The Power of Presence(TM)
by Dave Uhlir
It’s the tagline for Jabber, Inc., but what does it mean?
To extend the filaments/bulb theme: when the light is on, people and systems can see the context of other people, systems, and things more clearly.
Yes, but that doesn’t really answer the question…
The Power of Presence is the ability to control the dimmer switch, and choose where, when, and at what to shine the bulb. The power lies with individuals and systems; each exerting some control over what they see as well as what parts of them can be seen by others.
Separately, the many strands of presence offer variable luminosity, collectively they are powerful beacons influencing what information goes where, to whom, and when, why, and how it is consumed.
The value of search-driven advertising is the flicker of a distant candle in comparison to the power supplied from aggregated presence. Just taking myself for instance, many different entities have access to lots of pieces of my presence. My mobile carrier knows when I’m using that device and perhaps even my location, my satellite provider knows when and what I’m watching, my bank and credit card companies know what I buy and where, certain people and services know when I’m online, search companies know what I’m looking for at a given moment, and so on. But none of them sees the entire context, which includes who I’m with, precisely what I am doing or what I would rather be doing.
But, some already know more than others. From service providers to content producers to technology providers to organizational consumers of content, there is a race on to illuminate as much context as possible.
The drive by telcos to offer triple and quadruple-play services to consumers is at a very deep level about presence and context, and not simply about average revenue per user (ARPU).
If my quadruple-play vendor knows what I am watching, when I am watching it, and knows (because I told them) that I don’t want to be interrupted during that show, they can prevent most electronic interruptions (alas, they cannot control the person sitting next to me). Moreover, if they could aggregate - with my permission - things on my calendar, they could do really useful things, such as sending a coupon for “dinner, Saturday night.” But, and it’s a huge BUT, my service provider knows nothing of what kind of food I like, what neighborhoods I prefer, etc., not to mention those of my companion(s). Some of that information can be mined, the trick is in getting me to trust any one company with enough information so they can extrapolate and make recommendations without annoying me or otherwise violating the trust I have granted them.
In the more controlled environments of an enterprise, using presence to route information in the right context is already an achievable end. But is it possible in the consumer space (i.e., do you think you could trust any one company that much)? We can envision scenarios where clearinghouses and other trusted third parties broker information exchanges of a highly personal nature that are to the mutual benefit of individual content consumers and producers. What do you foresee?
