Belonging in the 90's - assorted reflections

Elective Communities

We used to have just one telephone for the whole family. It stood on a shelf in the hallway, and carried the instruction "lift telephone and listen". Nowadays each member of the family may have an individual number, more than one in my case: one for voicemail, another for fax, and so on. Time was, we all used to wait at the same bus stop and talk about last night's television, BBC and ITV (or just BBC if you go back that far). Now we channel hop and we time shift. Not so long ago we knew everyone in sight and would chat at the parish pump and in the village pub. If any youngster stepped out of line they were dealt with by whoever was on the spot - a park keeper, a road sweeper, an elderly neighbour. Today we have lost our local communities but can drop in and out of virtually any other group just as easily as you can say IRC. (The Internet Relay Channel - gossips of the world at your fingertips.) What you watch is what you are: Cowboy Channel, Christian Channel, CookBook Channel, Business Channel, Sports Channel, the list continues to grow - and to divide. Who will you be with this weekend? What will be your "elective community"? The Sealed Knot, the horse trials, the car boot sale, the caravan site, the conservation project, synagogue, mosque or church? Life is no longer a cabaret, it's a series of theme parks linked by heritage trails.

Who are you with?

On buying a ticket for the "Oxford Experience", I was invited to select a sound channel for my headphones. Would my commentary be talkative or musical? High brow or low brow? Effectively, the four channels amounted to a choice between Radios 1, 2, 3 and 4 (sorry, no sporting angle as yet). I saw the same visual cues as my companions as we travelled the dark ride together, but we were in different worlds, me with Brian Redhead and they with Noël Edmonds.

The airline seat conundrum

I paid a low fare and my companion a high fare. We ate the same lunch and shared the same burn-up of aviation fuel. I was content to book months ahead (or maybe to hang around as a standby). My companion bought a flexibility that in the end he did not need but nevertheless appreciated. The difference between our two seats was very little in terms of the journey itself, but the product we each purchased was totally different.

The pharmaceutical paradox

Someone told me that there were two medications you could buy, one for insect bites and the other for mild burns, which were identical formulations but which had to be sold as different products because the general public would never cope with with the concept of a combined Bite 'n Burn remedy. People identify with different products for different occasions, and different members of the family have differing aspirations. Family soap is no more, replaced by a whole range of products for each person and every occasion. Likewise the family PC will disappear, to be replaced by micro-processors all over the place. A bit like the old factory where a single engine house drove belts that enabled all the machinery to work, and which was replaced by lots of separately powered machines; or like the mainframe computer that gave way to distributed intelligence. Eventually the Internet will go the same way: it will become a series of internets each of which will attempt to meet your whole needs, with only a limited number of portals through the fire walls that will divide service provider from service provider. Although the technical convergence will be total, the product divergence will stretch towards infinity. Rather than speak of "the internet", perhaps we should begin to use the phrase "internet-style technology".

Municipality and the Internet

In Victorian times the capitalists knew just when to co-operate. Fiercely competitive at an individual level, the factory owners were happy to develop a municipal infrastructure that provided housing, sanitation, transport, health and spiritual uplift for their workpeople. It went on the rates, rates which were funded only by those with capital. A quick check of the old routemaps at Crich tramway museum shows the typical range of destinations beyond home and work: the New Infirmary, the People's Park and the Southern Cemetery. All were readily accessible to all classes. This is the Internet today - enjoy it while it lasts!

Dismantling the nation state

Just how far can we roll back the frontiers of the state? De-nationalisation of utilities has been followed by intense competition between suppliers. What else could go private? Fire - back to fire marks? Police - for civil protection, sign up with Securicor or Group Four? Could I pick my refuse collector as I pick my milkman or window cleaner? What about a choice of legal system: shall our contract be bound by English Law or Scots Law? Or Muslim Law or Jewish Law? And who will represent my interests while I'm abroad? Just as I pay for AA or RAC European Cover, why should I not have a choice as to whether the United Kingdom or the Irish Republic will provide me with consular services abroad? In a world where technology is converging, the effect is to allow products and services to diverge.

The choice that is NO choice

The rest of my street all want to choose where their children go to school. Catchment areas have been abolished and schools must compete. My preference is quite simple: I want my children to go to the same school as all the others in the street. I am the one person whose choice is turned down!

Corporate out, Consort in

Big Blue has been taken apart. No longer is the IBM janitor an IBM man, instead he comes from a provider to whom the caretaking services have been contracted out. Outsourcing is the name of the game, as we focus on our core activity, the one that provides the greatest value-added. Instead of selling mainframes, IBM now tailors individual packages, such as the entire customer billing operation for a major British cable network operator. No-one stands alone, we all seek partners. Even the strawberries and cream are now put side by side in the supermarket, no longer to be found separately shelved under "fruit" and "dairy".

So cheap, it won't need to be metered!

Atomic power promised us electricity on those terms. Now we are at risk of a similar economic meltdown in the area of communications. The Londoner's telephone directory enquiry or banking request is already being answered in Scotland, Wales, or Northern England. How long before it goes even further? Word processing for British firms is being undertaken overnight in India. I buy books from the USA, CD's from the Netherlands, and no-one knows how to ensure that sales tax is paid or to whom it is due. The Euro is upon us, but that is peripheral. The real fight is over who will collect my regular payments - will I buy my gas from the electricity company or my electricity from the gas company? Do I pay for my water at the railway station or at the Post Office? Am I going to insure the car or buy my bus tokens at Sainsbury or at Tesco? All kinds of loyalty schemes will bid to influence my choice, and my decision making is likely to suffer such an overload that it may give way under the strain. Perhaps I'll just opt for an easy life - I'll sign up for the Cowboy Channel, use the Cowboy Credit Card and you can mail me at cowboy.com. Final thought - I wonder if there's a Cowboy Consul to represent me if I get scalped by a posse of folk from some other tribe?

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