Update #2: Not sure when in the last 24 hours it happened, but it looks like bloglines resolved their issues with feed-claiming in the publisher tools. I was finally able to claim my feeds and consolidate under my feedburner feed! Thanks Robyn and all the folks at bloglines who worked to fix this. [End Freedbacking]

Update: Please see the very professional comment from Robyn DeuPree at the end of this post. It’s very gratifying to see that the folks at Bloglines are paying attention to their freedbacking program. It’s interesting, while Robyn didn’t provide much more information than I received on Monday but she has managed to set my expectations correctly about resolution of the problem and so I’m not upset about it anymore. Saw this all the time when I worked at the aforementioned OEM - escalating of irate calls (it was a call center afterall). Of course, my guess is that the CSA who e-mailed me probably had similiar information (either at the time of the e-mail or soon thereafter) at their disposal - so how come the CSA failed where Robyn succeeded? It’s all in how you approach the conversation. In anycase, Robyn, thanks for the quick response and clarification.

Bloglines, some freedbacking for you…
On Friday, June 30, 2006 you announced your new Publisher Tools that allow us publishers to claim our blogs and feeds and manage them specifically on and for bloglines. WooHoo! I thought.

This was so easy on Technorati and Feedburner. I hastily went to Publisher Tools to claim my stuff.

Step 1, put in your blogger user name or blog name. Easy enough, ‘Omomyid’ that’s my user name.
Sorry, that name isn’t in our database.

Step 1a, Hmmm ok, name of my blog ‘Instant Cognition’ - cool there are my feeds.

Step 2. For user name ‘instantcognition’ enter your password. Hmmm my user name isn’t instantcognition, but okay, I’ll bite - in goes my password.
Sorry, user name and password don’t match - not surprising.

Step 3. Fill out feedback form requesting assistance with issue

Step 4. Automated response from Bloglines (nice and quick).

This is an automated confirmation that we have received your request for support and it has been assigned an incident tracking number. A member of our team will respond shortly.

Discussion Thread
Customer	06/30/2006 02:55 PM
So, trying to claim my blog (http://instantcognition.blogspot.com/) but your app does not recognize my blogger user name (omomyid) and password. So if I try claiming it by blog name, which you seem to be using as the user name, again, the password fails.

Okay, I should get a response within a couple of days….

Step 5. July 3rd, 2006.
CSA (customer service agent) response e-mail:

Thank you for contacting us. Please refer to the discussion thread below for our response. If you need further assistance with this issue, please reply to this message describing the issue in more detail.

Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you.

Subject
Web Form: [Account]
Discussion Thread
Response (M.M.)	07/03/2006 08:52 PM
We appreciate that you have brought this to our attention. We have forwarded your information to the appropriate technical department for further investigation, and regret any inconvenience.
Customer	06/30/2006 02:55 PM
So, trying to claim my blog (http://instantcognition.blogspot.com/) but your app does not recognize my blogger user name (omomyid) and password. So if I try claiming it by blog name, which you seem to

What uselessness is this? There’s no help here and preciously little more information than in the auto-responder from Friday.

Here it is Wednesday, July 5th, 2006 and I still can’t claim my feeds.

So here’s your freedbacking, make it as easy as Technorati and Feedburner. When someone contacts you, it’s not enough just to be fast with the auto-responder. When the human CSA actually gets a hold of the case, have an answer or at the very least, an avenue of exploration.

I used to work tech support at an OEM computer manufacturer and our motto was ‘One Call, One Resolution’.

Avinash’s post today about data visualization got me thinking…

The visualization he writes about made me wonder about how to score a data visualization (such as a chart) on how effectively it communicates to the viewer. It turns out, although I hadn’t really thought about it before, that I have a very simple (personal) test for chart effectiveness - a litmus test.

Chart Effectiveness Litmus Test:

Can the viewer understand the main point, idea or storyline within 5 seconds?

This can be detailed as two sub-tests:

1. Can the viewer gain any main insight, point, idea or storyline in those 5 seconds?
2. Is what the viewer understands in those 5 seconds what you intended?

If the answer to either of those questions is ‘No’ then you’ve got some work ahead of you.

It’s not just about pumping up the data density of your visualization, it has to be in the right format and it has to be the right data. Data Visualizations are a shortcut for the viewer, but shortcuts still have to lead to the right place (e.g. thought, idea, action, etc). Put it another way; a picture may be worth a thousand words, but they had better be words that make sense.

Personally, if I can’t puzzle out what a picture/visualization/chart is trying to tell me PDQ I tend to lose focus.

P.S. Avinash, blogging is not vacationing (don’t turn into Scoble, I love his blog but seriously, that man has a tough time taking a break).