Introduction
Comdex was a tremendous disappointment, until Expertcity.com came along.
I don’t subscribe to the view of a majority of writers on technology that feel like they have to justify the industries they cover. Nowhere was this more evident than in the past week in Las Vegas where there seemed to be some sort of desire to pain the twentieth anniversary celebrations of Comdex as the portal to the post-PC generation. For the most part, Comdex is on the verge of extinction except as a venue for Ziff-Davis to wine and dine advertisers, and plug its latest publications. A bloated, aimless show, which seemed to be more about digital cameras than anything else. I mean, it’s a great place to meet and greet customers and contacts from around the world. That’s why they have fleets of limousines ferrying Dell and Gateway customers to hospitality suites dotted around Vegas’ resorts.
That’s how I felt after a couple of exhausting days of trudging from one venue to another. Then, I sat down for forty minutes with Andreas von Blottnitz, CEO of Expertcity.com. Mr. Blottnitz is the kind of guy you want to mess up. He is young, smart, and genuinely upbeat about everything. He lacks the pretensions and ego of your average of Internet executive, and here’s the hook, he can sit at a computer and demonstrate his company’s Web site better than any product manager, or would-be evangelist. Heck, he can even type.
I can’t tell you exactly what it is about Expertcity.com that has got to me. I haven’t felt this enthused about a company, a product, or much else, in quite some time. Not for lack of trying either. All I can say is that I have an incredibly strong gut feel about this Web company. I’ll try and explain what they do, but I suggest you go to their site and actually take it on for yourselves. My words may not do it justice because, the premise and function of Expertcity.com is about as simple as it could get.
Presently, Expertcity.com is in its beta stage of development, and it covers support for Excel, PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, Windows 95 and 98, Internet Explorer, and Netscape Navigator. You go to the site, and type in your problem. Let’s say, «How do I change the default line spacing in my Word document?» Once your query has been entered, you will get back a list of live «experts», sometimes with their picture attached, usually with the Expertcity.com logo. Each expert is responding to your query, and offers support for free, although the plan is to charge for services at some later date. They are bidding to support you, or help you out. First really neat thing, right there. I have a deluge of willing helpers applying to interact with me. Boy, doesn’t that beat the usual technical support nightmare.
«Your call is important to us. Please stay on the line and our next available operator will be with you shortly.»
In this case, I get to choose my little helper. Each expert has a resume you can view, as well as a star rating. The resume contains the comments of people who have been helped by the expert in the past, and the star rating is the result of direct consumer feedback of the expert’s work. In addition, you get to see how many customers they have already served, and when they are available to help you during the session. Unbelievable. It’s so simple, yet, it’s so bloody effective!
Online Help
So, let’s recap. I’m sitting at my computer. I have a problem. I put my problem out there, on Expertcity.com, and then, I get a list of people bidding to help me. I can browse through their records and see how well they have performed in the past, get their records, and also see how much experience they have accumulated.
So, now we go to the next thing. I choose an expert, and he and I begin the session. This involves downloading a screen sharing software from Expertcity.com. It’s less than 200 Kbytes, and works very efficiently. It’s quick, and what I get is a dialogue box that allows me to have a live chat session with my expert. At all times, the expert is very polite, and takes things one step at a time because, the expert now has the ability to share your screen. This means a number of things:
- Interactive Chat: Obviously, this is the first part of the connection between you and the expert, and it’s just like using AIM or ICQ.
- Screen Sharing: The expert gets to use your screen online, showing you exactly what’s happening onscreen. However, the expert always asks permission before using your screen, and you can take control back at any time.
- Whiteboard Mode: This is a great feature. The screen can be turned into a whiteboard. You and the expert can type on any part of the screen, draw lines and point out problems, and highlight things. You have to use it to believe how easy and fun it can be.
- Remote Control: The expert can go as far as controlling the mouse and menu options. It’s perfect for teaching and showing program features. Both of you will see exactly the same thing.
After the session ends, the applet that loaded the Expertcity.com software will remove it. This does mean that every time you connect to an expert you have to download the applet, but I would imagine that most people will prefer it that way. Subsequent to the session ending you get a feedback form which basically has three options, positive, neutral, and negative. Expertcity.com forces you to be very black and white about the support. I can’t say how grateful I am for that.
Of course, Expertcity.com also has a motive in being so focused on the service provider’s skills. In the future, the company expects that experts will be independents, and Expertcity.com will be a vehicle to help them connect to clients, and facilitate billing.
Now, I get to really juicy bit for you, the reader. Go to Buddyhelp.com, and you can become an expert, or get help, from anyone you choose. A friend or an associate. It’s a very simple way of getting you and a person of your choice set up in exactly the same session as I have described above.
For me, Expertcity.com is the most exciting, innovative, and enticing product that I have seen at a trade show in many, many years. I can’t even think of one cynical, or sarcastic thing to say about it. Maybe I’m losing my edge, or maybe I’m onto something. I tend to believe the latter.
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