got geoint?

Welcome to the Friday’s Food for Thought post on got geoint? Do you ever get the feeling that people no longer actually speak to one another? We like to stay within the safe bubble of email and texting as a primary communications vehicle. And do you remember Jerry Seinfield’s classic stand up joke about being surprised when someone actually answers his or her phone – as opposed to the call going to voicemail. So, where are we going with this? The big GEOINT story we covered this week was regarding war fighters using innovative smart phones. We could not help but think that mobile/digital communications is finally everywhere.

History of Texting
Remember about 10 years ago, how everyone in Japan and parts of Europe were texting each other? We often wondered if this phenomena was going to catch on here in the U.S. And of course it did – in a major way. Well, SMS was first used in December 1992, when Neil Papworth, a 22-year-old test engineer for Sema Group (now Airwide Solutions), used a personal computer to send the text message “Merry Christmas” via the Vodafone network to the phone of Richard Jarvis. Bet you did not know that…check out more on the history of texting from our friends at Wikipedia here.

Need to Call The Office? Where’s The Nearest Pay Phone?
Remember the days when the only way to call into the office was to find the nearest pay phone? You would wait in line at the airport – other harried executives in competition for these coveted phones – just to call in and get all of your voice messages. Then it was a game of phone tag when getting back to people. Amazing that we actually got anything done. Well, here’s a story about a pay phone in NYC that still gets plenty of attention.

Future of Texting and Mobile Communications
So, we all have our PDAs, iPhones and Blackberrys always within reach. So, where do we go from here? Will we always be carrying around these little black, rectangular communications objects in our hands forever? Or will our physical bodies merge (literally) with the technology as many futurist would like to believe? Or will it be voice-activated texting that will transcribe what you say into text? Wait, doesn’t that sound like talking? Perhaps the future will be more vocal communications amongst each other? Now, that would be something!

The Who’s “Going Mobile”
Man, we all knew Pete Townsend was a visionary songwriter. But, did he have his hand on the crystal ball, or what, when he wrote “Going Mobile” in 1971? Here’s the actual track (via YouTube). Enjoy and happy Friday!

Tags: geospatial intelligence, got geoint?, Pete Townsend, SMS Texting, The Who, United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, USGIF