telephone - Tag Archive

Calling While Driving

9 Replies Jonny Hankins

One of the problems with humanity is that we all believe that we can do things safely even if others tell us that they are not safe. People who drive fast do so because they are good drivers (so they tell us), people claim that they can drive while under the influence of alcohol or drugs when the statistics prove otherwise, and even making a call or texting does not distract some super-drivers.

Governments take some action in some form or other to try and stop people doing these things, but it is selective in nature. Let us take texting while driving as an example. In some countries it is illegal to drive and text at the same time. In the USA it is allowed in some states and prohibited in others. In some states you can talk on the phone, in others not you need a hands-free system.

The law though seems to be selective. Last week research published in the Science journal demonstrates that it is not holding the phone to text or speak that is the problem, it is the conversation itself that causes the distraction.

 

A typical sight today

A typical sight today?

The research showed little or no difference between the rate of accidents when people are using a hands-free system and when they are physically holding the phone. The type of conversation does make a difference though, the more the driver has to concentrate on the subject matter or think before replying, the more chance there is of having a crash.

They also found that any type of interaction, even listening to the radio, effects reaction times and attention paid to the road. The radio is the least invasive because it does not require a response, but I wonder if listening to a news show or a discussion that you have to concentrate to follow causes more distraction, a logical line of thought would seem to imply so. Interestingly enough voice to text is the most dangerous type of technological interaction addressed.

So there are laws against texting, and not holding a phone (I must add not everywhere) but why not make speaking hands-free illegal too? And we should bear in mind that cars are ever more designed for connectivity, and that means distraction, maybe this should also be regulated.

Well that would require a change in business practices and take away personal freedom some might say, but we should remember that driving is not a right, it is a privilege that is governed by rules.

This is a serious piece of research that uses eye monitoring technology to measure distraction and driver awareness. The findings are clear and there is plenty of supporting data from other sources, but how would you feel about not being able to make a call at all though while driving?

At least your boss couldn’t call you while you were on your way home.

Daily Deal Market Ripe For Consolidation

2 Replies Angeline

According to Yipit, there are 384 daily deal websites operating in North America that it knows about. This number is almost certainly far higher once you consider all the smaller sites that are not able to run deals each and every day.

So is the market too saturated? Is the industry doomed to fail because there are too many competitors competing for an ever shrinking supply of customers?

In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated the telephone and one of the biggest communications companies of the time immediately dismissed it with the famous quote:

“This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.”

That company was Western Union and the lack of foresight for this new technology meant they were never able to compete in the profitable telecommunications industry – an industry which they had previously dominated with their telegram service.

Between 1894 and 1904 over six thousand telephone companies went in to business and from there mergers, acquisitions and closures happened to consolidate the industry to just a handful of companies today.

In 1939 there were 132 railroads in America, today that number is just seven as mergers, acquisitions and closures meant huge consolidation in that industry.

An early 1900's American train

The sort of train that powered America in the early 1900’s

In 2005 there were a huge number of social networks available, Myspace, Orkut, Bebo, Friendster and Classmates to name but a few. Today? We have one site, Facebook as the market consolidated.

In 2007 there was just one daily deal website worth mentioning which was Woot, a hugely popular and profitable website that continues to grow and increase its revenues. After the launch of Groupon it spawned off thousands of clones around the world, over 400 of them in American alone.

Since 2009 there have been 72 acquisitions in the daily deal industry, 44 coming in the last 6 months alone. Groupon have gone for an expansion by acquisition business model with at least 8 buys under its belt, Google too is eyeing up the industry with several acquisitions in the daily deal market to expand its Google Offers programme.

There are plenty of other acquisitions too, LivingSocial have bought at least seven daily deal sites and BuyWithMe have purchased 6 daily deal sites before they too have been purchased.

So just like other new inventions and markets spawned hundreds of clones, it might look like the daily deal market is in decline as the number of sites decreases but there is still a very healthy merger and acquisition process taking place as the deal market looks to consolidate and become profitable.

Conference calling has never been so easy!

5 Replies Christopher Roberts

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When you think of conference calling, you think (of I do) of complicated systems where big businesses get in contact with each other, or where employees within big businesses contact each other.

Then along came the likes of Skype and Google Talk introduced VoIP, and the whole thing became much simpler, opening it up to a much bigger market, not just big businesses.

Recently I came across a site called Powwownow, which is a voice conferencing site. Powwownow uses both VoIP (for its web and video conferencing) and telephone conferencing.Powwownow LogoThis means that you can use its conference call services via the phone, rather than having to do it over the internet. Now many people prefer the internet, I understand that, however telephone conference calling also has its merits.

With VoIP you are subject to drop-out if you don’t have a very stable internet connection. Say you are calling across time zones, meaning that you are calling someone at 8:30pm, then half an hour into your call, when peak time internet usage starts, you could experience slower internet speeds and ultimately drop-out – a logistical nightmare! Telephones don’t really experience this issue.

Furthermore, with VoIP it can often be hard to understand people due to poor microphones being used by whoever you are calling, now telephones don’t offer the clearest quality possible, but it’s usually pretty easy to understand someone using one!

Powwownow’s system is dead easy, all you need do is enter your email address and you will be given a pin. You then contact whoever you want to be in the call and tell them when you want the call to be, what the pin is and the dial in number. Finally, ring up their dial in number, enter your pin and start conferencing!

This all makes conferencing easy, quick, secure, and thanks to low international rates, cheap too!

Do you conference call others as part of your job, or do you do conference style calls to get in contact with friends or relatives? Why not try a free conference call courtesy of Powwownow and let us know how you get on!