Peter Cochrane's Blog: The view from China

Customer needs - A different take
05.05.05, 12.41 GMT, Martlesham Heath, UK

In response to even more emails and inputs received following my earlier blog posts on customer needs (part one and part two)...

For those of you who take exception, object to or misconstrue my words and views on MP3, piracy and copyright, check out this story by Kevin Maney of USA Today.

Kevin is out in China right now discovering a new world beyond the four per cent of humanity in North America and the eight per cent in the wider Europe.

What is more, with a population in excess of one billion and a manufacturing engine that supplies the rest of the world, China increasingly dictates the economic and political landscape for everyone.

It may just be that their model is already the end point we are looking at in the same way Korea and Japan are way in the lead with broadband delivery and services. Only in our world do we download directly, and see CDs as an increasingly limited and dying technology, not to mention a downright annoyance!

The army are having a shoot up at a Motorway Services
03.05.05, 19.30 GMT, M25 Services

I'm having a coffee at a service station on the M25 where a contingent of UK army troops in desert kit have swollen the population of travellers. A few are sat around having coffee while another group has gathered around a shoot-'em-up computer gaming area. There is obviously some kind of rivalry with cheering and occasional good-tempered jeering. I look around; the irony of the scene seems to have been lost on the other travellers, so I just smile and say nothing but reflect on the paradigm.

People have always come together for sporting, entertainment and social gatherings. Our innate sense of community, fun and interaction is a fundamental need that cannot be sated. Even the geekiest of IT communities need to get together in person from time to time. In its latest guise the gaming fraternity now meet for weekends in hotels and homes to aggregate bandwidth and to form teams in contests across the planet.

It seems the community of gamers needs its champions - its Chelsea and its Boston Red Sox. The really interesting feature is the combining of virtual and physical locations. In the US, some hotels provide facilities for gaming events with large bandwidth pipes and rooms set aside with all the necessary power outlets and connectivity to allow teams to operate 24x7 over a weekend, with continuous drink and food available.

We may be on the verge of a virtual World Series à la football, rugby, cricket, baseball and basketball, where teams become relatively famous and have star players. The next obvious development would see spectators making side comments and engaging in virtual chanting and cheering.

Might we then see video game players being paid and spectators paying to watch? It is going to be interesting to see the eventual outcome but I can quite imagine a computer games 'Super Bowl' or 'Cup Final' with virtual trophies and league contests spanning a season that continually evolves and never ends.

As for the army, perhaps this is how future wars will also be fought! Now, if only we could swap the bullets for bits...

Blog archive:

• Unbelievably resilient technology
• Customer needs, part 2
• Customer needs - who cares?
• Abrupt change
• My thumbs won't let me be cool
• Not PowerPoint – just talking