CompuServe Messages

The problem with Email is that the lack of semiotic bandwidth makes context hard to figure. We lose so much when voice, tone, gesture, posture, breathing, etc.. are unavailable. I once did a full psycholinguistic analysis for AT&T of transcripts of EMail and GAB line conversations…but that's a different story. Anyhow, given my work over the past decade in telecomm/info hiway stuff I always thought it was ironic that the only phone company I hadn't worked on was the one in my region, Ameritiech. Then, when I found out you guys were their preferred interface for their own hiway efforts, I felt it was even more ironic, since I've owned every model of Amiga ever made! Right now I'm working on analysis of interface use from live data out of test markets for SONY and Bell Atlantic. We monitor use of functions over time for each usage session for each user in a test market. The data becomes like 58 x 50 matrices (thousands of them – one for each usage session). The x axis would be function numbers (application functions or menu items, etc). The Y axis is sequence (what was done first, second, third, etc.). The cells contain duration in the function. We enfold the matrices into complex phase space using digital holographic math (remember "real" and "imaginary" numbers; they are actually good for something after all..) After the data is enfolded, you can submit any partial sequence (path) you might be interested in and the system will complete the pattern based on all usage session. This means you can actually observe most typical usage patterns in and out of places in an interface. It also means I can store the data for where all the users go when commercials get zapped on a desktop set system very easily! This is a killer app for making new media attract advertising dollars; its not the interactivity that will pay for the hiway, its the advertising dollars driven by never before available data! So that's what I've been up to. What the word over in Scala land? It is still too cool that you are the guys Ameritech has been working with…Some of the other RBOC's are trying to do their own multimedia interfaces and they S&#@…