Welcome to my old blog, which I no longer maintain.
For details of my current professional services and activities see www.martingeddes.com.
September 20, 2005
VON: Disaster relief appeal
This is a special VON appeal on behalf of all victims of the PSTN communications disaster.
Have you ever missed a call because someone rang you on the wrong number? Found it hard to keep track of people's phone numbers? Keep forgetting to call on family birthdays? Disappeared into a vortex of voicemail tag? Been called back twice by someone who dialled the wrong number and just wanted to make sure they entered it in right?
(cue soft music)
So today we are launching a special appeal on behalf of all frustrated telecommunications users. Users that live in the real world, with real everyday communications problems...
The real world
We have travelled afar to scour a strange place where new treatments for the affliction of frustratia telefonica are being developed. A clinical, strange world. Almost, indeed, a fantasy world...
Fantasy world
So I'd like you to join me in supporting this special appeal on behalf of all communications users. Let us together join the search for the missing features. Let us solve the problems that ordinary people find in their daily lives when trying to keep in touch.
(cue cresendo, violins, sotto voce, view of presenter)
Just always, always, remember the suffering users.
(cue Skype logo, flash up Paypal account details to which to send donations.)
OK, that was a bit of fun. You might think my criticism of the PSTN somewhat harsh, but from the user's perspective I doubt it achieves "one nine" reliability, forget 99.999%. Consider how many impulses to communicate are successfully acted upon and executed fully first time. I'm going to be wondering the halls and talks at VON with one question in my mind for vendors: how does your stuff improve the lot of users? The point of this stupid network was better and new communications tools. Is the industry rising to the challenge?
PS -- After I drafted this wee critique on the introspective nature of the industry, the WiFi in the halls failed and Niklas Zennstrom's talk was a technological tour de failure. So I was tempted to re-cast the "disaster relief appeal" a bit more spitefully, but I'll be nice for once.
Posted by Martin Geddes at 2:45 PMTrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.telepocalypse.net/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/mgeddes/MT/mt-tb.cgi/565