Ready or not
Posted on: August 16, 2010
Google’s Eric Schmidt remarked that people were not ready for a technological revolution [1] and [2]. It’s not difficult to see why. Even though I see examples every day, my trip to the USA offered more examples with regards to the airline industry.
We’ve been able to check in and print out our boarding passes from home for a while now. The rationale for doing this is that it helps the airlines save of time and money.
But even though I had checked in and printed my boarding pass, I had a bag to check in. Instead of just taking my bag and checking my credientials, the airline representative took away the boarding passes I had prepared and gave me the usual ones even though none of the details had changed.
Then when I clearing Immgrations at San Francisco airport, an immigration officer insisted that I had to show him my e-ticket for my departure. Just as I got my iPhone out, he berated me for not having a printout because he claimed that retrieving an electronic version took too long. This from a person who was getting digital copies of my digits and taking a digital photo of my face while processing my new e-passport.
In half the time it might have taken you to read the paragraph above, I could have had shown PDF copies of my e-ticket on my iPhone or iPad. I could have lectured him on this after he lectured me on the merits of a hardcopy, but I wanted to be on my way and did not relish being “interviewed” later.
So when will the general public or even just key members of our public be more accepting and competent with what will become such basic technology? I’m not holding my breath.
But I will continue playing peek-a-boo with them and see how many play in return…
