It’s gone midnight, and I’m pondering what I’ll say in 6 weeks to a gathering of the best minds in the Telesphere at the Telco 2.0 event. I’m chair of the voice and messaging breakout.
I know these thoughts won’t make it into the businesslike final draft, so I’ll splurge them here. Luckily, I have this quasi-personal blog which I can splurge into anything vaguely telecom-related.
There’s no business model for love.
Of all the inventions of the 20th century, one stands proud. Not penicillin, the transistor, nuclear power, or the PC.
It’s the mobile telephone. Uniquely, it appeals to our core social need to talk to one another. Now we can do it anywhere, anytime, to anyone. The other inventions are all worth of praise, but ultimately offer little to the soul. Longevity, power, distraction. But not love.
I love you, Auste.
It’s very hard to add value to that, except to carry the message on my behalf.
You can all go back to work now :)
Posted by Martin Geddes at 12:03 AMTrackBack URL for this entry:
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Hey, nice post!
Be sure Auste reads carefully your blog!
This post comes to my mind the slides I read the other day from Mr. Odlyzko (that your kindly recommended):
'For the first 30 years of telephone, there were a lot of marketing about a lof of services, attempting to be successful in a high penetration of the phone. The marketing ideas were broadcasting news, concerts over the phone, ordering groceries, everything...
But no one campaign about chatting, just keeping in touch, just connecting ourselves to the people we love'
It was just a thought.
Cheers,
Posted by: at August 28, 2006 10:31 AMI think the biggest impact of the cell phone is its ability to keep people in touch during emergencies. I know that my friends and I, during a bad weather blackout a few months ago, were able to keep each other updated on the weather. We spread out all over the city so we were able to keep each other informed of conditions even though our computers and televisions were out of reach. I also feel a lot safer on road trips knowing that I can call for help at the touch of a button.
Posted by: at August 29, 2006 10:29 PM