This is a continuation of a previous post and focuses on one of six tenets identified in the previous post. In this post I will focus on service orientation.
If you use instant messaging (IM), you already know the difference between old-fashioned email and the power of instant messaging. Its's not the speed, it's the knowledge that before you send a message, you have a better sense of whether or not the person on the other end is available to receive it. This immediate knowledge can make instant messages succeed when email fails. For example... if you want to consult someone in another facility, sending an e-mail doesn’t give you any assurances that he/she is available to read your message. Telephoning is intrusive and in some environments may not be available. Walking around to locate the person can also be impractical, and may distract you from other tasks. There are few other mediums like this and the ability to determine presence will become a more powerful tool as these technologies develop.
Chances are this is already something that you know very well, as IM is a prevalent technology in the commercial sector. The concept of presence within our day-to-day activities provides us with a wide range of new possibilities. Presence enabled solutions tend to be more natural for end users, often requiring little or no interaction from the user to adopt and utilize. The use of such tools is often non-intrusive, provides the users with immediate feedback, and can be contextually defined to further enhance the end-users experience. In development terms, these types of solutions turn the classic Use Case on its head. For example:
Today’s services often require the user to drive functionality
Environments embracing presence and discovery enabled solutions have the Use Cases service the user without them having to request/start the action
These types of presence capabilities can be achieved using any number of identification solutions from system credentials, smart cards, biometric systems, wearable devices, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, embedded signaling equipment, etc, which can all be used to calculate presence in one form or another. These types of options are becoming more-and-more prevalent and cost effective. For example:
Presence enabled camera’s put users online when they sit in front of the system. These types of devices also support face-tracking and sound isolation which further enhance the collaboration experience for users. 
RFID systems allow mobile system and inventory managers to find that elusive part, component, or other buried resource that may be packed away. Consider the mobile systems inventory. With these devices properly tagged, load out planning can be virtualized, capabilities & dependencies mapped, inventories streamlined, and more.
Today, manufacturers are working to embed high fidelity microphone arrays and speaker systems to enable voice-enabled and voice-printing applications, which will further widen presence enabled authentication, configuration, and more….
Presence enabled solutions are not just for hardware-based. Simple application enhancements using presence/discovery can empower the end-user and provide a more pleasing user experience. Applications can automatically discover and consume services, optional capability resources, participate in distributed processing pools, and more. However, even smaller presence-aware techniques can enhance the end-users experience.
In the systems of the Future, presence and discovery enabled solutions will play a key role in empowering users with the information and context relevant to a users defined duties, mission objectives, mission conditions, state-of-alert, environment, subscriptions, location, and more. Presence and discovery technologies will enable solution developers to empower applications developed for many solutions with the ability to dynamically transform the user experience, composition and usability of computing devices, applications and data. New cost-effective presence and discovery technologies are beginning to emerge and I expect this trend to continue in the out years.
Tags: presence