experts for assistance", just as I concluded in my initial discussions with them and as I explain in my first posting about Spinvox wasnt a surprise to me and wasn't even something I considered to be important.
SpinVox has always been totally clear that its technology is an automated live learning system where the machine makes the decision as to how much of a message it can convert the then passes over non-identiafiable, encrypted portions of the message to a human for identification, which in turn makes the system ever more able to achieve full atomatic conversion of messages.
So theres nothing here. It is a service. Havent we all spent the last three years learning from Microsoft that the only way forward for the computer software industry is the unique blend of product offering that we can make by blending software plus services together to deliver ground breaking new solutions that delight our customers. Isnt that exactly what Spinvox is? So why then, is this a story at all?
A personal hypothesis
I struggled with this and have a hypothesis for why this is a story ...
I must first say this is complete conjecture and not based upon any facts or briefings whatsoever. Im happy to have my own independent opinion. Im not in the pay of anyone related to this story on either side although I've had dealings with both Spinvox and the BBC which I disclose at the end.
Why the Spinvox story has legs
1) Spinvox has had some quality problems of late. Noticable examples from my mailbox include:-
"Hello this is an important call from Barclays for Mr Randy(?)" - as much as I might wish, my name isn't randy but the message was still actionable.
"07xxx xxxxxx Just left you a voice message that you need to listen to."
- When Spinvox completely fails you get a generic message like this one.
"I ___ we're gonna make it easier to get hold of you. Not sure about that. I'm in the car. I've just literally look Dad I mean managed to get the train ahead of Katrina(?) so hopefully I get a few waits to minute ___."
- Here you notice Katrina was spelt correctly. Spinvox wasn't sure but still told me it wasnt great information but again the message was actionable.
"Good morning it's a message from the O2 Store in reading(?) just to let you know that your repair your Apple phone is back from the repair centre it's repair and just waiting for you to come and pick up. If you're asked to just bring proof of ID or the original paper work that you have and that be great and we'll see you soon. Thanks very much. Bye bye." - Perfect Spinvox.
I think the messages above show whats going on. messages with a (?) have been electronically processed by the Spinvox system and names have been flagged. Messages with ____ were electronically processed by the Spinvox system and the _____ bit was passed for human verification but the ____ was not recognisable which might mean nobody even got to it before some timeout happened - again an indication of growing pains. Messages that 'just need to be listened to' meant that at that moment Spinvox failed safe because it was out of capacity altogether and the message went to 'normal' voicemail.
2) Spinvox is scaling up their operations, and presumably endlessly tweaking the software infrastructure they have. Its getting better since they started, as all software does but its not quite getting better quickly enough for the burn rate economics. They have to increase capacity to avoid fail messages like the one above. Im sure its a balancing act between quality of service, price and scalability.
3) We are in a credit crunch. Telcos renegotiate their costs and just basically bully their subscribers into submission. And then they dont pay. Its a huge problem. Ask anyone who supplies Telcos with goods or services. They have whole buildings full of bean counters who dont give a stuff about anything written in contracts but love the sport of ratcheting up the pressure on suppliers and cutting costs and extending payment dates to infinity. Spinvox is right in the middle of this.
4) Spinvox is looking for its next round of funding. Its being actively briefed against by persons or groups unknown, presumably who would like to lower the cost of getting involved in funding it or stop it getting funded as its an inconvenience. Choose your own conspiracy theory.
5) Spinvox has had its share of arrogant people doing what arrogant people do and some folk are now seeking revenge. Erm. Its the computer industry. Its full of arrogant people and vengeful people. Its all about spin and position. Always has been. Always will be. Listen to anyone in the computer software industry without understanding their complete agenda and their brief at your peril. This is especially true of armchair admirals, and disgruntled folks with an axe to grind.
6) Spinvox's posting on its blog was not its best defence. It was well intentioned and well argued to start with but poorly argued once it got into the 'we can't tell you' part. It needed more thought and second or third review before it went out. It allowed the BBC to attempt to get all principled with their rebuttal 'I wasnt going to post again but', and all that. Cellan Jones post got a head of steam via twitter where everyone seems to just want to repost things with 'spinvox' in them in order to inanely jump on a bandwagon as if its like getting a high score on a video game. Spinvox are on twitter too and like Harry Hill everyone loves a 'fight fight fight'. So this combined with the blog has catapulted it to mainstream news and now inevitably the nationals and Sky are on to it. (Hide your bins Spinvoxers).
7) Spinvox is in a competitive fight to the death with Google and Microsoft. Microsoft demonstrated Exchange Server 2010 voice to me and others last week at their partner conference. The demo looked good, the positioning was its all in software, and its on your premises. But their demo could easily easily have been smoke and mirrors. and they only claimed 80% reliablility. Is that good enough? I dont know - but what I do need is actionable messages. Google Voice I cant comment on as its not available in the UK at the moment. I do know that Microsoft called Google the biggest threat they have ever encountered because they are so like Microsoft in their Embrace, Enhance, Extend and Extinguish strategy. Google Voice and Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 are direct big gorilla competitors to Spinvox. Nice validation of the market. Tough competition.
8) Spinvox know they have to increase their foootprint and their technology capability now, in the next 12 months, before competitors gets market traction. So they are running fast. Working hard. Burning people out. Expanding during a credit crunch. Its a high risk strategy but the only one they can adopt. They dont have a cash cow operating system and office product, or a search engine to fund their existence.
The combination of all these factors together over a quiet summer tech news week made this story jump to the top.
Why now?
It doesnt answer the question why did the BBC choose to publish it at this time when the data has been around for ages and nobody seemed to care. Perhaps its ego driven self pubicity. Certainly its interesting that Cellan Jones is always on all the major BBC outputs, web, R4, R5, RLondon, Working Lunch, etc etc. I would have thought we could do with some balance from someone else! (but not that woeful bloke from Click either). Perhaps as I have suspected they do not understand the faintest thing about technology companies and startups at the BBC and what its like to do one or what its like to fall or stumble or fail and pick yourself up and start again, and what its like to compete. Perhaps the news team truly thinks this is SpinGate and Cellan Jones is Carl Bernstien. It isnt! To my mind its a UK tech company innovating and capturing market share quickly before the window of opportunity closes at some risk. We should be celebrating that!
I expect we will find out more over the coming weeks because this is going to run and run. Theres always a reason for 'Why Now' and its always illuminating.
Disclosures:
I have a free account courtesy of Spinvox as they think Im a mover and shaker in mobile - clearly they havent seen me dance
I was for almost ten years passionate about the BBC and part of the BBC Trust accountability mechanism notably as the chair of the Advisory council for BBC London.
I sponsored Cellan Jones in 'Children in Need' for a few quid.
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