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Our culture has become so wired that many people now say they prefer typing to talking. A new survey by the META Group found that 80 percent of professionals would rather communicate via email than by phone or in person. Perhaps even more startling, three-quarters of respondents from the 387 organizations surveyed said that they would consider being without email a greater hardship than being without phone service. More than 80 percent cited flexibility and the ability to communicate with multiple parties at one time as the reason they preferred email to phones. Seventy-eight percent said they liked creating a paper trail. Only 40 percent cited quicker communications, and just 29 percent found email more productive than talking. Eighty-one percent of respondents who preferred phone to email said they liked the more personal tone. Three-quarters said it was easier to respond via phone than email while traveling. The META survey also found that, with the widespread use of e-communications, the number of pages faxed by U.S. companies has dipped 50 percent in the past five years.
Iran bans more than 15,000 non-porn sites
Despite the wealth of pornography on the internet, Iran is instead focusing its censorship efforts on newspapers and satiric religious web sites. The country has begun a crackdown on sites that it views as immoral, which seems to include almost any site that’s halfway critical of the Tehran government. Newspapers in the country claim that upward of 15,000 sites have been squashed. That’s unfortunate for many of the country’s publishers, who had turned to the internet when the government banned paper versions of their newspapers or magazines during the past few years. Iranian officials say that internet service providers must comply with the bans to avoid court action.
Verizon targets pay phones as new WiFi zones
With pay phones no longer the cultural necessity that they used to be, Verizon is mining for new ways to use them. It wants to start offering WiFi connections via street-corner pay phones, starting as soon as this week. WiFi offers wireless connection abilities for laptop users. It’s become a trendy amenity at airports, hotels and even restaurants and stores as demand for constant internet access grows. Verizon does not plan to charge yet for the service, which it would offer as a free add-on for high-speed internet subscribers. Instead, it will focus on lessening customer turnover in the Verizon internet branch by offering out-of-home options.
Irish schools track truants via parental cell phone
The truant officer for the 21st century is the mobile phone. Two schools in Dublin are experimenting with a new way to combat school skipping. Right after daily roll call, school officials send a text message to parents’ cell phones, letting them know that their child was absent that day. If the absence is not excused, parents can contact the school. Dublin’s 900-student Portmarnock Community School, which has been testing the system, says that students initially were reluctant to supply parents’ cell phone numbers. But other than that small hump, the school has found the system very efficient. It’s to the parents’ advantage. New Irish laws permit the fining and imprisonment of parents who don’t curb persistently truant children.
May 12, 2003© 2003 Media Life
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