283 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
283 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
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Founded By: | _ _______
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Guardian Of Time | __ N.I.A. _ ___ ___ Are you on any WAN? are
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Judge Dredd | ____ ___ ___ ___ ___ you on Bitnet, Internet
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------------------+ _____ ___ ___ ___ ___ Compuserve, MCI Mail,
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Ø / ___ ___ ___ ___ ___________ Sprintmail, Applelink,
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+---------+ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___________ Easynet, MilNet,
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| 28OCT90 | ___ ______ ___ ___ ___ FidoNet, et al.?
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| File 62 | ___ _____ ___ ___ ___ If so please drop us a
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+---------+ ____ _ __ ___ line at
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___ _ ___ elisem@nuchat.sccsi.com
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Other World BBS __
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Text Only _ Network Information Access
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Ignorance, There's No Excuse.
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Buncha News
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by Judge Dredd
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TELEPHONE SERVICES: A GROWING FORM OF ›FOREIGN AID'
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Keith Bradsher, ¤The New York Times‡, Sunday, October 21, 1990
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(Business section, page 5)
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Americans who make international telephone calls are paying extra to
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subsidize foreign countries' postal rates, local phone service, even
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schools and armies.
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These subsidies are included in quarterly payments that American
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telephone companies must make to their counterparts overseas, most of
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these are state-owned monopolies. The net payments, totaling $2.4
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billion last year, form one of the fastest-growing pieces of the
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American trade deficit, and prompted the Federal communications
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Commission this summer to begin an effort that could push down the
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price that consumers pay for an international phone call by up to 50
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percent within three years.
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The imbalance is a largely unforeseen side effect of the growth of
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competition in the American long-distance industry during the 1980's.
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The competition drove down outbound rates from the United States,
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while overseas monopolies kept their rates high.
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The result is that business and families spread among countries try
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to make sure that calls originate in the United States. Outbound
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calls from the United States now outnumber inbound calls by 1.7-to-1,
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in minutes -- meaning American phone companies have to pay fees for
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the surplus calls. The F.C.C. is concerned that foreign companies are
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demanding much more money than is justified, given the steeply falling
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costs of providing service, and proposes to limit unilaterally the
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payments American carriers make.
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Central and South American countries filed formal protests against
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the F.C.C.'s plan on Oct. 12. Although developed countries like
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Britain and Japan account for more than half of United States
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international telephone traffic, some of the largest imbalances in
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traffic are with developing countries, which spend the foreign
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exchange on everything from school sys ms to weapons. The deficit
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with Columbia, for example, soared to $71 million last year.
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International charges are based on formulas assigning per-minute
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costs of receiving and overseas call and routing it within the home
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country. But while actual costs have dropped in recent years, the
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formulas have been very slow to adjust, if they are adjusted at all.
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For example, while few international calls require operators, the
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formulas are still based on such expenses.
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Furthermore, the investment required for each telephone line in an
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undersea cable or aboard a satellite has plummeted with technological
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advances. A trans-Pacific cable with 600,000 lines, announced la
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Wednesday and scheduled to go into service in 1996, could cost less
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than $1,000 per line.
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Yet the phone company formulas keep charges high. Germany's Deutsche
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Bundespost, for example, currently collects 87 cents a minute from
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American carriers, which actually lose money on some of the off-peak
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rates they offer American consumers.
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MORE CALLS FROM THE U.S. ARE GENERATING A GROWING TRADE DEFICIT
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U.S. telephone companies charge less for 1980 0.3 (billions of
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overseas calls than foreign companies 1981 0.5 U.S. dollars)
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charge for calls the United States. So 1982 0.7
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more international calls originate in the 1983 1.0
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United States. But the U.S. companies pay 1984 1.2
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high fees to their foreign counterparts for 1985 1.1
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handling those extra calls, and the deficit 1986 1.4
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has ballooned in the last decade. 1987 1.7
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1988 2.0
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1989 2.4 (estimate)
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(Source: F.C.C.)
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THE LONG DISTANCE USAGE IMBALANCE
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Outgoing and incoming U.S. telephone traffic, in 1988, the latest year
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for which figures are available, in percent.
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Whom are we calling? Who's calling us?
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Total outgoing raffic: Total incoming traffic:
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5,325 million minutes 3,155 million minutes
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Other: 47.9% Other: 32.9%
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Canada: 20.2% Canada: 35.2%
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Britain: 9.1% Britain: 12.6%
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Mexico: 8.8% Mexico: 6.2%
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W. Germany: 6.9% W. Germany: 5.4%
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Japan: 4.4% Japan: 4.3%
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France: 2.7% France: 3.4%
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(Source: International Institute of Communications)
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COMPARING COSTS: Price range of five-minute international calls between
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the U.S. and other nations. Figures do not include volume discounts.
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Country From U.S.* To U.S.
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Britain $2.95 to $5.20 $4.63 to $6.58
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Canada (NYC to $0.90 to $2.25 $1.35 to $2.26
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Montreal)
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France $3.10 to $5.95 $4.72 to $7.73
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Japan $4.00 to $8.01 $4.67 to $8.34
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Mexico (NYC to $4.50 to $7.41 $4.24 to $6.36
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Mexico City)
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West Germany $3.10 to $6.13 $10.22
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* For lowest rates, callers pay a monthly $3 fee.
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A.T.&T.)
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WHERE THE DEFICIT FALLS: Leading nations with which the United States
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has a trade deficit in telephone services, in 1989, in millions of
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dollars.
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Mexico: $534
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W. Germany: 167
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Philippines: 115
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South Korea: 112
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Japan: 79
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Dominican Republic: 75
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Columbia: 71
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Italy: 70 (Source: F.C.C.)
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Israel: 57
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Britain: 46
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THE RUSH TOWARD LOWER COSTS: The cost per telephone line for laying
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each of the eight telephone cables that now span the Atlantic Ocean,
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from the one in 1956, which held 48 lines, to the planned 1992 cable
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which is expected to carry 80,000 lines. In current dollars.
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1956 $557,000
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1959 436,000
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1963 289,000
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1965 365,000
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1970 49,000
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1976 25,000
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1983 23,000 (Source, F.C.C.)
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1988 9,000
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1992 5,400 (estimate)
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CRY AGAINST THE TYRANNY OF VOICE MAIL
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Michael Schrage, Los Angeles Times Syndicate; Published in ¤The Boston
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Sunday Globe‡, October 21, 1990, page A2.
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Watson! Come quickly! I need you!
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"The party you are trying to reach -- Thomas Watson -- is unavailable
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at this time. To leave a message, please wait for the beep. When you
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are finished with the message, press the pound sign. To review your
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message, press 7. To change your message after reviewing it, press 4.
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To add to your message, press 5. To reach another party, press the
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star sign and enter the four digit extension. To listen to Muzak,
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press 23. To transfer out of phone mail in what I promise you will be
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a futile effort to reach a human, press 0 -- because we treat you like
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one."
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Who hasn't made a perfectly innocent phone call to an organization
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only to be ensnared in a hideous Roach Motel of a voice mail system?
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No matter if you call a Fortune 500 behemoth or the local mall, the
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odds are increasing that you will listen to a machine before you talk
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with a human.
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In 1985, barely a thousand corporate voice mail systems were sold in
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the United States. By the end of this year, the industry expects to
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sell more than 30,000 systems. Depending upon their designs, you
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might never talk with a human -- no matter how desperately you'd like
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to. So ask not for whom the voice mail networks, it networks for
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thee.
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"Based on my personal experience, five percent of these systems are
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superbly designed, 20 percent are poorly to abysmally designed, and
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the rest fall in between," says sociologist James E. Katz, who studies
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the human impact of telecommunications systems for Bellcore, the
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research arm of the regional Bell operating companies.
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What superb voice mail design means, of course, is in the ear of the
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holder. Some people would rather chat withthat won't
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interrupt than with the human that almost certainly will. Some people
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would rather dictate their thoughts; others want the comfort and
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courtesy of a voice that's not prerecorded.
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But that's not the real question. Far more interesting is what these
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systems say about the organizations that use them.
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Just as the design of the office or a tacit employee dress code speaks
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volumes about an organization's culture, so do the telecommunications
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networks it offers to the outside world. The well-designed system
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conveys a pleasant blend of efficiency and warmth. The
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"technobnoxiousnetwork" reveal the mix of self-importance and
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incompetence that permeates too many companies.
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The new technology rewrites telephone etiquette even as is it
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generates new frontiers of rudeness. You might believe that the
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secretary lost the message; you're skeptical if they say the voice
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mail system crashed. The network becomes as much a crutch as a
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communications tool. Come on! Are you really always in meetings or
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are you using ice mail as a shield to deflect the unexpected call?
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Voice mail creates new classes of interaction in the professional
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world. (It also creates the ominous specter of voice mail hackers --
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telephone intruders who break into systems to eavesdrop on messages or
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surreptitiously plant em.) While many of these new classes are a
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boon to organization effectiveness, they can also signal a subtle but
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insulting contempt of outsiders.
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The irony here is that voice mail is one of those rare technologies
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that made the reverse migration from the home to the office. For all
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their initial awkwardness, answering machines were designed to make
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life easier for all parties concerned.
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The overwhelming reason why most companies buy voice mail systems
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isn't to make life better for people calling in, but rather to make
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intra-company communications more efficient at lower cost.
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"What we're seeing is the hollowing of the organization social
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system," says Rensselaer Polytechnic's Langdon Winner, author of
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"Autonomous Technology," an influential critique of technological
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innovation. "Instead of complementing the way people communicate in
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organizations, the technology is designed to replace it."
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That, says Winner, creates a very different kind of social system --
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one where people would rather transfer you to the technology than deal
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with you themselves. Why? Because that is the value that the
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organization is trying to reinforce.
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"I think it's regrettable that so many organizations fail to
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adequately consider the needs of the customers when they install these
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systems," says Bellcore's Katz. "They mainly consider the internal
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needs of the company so outsiders get turned off to the whole
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experience when the call in and try to talk to someone."
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While becoming "lean and mean" is a touchstone of American management
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these days, I'm not certain that all this leanness and meanness was
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supposed to be inflicted on the organization's customers. Indeed,
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voice mail illustrates one of the seeming paradoxes of business
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practice: How do you become more cost-effective while, at the same
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time, offering customers greater value and better service?
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Sure, technology is supposed to give you both -- but only if it is
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designed and implemented with re and thought. The nasty implicit
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message embedded in most voice mail systems is: "We're too busy to
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have anyone talk with you. Let us treat you like a data entry device
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and don't forget to press the pound key after you shut up. If we have
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the time, we may even get back to you."
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I don't think there's much question that most voice mail systems do an
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excell t job of coordinating internal communications and boosting
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group productivity. But does it come at the price of alienating
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potential customers?
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Professionally, I like the eas and versatility that voice mail offers
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-- when I'm using it. Personally, I'm sick and tired of playing
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telephone tag with machines instead of people.
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The poor quality of so many voice mail systems underscores one of the
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most painful truths of technology: We would rather use these new media
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to make life easier for ourselves than o make it easier for others.
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In the short run, that may make us more "productive." In the longer
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run, what we'll discover is that people would rather not call us any
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more.
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[OTHER WORLD BBS]
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