[nfb-talk] FW: The Mosen Excursion

Wed Sep 20 18:10:01 CDT 2006

This is an ethics problem only if this fellow was an executive or
product developer.  You should also be concerned that Humanware did not
require him to sign an agreement preventing him from going to work for a
competitor for a set period after leaving Humanware.  Most companies do
that with any employee who could leave them for a competitor and give
that competitor an advantage.

My hunch is that he was made an offer and he took it.  That does not
mean he has done anything unethical.  It means he improved his situation
and his former employer did not take the basic steps to protect itself.

My last thought on this article is that we consumers should not buy any
product on the assertions of anybody.  We should purchase items on what
we research and try.  I know that is not easy to do.  But it beats
buying something just because some well polished spokesperson tells you
to. 

William

-----Original Message-----
From: nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org]
On Behalf Of Christopher McMillan
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 3:47 PM
To: gui-talk at nfbnet.org; nfb-talk at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nfb-talk] FW: The Mosen Excursion

________________________________________

From: Christopher McMillan 

Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 3:18 PM

To: chrismcmillan at earthlink.net

Subject: The Mosen Excursion

Opinion

The Mosen Excursion

Deborah Kendrick

When news of one man's job change hit the e-mail lists on September 1st,
the
blindness technology grapevine zoomed into hyperactive gear. For three
years, Jonathan Mosen has been product manager for HumanWare's
BrailleNote
family of products. On September 1, Freedom Scientific announced that he
will now be working for them as vice president of blindness hardware
products. That means, in effect, that after promoting one braille
personal
digital assistant (PDA) for three years, he will now be promoting its
best-known competitor. 

Debates arose on e-mail lists about BrailleNote vs. PAC Mate, closed
system
vs. open platform, and whether or not customers should question Mosen's
integrity. "Did I buy the wrong PDA?" blind customers were asking. "Will
the
BrailleNote still be developed?" "Does he really think the PAC Mate is a
better product?" And so on.

Why so much interest in one man's move from one company to another? 

While this kind of move might attract attention in any industry, there
are
some details specific to blindness that fueled the initial furor.

There's the limited access to products, for one thing. People who are
blind
can't drop in at the local Circuit City to fiddle with the laptops or
PDAs
on display before getting out their credit cards. Instead, we look for
reviews in AccessWorld, listen to related Internet broadcasts, or
subscribe
to e-mail lists where users are discussing products of interest. 

Although Jonathan Mosen has only been in the assistive technology field
for
three years, many Internet radio enthusiasts who are blind or visually
impaired were familiar with his voice and his name for three years prior
to
that. As founder and first director of ACB Radio in December 1999,
Mosen's
voice could be heard by people who are blind around the world. Later,
through his Internet program and blog, both called the Mosen Explosion,
those tuning in could learn about his political views, musical tastes,
technological savvy, and a host of other personal and professional
details. 

Just as sighted consumers identify with visual images--the face of a
certain
executive or an icon representing a product--people who are blind have a
similar recognition linked to sound cues (like a song or a person's
voice.)
Then, add to our affinity for the audibly recognizable the fact that
Mosen
is from New Zealand. (We Americans have an exaggerated fascination with
foreign accents--particularly those from other English-speaking
countries. A
pedestrian pronouncement seems somehow more sophisticated when we hear
it
spoken by someone from London, Sydney, or Christchurch than, say,
Pittsburgh
or Sacramento!) 

BrailleNote customers heard Mosen's voice on tutorials, too, and at
conferences and conventions. They came to identify him with the product
he
sold. 

HumanWare (formerly Pulse Data) and its KeySoft system have been around
for
more than 20 years--begun, in fact, before the young Mosen's voice would
have been changing. Whether or not its development will be ongoing, in
other
words, probably depends far more on its creator, Jonathan Sharp, and
other
HumanWare development team members, than on one former employee who
loved
and used it and brainstormed ways to improve it.

Why, then, were the concerns for the future of the company
disproportionate
to Mosen's role? Certainly, his high visibility (or audibility) in the
blind
computing community had something to do with it. People came to know him
through his broadcasts and blogs and e-mail messages. (He says,
incidentally, that he won't be doing any Internet radio now, and his
blog
has been closed and removed from the Web.)

But words like loyalty and betrayal don't come up just because someone
whose
voice you recognized changes jobs. No, the emotional level of trust and
interest are tied, I think, to something far more basic. There is a
serious
marketing lesson here for any company hoping to sell products with large
price tags to consumers who are blind. Customers who are blind feel a
special kinship with Jonathan Mosen because they have come to know him,
yes,
and because they like his accent, yes, and because he knows a lot about
technology. Mostly, though, people care so much about one man's job
change
because Jonathan Mosen is one of us: He is blind.

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