Personal Announcement
12 05 2009Folks..
As some of my close friends know, I have a lifetime dream to start a VRS business. Over the years, I have had a few opportunites, but the timing was not right or the vibes did not vibrate.
Until now, that is. The vibes vibrated! Out of respect for you great edsalert readers, I want to announce that three partners and I have teamed up and have formed a VRS provider; name of the company is Convo. Who are the partners? Wayne Betts, the famous movie maker; Chad Taylor, technical wizard, and Robin Horwitz, business savvy and go getter. All of us are deaf.
Why did the vibes vibrate as they did? Simply because all of us have same goal which is to make Convo purely consumer driven. No manufactured minutes! Remember this is early stage and Convo team is eager to meet the needs of deaf/hoh.
Be on the lookout for formal announcements. www.convorelay.com
Anyway, reason for this announcement is to let you all know that although I plan to continue edsalert blogs/vlogs, they will be fewer. Even though I intend to be impartial and fair, keep in mind that I now own VRS business.
eyes wide open & thumbs way up,
Ed
Wow ! Keep those vibes vibrating for a long time. Congratulations and best wishes for a second career ! It thrills me to no end when I see enterprising deaf people go into business. Do let us know how you’re doing from time to time.
WOWOW … GREAT NEWS … CONGRATULATIONS!
Wishing only the best of luck to Mr. Bosson and his partners at ConvoRelay.com.
Joyce
Educational Interpreter
Florida
Interesting! How will the services of Convo Relay be different from all other VRS relay services? *curious* Good luck setting up your new VRS company!
Let me know when you have your website up! And give those other relay services some real competition! Best of luck!
Ed,
Big hands waving. All success to you on this. Your acumen about the ups and downs in the business will sure be a plus! Not to mention that we need more Deaf owned/operated vendors in this business!
Congratulations and I wish you the best of luck!
Hey Ed! Congratulations! Sounds like its going to be a real VRS cook out competition with a new “cook” in the kitchen. Now you just gotta satisfy your customers with an appealing “taste” that will send raves around the country like a wildfire.
Good Luck!
FCC must have already given Convo their “blessing”? I feel for you! I learned a new term “social entrepreneur” which defines those who work for social change, with a mission so to speak. Welcome… it can be rough at times but worth the ride.
national certified interpreter here.. looking forward to this .. ITS ABOUT TIME!!! look forward to working for you!!
I deeply commend you for taking this much needed endeavor to serve with a mission. It is needed in so very many avenues for deaf citizens. If AFED or LaVista can be of assistance you, please contact us. Hugs to dear and intelligent man.
Welcome aboard to the business!
Know I’ll miss not seeing your text/msg on my email but I still wish u and ur co-owners the best luck! ;+) and big hands waving!!!
Big step! Best of luck. And my congrats too.
You going to be a national service or international? We are still waiting for the decision up here in Canada but it is still looking good – and with the report you did for us you are already familiar with what it’s like up here!
Henry
Wow, that’s a big step for you all four guys and wish you all the best of luck with big success in your VRS business.
Go man, go! (a Jamaican phrase of encouragement;-))
It will be tough at times but ultimately rewarding as we have found here as we work on a similar ethical basis here in the UK and have seen off three others to date who were in it just for the cash rather than be a truly consumer-driven venture….
All the best from us here in the UK.
Jeff
Hey thanks for the congrats! We’re really excited about this. Answers to a few of you will be forthcoming with future announcements from Convo.
eyes open & thumbs up,
Ed
Hi Ed,
Congratulations on your pursuing goals to reach the top! Cheers!
Keep your vibrating louder ever and ever! I look forward to hear more news forthcoming from you soon. Thank you for your heartfelt sharing with us.
Take care,
Nick
Congratulations on owning VRS business!!!! You deserve that because you were the Father of VRS!!! Wish you the best!!
Warm regards
Linda
Congrats! I look forward to use this organic VRS company!
I agreed with David B. — am looking forward to use your organic VRS company. Hopefully you’ll have sign-up to get further newsletter from ConvoRelay website.
It only makes sense that the Father of VRS finally become a Founder of a VRS company. Congratulations on your new venture and best of luck.
What is the counter on your website indicating? Is it for when your website will be available or when the service will be available?
Ed
I hope you and your partners make Convo fly. Best wishes!
Winston Ching
Wow,
I believe the you can provide high quality VRS service.
You deserve to run VRS company.
Good Luck to you and yours.
From Korea(Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity & Promotion)
and Thank you for Information through Ed’s Alert.
Kudos Ed and your team. Good luck with the new VRS..
Ed, a heartfelt congratulations to you with this new venture!
Well deserved opportunity to change the landscape for us all, once again!
Best, Mark Seeger
Congratulations to you Ed but I’m surprised that you’ve decided to go ahead and launch your service because I thought you were going to retire! However, I am delighted that you have decided to realise your dreams of a Deaf-owned VRS business giving excellent services rather than just making money, leaving behind the bad service and minimal features that I have seen so many times with other providers.
At the end of the day, it is all about you sitting in that Texan-style chair watching other VRS providers fail to perform over the years and that’s something I understand. Like me, you have decided to create your own ‘baby’ called Convo Relay to provide the highest quality service with a true understanding of customer needs just like us here at ERS USA, Inc which became the first Deaf-owned phone company in the United States. My aim too is to provide our customers with excellent services and a true understanding of their needs rather than just meeting the minimum standards set by the FCC!
I hope we can become partners in this endeavour in the future and wish you the best of luck Ed. This is just the beginning.
Marcus Turley
CEO of ERS USA, Inc and ETT International
Congratulations!
Ed,
How wonderful to see your announcement! As an interpreter who has done some VRS work through the years, I’m thrilled to see you put your vision and passion to work once again! Good luck to you and I’ll be watching ConvoRelay soar!
Need more information …
Congratulations, Ed. You invented VRS so I am sure Convo will be an excellent service.
But … Need to work on the web page. I looked at the video and the only other option is to “Join Convo”.
I need a lot more info before I “join” anything. Equipment requirements for example. Will Convo work with my iChat (Mac) program? With my D-Link, SVP, etc. (I don’t have Ojo or M or any of the other “stuffs” but that info needs to be there.
I already have an LN with another company. If I click on “join” is that going to port my LN over to Convo? Does Convo become my default carrier as soon as I click “Join”…
Etc. etc. Maybe add links to tech support and information pages BEFORE I have to click on “Join”?
@jk-II
No need to join before trying it out!
You can dial convorelay.tv from your iChat, VP200, etc and it works great!
If you sign up with Convo, it will not affect your LN or service with any other VRS provider.
P.S.
I’ve heard that Convo will be coming out with an awesome new VRS client for Mac soon.
JK-II,
ConvoFan essentially got it right.
Currently, the ‘join’ button acts as a subscribe button for email announcements; so maybe we need to change it to “subscribe convo” for clarity…
As for FAQ and equipment information, yes, this is forthcoming. We’re still adding contents. For now, we will serve any H.323 devices such as VP200, Ojo, VPAD, etc…
Mac solutions are next on our list. You should know that three partners are hardened MAC users ;-] I am still using PC and plan to have MAC as well. Best of both worlds, eh? ;-]
As for LN number, we don’t have anything in place to port numbers as of yet. But it is in the works and we’ll then be able to port the number if VRS user so chose.
In the meantime, there is no “create account” for Convo other than the subscription process. The reason for this is because we don’t have anything to offer yet that would suffice for an account. Again, this is forthcoming.
As usual your suggestions/remarks are good. We’re at the early stages now.
eyes open & thumbs up,
hmm..
convorelay.tv may or may not work with ichat. However, I can safely say that it is in the planning stage. Should be fully operational in due time.
eyes open & thumbs up,
Ed
I would like to get information on job opportunities with Convo. Where can I find that? I have many years of experience in VRS, and would love to work for a 100% organic-customer driven VRS provider. I provide 100% effective communication.
Video Terp,
I’m glad to see your thoughts! As u know Convo is just starting, but we intend to build additional call centers over time. When right time comes, there will be positions advertised in http://www.convorelay.com The email address is ed@convorelay.com Send me an email and we can continue discuss this.
Hi,
congratulations on your new business. I think the idea of a 100% consumer driven VRS provider is wonderful. I wish you all the best.
I do have a question. Robin Horowitz was involved with Hawk Relay who seem to have folded while owing their interpreters a lot of money. How does Convo plan to attract interpreters while avoiding the stigma of being new considering what has happened recently with some of the small/new providers? Will Convo guarantee that their staff will not face the types of issues seen at Hawk?
On another note, as an industry insider do have any news about Hawk’s status? Will their interpreters ever be paid?
Roberto,
Thanks for the postive remarks.
You answered your own question with the first remark. We do not intend to do any manufactured minutes. Also, as an elder partner and with a history of strong advocate and ethical practices, Convo will do what is the right thing to do. But it makes it lot easier when partners and I share same goals/mission passionly. They do!
Robin left Hawk for very good reasons otherwise he would still be with HawkRelay.
As for news on HawkRelay. I will leave to another media to do the reporting on this. Suffice to say HawkRelay is having to deal with FCC on various issues.
eyes open & thumbs up,
Yaaaay!! Can’t wait to hear more!! God’s speed with your venture!
Hello Ed and Convo Partners:
Congratulations on your new venture.
Can you clarify through which certified VRS provider you are billing minutes and
which interpreters you are using. I either heard or read somewhere that you are
using CAC out of Michigan. If that is the case, have you thoroughly vetted them
and made sure that they have not been involved with any “manufactured” minutes
at any point in their past? If they have been involved, how would you explain your
connection with them given that you are so concerned with ethical business practices?
Thank you.
Pat
Pat,
Very good question. Convo does use CACVRS to use its technical platform. However, we do not monitor their traffic nor do they monitor our traffic. All VRS providers have their own interpretation of the FCC regulations. CACVRS has its own interpretation as we do. At any rate, Convo processes only organic minutes.
So there you have it. I believe FCC will ultimately come out with ruling that will help VRS industry know what are allowed and what are not.
eyes open & thumbs up,
WOW!! Congratulations, ED!!
I’m happy to see this come to you.
However, I’m sorry to see the lone watchdog of the VRS industry (we all know that the FCC isn’t doing a very good job overseeing NECA and TRS proviers)
be sucked in by it..
I wish you’d stayed clear and continued to lend your words to
combat the wrong.
Anyway..
Best of luck to you.. See you at the conventions (or I will.. )
Mr. Anonymous
Hello Ed:
Thank you for your message.
I see by calling that Convo uses the CAC interpreters, if that is what you mean by technical platform.
As for checking out CAC, sounds like a “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Yes, perhaps the FFC will come out with more rules to clarify.
Be well.
Pat
Pat,
Convo has its own call center so video interpreters have explicit instructions on which calls can be processed and which cannot.
By technical platform, I meant Convo uses CAC’s ACD – automatic call distributor. The “don’t ask, don’t tell”. May I suggest you check out
http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6520221125
If you ask any of VRS providers – I mean all of them – they have heard in one form or another from me what I think ought to be permitted and what ought not to be permitted. Whether they follow my suggestions or not is another matter that I have no control over.
BTW, this week I will be posting quite a few from FCC and commentators. Very interesting to say the least.
eyes open & thumbs up…
Mr. Anonymous,
I will continue to post issued from FCC. Altho I will be in VRS industry so I can’t say I’m not biased. What I can say, however, that Convo will be a stickler to FCC rules. That deaf/hoh persons are the most important ingredient of VRS industry.
eyes open & thumbs up,
Are you able to tell us if the FCC investigated all VRS Provider during the past few months? Or if this is limited to a certain VRS Provider?
This is something we’ve been told by several sources. We believe that we can only get straight answer from you, unbiased, as you are well-known in VRS industry even though you just ventured out with Convo Relay.
I feel that Deaf and HOH have the right to know which VRS Provider have been investigated by FCC and/or by Federal Authorities. Whether for a minor or major violations. It is our right to know these things.
Lastly, We want to congratulate you, your partners for venturing out and achieve the lifelong dream! I definitely will try your service!
Concerned VRS Patronage
Concerned Patronage,
What I can tell you is that ALL certified VRS providers are under review by the FCC. HawkRelay and Viable are under heavy scrutiny now. I just got hold of two public document from FBI, I hope to post that in edsalert very soon.
Keep in mind that at this time VRS providers are not guilty of anything; you know the old saying “innocent until proven guilty in court of law”. This applies to VRS providers.
Uh, thank you for trying out Convo.
eyes open & thumbs up,
Thank you for getting back to me on that topic. We believe in an Old Adage of Innocent until Proven Guilty in the Court of Law. Which was the reason we wanted to ask to see if that was the occurrence amongst VRS Provider or not. Thank you for the clarification.
Ed:
Thank you for your reply and cite to the letter you sent to the FCC. I agree and have been witness to many of the “manufactured” minutes that you mention. Yes, the FCC needs to clearly disallow and enforce against this behavior. Part of the problem is how can the FCC either themselves or through tips discover these schemes without the “tippers” breaking FCC policy and/or jeopardizing their jobs?
Even though what’s done is done, I hope the FCC can still enforce, investigate and prosecute past illegal practices, then we all won’t have to dance around exactly which provider(s) have done this. It will be part of the public record.
Pat