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Peter Cochrane's Hard Drive 1999 Making a splash in 24 hours A RECENT Saturday morning found me in Arizona with a publisher's request on my screen to write a foreword for a new book. I read this virtual volume on my laptop that day, evening, and the next day on a flight to Los Angeles. By using triple-spaced 18-point bold, staring at the screen while holding the scroll key down, I find I can speed read on the move. By mid-afternoon next day I was beside a swimming pool in LA with a bottle of French spring water, an English newspaper, and Belgian biscuits. My travel and work schedule dictated I had to satisfy the request that day. Only five years ago this would have been impossible, but now I am both customer and supplier, a technomad on a shrinking planet where there is no escape. The 21st Century Bible of Marketing and Sales starts with: "Customers don't want choice, they want what they want, when and where they want, and at a price and quality they dictate." How different to the 20th century version, from a more sedate era: "Customers want choice, our choice, supplied at a place and time of our choosing, at a price and quality we dictate." In a village there is little supplier and customer choice, and the economy is bounded. But in a city there is a vast supplier and customer choice linked to a vast economy. Our world is now a global city with people and machines communicating over vast networks of optical fibre. If you want to buy stamps, or travel on a major road and need a coffee on a Sunday at 3.30am, where do you go? Not to the Post Office or a restaurant, but to the filling station. If you want money on a Saturday at 9.30pm, where do you go? Not to the bank, but to the ATM at the supermarket. You want to buy a book on a Wednesday at 7.30pm, where do you go? Not to a bookshop, but online. These are just a few examples of disintermediated services in a 24-hour world. And there is much more to come. America has enjoyed 24-hour shopping for decades, Europe is only just waking up to the prospect, and characteristically Britain is leading the way. While Europe worries about the Information Society, how to limit working hours, and how to control bits, the Americans are creating an unbounded Information Economy. This is where the future lies, and it is why Europe will see its lunch eaten by 24-hour competition. What should customers expect? Pizza and coffee at 4.30am any day, with clothing and electronic purchases at 10pm on a Saturday? Why not? Stone Age man worked an estimated 15 hours a week. In this new economy many will be working 15 hours a day doing far less risky things than hunting for meat on the hoof, but sometimes equally stressful. We need a 24-hour society to survive. So, there I was, still at the side of the pool on a Sunday afternoon with the task completed. It was 4pm and the pool was inviting, and no doubt the authors were in bed, but I still had time to email my foreword before a swim and some night shopping for computer hardware, software, and a few items of clothing, all inside 24 hours. 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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