Taxi Driver Online

The lead article in today's gizmag pretty much sums up how the internet has the potential to change the way we do things.

This forum seems to be working pretty much along these very lines, with regard to the UK taxi trade and so I thought it might be of interest to some if I posted the link.

http://www.gizmag.co.uk/home/

(Bear in mind that the lead article changes every day, so you might need to search a bit for it after today - but it's a great site and well worth a regular visit.)

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The higher the fewer.

Forgot to name the article.

It was called "Initiatives To Harness The Power Of Collective Intelligence" dated the 12th October.

Basically it's about Metcalfe's Law which says that as the number of people using a network increases, the value of that network to each user increases by the square of the number of users.

So if the average number of visitors to TDO (at any one time) were to increase from say four to eight, then the usefulness of the site to each visitor would increase by a factor of sixteen.

That mathematical law is the reason why the internet and Google etc. took off so quickly.

And yes, I saw the other article (the one with the delightful pair of ladies legs).

Feedback on either article might be interesting.

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The higher the fewer.

I think for every poster on TDO, there's at least 10 times as many lurkers.

And I suspect those lurkers get more out of TDO than the posters.

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IDFIMH

Should have read:

.......would increase by a factor of four, from sixteen to sixty four. (ie from 4x4=16 to 8x8=64)

so this huge increase in value for each visitor, from 16 to 64 (as the number of visitors doubles) will in turn attract more visitors and so on......

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The higher the fewer.

Well I think that a forum will always have more people viewing than posting, it's natural for an audience to be larger in number than the performers, as it were.

Another factor to take into account is: what is the ideal amount of time that the average visitor would like to spend on the site? - because within that time the average visitor should ideally be able to read a complete days postings.

Say that ideal average time were, for example, half an hour. Now I think that fifty regular posters could provide that amount of material between them on a regular basis.

So with regards to TDO, lets imagine the forum were to attract a very large audience of say half a million (that would be pretty much everyone within the trade plus other interested parties) - then that would represent a ratio of not just 10:1 but 10,000:1

(50 posters: 500,000 visitors)

Now I think those fifty posters would be getting as much out of posting as the viewers would out of viewing - because they would have to be the best of the best, to hold such a large audience and wouldn't last five minutes if they couldn't cut the mustard.

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The higher the fewer.

The Internet didn't really take off in this country until we had flat rate subscriptions and in particular flat rate broadband. The people responsible for bringing that about were in the main those who agitated under the banner of the "Campaign for unmetered Telecommunications".

Least we for forget, the site will forever be preserved at http://www.unmetered.org.uk/

UK Government legislation and legal information wasn't accessible in the old days, as it is today. There were some of us who put in a lot of time lobbying the House of commons, The Government and in particular Hansard.

A great debt is owed to those who pioneered Unmetered Telecommunications in this country but I don't suppose many will have even heard of CUT?

Regards

JD

I wonder if a time will come when the folks behind TDO will be able to close the Restricted Taxi Numbers section, with words similar to those on the CUT Disscussion Forum.

Instead of 'Following the dissolution of the Campaign on 10 June 2001 the Discussion Forum is closed' we will have 'Following the repeal of Section 16 of the 1985 Transport Act this part of TDO is closed'.

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IDFIMH

I don't see why that can't be achieved.

The CUT campaign was far harder to achieve because we were up against the corporate might of BT and a Government regulatory body that didn't have a clue about the Internet and the way it could be delivered for a flat rate charge to consumers. BT were dragged kicking and screaming to the unmetered table but in the end we got what we campained for and more besides.

In this instance the Government firmly believes that restrictions should be removed, therefore the effort needed to effect change is not nearly as great as that which we applied to effect change in Telecommunications. CUT had over ten thousand paying members and a great many of those were active. The greatest thing that ever happened to this country in respect of the Internet was effected by us and I'm extremely proud of that fact. Otherwise you would all be paying by the minute and Internet use in this country would be massively reduced.

Heres the closing epitaph of CUT.

Following a unanimous vote at its third Annual General Meeting the Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications is dissolved.

The meeting decided that, as there is sustainable unmetered telecommunications in the United Kingdom at reasonable cost, it is time to stop when ahead. It would be unworthy of the Campaign, the Committee and its Members to have it fade into the background; the Campaign was set up to effect change and change it has effected.

There will always be problematic issues – at the moment these include DSL and mobile Internet access – but it is far easier to change a basis of charge (metered to unmetered) than the magnitude of a charge, especially when organisations outside the telecommunications industry do not have, and cannot have, access to internal costs and other commercially sensitive information.

That said, since 1998 the industry has opened up considerably and there are many opportunities for anyone to put forward their point of view on telecommunications matters; Committee members will continue to contribute to industry events and discussions on their own initiative.

The remaining Campaign funds are voted to be distributed thus:

* 100 per cent to HumanITy.

We have now produced a formal report of the third AGM; this Web site will be available indefinitely although the interactive parts, other than the mailing list, are now shut down.

The Committee thanks all the individuals and organisations who helped it and, in particular, our 10,000 plus supporters and the five former Committee members. Everything the Campaign did took place, uncompensated, in the free time of its participants.

Quite fitting don't you think?

Regards

JD

Absolutely.

Great that they pointed out the distinction between a utility (gas,water, electric etc.) which should be metered and the media (newspapers, tv, internet etc.) which clearly should be purchased at a flat rate.

(I still keep my dial up pay by the minute internet connection as a back up though, in case broadband goes down - which it very occasionally does)

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The higher the fewer.

Its wise to keep a dialup backup. I would just like to correct one point I made when I stated we had over ten thousand members. We had well over ten thousand registered supporters but not all were paid up members.

Regards

JD