G21 - MEMOIRS OF THE INFORMATION AGE: "Fast Train to the Future"

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Fast Train to the Future

by Felicity Ussher

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The Heathrow Express [Macromedia Flash Plug-in recommended. --- Ed.] is a fantastic invention for any frequent flyer who doesn't fancy passing through Houslow West, Boston Manor and Northfields on their way from the airport to central London. These tube stops take forever - so Londoners and visitors alike were delighted when an express train was set up last year to do the journey in fifteen minutes flat. With the new service came technological innovation. The Heathrow Express' "Entertainment Zones" are where you'll find Express TV on eight screens per carriage, each with surround speakers so no-one can miss out on the non-news, the unwanted information and the advertisements. They should call them the Sponsored Zones instead, because there is only one reason why those screens were put there, in my opinion, and that's ad revenues. IBM's "Magic Box" servers and Nortel's "mine is smaller than yours is" mobile phone are two of the most sophisticated advertisements on TV at the moment - and thanks to the Heathrow Express, they are presented to most of the wealthiest, most technologically literate people in the world. What a valuable audience - and the only way to avoid it is to leave the carriage. Heathrow Express must be making a fortune. But hey, what's wrong with that? It sounds like a great opportunity for new business. Yes, but no. My objection is that developments like this are missing the point of the information age. And if you'll read on, you'll see that corporates are creaming new profits off public ignorance about what the information era can do for them. The business men and women of this world, rushing from one strategy meeting to the next, seem to accept that entering the technological era means having high-tech services blasting information at them wherever they go. But it does not. To start with, the content of Heathrow Express TV is pointless. What good can it do anyone arriving in the UK to get the latest media spin on the Northern Ireland peace process? Take a guess - either the talks are in crisis (again) or (again) they are on the brink of peace. BBC Worldwide, which provides the train's news service, seems to get all its leads from yesterday's papers. But even if the news was well-researched, why should everybody have to hear it? It is the sort of information you should be given the choice to hear. Even better, you should be able to choose not just whether to listen to it, but when and where.	Welcome to London: goats and monkeys. You are only a consumer, you know. You are only a consumer you know. YOU KNOW YOU ARE ONLY A CONSUMER. Perhaps it is possible to be right and wrong at the same time.
The World's Magazine: g21.net Event # 194: THE BODY ELECTRIC This Pull-down Menu will hyperjump you to all our great features. Try it! JOIN THE G21 MAILING LIST. Get updates on new features. Take part in our Readership polls, shape the future of The World's Magazine. It's easy! E-mail The World's Magazine with the "Subject" line: SUBSCRIBE. Want to more about our community? The Info is here. LAST WEEK's EDITION For Deep Background visit the G21-Barnes & Noble Shop Holiday Ideas Needed? Try the new G21/E-NEWS GIFT CENTER OR get great books at the G21 BARNES & NOBLE SEARCH ENGINE The Main Event HOME Discover the MOIA Discussion List BUY MASS QUANTITIES. dubya-dubya-dubya LiveItorLiveWithIt dot com	Eventually, personalisation technologies will mean that news services will cater for people's individual interests. That innovation is not too far off - some Web sites are already offering it. But the editorial content of the band-wagon driven Express TV merely fills in the gaps between lucrative advertisements. Hence it jumps from re-hashed news stories to patronising information advising people not to forget their baggage. As if passengers willing to pay Ł15 a ticket, when they could have taken the tube, are not familiar with the concept of picking up one's (no doubt valuable) possessions when leaving a train. Express TV also delivers basic information on London's amenities that only a small segment of passengers would require. It is presented in English, no less. The chances are that the sort of people who would find it useful to know that London has a network of large, red buses are people who would require the information in their own language. So why not ditch Express TV and put touch-screen terminals in the carriages instead? The terminals could say "New to London?" in a variety of languages - and offer far more complex information on how the city works, based on people's needs. I know why they don't do that, and I've said it twice already. Heathrow Express wants the advertising revenues, and it has made that a far higher priority than good customer service. Why don't people think about the sort of information they do require, in different places at different times? And have a think about all the valuable things they like doing to get information for themselves - like talking to people, reading and even dreaming, if they want to access their sub-conscious archives.
The information age is all about choices - having a range of options, and chosing the one which best suits the context. But unfortunately, in these early days, advertisers are making all the choices and the private sector is lapping up the profits like a sly cat, who knows it is wrong to drink someone else's milk, but does it anyway out of greed - and because it can. Let's start thinking this one through and demanding some services that fulfill our needs. And I don't mean having to change carriages on a train on a cold, wet night, becasue it's the only way of avoiding the noise.	TAKE THE RISK OF INVOLVEMENT. You can watch history... or make it. Are we developing a new definition of The Polis?

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