[CAUT]Boulder, Co tech?

[Jim Harvey]

David, Wim, Don, group

Tuesday, August 24, 2004, 11:24:38 AM, David wrote:

DV> Hi Don,
DV> Chris Finger is an excellent technician in Boulder, CO.

DV> http://www.fingerpianos.com/newsite/index.stm

This brings up an interesting point, although off-topic here. I'm
cross-posting to ptg-l for that reason.

First, I know Chris, but not aware of where he lives. Conversely, I
know both Don Shoffner and where he live(d) from a visit long time
ago.

I could not get to my membership guide at the time, so went to our own
search engine. It's quite likely Don did the same prior to making his
post.

I used the GENERAL search page, entered Boulder for city, and CO for
state. The instructions on that page read, "The search engine looks
for members which meet all the search qualifications entered. You can
just enter a few starting letters or number for any item."

Try it for yourself and see what happens when you fill in the blanks
for a city and state and nothing else. I *now* know that it works, but
not as expected. More below.

Instinct told me that for a community the size of Boulder, something
was strange. I then looked up Shoffner directly, then checked the
distance from one point to another. IOW, I didn't just pull a name out
of the sky.

After seeing Wim and David's posts today, I returned to ptg.org and
did the US map, then CO, and got a lot of hits. I admit this didn't
occur to me before my earlier reply. Even then, not surprisingly,
there are fewer members that actually live in Boulder than belong to
the Boulder chapter. IOW, I still wouldn't have hit Chris whom I know,
rather someone I may or may not know in Boulder.

Points to consider for this reply:

- Chris does _not_ live in Boulder -- he's a member of the Boulder
chapter;

- is there something 'broken' on the general search page?

- our practice of using chapter names (worse for this diatribe --
numbers) is similar to maps using geographical versus political
boundary lines.

Continuing that last item, Chris lives in Niwot, as apparently does
his business. That's like saying I live in Greenwood, and am a member
of the Western Carolinas chapter. My town is insignificant to my
300-mile service radius, and my chapter name is quite nebulous
compared to a tangible like 'Boulder'.

We ALL have need to make referrals from time to time. I was delighted
when we finally had a digital directory on-line. My wish would be that
it would be either dynamic from HO master membership list, or member
editable. I realize the latter is impossible with static web pages,
and the HO database was, optimistically speaking, primitive the last
time I saw it.

In many ways, our digital search capability is superior to our
paper-based counterpart. However, unlike the paper version, it's
available to the masses, and often represents our member "faces" to
the general public who use this medium. Sometimes the only face,
considering that not everyone advertises in the YP, that not every
member has a web site, and that people looking for technicians in
other areas don't usually have phone books of those areas.

I always ask new clients how they are referred to me. To my surprise
and delight, I've had two or three who found me on the ptg web site.
Not surprisingly, these people were first-order clients, compared to
the typical Yellow Page caller. These people just happened to be
looking for 'Greenwood' (quite rare) and somehow found me, based on
what set of parameters I don't know.

Same scenario, different theme. Suppose I lived in a more metropolitan
area. Let's say Boulder, Atlanta, or Chicago. These each have chapter
names tied to their respective cities. Due to population density, one
would get more "hits" from a cold search with this model, all other
conditions equal. People within an area also usually know the names of
smaller towns and bedroom communities surrounding their immediate
metro area.

Conversely, suppose someone (tech or public) was moving *from*
Boulder, Atlanta, or Chicago, and was looking for piano service in
Ninety-Six or Abbeville, or Ware Shoals. They wouldn't find me (or any
other tech) under any set of conditions, never mind that these places
are 9, 15, and 17 miles away... easily within my "local" service area.

I don't know off-hand how this can be accomplished, short of a *huge*
database that links member technicians to their designated areas of
service (probably based on zip codes to maintain sanity and
structure), but for openers, I think it would be good to make our
GENERAL (global) lookup page work as expected.

As mentioned earlier, I initially expected to enter Boulder and CO in
the search page, and be presented with any (listed) tech who lived
*IN* Boulder. I didn't expect to be presented with Region Names, then,
of all things, beginning with our internal chapter numbers beginning
with Western Massachusetts, then have to somehow find Boulder, then
find entries within the Boulder chapter.

Instead, I think most people expect to enter a wild-card pattern, then
immediately be presented a list of ONLY those meeting that criterion.
Am I just plain wrong, or is this too much to ask, until my more
ambitious dreams can become reality?

-- 
Regards,
 Jim                            mailto:harvey@greenwood.net