Alec Saunders SquawkBox

After a brief respite, presence continues to be in the news.

In Presence is the dial-tone of the 21st century, author Chris Talbot writes primarily about Unified Communications systems, and the way in which presence is being deployed in enterprise.  He finishes with this fitting quote from Wainhouse Research partner Brent Kelly, however:

"End-users are using this stuff anyway, so what the vendors are doing is taking the opportunity to unify these communications they're already using," he said. It's a natural evolution, he added.

Indeed.  And if presence is truly to be the dial-tone of the 21st century, then the deployment focus of presence will have to shift from corporate unified communications systems to ubiquitous trans-enterprise clouds.  What value is a dial-tone that only indicates your availability to speak with people within your own organization?

But really, is dial-tone the right metaphor?  Skype Journal is sponsoring a San Francisco based event in early January titled Presence 2.0: the Rise of the Living Social Network. The "Living Social Network" may be a better choice in as much as it captures not just availability information, but activity, location and other contextual information.  Imagine harnessing the power of the Facebook newsfeed to drive a next generation presence engine, such as the one described last year in New Presence.