trymehere - FAQs

Chris Gare attended a Yankee conference in London focusing on the mobile industry. While there, a casual comment by a presenter made him think about a new service concept. After scribbling in his notebook on and off for several hours (instead of concentrating on other speakers!) trymehere was born. Back to top

What were the observations that led to trymehere?

The core concepts of a static address book and calendar have not changed for many years and are not addressing the needs of someone working and living in the 21st century always-connected world. Some of the observations that occurred to Chris at the conference were:

Contact information supplied held in an address book is static and gives no insight to which services an individual is actually using or prefers to use at any particular time depending on their activity or location.
We all move around from location to location in our daily lives and often wish to use different contact methods where ever we might be. Everyone follows some sort of daily routine so it should be possible to somehow automate the provision of service information and guidance to follow their movements.
Individuals have no easy-to-use service to provide availability or whereabouts guidance to friends, family and colleagues.
There seemed to be no easy way for a multi-company community to share address, calendar or availability information when all the information is held in incompatible software leading to ‘company islands’ that are isolated from each other.
There seemed to be no services that an individual could use balance their work-life balance by reducing work-related communications outside of office hours. If an individual has their work phone with them while not working they often answer it only to find it is not important.
Converged service solutions from enterprise software companies or PBX-related converged solutions are usually limited in their availablity to company employees using that particular proprietary solution.
Many Members of an individual's community such as associates, customers or partners work in other companies that have chosen to adopt different and usually incompatible solutions. This makes it difficult to provide information to them due to incompatibility considerations.
Company IT departments are loath to allow access to the company Intranet to external individuals due to security reasons.
Presence information, as found in instant messaging and now VoIP services ,are generally limited to individuals using those services. Moreover, It is ironic to note that when presence systems say you are available, that is the very time that you do not wish to be interrupted as you want to finish that important report! Back to top

I absolutely do not want my daily whereabouts to be tracked by my company, so there would be no way that I would use trymehere.

With trymehere, there is no reason for you to provide literal location information if you do not wish to. One of trymehere’s straplines is "It’s all about personal choice" and we specifically designed the service to accommodate this attitude. A Member can describe activities or locations using any language that they are comfortable with. They can be as literal or as abstract as they wish when creating location or activity names e.g. one person might say ‘I'm sleeping’ while another might only be comfortable saying ‘I'm not available’.

Therefore it is possible provide availability guidance to your colleagues and keep your whereabouts secret, if that is what you wish. However, there is much benefit to telling your colleagues where you are such as that you are travelling abroad. Back to top

I would not use trymehere because I simply turn my mobile off when I’m not available – isn’t that perfectly OK?

Well, we guess this must be OK as everyone does just that today! Just turning your mobile off, or putting it onto silent when you do not wish to take calls, is a bit like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut and just delays the problem until you turn the phone back on when you get inundated with voicemails. In the mean time, colleagues still need to get hold of you, and they have no idea why you are not available and will try multiple alternative ways to contact you.

If it is important they will repeatedly call your number until you eventually pick it up or they give up in frustration. If they are not comfortable with doing this, or they feel guilty about repeatedly calling you, they will send an SMS or leave a voicemail - often multiple times. In the latter case, the persistent voice mail system will keep on calling you back every few minutes until you decide take the call.

Even if your mobile or cell phone is on silent it can be just as annoying. Have you noticed that if you are in a meeting, it is just as annoying to other attendees as it vibrates on the table or you repeatedly keep looking at it to see who’s calling and to see if is more important than the meeting! In an always-connected world it is important to remember to give people, not technology, the priority and focus!

By using trymehere, the number of calls to your mobile or cell phone will be reduced or time-shifted as you are providing guidance that you are not available. Most of your work colleagues would not call until you say you are available, thus simultaneously reducing your stress and their frustration resulting in a more pleasant and productive day for everyone. Back to top

What are some of the benefits of an always-connected world?

As individuals, we have all seen the available anytime, anywhere, anyhow slogan as it has been the cornerstone of most telecoms marketing programmes for the last decade. Indeed, that promise has been fulfilled in droves when we consider the high market penetration and usage of mobile phones, the volume of broadband Internet access in many countries, and the use of new Internet services such as Instant Messaging (IM) and Voice over IP (VoIP).

Undoubtedly, this has brought untold benefit to each and every one of us, and has transformed the way we work on a day-to-day basis bringing the reality of new work choices such as location independent and home working to us all. No matter what profession we have chosen to follow, personal networking and communication with our colleagues are of paramount importance to achieving our personal and business goals. Is now hard to imagine a world where we would be unconnected again, and we would suspect that none of us would want to return to that state given the choice.

From a service perspective, trymehere provides a package of services that enables us to build on these benefits unavailable elsewhere today. Back to top

What are the down-sides of an always-connected world?

Do we really wish to be always-available as well as always-connected? Although many individuals pride themselves on being available 24/7 and relish the thought of never being out of contact as it suits their lifestyle, most of us are concerned about work-life balance. It so easy to slip into a way of working that could so easily adversely affect the relationship with friends and more importantly our family.

For example, in 2005 the Chartered Management Institute undertook a study: Despite calls to end the UK’s long-hours culture many Britons refuse to stop working and a quote: "Even when they finally go on holiday or vacation, managers find it difficult to relax. Almost half (48 per cent) regularly check their work emails and 43 per cent monitor voicemail. In an effort to keep in touch with colleagues 57 per cent take away their work mobile phones, 20 per cent take their laptops and 14 per cent regularly visit internet cafes."

Also, in research by Siemens, 41% of office workers who were asked what proportion of their business calls were unsuccessful because people were simply not available thought that it was up to 30 per cent of calls. When this occurs we usually resort to calling again later, sending SMS or emails. This causes not inconsiderable stress and frustration for the all parties as the persistent call backs from the voicemail service and SMSs build up while you are otherwise occupied.

For every benefit created by the always-connected world, there is an equal and opposite challenge. Trying to balance living in a real world while communicating in a 'virtual world' can bring untold of levels of stress, embarrassment and frustration upon themselves and those around them.

From a service perspective, trymehere provides tools to help you better manage the down-sides of an always-connected world.. Back to top

I like the idea of trymehere but it looks like a lot of effort to maintain my profile?

Yes trymehere does require the individual to set up and maintain a personal profile, but in practice this only requires a little effort. Considerable work has been put into the service to reduce the amount of effort as much as possible e.g.

The provision of a wizard that helps Paying Members create their initial profile quickly.
A considerable amount of in-context help to shorten the learning curve and reduce confusion.
Routine and temporary schedules can be copied complete with their associated activities to significantly reduce the time to create variants.
Temporary schedules can be created once and then disabled for future use without the need to recreate them multiple times.

Once the initial profile has been set up, it requires little effort on a daily basis to keep it up to date. Back to top

Surely not everyone can be bothered to use trymehere?

Yes, this will undoubtedly be the case for some senior company managers who would not have the time to devote to this task. We believe in these circumstances that many of their personal assistants would undertake this task on their boss’ behalf because of the benefits it will directly bring to themselves. We would expect many of these managers to experience the benefits of the service by first being a Member and then go on to be a Paying Member.

trymehere particularly benefits those individuals who have chosen, or had thrust upon them, a work choice such as location independent working, job sharing, working from home, shift working or flexi-working. We also expect a strong uptake by receptionists who would benefit from a better understanding of the whereabouts of company employees, and personal assistants who spend much of their days trying to locate colleagues on behalf of their boss.

At the end of the day there will be individuals who will continue to just turn off their mobile phone off as a way of communicating their unavailability as it is so easy for themselves but so, so, unhelpful to their friends and work colleagues. Back to top

What are the benefits of trymehere being an Internet based service?

The trymehere service is hosted on the Internet and this approach brings several benefits to individuals and companies using the service:

The use of the service does not require the costly purchase of any additional enterprise software.
There is no software to download onto an individual’s PC and there is no need to upload sensitive data like address books to the trymehere server. This approach considerably reduces the security risk of using the service and it is unlikely that IT or MIS departments would object to the service’s use.
trymehere is a service that all employees, customers and partners can use no matter what software, address books, calendars, computers or browser they have chosen to use making it perfect for inter-company use. Back to top

As an employee I can see the benefits for my company, but what would I get out of it?

Firstly, if the service helps an employee do their job better and smarter and saves money and time this is good for the company. There are definitely benefits for a company using trymehere in that it helps people such as their personal assistants and receptionists, who need to know an employees’ availability and maybe location. This can be challenging these days especially if they work from several locations on an ad hoc basis. The service also helps individual employees maintain contact with the community they work with, whether that be customers, clients, suppliers or project teams.

More importantly to an employee, they are able to use Member Groups and the activity descriptions to maintain control over what their work colleagues can see and who sees it. This is a very important concept as it prevents an employer abusing the service and puts the employee in full control. trymehere is a win-win for both the employee and company. Back to top

I would like to deploy trymehere throughout my company but it looks like a lot of effort is required to create the profiles for all our employees?

Most companies maintain a database of employees that includes their contact methods such as internal phone numbers, mobile phone numbers, home phone numbers and business email addresses.

trymehere can use this data to pre-populate a profile for each employee in bulk. Employees can then modify this as they wish and in addition create their personalised Member Group information to control who sees that information. Back to top

I am concerned about privacy, so if I stop using the service how would I delete my profile?

trymehere takes this issue very seriously. In our experience, it is nearly always the case that if you sign up to use an Internet-based service, such as a business or personal networking or an address book synchronisation service, there is never an easy way to delete your personal data once you have stopped using it.

We consider this to be a major oversight, so with trymehere we made it very easy for a Member to delete their profile. All a Member needs to do is to click the ‘delete profile’ button on the service home page and they can then fully delete their profile and all the Member Community data in one simple step. Back to top

I distrust many Internet services as they require me to download software onto my PC, and I just do not want to do this as I am scared about viruses and worms.

We agree! Many Internet-based services such as a business or personal networking or an address book synchronisation service do just this and what is more do not, in any way meaningful to users, explain what they are downloading or uploading and explain what is happening and why. This is a major oversight and creates an aura of distrust that does not create confidence, leading individuals to be very wary about using the service – especially if they are free!

At this time, trymehere does not require a user to upload or download files of any sort and is a simple HTML-based web service that can be used with confidence. If trymehere introduces a service in the future that does require download or upload, such as a calendar add-in, the benefits and risks of this action will be clearly outlined together with an opt-out capability for that feature. Back to top

Technology FAQs

Isn’t trymehere just another calendar or address book application?

Well, yes and no! We all know how we use a calendar. We open it up, select a day and enter future events or activities together with a start and end time. Quite simple really. It’s also possible to share your calendar with other company colleagues such as your personal assistant so that they can see your movements or set up a future appointment. It is also possible to tell colleagues of your whereabouts by setting up an auto-response email such as ‘I’m on holiday or vacation, please contact my PA, Susan Davis’. Newer releases of calendar applications also include simple presence and location capabilities so that you can manually set your presence information along the lines of ‘I’m out of the office’ or ‘I’m in a meeting’.

These latest enhancements to calendar features start to approach what trymehere is capable of but, we feel, in a rather limited way. Further, we should not forget that a company deploying the latest live communications or collaboration enterprise software will have to invest considerable additional CAPEX and OPEX to deploy these limited extra features. Along with calendars, address books are usually static applications which hold an individual’s contact details. trymehere’s capabilities go far beyond this.

At the heart of trymehere is a real-time engine that allows individuals to provide real-time guidance to their friends and colleagues throughout the day mostly without manual intervention if the individual is undertaking routine activities. Further, trymehere provides many capabilities not found in traditional address books such as providing specific contact method information that are associated with any activity is undertaking. Moreover, an individual can provide real-time availability guidance in free-form text that is location or activity sensitive.

An individual can decide who sees their availability and service guidance which can be targeted to specific ‘Member groups’. This capability is ideal for separating work and personal activities. For example, it is possible to provide guidance to work colleagues that you are not available for business calls on your rest days but available to friends and family. trymehere combines all these features in a simple to use and innovative service not found in today's calendar or address book applications. Back to top

I hear a lot of negative comments about location based services. Why is trymehere different?

trymehere is not really a location based service (LBS) as the term is conventionally used in the telecommunications industry. If you undertake a search in Google for location based services you will see that the term is inextricably linked to mobile or cellular telephone operators. One of the capabilities built into mobile operator’s platforms is the ability to triangulate the location of a mobile or cell phone from signals received by multiple cell base stations. The accuracy of this capability is limited to a few 100 metres at best. Mobile operators sell this capability to other service operators to create consumer services such as children trackers. It is also possible to create LBS services using satellite-based GPS (Global Positing Service) which provides much better accuracy.

A key aspect of LBS services that has created much bad press is that they are, in practice, a tracking service. This has positive connotations when looking at children tracking services as described above, but has extremely negative connotations if it used to track employees. It is clear that nobody wants to be tracked!

trymehere does has a location-based aspect as an individual provides guidance as to what services they wish to use at particular locations they use. They can, if they so wish, state where they are located such as ‘I’m in the office’. However, a individual is not forced to do this and can use non-descript wording such as ‘I’m available’ that will protect their actual whereabouts if that is what they wish.

trymehere has been consciously designed so that individuals can choose the level of specificity when describing their activities and locations i.e. one individual may be happy saying “I’m sleeping” while another would wish to say “I’m not available”. Either way, both individuals would probably wish to provide guidance to work colleagues that they are not available for telephone calls when sleeping on either their fixed or mobile phones!

We do not overtly use the word location when describing trymehere. Back to top

Everyone is going on about presence – what is this all about?

Presence is one of the current buzz-words in the telecommunications industry. All of the large enterprise or carrier service software vendors are using the term including Microsoft’s Live Meeting and Live Communications Server, Siemens OpenScape and Nortel’s Multimedia Collaboration Server.

The term originated in the instant messaging (IM) product sector where users of IM services are able to set their presence on their computer such as ‘Online’, ‘Busy’ or ‘Away’. This enables their colleagues to see whether they are available for a chat or not.

Presence capability is a powerful concept in its wider sense because it provides information about whether a individual is available for a conversation and in addition also wishes to converse. Presence capability is being built into calendars, collaboration applications and also VoIP services such as Skype.

Most instant messaging services and some PC-to-PC VoIP services provide an option to set your availability status. Many users have found that this capability can create real problems.

When you boot your PC, your status is set to On-line automatically. Annoyingly, this often leads to several of your buddies saying "Hi" or work colleagues asking you questions immediately!

Setting 'Away' status. You can choose to set an Away status automatically after say 5 minutes. The IM or VoIP service detects that you are away because you have not touched your keyboard or mouse. As soon as you return to your PC and touch the keyboard you are placed On-line again and open to immediate interruption just as you start working. This is just the exact opposite of what you want!

Multiple services. When you use several services such as IM, VoIP or calendar it is highly unlikely that you will set your status on every application before your leave your desk so that they do not reliably reflect your real status.

These problems can become so severe that the only solution is for many is to opt to appear to be Off-line permanently destroying any benefits of status information. trymehere offers a broader solution to this problem and can be used with any contact method helping you regain control of your time and manage your availability. trymehere overcomes these limitations.

trymehere is a service that focuses on enabling a individual to provide availability information to anyone they wish or would benefit from seeing it. One of the big limitations of using enterprise software for this activity is that the information is usually only available to employees of the organisation, making it difficult for contacts such as partners and customers to easily see the information. Also presence information is usually tied to a specific service like MSN, though available through Outlook if the company has upgraded their Exchange server. These could be called islands of presence and significantly limit the usefulness of those services.

trymehere does not suffer from islands of presence limitations because the service is based on simple HTML pages, and anyone with browser are able to access the availablity and service guidance.

We do not overtly use the word presence when describing trymehere. Back to top

I read a lot about identity, isn't trymehere an identity-based service?

Like the words 'location' and 'presence', identity is undoubtedly one of the big buzzwords at the moment. Software and service companies talk about "managing your identity on the Internet" and ISPs and carriers talk about "identity-based access networks", "Federated identity management", "single sign-on", and "identity verification". The latter being concerned with ensuring that an individual really is who they claim to be and not someone who has undertaken "identity theft". The words 'privacy' and 'trust' are close companions to identity.

Identity nirvana is often seen to be a single place on the web where an individual can control or manage all of their personal information. This can then be used to authenticate themselves on all web sites, when making financial transactions, or when accessing networks rather than having to do this multiple times on multiple systems on any given day.

trymehere does provide personal information on a selective basis depending on who is requesting that information, but we do not see trymehere as a central repository for an individual's information and we do not necessarily believe that such a concept is deliverable in any practical sense. For this reason, we do not overtly attach the concept of identity to our service. Back to top

My company uses Outlook or Notes, so why would we need trymehere?

In its basic form Outlook and Notes are used by many individuals or companies. Outlook does not include the capabilities as provided by trymehere. The closest is the ability to auto-respond to a received email with an email along the lines "I am out to the office on business the week of 31st January. I am answering my mobile and checking mail when I can. I am on UK time." It is also possible for colleagues within your company to look at your calendar to ascertain your current availability or future availability when scheduling a meeting.

If your company upgrades and licences Microsoft’s Live Communications Server then more capabilities are provided such as the incorporation of presence information enabling users to tell enquirers that they are in the office or not. To quote Microsoft, "Presence awareness within your desktop and line-of-business applications eliminates delays in locating and communicating with key work partners."

trymehere is a simple to use service that all employees, customers and partners can use no matter what software, address books, calendars, computers or browser they use making it perfect for inter-company use. Using trymehere represents a low-cost solution that does not require significant investment or the expensive upgrading of proprietary enterprise software. Also, using the service does not involve software uploads or downloads so an IT department should not object to its use. Back to top

Company FAQs

It is interesting that this is not a free service like many others – why is this?

At end of the 1990s when raising money to start a company was relatively simple there was an idea that the most important aspect of launching a new service was to get as many as possible ‘eyeballs’ using a service through ‘viral marketing’. Of course the quickest way of achieving this was by providing services for free!

Many services took this approach with the idea that if you create a population consisting of many millions then it would be possible to derive revenue through supplying ancillary services.

trymehere does not take this approach as it is looking to build a more conventional business through Paying Members paying a subscription to publish their own guidance to other Members. Members are able to see Providing Members’ guidance for free. Back to top

I find advertising on a web site irritating – will trymehere use advertising to supplement its revenue?

No. trymehere’s revenue derives from annual subscriptions paid by Providing Members and as such we are committed not to put pop-up advertising on the web site.

I see that you have help buttons on the site – what is this about?

Most web-based services and their associated web sites present a real challenge to new users because it is very difficult for them to find their way around so we have done all we can to help new users overcome the initial learning curve.

We have placed in-context help buttons throughout the site to help them learn how to set up and use the trymehere service as quickly as possible. In fact there are over 200 help screens denoted by help icons and when pressed they just pop-up a small window to provide an explanation of a term or guidance on how to complete a form.

We believe this a first and is a very important aspect of the service! Certainly we believe new Members will like it! Back to top

Completing the puzzle

Service FAQs:

Technology FAQs:

Company FAQs: