Telepocalypse

Present and correct

Earlier this week I mused on how the audio component of telephony might evolve. To add some editorial balance, here's (literally) a picture of the future from the presence side of the house.

I can tell you're impressed. I am. That picture tells you all you need to know about my household, and frankly is all you're going to find out too. The rug by the door where we put our shoes. It tells you who is home. And you know the house is warm because I'm not wearing my slippers. And you know we're not asleep because the light is still on. I'm tempted to rig up a wireless webcam and make a permanent web page of it.

Forget those presence icons in your messaging client. Your grandchildren will laugh at the superficiality of it. Presence is vastly richer and more complex. There are the clearly digital extensions of presence. What TV station is on (don't call me during the movie), is the cooker on, is the bathroom light on (don't you hate the phone ringing while you're doing a dump?). And then there will be softer, fuzzier forms of presence that require human interpretation. A dozen pairs of shoes? We've got a party going.

Knowing whether I'm online is increasingly irrelevant in an always-on world. What you really want to know is my contextual situation. How likely am I to welcome an interruption? A picture of my smelly slippers is worth a thousand presence icons.