Air Time: Responsible Mobility

Although its precise meaning has evolved considerably over the past few thousand years, mobility has been a fundamental force for societal progress. And while physical mobility was the signature of the Industrial Age, information mobility drives society today.

Just as the automobile provided key benefits for widespread physical mobility, mobile information too is largely a liberating phenomenon. It provides us with freedom to act virtually, to communicate across conventional boundaries. Were it not for the waves splashing against the bow of my boat, my editor might think I was taking that conference call at the office.

But like most things good, the mobile information revolution has a dark side; a struggle to ensure that the technology serves our needs, rather than controls us. It's a serious issue, and its importance will grow over time.

Don't Call Us ...

Mobile voice is cheap and ubiquitous, a technology we largely take for granted. However, we have yet to fully grasp its impact--for individuals and organizations. Individually, we agonize about who should have access to our mobile cell phone number, cognizant of both the benefits and the invasive nature of such access. Increasingly, providing ones' cell phone number has symbolic importance in building personal relationships. In essence, you are providing someone with license to interrupt, even if you secretly hope the person will never actually call.For organizations, mobile voice has begun to emerge as the default means of communication. Why should I try to call you on your office extension when the probability of reaching you is much higher if I call your cell? Yes, there's the benefit of enhanced co-worker access, but the cost to the organization is seen in bloated cell-service budgets. More sinister, easy access promotes an interrupt-driven work style that seldom results in increased productivity.

While many people are still prisoners of their cell phones, norms for productive use of mobile telephony are slowly emerging. Caller ID helps a lot, as does the off switch. However, mobile data introduces new dilemmas. Organizations spend millions on mobile e-mail, often without fully considering the implications. Worse, mobile e-mail is often rolled out first to senior managers, presumably because their timely communication has higher organizational value. Unfortunately, crackberry addiction does not discriminate. While only one in 20 e-mails may be worthy of immediate attention, the person strung out on mobile e-mail is distracted by almost every one. We used to be chained to desktop e-mail. Now, we're hooked on mobile e-mail.

Disciplined professionals eventually learn that keeping up with mobile e-mail is a lost cause. Yes, responsiveness is highly valued, but being too responsive also has a cost. Decisions that used to be made at a relatively low, and often appropriate, level of the organization are now escalated to more senior people using mobile e-mail, and these decisions are sometimes escalated to groups of e-mail recipients, wasting even more time.

We Won't Call You

We have nobody to blame but ourselves. We're seduced by the power of mobility, by the elegance of mobile technology. We search for ways to make communication more transparent, integrating systems more effectively and enhancing functionality--most recently through the use of presence capabilities and location awareness. Unfortunately, we don't spend enough time thinking about how to best leverage those technologies in an interrupt-driven culture.Don't draw the wrong conclusion. I'm as big an advocate of mobile information systems as you'll ever find. I'm convinced that such systems have potential to make individuals and organizations more effective in advancing their goals. But ignoring the dark side won't make it go away.

Dave Molta is a Network Computing senior technology editor. He is also assistant dean for technology at the School of Information Studies and director of the Center for Emerging Network Technologies at Syracuse University. Write to him at [email protected]