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Update: yesterday’s demonstration did not go well. #

Original post: Or, perhaps more accurately, twisting in the wind. #

The SpinVox debacle continues. After the company’s spokesperson replied (see ‘Update 2′ here), the BBC replied: #

Now have a look at this picture, posted on the internet by a Spinvox customer, Jason Sewell from the United States. Actually, he’s a Vonage customer and signed up to the VOIP operator’s “visual voicemail” service, without knowing it had anything to do with Spinvox. Then he got via e-mail the message you can see. #

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Just how does that square with the idea that they never see full messages – or the assertion later in Mr Whatley’s blog that all messages are “completely anonymised”? #

The Register digs into patent filings to get a picture for what SpinVox is actually doing: #

SpinVox filings cover a number of innovations, and when read chronologically, tell their own story. The first filing simply describes a human powered call centre, while the most recent draws the “VMCS” as simply a box in the cloud. All of them describe business methods and applications. For example, recent filings describe uses for a translation system – such as speaking blog posts or emails, and ideas for inserting media or advertising information into an SMS text message. All these are business applications or methods. #

Quite significantly, something is missing. #

“None of the patents I have seen describes speech translation,” says Lyndsay Wiliams, head of Girton Labs in Cambridge and former Microsoft Researcher. #

In the United States, only one patent has been granted: and it’s for a human-powered call centre. #

In 2004 co-founder Daniel Doulton filed a patent for a “Method of providing voicemails to a wireless information device”. This accurately describes SpinVox’s business operation in great detail, insiders confirm. #

In the patent description’s own words: #

“…the operator intelligently transcribes the actual message from the original voice message by entering the corresponding text message (actually a succinct version of the original voice message, not a verbose word-for-word conversion) into the computer to generate a transcribed text message. The transcribed text message is then sent to the wireless information device from the computer. Because human operators are used instead of machine transcription, voicemails are converted accurately, intelligently, appropriately and succinctly into text messages (SMS/MMS).” #

The Mobile Industry Review asks the important question: #

[W]here the hell are the management? Where’s the Chief Executive? #

Where’s the complete and continual updates and the robust defence from the talented management team? #

Where’s the Public Relations Director? Everyone I’ve spoken to me today tells me it’s ’some guy called Jonathan’ who, to the best of my knowledge, I’ve never met. I’ve always rated Jane Henry, Spinvox’s Global PR Director — whenever I’ve dealt with her, she’s been direct, fair, inclusive, welcoming. When I extrapolate that experience out and match it against what I’ve been witnessing from the company over the past week or so, I simply can’t fathom the management silence. #

Why so silent? #

Perhaps because there’s no defense for misleading PR claims? Management’s unwillingness to engage is fuelling the story – it’s no longer about technology, it’s about honesty. This is how brands are damaged, perhaps irreparably. #

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