h a l f b a k e r yBusiness Failure Incubator
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I'm on the verge of changing my mobile
phone service provider. Because my
existing biller is being awkward about
the
paperwork needed to transer the existing
phone number, I may end up changing
my
number. I'll then have to figure out, by
going though my address book, who has
my phone
number to let them know of
the
change.
The reverse address book feature of a
mobile phone would
add to the existing phone book when I
call somoone. For
every entry in the phone there would be a
field for whether the person has my
number, i.e. whether I need to give them
the new one. So, friends would be in the
reverse address book wheras the pizza
place around the corner wouldn't be.
Although I'd still need their phone
number, they never call me. Not after the
incident with the anchovies anyway.
When
calling a number for the first time, the
phone could give you the option to add
the person to your address book and
possibly the reverse address book.
But wait! There's more. I use an
integrated
address book on my computer so that
the
my computer, PDA and phone (when I get
around to upgrading it) all use the same
address book. I therefore the reverse
address book to deal with email
addresses
(multiple accounts), several phone
numbers and my home address. A
business contact might need to know
when I get a new mobile but doesn't care
when I move house. My friends don't care
if I change my business email address
but might
want to know if I move house, change
mobile number, personal email address
or IM
account.
So, in brief, (sorry, I have been rambling
terribly) it's a set of fields in an address
book that look after who I have contacted
by what method so that I can tell them
when somehting changes. Thank-you
and
goodnight.
[link]
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Bakable in address books that allow you
to enter your own fields - or, for those
that don't, if there's a field you don't
use, but that you can search on, adopt
it for this purpose. |
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[zen_tom] - My understanding of the idea is that the address book automatically logs methods of contact with different people. You are suggesting a Manual method for Baking so in my opinion the idea still stands. |
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Seems like it could be auto-populated, as long as you had logs of all your ingoing and outgoing contacts. For email that's pretty easy. In fact you could automate it in Outlook with an addin-- every time an incoming email's source address matched an address in your address book, mark it as a person you'd have to notify. |
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For phone numbers it would be a little trickier to automate, depending on your brand of phone. You'd need access to the "call log" of the phone, which on a good phone will contain both incoming and outgoing calls. If its a PalmOS or PocketPC phone that is synced with your computer, in theory this data is backed up on your computer somewhere. (Though it might be an undocumented format). After each sync it could be used to decorate address book entries appropriately. |
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I need something like this, too. Actually, I've been rolling around an idea in my head for this sort of thing for a while, but it's nice to know other people have thought about it, too. |
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I can think of all kinds of situations where something like this would be handy. On one end of the scale, there are contacts you might have given out to others as people who can reach you in the event of an emergency--what if one of them moves but you've forgotten to whom you've given their information? On the other end of the scale is more frivolous stuff like keeping track of all of the Web sites we're you've publicized that you're "single and looking," and suddenly you find that there's someone you want to marry. :-) |
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