@jbtaylor on tech

If this isn't a great use of technology, I don't know what is.

To help the people of Egypt communicate despite the government shut down of ISPs and mobile phone networks, Google has partnered with Twitter to allow Egyptians to tweet via their landline phone.

It's all possible because of a technology created by SayNow, a start-up Google acquired just last week. Basically you can phone in your tweet and it appears as an audio file on Twitter.

According to Google:

"It’s already live and anyone can tweet by simply leaving a voicemail on one of these international phone numbers (+16504194196 or +390662207294 or +97316199855) and the service will instantly tweet the message using the hashtag #egypt. No Internet connection is required. People can listen to the messages by dialing the same phone numbers or going to twitter.com/speak2tweet."

When will the politicians of the world learn that as technology advances, it's harder to overcome the will of the people?

Cross-posted to my blog on corporate communications, @jbtaylor.

Last night, Sprint sponsored a special 2-hour episode of ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition which told the story of a Texas family whose teenage daughter who died in a car accident because she was texting while driving.

The family has started a non-profit to tell their daughter's story with hopes that teen drivers will stop texting while behind the wheel. They are also seeking to convince state legislatures to pass bills which would outlaw texting while driving. (This is something Sprint supports.)

The folks at Extreme Makeover: Home Edition built the family a new home and an office where they can run their non-profit.

I'm generally not a fan of these types of shows, but because Sprint sponsored last night's episode, I watched. And I have to tell you, I was touched by the family's story and I hope their message will be heard.

The pop star / social media phenomenon Justin Bieber was also part of the show last night -- he met the family and joined Sprint in making a donation to the family's non-profit.

As I was monitoring Twitter during the broadcast, Bieber tweeted several things about the show, including a #donttextanddrive hashtag and several messages to the family's preteen daughter who was a major part of the episode. Instantly, because Bieber's fans retweeted his messages, the #donttextanddrive hashtag and "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" became part of Twitter's trending topics.

I certainly don't understand the appeal, but at least Bieber is using his popularity with pre-teens and teens for a good cause.

And I promise you, this will be the first and only time I will ever blog about Justin Bieber.

The story I've linked to above is one of those fake trend stories that run far too often in today's newspapers. In this story, the New York Times has proclaimed that the tech scene is Washington, D.C. is newly revived.

The thing is, I'm not sure it ever declined in the first place. My experience is that as tech companies grew during the Internet boom and then laid people off during the bust, those engineers, programmers, marketers and other skilled employees moved on to other jobs in the D.C. area. Or they started their own companies.

This much I'll predict on Sunday night: the D.C.-based media will have fun with this. And they'll also link to that other New York Times fake trend story which trumpeted our revived restaurant scene. (None of these restaurants are new.)

Watch.

As part of its commitment to the Federal Communications Commission to cooperate with the FCC’s investigation of the special access market, today Sprint submitted a comprehensive set of network data which clearly demonstrates the lack of competitive alternatives for the special access circuits necessary to operate Sprint’s wireless and wireline networks.

In addition, Vonya B. McCann, senior vice president – Government Affairs at Sprint released the following statement:

“Earlier this week, President Obama called for the expansion of advanced wireless services to cover 98 percent of Americans within the next five years. Perhaps the biggest obstacle to achieving this goal is that the failed and broken special access market has raised the costs of expanding and operating a wireless network to artificially high levels. This in turns limits what wireless carriers can invest in the expansion of these services.

What the public must understand is that special access circuits are relied upon by more than just the country's telecommunications companies. Manufacturers, banks, insurance companies, retail stores, hotels, airlines, educational institutions and government agencies all spend billions of dollars each year to purchase special access. Because special access prices are distorted, the cost of doing business in these sectors of the nation’s economy is substantially higher than it should be; and unfortunately, these costs are passed on to consumers.

Sprint believes the Commission is right to pursue a fact-based and data-driven investigation of the special access market. Now that the data is in, we look forward to the Commission moving forward expeditiously in resolving the outstanding issues in this docket.”