http://www.lustratusrepama.com/litebytes/webtech/comments-on-the-magic-of-abstraction/ The Lustratus Research blog - thought leadership in SOA, Cloud Computing and Infrastructure Software Tue, 15 Jun 2010 17:14:12 +0100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://www.lustratusrepama.com/litebytes/webtech/comments-on-the-magic-of-abstraction/comment-page-1/#comment-89 brenda michelson Tue, 31 Oct 2006 23:21:45 +0000 http://www.lustratusrepama.com/litebytes/uncategorized/comments-on-the-magic-of-abstraction/#comment-89 My first reaction (Ronan knows I have a cataloguer background) is "householding, ugh!" Certainly, there is value in understanding the relationships between customers, and when you are mailing catalogs, knowing the “household” is important. For the cataloguer it is cost containment. For the customer, it is overall experience. No one wants a box full of duplicate (or perhaps any) catalogs. My “ugh” comes from the cost to execute householding, the error margin (even greater now with cell phones replacing land lines) and the actual occurrence of households in your customer base. If you average less than 1.5 people per household, then it might not be worth the expense. Like anything, the value proposition needs to be explored. In your paper, do you touch on understanding other, non-hierarchical relationships between customers? I’m thinking gift recipients, itinerary change contacts, wish list browsers, social network contacts? I read a piece in the NY Times earlier today on Computing 2016, which touched on the power and danger of analyzing relationships. As you say, “big brother”. Here's that link: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/31/science/31essa.html?ei=5088&en=64e41f3ff96acb9d&ex=1319950800&adxnnl=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1162336159-ZZ49eSZTmDMtytpitO/dfg&pagewanted=print My first reaction (Ronan knows I have a cataloguer background) is “householding, ugh!”
Certainly, there is value in understanding the relationships between customers, and when you are mailing catalogs, knowing the “household” is important. For the cataloguer it is cost containment. For the customer, it is overall experience. No one wants a box full of duplicate (or perhaps any) catalogs.
My “ugh” comes from the cost to execute householding, the error margin (even greater now with cell phones replacing land lines) and the actual occurrence of households in your customer base. If you average less than 1.5 people per household, then it might not be worth the expense. Like anything, the value proposition needs to be explored.
In your paper, do you touch on understanding other, non-hierarchical relationships between customers? I’m thinking gift recipients, itinerary change contacts, wish list browsers, social network contacts? I read a piece in the NY Times earlier today on Computing 2016, which touched on the power and danger of analyzing relationships. As you say, “big brother”.
Here’s that link: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/31/science/31essa.html?ei=5088&en=64e41f3ff96acb9d&ex=1319950800&adxnnl=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1162336159-ZZ49eSZTmDMtytpitO/dfg&pagewanted=print

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