Keeping it Real-Time
How do you get President Obama, Michael Jackson and Iranian elections to fit on one page? It may sound like the start of a joke but in fact it’s simple: real-time communication.
As witnessed by the last few weeks Twitter, facebook and instant messenger applications like AIM have been especially active on the latter two topics – not just in the US and Iran but around the globe. While Mr. Jackson nearly brought twitter to a crashing halt yesterday, internet searches did come pretty close to slowing down the worldwide web.
As a society, communication has progressed in recent history from the letter, telegram, telephone, instant messaging and now video calls. What’s profoundly interesting is that the use of real-time communication software is becoming less and less the domain of technology-nerds and is rapidly migrating to general users. This is also evident in the workplace as unified communications grows. The younger generation entering the workplace is also comfortable using their real-time skills in a business environment as well as at home. It’s not just personal computers that house real-time communication platforms; it’s also prevalent on mobile phones.
This shift may seem obvious within the industry but it’s events like the death of a world-renowned musician, the true will of the Iranian people or the results of the US voting masses that highlight this change for me. The real-time communication environment will dramatically shift the way society works and operates. From making a VoIP call from a computer, to sending an instant message to a friend 12,000 miles away or waving hello on a video chat. We’re no longer going to be tethered to the dumb pipe of the PSTN as the IP network is allowing a whole range of software possibilities.
Moving on, I’m excited to read that Google Voice will be launched soon. While some of my colleagues are already using it (they were previously Grand Central customers) I’m awaiting my email invitation. However, I doubt it will solve my pet peeve that many people don’t answer their office telephone when it rings.
January 7th, 2010 at 2:11 pm
I have google voice but don’t see the option to invite yet? Is there a time frame on when all accounts will get this option?