woensdag, mei 23, 2007
Presence: the next killer app
Presence is supposed to become the next hype and/or killer app for the consumer oriented ICT business. With more and more people carrying mobile devices such as cell phones, smartphones, GPS or laptops around, the critical mass will not be a problem.
So what might 'presence' look like? At my work, we already have presence enabled in our internal instant messenger program called SameTime. Based on the IP subnet it knows in what building you are, and you can configure your location. Anyone online can see where you are working. That makes it handy to invite someone for a coffee :-) . Imagine popular IM clients such as Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, Skype or Google Talk become presence aware and you get a notification when your old friends or family are in town. Or imagine you can automatically search for and find similar minds on your holiday location. Or imagine you get an SMS when your children are almost home from school. Or where the cat is. Might be something. Of course, you'll also get spammed with messages of the nearest fitness and facelift clinic, but that is something we'll deal with later ...
Today, twitter.com is a popular service where people just say what they are doing. Now just add where you are doing it and new doors of possibilities open up...
So what might presence do for learning? Good question. It will surely help to localise expertise around you. It will help to find learning activities around you. It will help to see if you are in the lecture or in the pub next door :-). As usual, the future will tell us.
One example: you can check the whereabouts of learning guru Elliott Masie on his 'Where is Elliott' site. You get a Google Map with an indicator where he is. At the time of writing, he is in New York.
So what might 'presence' look like? At my work, we already have presence enabled in our internal instant messenger program called SameTime. Based on the IP subnet it knows in what building you are, and you can configure your location. Anyone online can see where you are working. That makes it handy to invite someone for a coffee :-) . Imagine popular IM clients such as Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, Skype or Google Talk become presence aware and you get a notification when your old friends or family are in town. Or imagine you can automatically search for and find similar minds on your holiday location. Or imagine you get an SMS when your children are almost home from school. Or where the cat is. Might be something. Of course, you'll also get spammed with messages of the nearest fitness and facelift clinic, but that is something we'll deal with later ...
Today, twitter.com is a popular service where people just say what they are doing. Now just add where you are doing it and new doors of possibilities open up...
So what might presence do for learning? Good question. It will surely help to localise expertise around you. It will help to find learning activities around you. It will help to see if you are in the lecture or in the pub next door :-). As usual, the future will tell us.
One example: you can check the whereabouts of learning guru Elliott Masie on his 'Where is Elliott' site. You get a Google Map with an indicator where he is. At the time of writing, he is in New York.
Labels: presence
