Dear Colleagues, Interesting article from New York Times. Important implications for Internet research. Ken Friedman --snip-- You Can Surf, but You Can't Hide February 7, 2002 By LISA GUERNSEY MAKING a phone call has always been a game of chance. You never know whether the person you are calling is available. You just punch in the numbers and hope to get lucky. Imagine being able to learn without dialing a single digit whether another person's phone is in use, or in the case of a cellphone, whether it is even turned on. Now imagine being able to do the same thing with any wired or wireless device of the future - whether it is in the car, in an airplane or at the gym. Not only could you learn whether a person is available for a chat, but you could also deduce what that person might be doing at that exact moment, all without exchanging a word. That is the idea behind a programming concept called presence awareness, which is based on the realization that appliances on a network can automatically be detected by other devices. "The days of phone tag are on the way out," said Sonu Aggarwal, chief executive of Cordant, a company in Bellevue, Wash., that develops instant-messaging technology. "This is a very powerful concept with long- term implications." --snip-- http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/07/technology/circuits/07HERE.html?ex=1014111... -- Ken Friedman, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Leadership and Strategic Design Department of Leadership and Organization Norwegian School of Management Visiting Professor Advanced Research Institute School of Art and Design Staffordshire University