Nice service, few quick questions.

[VinnyC]

Hello,

I am trying out your service. So far so good, just waiting to get my
keywords approved so I can test it out. I couldn't find anywhere on the
administration page that shows me how many people have subscribed to
the rss alert feed I created.

If it was possible to get a subscriber count and a list of their cell
phone numbers, that would make this service much more useful for us.

Also, once someone signs up for my rss alert, how many messages can
they expect to receive from 4info that are not related to my rss feed?
Is my subscriber list going to be sold to the highest bidder so they
can spam them?

Finally, I have not tested it on my phone yet, but how would someone
unsubscribe from the rss alert?

Thanks,
VinnyC

[Nick]

Hi Vinny,

Your keywords have all been approved.

In future releases you can expect to see reports on the number of
subscribers for each of your services, the number of queries to your
service and how many messages your service is generating as well as
other data that will allow you to make decisions about the success of
your venture.

Users can unsubscribe from your RSS alert by texting back "STOP
<servicename>". Users will only receive texts from your service when
they query it and only receive alerts from your service if they set
them. On that note, we respect our users. We will never sell your
users' phone numbers to anyone and they will never be spammed, which is
why we don't reveal their phone numbers to Open Platform developers.
However each user is uniquely identified through an internal OP user id
that you can access via ${userId}. This will allow you to customize the
user experience of your service without sacrificing the privacy of your
users.

Nick

[Zaw Thet]

Users can also manage their alerts at: http://alerts.4info.net (they
will have to take 1 minute to register to do so).

[VinnyC]

Thanks for the replies guys.

We have been testing out the service with a few local businesses. We
want to setup special deal newsletters for local food places and clubs.
We've got a system rigged up now where we create a blog site for the
business, and then setup an RSS alert with 4info's system. This works,
but not as well as I would like it.

Is there any way to bypass the need to have to reply with A to sign up
for the alerts? I only want this to take 2 SMS messages, one message
for customer to request the alert and a reply with an initial
coupon/offer. Now this user is signed up for the mobile alerts and will
get them whenever the business owner logs in and posts a new offer.

I read about merchantcircle.com and searched around their site, but
they never mention anything about sms. Does the service I am talking
aboue already exist somewhere else?

This is one of our many plans for SMS. I also work for a home
automation company and i'm interested in using SMS to do things such as
controlling the thermostat in a house to turn on the heat while the
client is on their way home from work.

I've written a lot of PHP code that controls lights, thermostats, tv's
and security systems and combines it into a slick web based interface.
All of these controls are accessible on touchpanels throughout the
client's home.

I'm pretty sure I can rig up something with your XML services, but I am
very sensitive to opening up anything to the internet or an SMS gateway
without basic security measures in place.

I've looked in to getting my own SMS shortcode, but the process seems
expensive and complicated. Thanks for providing your service for free
so I can learn the basics and test out my ideas. I don't see any paid
services, do you offer more advanced features for a cost or do you
provision and host services for other sms shortcodes?

Thanks for your time,
-Vin

[Nick]

Vin,

Thanks for your valuable and insightful comments.

Re: opt in
We require the user to reply "A" for alerts because we want the system
to be voluntary. Users need to explicitly opt in to receive alerts.
(MMA Guidelines) This is done to prevent SMS spammers from maliciously
signing up people without their consent. I think if the request for
alert sign up came from within an authenticated user account within
your system this would minimize the risk. Let's talk and see what we
can come up with.

Re: smart house systems
I think integrating smart house systems and Open Platform is a great
practical application and I understand your concerns about security.
Again, we can talk about your needs and see if we can accommodate them
in a reasonable and quick manner.

Re: premium services
We will be offering premium services and they will be ad free. We have
not yet determined the pricing structure. All of our services work on
one short code (4INFO: 44636).

The short code is featured in USA Today, TV Guide and a number of other
publications on a daily basis in front of millions of readers so the
short code carries a lot of marketing clout on its own. This is a
benefit to users of Open Platform who can build their marketing
campaigns around a well known short code.

Nick