Reading Natalie’s post below on outrageously priced cell phones led me to recall a recent news story about a copy of the world’s first telephone book, circa 1878, surfacing in Connecticut, which in turn got me to wondering what online conversations might be like in 130 years.
I can only speculate based on what I’ve read and from what I hear from the technologists here at Dell, but it is likely our online experience will be 3D and on displays as ubiquitous as sheetrock in the not-too-distant future.
Thought leader Brian Solis and others have been writing about the future of communications, in the context of social media, for more than decade. But just as Alexander Graham Bell couldn’t have fathomed a $26,000 mobile phone back in the day, thoughts of social media and Web XX.0 some 13 decades from now make my head hurt … However, you can bet so far, so fast will be a given.
Which brings me back to that New Haven, Conn., phone book. It included some amusing instructions that I guess were helpful to the 391 local subscribers taking the next leap in two-way communication. For example, the book advises:
- “Should you wish to speak to another subscriber you should commence the conversation by saying, ‘Hulloa!’”
- “Never take the telephone off the hook unless you wish to use it…When you are done talking say, ‘That is all,’ and the person spoken to should say, ‘O.K.’”
The book, which is being auctioned this week by Christie’s, states that readers should leave the “lower lip and jaw free.” They were also instructed not to “use the wire more than three minutes at a time, or more than twice an hour” without first “obtaining permission from the main office.”
What do you think the future holds for online conversations?
That is all.
June 17th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
As we laugh at the previous generations, so will at us the next generation !!!
.
Peace
June 17th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Hulloa John,
I once read a telephone company annual report from 1912 which was interesting. It was actually a challenging year. The price of copper was an issue and they were not sure if they were going to be able to afford to expand the network to harder to reach areas. Their subscriber numbers were in the low 1000’s (like 1500 subs, or something). The wireless phone would have been science fiction.
I also once read about a pattern of macro-innovations (fundamental innovations) followed by micro-innovations (improvement-type innovations) which enable the adoption and commercialization of the fundamental innovation. To Bell’s telephone invention, we added automated switching, for example, without which adoption could not have scaled.
I think today we are still building upon the fundamental innovation of digitization. At first, we could only represent numbers in digital form - good for math. Then we were able to add images, videos, etc. and make things real-time and two way.
I think we are still just scratching the surface of all the things that we will be able to do now that we can represent almost anything in digital form.
That is all.
June 17th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
@MoneyGuyBK Yep, I can see them scoffing at RSS feeds, keyboards and other such antiquities …
@ Marcel LeBrun Now why am I not surprised that you and your Radian6 colleagues so quickly ferreted out a post on online conversations??
June 17th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
It`s still better than 2 tin cans and a string.
June 18th, 2008 at 9:20 am
I thought phone books were used as a make shift booster seat for my 2 year old son at his grandmother house. You say there’s informatino in those books?
Strange . . . If they have everyone’s number, why do I keep using yahoo yellow pages . . . ?
June 18th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
I have an antique phone hanging on the wall catching dust. It`s just a little newer than the 1878 phone book above. When I was a little kid we had party lines and different rings for everyone on the party line. You always had a nosey neighbor that would pick up and listen to every one`s conversation. There were eight people to a party line and our ring was one long and two short.