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Peter Cochrane's Hard Drive 1998 Another hotel, another host WELL, here I am at the end of a long day, having travelled half way round the planet. It is 1.45am British time, I have been on the move for 15 hours and awake for more than 18. I struggle through the door into another hotel room that certainly qualifies as anytime, anywhere. I'm tired and the bed looks inviting, but it is time to unpack, iron another shirt, have a shower and get online. Having completed all my domestic tasks I turn to my laptop. With her batteries recharging, she shows no sign of tiredness or the ravages of international travel. Getting online is almost painless provided there is a socket on the phone in the room, or alternatively a GSM wireless connection. At this hour my most frustrating moments come about through the proliferation of new carrier start-ups and service providers with their expanding catalogue of operating quirks. And of course there are the hotel chains that overcharge grossly for calls, or block telephone charge card usage. This is all compounded by the unseen compression of signals and diversity of routing negotiated in real time to get the lowest bit cost. Such practices are very restrictive and complex, and can be hugely expensive. To my mind they should be outlawed. But, by-and-large, a little engineering cunning overcomes such obstacles, and it is rare for me to fail to get online at a good price within 20 minutes or so. In this hotel room my witching hour has long gone, and having logged on I start work. There seems to be no way of knowing or guessing how much work there will be in the stack and how long it will take to complete. But my mind is on sleep and the bed beckons. If only I could be online all the time I could perhaps avoid the peaks of demand over which I have no control - or could I? How come there was nothing outstanding at 9pm as I boarded an intermediate flight, and now there is a flood? On close examination of working practices we seem to have increasing numbers of people scheduling email sessions. People being the way they are, and the corporate environment being the way it is, seems to result in large numbers selecting almost the same period to attack their accumulated mail. As a direct result synchronised mail now starts to arrive in tidal waves by time zone. This generates electronic and human congestion that is not good news for networks or the individual. Regimentation in an electronic environment is not good practice. Could it be that that nine-to-five paper mindsets are now moving on to the Net in large numbers as corporations move into electronic working? Well, it certainly feels that way, and if so, they need to be encouraged to change their working practices to become far more opportunistic. Observing mail arriving in my office resembles waiting for a bus or taxi: they always seem to come in bunches. Having cleared the desk after this long day I slide between the sheets hoping that the leap across time zones does not see my next breakfast accompanied by another tidal wave of mail from unseen, but synchronised hosts. Peter Cochrane holds the Collier Chair for the Public Understanding of Science & Technology at the University of Bristol. His home page is: |
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