Zachary Pincus-Roth had an interesting story in the LA Times on Sunday: Remembering movies before the cellphone.

He isn’t talking about the disturbance caused by ringing; the article speaks of the impact on story lines when access to communications is ubiquitous.

How do writers build suspense when cell phones are so widely available?

A powerful sign of cellphones’ impact is the number of famous stories of the past that wouldn’t work in the post-Verizon era. For instance, how would they affect the end of “The Graduate,” when Benjamin Braddock sprints through Santa Barbara to find Elaine before she gets married?
…
To some audience members, cellphones signify so many of society’s ills — the reliance on technology, the faster pace of life, the disconnect among fellow human beings — that the device is distasteful no matter how it’s used.

Buck Henry co-wrote The Graduate and was a creator of Get Smart where TV audiences were introduced to Maxwell Smart’s shoe phone 20 years before the launch of cellular service. He groans when he sees a mobile phone on screen.

It reminds the audience — or a large percentage of it — that they might have a message in their pocket.

You can listen to an interview with the author of the article by going to the National Public Radio website.

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LA Times, Zachary Pincus-Roth

I have spent the past 10 days logging 5000 kms of driving to move my son into graduate school. We had an interesting experience with establishing a bank account that speaks volumes about the importance of personal relationships over the anonymity of the internet.

My son had tried to open an account on-line but in the bank’s zeal to protect against identity theft, it ended up blacklisting him and he was told that the bank did not want him as a customer. He was told that the bank was doing this to protect the real Alex Goldberg.

So, they are supposedly issuing a cashier’s cheque to refund his initial deposit. That will take 2-3 weeks, while they sit on his money.

We went into a real branch and spoke to a real manager who is working to really protect the real Alex Goldberg and undo the smirch on his credit file.

This is an interesting case where my son was harmed by identity theft, without his identity ever being stolen! None of these problems would have occurred had he simply waited an extra few days to show up at the bank in person.

We’ll see how long it takes for the full resolution. Stay tuned!

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identity theft

Summer is now officially over. It is after Labour Day – put your white shoes away until Easter. Kids returned to school and are writing about what they did this summer; traffic has returned to normal. My road trip is coming to an end and it is time to get down to work.

As a result, this time of year also marks the beginning of our call for speakers for The 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit, which will take place June 15-17 in Toronto.

If you want to propose a speaker or session, just contact us.

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Canadian Telecom Summit

In an article called The rise of Facebook activism, Paul Jay of CBC Online raises questions about on-line activism.

Among the points I raised in the story was whether there is sufficient understanding of on-line polls.

In the old days, businesses used to operate on the assumption that if they got one angry letter from a customer, it meant there were 10 more people out there who likely felt the same way. But with an online poll, you have no idea how many people it represents. Does an online vote represent 10 people, or does it even represent half a person?

It would be nice to see some academic research on this.

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CBC, Paul Jay

As I write this post, we are 2500 miles or 4000 km into our road trip.

Our route took us from Toronto to Chicago, then down to St. Louis and Joplin, Missouri. We rode mainly on the interstates – with frequent diversions onto the historic Route 66 – as we went through Tulsa, Oklahoma City and Amarillo, Texas.

As we ate spectacular Mexican food in the Old town of Albuquerque, my son had an observation. Why would people go to Taco Bell in the South West when places like “La Hacienda” are so accessible? And yet, truck stops in every small town seemed to sport the familiar national brands; you needed to head an extra block down the road – Route 66 – to find the local “Craig’s Burrito” shack across from the local high school football field (a scene in Shamrock Texas that seemed right out of “Friday Night Lights”).

As the various new entrant wireless telephone companies put together their business plans, how will they try to differentiate themselves from the big national brands? Can they expect consumers to take side trips onto the old Route 66 to sample the unique local flavour?

Don’t miss an opportunity to try “Deep fried pie” if you’re ever presented with it at a roadside stand near the Texas / New Mexico border. And by the way, we had great Mexican food at La Hacienda in Old Albuquerque, despite having made made a wrong turn.