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$2.29 and a few days wait bring me a copy of Robert Hopper’s Telephone Conversation, spurred by a recently renewed interest in consumer push-to-talk (PTT) voice services and this work at Xerox PARC.

There are two phones in life at the moment: the landline and the mobile. At home, the landline rarely rings for anyone but my better half, or the kids. In fact, my one small victory as what they used to call “head of household” is that I’m not expected to answer the phone anymore. And my mobile phone is used in no small part to figure out when we’re going to the grocery store, or what I should pick up there on my way home, or standing on the front porch calling someone inside to unlock the front door. I spend very little time on the phone talking to people other than family, and those conversations with family typically don’t last long. I tend to be charmingly fact- and task-based when it comes to phone chat, like most men, I suspect. My guess is Mencken didn’t like a ringing telephone, and I don’t either.

Because my phone conversations are largely restricted to people with whom I am already intimate and who consequently have essentially unrestricted access to me, what I would like to experiment with is the elimination of the Ring, Hello, talk, Goodbye protocol, and see if we can get straight to the talk part — in other words, an open audio line for the Families and EveryMans of the world. I would much rather hear “Mark, are you there?”, rather than the phone ringing. It saves me from wondering who’s calling when the phone is not within arm’s reach.

Unfortunately, I can’t imagine a paid line item on my mobile bill for such a service (Sprint wants minimum $15/mo). I’ll sign up for it when it’s included in as part of my unlimited minutes. (And I must buy a new phone with the PTT function, a phone that will only work on Sprint’s network. Talk about engendering love among your customer bases. But all the carriers do this, not just Sprint).

Back to Telephone Conversation. Hopper was a linguist who studied the habits and culture of modern person to person communications. I don’t yet know what’s in his book, but I can imagine that he will discuss how the form Ring, Hello, talk, Goodbye is influenced by the technology of the available telephony devices of the day. And if so or not, my question regarding push to talk is what interesting, profitable, and ubiquitous conversational schemes develop when the remote device goes “off-hook” simply by the supplicant pushing a button and speaking?

Instant text messaging, over letter writing or email, certainly has its own culture and rhythms and protocol: “u” for “you” and “2″ for “to/too” are acceptable, although I remain reluctant to use either of them, and “brb” means the line is still open, but just idle for a minute. The IM channel is “nailed up” all day, even if the users leave their machines, and it gives the impression that the remote correspondent is somehow still there. The culture, rhythm, and protocol of IM is certainly not the same as that of email. And so the culture of PTT is, or should be, different from Ring, Hello, talk, Goodbye (RHTG?). I also have first hand experience with the culture of open video channels vs. classic talking heads videoconferencing, gained here. The open channel in both IM and video makes a difference in how the channel is used and in the protocol users develop on it.

Of all the features my mobile provider wants to sell me through confusing tiered plans, push to talk is the most intriguing, offering the potential to change the way we use the phone by supplying a virtual always open audio channel. I’m eager 2 try it - when it’s cheap enuf.

From now until 2359 UTC tomorrow, we find ourselves in a worldwide CW (Morse code) contest going on on the ham bands. The contest is one of several like it during the year, and this one is sponsored by CQ Magazine. The spectrum analyzer on my rig on 20m shows some serious participation. The bands are on fiyahh!

It warms my heart to know that hams around the globe are pounding brass for the next day or so over this first of the holiday weekends. I look over at the rig, or turn the volume up, and hear the community coming together to compete, keep their code skills sharp, and otherwise just have a good time.

Long live Morse code in the amateur ranks and the music it makes.