In a speech at University of Illinois recently, Gates spoke about interesting and challenging problems that computer science can address. At one point he suggests that with a proper, adaptive software model, we can make phone tag or busy signals things of the past: “If you call somebody and they're not available, if you can prove who you are through some caller-ID-type mechanism, if you're a person who works with that other person, their software ought to negotiate with you, looking at your schedule, to find exactly the best time for you to meet or be in touch with each other, and the idea of phone tag or busy signals and those things should really become a thing of the past. But we need a software model. We need something that's adaptive, that learns, that has the right authentication built underneath.” This is an extension of the ideas of those who envision that Presence information will eliminate phone tag and busy signals. I am of the opinion that technology can not adequately solve the phone tag problem.
Even today, many feign the presence information. There are times when the Presence information is not current and so an IM query goes unanswered. When two persons communicate in person and setup a meeting time, it is possible that that schedule to be bumped. Why the software based solution would fare any better? In the ultimate analysis, even in POTS, we convey the presence information through voice mail greeting. The difference is, in IM we get the presence information with a glance. The progress we have made is in this immediacy; nothing more. Busy signals will be replaced by “Away” or “Busy” notifications and phone tags will be replaced by “offline” messages. Just to clarify, I am not rejecting Presence; I am concerned with raising expectations beyond what could be delivered.
Posted by aswath at March 1, 2004 06:08 PM