On 06:51 AM 7/7/2004, Randy Bush wrote: > >why enum? forcing humans to deal with telephone numbers >is analogous to asking them to use ip addresses instead >of domain names (which are bad enough, but that's another >story). do you want to send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] >so why not 'dial' [EMAIL PROTECTED] or whatever?
Because phones are Ubiquitous. They are everywhere, the proportion of people who have computers versus those who have phones worldwide, is probably still under 10%. By limiting the ability to map the current world wide legacy telephone address space into some method allowing you to reach systems via IP transport as well as TDM transport, you limit the reach of your voice communications network.
Consider it backwards compatibility, sure, use [EMAIL PROTECTED] where you can, but I surely know if I told my parents to call me at [EMAIL PROTECTED], they'd suffer the human 'blue screen' event just trying to comprehend what I just said.
For the majority of the people out there, saying 'call me' automatically causes a reaction 'what is your telephone NUMBER?' The telephone is such an integrated tool in most people's lives that you can't just switch it out for a keyboard and expect everyone to get it. Over time, perhaps, but then you have to consider compactness and usability. I have some small devices that allow me to use alphanumerics (palm's handwriting detection, or a blueberry's tiny keyboard), but they are bulky compared to my cell phone. And 'compact' keyboards leave a lot to be desired, IMHO.
Of course there was the day when you could pick up a phone spin a little handle and then say Hi, Jenny, can you hook me up with Joan over in Jacksonville? Thanks! So maybe not people can make the change back to picking up thier 'phone' and just saying some unique identifier (Joan over in Jacksonville might not cut it now - but [EMAIL PROTECTED] just might) of who they want to call.
This has gotten WAY off topic, so I'll just drop it here.
-Chris
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