As we mentioned earlier, humans have always sought to communicate efficiently. Who wants to endlessly repeat something or have to deal with not being understood? The most successful persons throughout history have been those who communicated well on some level. Perhaps it wasn’t through speech—an engineer might choose a technical drawing to entirely communicate an idea and avoid talking at all.

IT’S ALL ABOUT EMOTION

We all remember the AT&T long distance ads on television that encouraged us to “reach out and touch someone.” Despite what AT&T might have charged back in the good old days of the long distance monopoly, we must admit that they had figured out the most important driver of communication. They realized that personal communication is largely an emotional activity, and people will pay to share emotions. Now, we aren’t saying that communication should make you cry, but communications can allow the kind of sharing that people will value.

NO, I DON’T WANT TO SEE WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER

Photos are a great example of sharing emotion. Think about the pictures the average family takes: The subjects are people and places that they care about—family and friends, places they visited, etc. The activities pictured add more detail to a child’s birthday party, a friend’s graduation, or scuba diving on that Caribbean vacation.

Now think about what you do after you get the pictures developed (assuming you don’t leave the film in a drawer for a year). The natural inclination is to show others. Why do we do it? To share the emotions that we felt when the pictures were taken. Whether you were there when the picture was taken or not, you’re still fair game when those pictures come back from the photo lab.

ERODING EMOTION

One big problem exists: Emotions erode with time. You’ll put up with co-workers who pull out pictures of some recent event but most of us tend to run when someone suggests sitting down to view that old home movie or pictures from that vacation back in  1978. Newlyweds always seem to have a wedding album handy but grandma and grandpa have theirs packed away someplace (if you’re lucky).

So the goal becomes trying to share emotions in a timely manner—in near-real-time whenever possible. Whether it’s an IM session giving you a blow-by-blow account of the heated debate coming from the corner office, a newly snapped pic of the goings on down at the local pub, or a recently recorded audio clip from your friends at the concert that you couldn’t get away for, communication offers more emotional value when it is timely and fresh. Wireless Internet applications will help users make the most of personal communications while the content to be shared still has value, before it erodes and becomes lifeless and dull.

SPEED INFLUENCES THE VOLUME OF COMMUNICATION

The speed  of  our  communication  process  influences  the amount of things we want to communicate. Real-time communications allow us to share things while they still have relevance.  Human  communication  is  often  about  human experiences—things that  somehow impact our five senses. Even intense experiences eventually fade from our memory. Communication of these experiences is best right after the event, or ideally, during the event.

When was the last time you took pictures? Birthday party? Vacation? Wedding? Pictures are usually taken at high-emotion events so that we can capture the moment and remember it later. How fun is it to share these kinds of photos with friends soon after you take them? Many of us can’t wait to share our pictures as soon as we get them. Trouble is, the longer you wait, the less fun it usually is to share. As Wireless Internet devices enable users to capture and transmit images, sound, and other data the frequency of communication will increase.

REAL TIME ADDS VALUE

Remember the last time you went to a concert or show? Let’s assume you have one friend who would have enjoyed the show but wasn’t able to attend: The longer you wait to tell him about it the less you will remember and the less emotion you will feel
about the event. As time passes, you’ll have a reduced ability to recall the event details.

Now imagine that you could share images, sounds, and your thoughts in text in almost real time. Ever watched a live TV show? The value of sharing events while the event is occurring is apparent on TV. Wireless multimedia messages won’t be TV, but they will be more like a short commercial—images, sounds, and text combined to communicate with detail, effciency, and emotion and to allow the person on the other end to better understand you.