Playing both sides

[MakeOptics]

I'm not sure how the ability to take a PD online will help someone purchase sex online and get a good fit.

In my best Ron Burgundy voice, Stay Classy Oakville!

[Johns]

The OAA, AOA, and ABO. Last newsletter was an article about possibly certifying online opticals. I have been waiting for someone to post but it's not news worthy I guess.

I saw it, but have not formed an opinion. My first reaction was to wonder if an outside force is pushing this. Why would these organizations be in such a hurry to legitimize their competition? What value would a certification hold, if there's no way it can be enforced? Many of the onliners are located halfway across the globe. When a government can't enforce customs and other laws, how is something as insignificant as optical certification be enoforced? And do you really foresee consumers looking for a certification on a website before they purchase online?

[MakeOptics]

Reason I ask is I worked on a frame try on system about 5-6 years ago when the technology was just emerging and was going to write up an article about how it worked and even had a simple system online to have people try out with a few frame. No one was interested, it was server side so it required an image upload. Over the years as HTML5 was released by the W3C as a standard I coded up a version that allows the use of the file API and canvas object bleeding edge at the time which meant very few web browsers would have the ability to run the code but it was all client side so you could technically save it to your computer and run it locally so I will never be able to own the code (which I don't believe in anyway). Lately I have been wanting to go back and implement the webRTC standard which allows HTML5 access to a webcam attached to the computer to stream video and snatch the still image from a video into t he program. Anyway I dug it up nd gave it a new UI. Haven't implemented the webRTC yet but in the process, it still works great without webRTC but I feel the user interaction would be cleaner with webRTC. I never released it because it only helps online opticals succeed and would be useless in person face o face with clients. I just made sure to have it in my war chest so that when the day came to compete online others would have to pay for a similar system (no one gives away code for free except me apparently) which would give me a competitive advantage. When I opened up my OAA newsletter and saw that they were in talks with the major players in online opticals to implement a certification I figured the time has come, so their are a few things I need to polish off and get ready for the storm. I am literally ready to flick a switch and within a month I can have an e-commerce system up and running with comparable functionality to the big boys with no monthly fees other than my hosting.

It has been discussed to death so I don't want to beat a dead horse but education is tantamount to an opticians survival and since opticians hate education, I spent my time distancing myself from opticians for fear of poisoning my ability to think outside the box and ahead.

[MakeOptics]

I saw it, but have not formed an opinion. My first reaction was to wonder if an outside force is pushing this. Why would these organizations be in such a hurry to legitimize their competition? What value would a certification hold, if there's no way it can be enforced? Many of the onliners are located halfway across the globe. When a government can't enforce customs and other laws, how is something as insignificant as optical certification be enoforced? And do you really foresee consumers looking for a certification on a website before they purchase online?

One of the biggest contributors to the OAA is Luxottica and they recently purchased glasses.com or are in the process. My thought is maybe that's where the push is coming from either way I am just watching right now and paying attention. Luxottica wants to be able to offer a similar set up to myeyeglasses or whatever that e system is to independents. Of course my thinking is that that will allow luxottica to attain a level of access to patient and client data that would make it hard to compete with them when the day comes to take that site away from the independents.

So my line of thought is why not amass the tools now to compete without giving away the most valuable portion of the online transaction "client data".

[Chris Ryser]

This seems to be the slow death of a thread, when the conversation goes from on line glasses to buying sex on line.

[MakeOptics]

This seems to be the slow death of a thread, when the conversation goes from on line glasses to buying sex on line.

It's an uncomfortable subject that raises uncertainty in peoples careers. Sometimes joking and a bit of jovial banter helps to ease the tension and spur discussion, who knows this maybe the start of the discussion not the end.

[Now I See]

Personally, I would love to have a frame-try-on gadget on my website. I looked into a couple of options a couple of years ago, but the cost was over-the-top for me. My biggest concern with offering to make glasses via the internet is the loss of face-to-face time with the patient. The time I spend with the patient while trying on glasses gives me lots of insight to how they wear their glasses (i.e. posture, hobbies, former RX and lens style, etc.)...which, IMO is a large part of getting the proper fit. Also, TALKING to them, and watching their body language...this gives me great cues on how to best fit their glasses for their needs.

I'm not sure how certification for on-line optical shops would work...I can't think of anyway that could be regulated effectively.

[Johns]

I just think it's more than ironic that these associations are working to legitimize the onliners....

[idispense]

You got it Pontiac