Inside Track

This is another feature of The Inside Track, our premium service.

We know that not everyone is a Twitter user. Even if you are, you may not be following the sources who provide good info.

So, we make it easy by giving all of our users access to commute-related info from the Twitter-verse

From the main page, click on the red gear…and pick Twitter timelines

By default, we show you tweets for your primary carrier. However you have options to see other providers, as well as the major terminals (e.g., NY Penn, Port Authority and Grand Central).

It’s one more way we help you leverage the wisdom of the crowds.

We also show you the latest tweets from Clever Commute.

Summary: Crowdsourcing is one important component of Clever Commute. However, when you use our premium service, you get the benefit of other datafeeds / sources. [Premium service = The Inside Track. See all the features. Sign up here. More info]

More: In Internet culture, there is a rule of thumb pertaining to participation in an internet community. It states that only 1% of the users of a social service (e.g., the free Clever Commute service) actively create new content. Yes – the other 99% of the participants only lurk. Statistically speaking, that’s YOU!

Of course, this matters if you depend on other people to do the sharing when there are issues with the commute…but none of your fellow commuters are sharing. Let’s cut to the chase and tell you why this all matters:

• DeCamp bus lines (yes, the bus company) broadcasts bus-related info via their official Twitter account
  (Alas, Clever Commute knows that even fewer than 1% of our users are Twitter users…so this is not really a help)
• The Port Authority of NY/NJ also electronically publishes timely updates regarding traffic and transit
  (although it has all the shortcomings of a non-integrated e-mail based system)

Oh, yes…we did! Just in time for Summer traffic: the two sources above are now integrated into The Inside Track! Now, our premium users can:

• Opt-in/Opt-out of either of these new sources (just as they can for any sender)
• Receive messages via fast e-mail or true text messaging
• Set delivery preferences such as time-of-day/day-of-week
• Use our snooze feature to pause alerts for minutes…hours…or until tomorrow!
• Turn off all messages when you travel/are on business (but we know you like to see those when they don’t impact you: )

The timing could not be better. Let’s look at tonight, for example. The bus commute from Port Authority was indeed a bad one…but the sharers where nowhere to be found. That’s OK…automation saved the day!

At 5:42 PM: our integration with Port Authority provided the content for this automated e-mail message to our Inside Track commuters:

At 5:56 PM: our DeCamp/Twitter integration sent this e-mail message to our Inside Track commuters

It matters because there were no other crowdsourced messages this afternoon. If we did not have this technology in place, you would have no way to know about the problems tonight. 

Another amazing feature from The Inside Track:

Show some love! When someone sends a really good alert to the group, let them know you care! Add them to your favorites list.

We won’t share any of your personal information. But we will recognize and reward the people who are most-favorited by their fellow commuters.

Maybe it will be YOU!

Another amazing feature of The Inside Track is the ability to maintain a blacklist / whitelist of commuters and data sources. Therefore, you can elect to not receive future messages from certain senders..at your discretion. You can also mark a sender or data source as a favorite (more on that later).
To block or favorite a sender, just click on the link in the message (example below).
To manage your list of blocked/favorite senders, use the show-hide senders feature. This is an option on the gears/settings menu in The Inside Track app. (click to enlarge this example for a message from user holb111)

Note: There are a few special senders: the transit providers themselves!
Maybe you want to “show them some love” by marking them as favorites. OK, maybe not:)
But we just wanted to be sure you know which user ID’s represent the official alerts from the various transit providers:

For example:

• DeCamp Bus lines ONLY shares info via their Twitter – @DeCampBusLines.  However, not everyone is a Twitter user.
• Also, even if you are a Twitter user, you don’t want to check Twitter AND Clever Commute just to see your alerts.

Our solution:

• incorporate these Tweets into Clever Commute
• attribute the Tweets to the owner (e.g., sender = @DeCampBusLines)
• give you the ability to opt-out (not receive) messages from that sender

And of course you still get all the bells-and-whistles mentioned above.

<= Click to enlarge

Noteworthy:

#1 & #2 – Message source is clearly labeled

#3 – You have the choice to “opt-out” by adding the underlying sender to your “Block List”