Whatever...

Web can deliver postal service salvation

By Tom Kirkham

 

Today I received an email from my 87 year-old grandma in which she penned several eloquent paragraphs lamenting the death of the written letter.  Ironic stuff indeed! 

 

Since my grandma attended a free computer course three years back, the regularity of her emails has increased significantly, while the average daily tally of letters and parcels in the UK has fallen by nine million during the same period.  I’m not suggesting that my grandma used to send nine million letters per day, but it doesn’t bode well for the Post Office if people that have spent their entire lives reliant on its services are now turning their back on them.

 

Royal Mail has recently come in for criticism due to its perceived lack of speed in modernising, and it’s easy to see why.  We live in the internet age, where speed and convenience are the major influences on consumer behaviour.  Yet our Post Office continues to present us with gigantic queues, branch closures, and the inevitable card through the letter box telling us that we were out when they tried to deliver our parcel (there are approximately 30 million UK citizens currently in some form of employment – just a thought, but maybe Royal Mail should revise its delivery times to reflect this fact?!)

 

It’s slow, inconvenient, frustrating, and the antithesis of a 21st Century service, so it’s no wonder that wherever possible, the UK public now seems to be attempting to bypass the need for physical transportation altogether.  While standard postage services are overpriced and courier services are aimed squarely at the business rather than consumer realm, you can send and receive messages, music, pictures, video, and all manner of virtual gifts on social networking sites for free. 

 

Personally, I can’t think of anything more meaningless and more indicative of a society that has lost the plot than sending someone a virtual birthday cake.  It’s a hollow, apathetic substitute for the real thing, yet sadly people seem to feel that sending the real thing has become far more trouble than it’s worth. 

 

If we want to avoid retreating permanently into this insubstantial virtual reality, we need greater competition, innovation and above all flexibility in our postal services, using the internet to improve their efficiency rather than usurp them – for example, providing location-based services to tell you where your postal worker is and when you’re likely to expect them.  Not only would this help reduce the widespread discontent currently levelled at the Post Office, but as an added bonus, giving households an advance warning would surely help reduce incidents such as this, and more peculiarly, this.

 

Technology failing the public but not the Government’s pocket

By Ryan Whelan

 

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that public facing technology, particularly where the London transport system is concerned, constantly fails us?  Yesterday, figures were revealed highlighting that one in five pedestrian crossings at junctions in London do not give people enough time to cross the road.  I mean, how pathetic is that?

 

Ever travelled on the London Tube? Ever wondered why you have just watched five minutes pass on the platform display clock, but the countdown timer (right above it) has continued to maintain that the tube is due in one minute?  Maybe I am looking at this in the wrong way, but I am sure a countdown timer is supposed to do just that – count down! 

 

I visited Barcelona in February for the Mobile World Congress and found its transport system a doddle.  Much cleaner and far more efficient than ours.  Its countdown timer (now make sure you are sitting down for this Londoners?) actually counts down by the second, as it uses a real time system unlike our own, which is based upon travelling time from the last destination.  In fact each tube/train usually arrived 30 seconds ahead of schedule.  Impressive, huh?

 

It still amazes me that TfL recently shelved plans to trial mobile phone use on London's tube network due to high costs, apparently none of the three proposals that were received were "commercially credible". This is despite Richard Parry, London Underground's strategy and service development director, being quoted as saying: "We recognise that there is now growing demand for mobile coverage to be extended to deep-level sections of the Tube."  I thought London was supposed to be an innovative city, but we fall behind almost every other European city in these stakes, even Glasgow.

 

Other public technology failings include the famous Oyster Card meltdown and the report that claimed the lack of a digital radio network hampered the efforts of emergency service rescue teams during the 7th July 2005 London bombings.  This list goes on...

However, I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised that initiatives which are used to generate an exceptional amount of Government revenue are fully operational and advancing at an impressive rate.

 

Take for instance the mass of speed cameras that will be deployed to monitor drivers’ average speeds on hundreds of our roads later this year, making it impossible to elude detection as the digital cameras will cover every entry and exit point.  How about the ‘Gatso 2’ scheme that intends to detect all untaxed, uninsured or stolen cars on our roads?  I’m not advocating breaking the law, but isn’t it a bit fishy that these revenue generating initiatives never seem to have any negative technology issues or prohibitive costs associated with them?  The same applies to the raft of technology behind the Congestion Charge.

 

 

Has blogging had its day?

By Steffi Nowak

 

Rumour has it, here in Germany at least, that the days of blogging might be over.  Indeed, quite a few important blogs have recently been sold or shut down. ‘Basic Thinking’ and Rivva.com are just a couple of examples. 

 

This is quite surprising – I always thought that blogging was to the web what salt is to a soup.  On the other hand I am kind of glad; sometimes when I think about contributing to ‘Whatever…’, I can feel a little bit helpless, thoughtless, blogless…

 

Blogs are interesting because, in keeping with the old traditions of Greek democracy, they promote free speech.  And while in ancient Greece all the free citizens were afforded this basic civil right, not all countries in the modern world follow this example. For the people of China, Russia and Afghanistan (to name just a few), free speech cannot be exercised without fear of being punished by the legal authorities.

 

Despite the constant threats from their state authorities, there are many brave citizens who try to make the world aware of what is going on in their countries. For these people, blogs are a convenient way to get their message out there – no other way of communicating is more efficient.

 

And while a few sites may have fallen by the wayside, let’s hope the time of blogs is not yet over!  

Google Street View – the Marmite of online maps

By Dana Hashem

The mounting controversy over Google’s latest ‘Street View’ venture has had us all wondering whether the search engine giant had finally bitten off more than it could chew.

 

The technology, which adds 360 degree views of locations to maps, sparked an avalanche of complaints that it was in breach of the Data Protection Act, leaving the comms team at Google staving off attacks from all quarters as concerned citizens literally took to the streets in protest.

 

The locals of Broughton were quick to get their pitchforks out and accosted a Google Street View car when it was spotted trundling towards their village.  But one human barricade and a few reams of media coverage later, the official verdict from the UK’s Information Commissioner this week was that Google's Street View should not be stopped - ironically, it seems that the only thing the protestors achieved was to put their village on the map, so to speak.

 

Amidst the rise of CCTV cameras and the current rush towards ID cards, super-databases and police databanks, getting incensed about Google Street View seems rather like complaining about a paper cut while marching towards the guillotine.  If I really wanted to be pedantic, I could drive to Broughton this weekend, take a few snaps and post them in a blog – there would be no legislation to stop me.  With Google making a big noise about its willingness to remove any images from the map on request, those people who were always going to have a problem with an online mapping system are being made to look somewhat unreasonable.  Not only is this a wise PR move for Google, but the number of images that are being removed is insignificant in the grand scheme of things and doesn’t affect the functionality of Street View.

 

A quick romp through the Twittersphere shows the debate is also alive and well within the technologically-savvy online community.  While apparently happy to give details of their location, social life and day-to-day decisions between a frappuccino and a latte, it seems that some Twits are somewhat disgruntled at the thought of popping up on an online map.  Others, however, champion the benefits of Street View, heralding it as an unrivalled tool for promoting tourism, finding meeting points and checking out property locations. 

 

Add to this that fact that Street View will provide a potentially invaluable source of social information for future generations, and I think we have a winner.   I for one am a fan – although I realise I’ve landed on the ‘love’ side of this particular Marmite fence.  I’m sure the man who was caught cheating on his wife thanks to Street View is now in riled opposition of the project...