Buddy, I know You’re There!

Papyrus Bytewala, CIO of Baffle Corporation, strolls into the jungle terrain-often called a ‘technology show'-of the Techno Over-exposition of Geeks and Gizmos for Lazy Enterprises (TOGGLE), when he comes face-to-face, once again, with an old friend, Nawab Nexicon.

This well-heeled flashback from the Raj hands out his business card that names him grandly as the founder and CEO of Nexicon Labs.

He is, as usual, full of bluster and bravado. He stands in front of a huge poster of a handsome suited man with a gleaming gadget pointed skywards. Above it is emblazoned the line, ‘Find Your Buddies Anytime, Anywhere.'

"Well, well. Papyrus from Baffle, eh? So we meet again!" he exclaims. He is wearing a flowing purple robe, and the dress is topped off with a matching turban with a diamond pin.

"I am indeed delighted," says Papyrus, wryly. "So what have you conjured up now, nabob?"

"Well, as you know, 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. But no longer. We have Buddy Bond at your service.

"Buddy Bond? That debonair guy in the poster?"

"That's right. The name is Bond, the device is Buddy. Now imagine this. Without dialling a single digit, what if you could learn whether my phone is in use, or in the case of my cellphone, whether it is turned on. Now imagine being able to do the same thing with any wired or wireless device of the future-whether it is in your car, in an airplane or at your office."

"Well, nabob, that would make me as debonair as Buddy Bond," says Papyrus.

"Ha, ha. That is what we call rich presence awareness. It is based on the sneaky realization that appliances on a network can automatically be detected by other devices."

"Borrowed from spies and detectives, I presume?"

"Ah, maybe so, Papyrus. But Buddy is far more advanced-it can let you read my mind. Or almost. We have advanced presence technology here to give mobile phones and PDAs the ability to automatically learn about my whereabouts and preferences as I move, work and play. You can see that already in instant messaging-which makes it possible, say for you to locate and identify a user as soon as the user connects to your network."

"Of course," Papyrus nods gravely. "I can also see that the prospect of information that can reveal a person's availability at a given moment, anywhere in the world would strike many people as both creepy and intriguing."

"Not really. My friend Groucho Goose, who conducts research on Internet relationships, has found that people are actually comforted when they can see the distant movements of family and friends, or catch them when they are on their computers. Now Buddy can provide such a quantum of solace."

"I still think it is creepy," Papyrus asserts with a sniff. "Someone may like the comfort it gives to his mother, but I would not like Buddy Bond watching my every move over my shoulder."

"Well, I grant that there could be an unnerving feeling of being tracked, Papyrus," says the nawab. "That mild sensation has been experienced by millions of instant messaging, or IM users, but they have eventually got over it. Groucho tells me that over a hundred million people use instant-messaging products today, and many of those people say that their favourite aspect of the technology is the ability to see whether a buddy is online."

"It is like leaving the front door open, and saying: ‘Come on in; don't even knock,' eh? What if I simply want to be shut off from the world?"
"Well, if that be your desire, you could extricate yourself from Buddy's clutches often enough to keep your contacts guessing. Your buddy may determine that your mobile phone is on-and it very well may be-but it may also be sitting at your home, while you are physically roaming elsewhere."

"That's truly merciful, nawab. You guys think of everything, eh?"