A matter of security...

The first "manefesto" that appeared below the mashup map on the BCC alpha site was written by my developers from what they read in the strategic development brief. It was really quite good, and highlighted two perspectives that I hadn't thought of; one being competitive advantage, and the second safety.

Security and Safety are synonyms ( see Thesaurus.com ), but the point is that I think that as a culture we are becoming dependant on cell / mobile phones in a way that could be a bit dangerous, particularly if the underlying coverage that makes the devices work isn't six sigma reliable in high population density areas.

Cell phones haven't been around all that long, and depending on how old you are either has the telephone. But practices around innovation change quickly. Today, the average pre-teen has a cell phone. Why? Security, the "feeling" that the ability to stay connected and communicate a variety of details from if there is homework, to where they are, or are headed next makes us, and them ( despite their feelings of indestructability ) feel safe.

But, if you're a parent and your cell / mobile, or your kid's can't reliably connect to a network in a time of need that isn't safe!!

Out of bandwidth at the mall...

San Francisco has a relatively new, and beautiful "Westfield" mall on Market Street, and I was there grabbing a bite to eat after MacWorld, on Thursday evening last week.

While in the food court at the mall a week earlier I got a pretty good signal on my Black Berry 8700g, but I had to be in the part where the ceiling goes right to the roof, and that beautiful skylight about 200 feet in from where the entry to BART is.

But last week - ZIP ! I wandered around this whole area hitting re-dial, and got failure after failure. Then, in talking with someone that was also up for the MacWorld show, we speculated about the possible lack of bandwidth, due to maximum consumption by all the conference goers. 

While I didn't personally experience this, many conference goers were reported to complain that even the "Edge" network ( used to deliver email to PDA's ) was knocked out, so, perhaps the towers aren't tuned for the kind of consumption peaks that come with heavy conference traffic. 

But, isn't San Francisco a conference destination town?

Update - I happened to have dinner last night with one of the top cellular technologists in the country, and perhaps the world. In our conversation the phenomena of "network breathing" came up. Apparently, this is a BIG PROBLEM for non-CDMA based carriers, as the network actually expands and contracts ( hence the use of "breath" ) in a way that isn't exactly consistent with demand. So, in effect, a carrier can actually increase coverage in a particular geographic area, and then NOT completely serve demand influxes on the system as population and use in that area increases.