Most cellphones currently support only two modes from the perspective of someone trying to call you: you answer or they get your voicemail. Carlo Longino's "Airtime" column at Gizmodo talks about bringing more levels of "presence" to cellphones, drawing on techniques from instant messaging software, among other things. Here's a snip from the longer article:
One of the big selling points of cell phones has always been that they allow people to be reached at any time. While this initially seemed like a good idea, plenty of people now consider it a drawback; they’re tiring of the constant calls from work, the text messages from friends, or the never-ending flow of e-mails to a BlackBerry. Of course, the simplest solution is just to shut the phone off, but that’s sort of an all-or-nothing proposition. What would be really useful would be some sort of status indicator with which users could state some current information—their availability, at the very least, but perhaps their location or their mood, too. This sort of user information is referred to under the umbrella term of 'presence,' and as communication becomes even more pervasive in our lives, it will take on great importance.
The simplest and most basic example of presence is the instant-messaging status message: 'away', 'do not disturb,' 'available,' and so on. But even these have begun to evolve, with many IM programs letting users customize their message to better fit their current state (such as 'in a meeting'). Skype lets users set status to 'Skype Me,' an open invitation for anybody and everybody on the system to chat. This message isn’t just an indicator of availability—it’s also a social signal that tells the world a certain user is looking to interact with fellow humans.
[via Gizmodo]
Posted by johndanseven at November 29, 2005 04:18 PM