Welcome to my old blog, which I no longer maintain.
For details of my current professional services and activities see www.martingeddes.com.
March 31, 2006
Your name in pixels
Ooh look, someone's cobbled together a fun article from my blog posts on UMA.
It's a 95% accurate precis of what I said, although there are a few minor snafus in the journalistic precis (e.g. I don't yet do any work for telcos -- I rarely visit the dark side -- although it's on the cards).
It wasn't until I started getting quoted in mainstream press that I discovered that reported speech in quotes doesn't necessarily correspond to the actual sequence of words said by the speaker.
Anyhow, whilst I'm on the subject of mainstream media... In case any of you think dead trees won't make it through the digital revolution, here's a counter-example:
Exciting, huh? It's from my parents' house. Apologies for the chintzy furniture and tasteless lampshade. I'm hoping they live to be 120 so I never have to inherit it.
But look closer.
See the copy of British Airways News in the magazine rack? I'm guessing my Dad was probably given it by a friend who still works at BA. But before he retired, he'd bring home a copy every week. And my mother would read it, because it's there. There's the usual internal editorial, but also lots of adverts aimed at airline employees, plus listings of destinations with low loads good for staff travel. My Dad even got kudos for remembering to bring it home for her -- a small token of caring.
Now think how you would achieve this in an all-digital world. It just doesn't work. The casual veg-out in front of the TV with the paper on the coffee table. Beyond replication. No amount of directories, federated ID, security, syndication and wishful thinking is going to deliver the same result in the near future. There's no firewall keeping copies of BA News away from spouses of BA employees. But the digital gulf between BA and those people is immense.
The lesson? Beware of technology as a panacea. The real world is complex, messy and analogue.
Posted by Martin Geddes at 7:05 PMTrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.telepocalypse.net/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/mgeddes/MT/mt-tb.cgi/689