I hate to be a party pooper, but let's remember that using new technologies isn't always beneficial. While emerging technologies hold the promise of improving people's lives and the profitability of our businesses, there are also some cautionary tales to consider. In the spirit of looking back 25 years, I'd like to share a few recollections of technologies I was working on in the early 1980s at AT&T and some of their unintended consequences.
     Let's examine several of the systems that grew out of AT&T's office automation efforts, starting with touch-tone entry/voice response. The notion of using the telephone to provide real-time interactivity to reach a person, a department or some information, seemed like a good idea. The technology was simple and familiar, callers could get what they needed and the sponsoring company could cut personnel costs. When implemented well, that's true. But how many times have you encountered a menu with 10 items to listen to but none that address what you need? And there's no apparent escape from the menu to a real person.
     Sometimes the "solutions" to these problems change the form but not the substance. Using voice recognition instead of touch-tone entry doesn't remove the frustration. It changes the dialog from punching in numbers on your keypad to saying words, but if the result is a frustrated user saying "operator" instead of pushing the "0" button, nothing is really fixed.
     E-mail is another example. Since communicating in real time using voice often resulted in "telephone tag," why not use asynchronous text communications instead? It would reduce interruptions, remove message transcription errors and provide a tangible record of a request or a colleague's reply. E-mail works as intended, but has inadvertently given rise to spam, CYA e-mails and huge "copy to" lists. What we hoped would simplify and speed communications has instead taken over more of our time and attention.