Well Here Goes

One of the things that I learned early in my telecommunications career is that telecommunications is not about technology, or business, or money, or change, or moving electrons or photons.

It is about people. It is about the innate need of people to share experience with others that don't happen to share a physical space.

My eyes were opened to this by a insightful gent by the name of Gordie Thomson, who told me a tale about a couple about to be married, that were separated by required business travel by "the pond" that physically divides Canada and the UK. This was back in "the day" when satellite communication was prevalent, and thus delay was introduced, into telephone calls across long distances. Gordie opened my eyes to the fact that when people communicate, one important nonverbal aspect of communication is how long people take to think before they speak. If people pause before every reply in an important conversation then they are 1) up to something, 2) hiding something, or 3) angry. Of course, in the case of this couple, they were interpreting satellite delay as emotive content, and their wedding planning was degenerating, to say the least. In this case Gordy and the bride's mom were able to intervene, and give the tools to the couple to detect and understand delay and its impact, and (at least to my understanding) all lived happily after. But, like the fairy tale, there is a lesson. It's not about the technology, it is about the impact on the people.

So why this Blog? Very simply, there appears to be a real void "out there on the net" on this topic. Perhaps by posting here I can discover some other like-minded souls that are more interested in the human side than the technology. Climb on for the ride.