Telepocalypse

No attention, please

And, just in time, the next thing I look at after writing today’s mega entry is an article on protecting the user’s attention. This time, it’s about keeping your business life away from evenings and weekends, and your personal life accessible at the right times. Only interrupt me with stuff that’s important.

This cries out for a communications service provider. “Nobody ever replies to John’s urgent weekend emails so this probably isn’t important.” Requires a middleman to aggregate data over multiple users, and act as your agent. And you would probably end up buying some bundled access with the same service. The goal of a next-generation telco is to enable high-value communications. You do this by assembling a portfolio of relevant services and access, which satisfies the bulk of your communications needs. No, this isn’t a walled garden, and doesn’t violate end-to-end. It’s a flower patch in a field — you can go anywhere, but an attractive offering has been assembled for you. In a way, it’s the Principle of Good Enough in action. I could assemble the best-of-breed access and services myself, but I can’t be arsed.

Remember: you are not a typical customer, and nor am I. We are outliers in the market place. AOL continues to exists for a reason.