Could it be Verse?
by Volker Weber
It's been half a year since IBM announced the "freemium" offering of IBM Verse, and almost four months since IBM actually "shipped" it. And with shipping I mean they let the first people on board. My own expectations were rather low, but even those were not met with the actual product. A new way to work? Maybe, but not a better way to work.
Five questions:
- Do you know IBMverse.com exists?
- Do you have an account?
- Do you use it?
- Why is there no login link?
- Why does it exist?
Comments
Do you know IBMverse.com exists? - Yes
Do you have an account? - Yes
Do you use it? - No
Why is there no login link? - New Way to Login
Why does it exist? - Maintenance revenue for N/D customers
Well, this sums it up nicely:
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Content blocked by your organization
Reason:
The XXXXX filters this Websense category: Uncategorized.
URL: http://ibmverse.com/
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Bruce, IBMverse.com has no revenue, as you know.
@Vowe, yes you are correct.
My advice to IBM would be to turn off ASAP ibmverse.com.
How is it actually possible to put out a site like ibmverse.com with no sign in button? You can sign up, but you can't sign in? That makes so little sense, it is hard to believe there isn't a subversive team inside IBM trying actively to discredit the company.
It makes me want to hack the site and add a Login link. Given the people who built the site, it probably wouldn't be difficult.
1. Do you know IBMverse.com exists? Yes, but only because of my job. The average consumer does not. Even if they had heard of "IBM Verse" (because IBM has done some decent advertising, including magazines, TV, billboards) they would not be able to distinguish between IBM Verse (for enterprises) and IBMVerse.com (or Verse Basic) for consumer use.
2. Do you have an account? Yes.
3. Do you use it? No.
4. Why is there no login link? I don't know, but I can tell you I've personally seen this brought up to at least 4-5 senior execs for months now. I can only imagine how many times it's been mentioned that I've not witnessed.
5. Why does it exist? Because for years customers and partners have complained that IBM has no consumer presence. Someone thought this would be a good opportunity. The execution was terrible, from signup/registration, to lack of ability to connect to an existing account, to contact import challenges, to no mobile support. Come on, who would want to access consumer email on their mobile device? ;-) Truth is, I've not received a single email from someone using an ibmverse.com address yet.
Yes, yes, no, beats me, well....
When I got the account I wrote a very long blot post about it and never published it. I just does not make sense. I ran in so many road blocks, I could not believe, that this was the uncrippled "consumer" version that was promised. As it turned out, it isn't crippled, it is clinically dead.
I got a few people sending me test emails but that stopped after about two weeks. Looks like, that most just give up.
Not in my wildest dreams I can imagine a useful purpose for it. If somebody wants to sell Verse, he should steer any prospective customer well clear of ibmverse.com. Rather pay for a real account and make screen shots.
Interestingly, Vowe is the only one who still brings up the subject. Nobody else I know of is writing about it. That should give IBM a hint.
Do you have an account? Yes.
Do you use it? No.
Maybe works as designed, when reading the welcome mail subject from IBM Verse Team:
"Happiness is an empty inbox"
Yeah, i´m happy :p
I love the headline. :)
Is verse being pronounced the same like worse ?
Like worse, with a German accent.
Try and find an #IBMVerse tweet that is not posted by an IBMer: https://twitter.com/hashtag/ibmverse
Hey, Alan! I found one!
- twitter.com/alanlepo/status/626010800109412352
Oh, wait, that's you! ;)
---* Bill
Do you know IBMverse.com exists? - Yes
Do you have an account? - Yes
Do you use it? - No
Why is there no login link? - NFC !
Why does it exist? - NFC !
