WRITTEN ON January 25th, 2008 BY Ruth Kennedy AND STORED IN Design: user-oriented, Save Time and Money, What do we want?

Back in the good old days, my Mum knew that a phone call received around 1610 which ‘let the pips go’ without putting money in the phone box, meant I was at Witley Station waiting for a lift home (and had probably spent my 2p or 10p on cola bottles). The 21st century version of this is alive and well. Nokia researcher Jan Chipchase picks up on Research from Microsoft Research India’s Jonathan Donner that explores the practice of beeping – making intentional missed calls. The paper draws on field research from Rwanda in 2004, categorising three different types of beeping: call back beeps; pre-negotiated instrumental beeps; and relational beeps, and discusses the rules that define the what, why and how. Reacting to prevelance of this informal practice, carriers such as MTN have introduced the Call Me service – where the user can send one of four pre-defined text message for free:

Please Call me, Can’t talk now. Please text me, I’ve missed you. Please call me! and It’s important. Please call me!.

Chipchase notes that it’s probably more efficient for the carrier to send a pre-defined text message (small bits of asynchronous data) than to tie up an exchange trying to connect a call in real time (a synchronous connection), so this new service could be a win/win. Apparently Nokia’s own research has come across forms of beeping from Helsinki teens to Indian housewives – typically, initially driven by a desire to save money.

And neither is the practice restricted to telecommunications – one Chinese interviewee remembered when the default Chinese postal system was pay-on-delivery and the sender could include a short messages written on the outside of the letter. The receiver could read the message but reject the letter.

Chipchase’s own thought for today is:

for every communication channel – what can be communicated for free? On open hardware platforms can communications can be automatically translated into something more meaningful to the receiver?

Looks like there are plenty of central and local government public sector wibbis in here… Let’s list them!