Being direct... AdVantage Feb 2006
Permission Goes Real-Time!
Mobile Communication has been the growth explosion of the past decade - now watch out for 'Presence' ... !
In addition to being actively involved in the world of customers and databases (i.e. it is how I put a roof over my head and food in my mouth), I am also fortunate to have a growing interest in the introduction of mobile communications to small and medium sized businesses. It is in this specific field however, that there are developments ahead which may have some interesting social overtones. Some of you may remember a piece which I wrote in AdVantage in June 2002, after having made a trip to Boston to attend an Instant Messaging strategy session, and during which I met one of the authors of the 'Cluetrain Manifesto' - Dr David Weinberger. Weinberger had some strong views on the 'battle' between control and connection, and as the technology has literally galloped along since that visit, I thought that it may be worthwhile to revisit some of his comments - for context.
One of David's strongest views is that humanity fundamentally displays its sociability through the need to converse. In addition, he says, there is something called the paradox of the masses: even though we are all individuals, we also relish the facelessness of a crowd. When we expose our 'self' through interaction, we are usually careful to only expose our 'outer' self, preferring to protect our more sensitive (and clearly more vulnerable, and therefore self-controlled) 'inner' self.
Technology has evolved however and 'connectivity' has become so much a part of our everyday lives that many people feel the need to protect their private and public persona's from being accessed at will by the connected world at large. The fact that a connection exists (ie we know your e-mail address or your mobile number) suggests that there is a perception of an automatic 'right' on the part of the initiator, to start-up a communication.
In reality, many people have become so unhappy at being constantly bombarded with messages, that they have started to jealously guard 'when and how' they can be communicated with. A simple example of this phenomenon is voicemail - which some people now use as a means of screening communications which they may wish to have. At the root of this mindset is a concept which grew out of one of the technologies that sits on top of the Internet (ie Instant Messaging), and this concept is called 'PRESENCE'. Presence is 'permission' to be communicated 'with' when IM people are online.
The CEO of our German mobile messaging partners, Matthes Derdack - recently wrote a paper describing the imminent explosion of newer technologies that will change how we communicate, for ever. In rather a short space of time (for most people) the mobile phone has had a meteoric metamorphosis from a simple carrier of speech and simple text messaging - to a multimedia terminal containing downloaded or real-time content such as the internet, TV streaming, e-mail, et al! Content that used to be the preserve of the Internet - will be coming to a cell-phone near you…very soon.
Matthes says too that the mobile phone has created a modern paradox: despite sometimes wanting to ignore all callers, many of us would feel lost without our mobile phones being constantly at our sides. Mobile Communication has become both blessing and curse. So, consider the idea of PRESENCE combined with the world of mobile communications. Presence can be used to a significant degree by businesses for productivity upgrades. In the not too distant future, no phone call will need to be made without knowing if the remote party is available. This alone will guarantee a huge productivity win for enterprises.
To extend the technology even further, telecommunication systems could be fully automated to choose the most suitable communications path, depending on the 'presence status' of the remote party: If the presence status is set as 'Available via Instant Messaging', communication would be via Instant Messenger, while if the status was set to 'Desk Phone' the phone could be used. If the status was set to 'Away' the call would either be routed to the mobile phone, or a user could send an e-mail. Call it intelligent routing - choosing the preferred and appropriate path to significantly decrease latency in human communication. In disaster-alerting and important-event notification systems used in industry - where response times are critical, presence will have an enormously positive impact on the speed of reaction.
And the introduction of presence information to enterprise/customer information management processes will hold another valuable benefit in its ability to balance information and privacy. Presence information makes it possible for people to determine for themselves if, when, and how they can be reached. Matthes says that some people have already discovered (and probably rarely use right now) features on modern mobile phones that enable the choice of who can call, and which call is ringing (e.g. through so-called VIP Groups). Now imaging a world where this presence information is set (and adjusted) automatically, for instance based on your location and communication type preferences for each. For example your presence can be set to @home when you walk through your front door, and your 'availability' status automatically changing to Friends & Family only.
Final word from Matthes: 'Although we are still some years away from full implementation of presence systems at mobile network operators and telecom companies, the benefits and the roadmap are already at hand. The combination of presence and mobile technologies will alter human communication behaviour forever. We will finally be able to manage our communications in 'real time' and in a much more elegant way than by physically pulling the phone plug - though I admit the latter has its eternal and unforgettable charm'.