Unfortunately, our evil machinations fall to pieces when wireless gets involved. Our beloved carriers (and I use the term beloved where others might choose different expressions, like 'hated with the strength of a thousand suns'), an oligopoly consisting primarily of Rogers and Bell, and lesserily of Fido (now owned by Rogers) and Telus (who uses Bell's network in our part of the world), have determined that the best long term business strategy for data is to grab all they can while the gettin's good. They complain about having to service one of the largest countries in the world and the cost of equipment and wa-wa-wa, all of which is a pathetic attempt to justify this:

That horrifying graph is courtesy of our good friend Tom Purves and a brilliant bit of original reporting that you won't see in the mainstream media because they're pretty much all owned by Rogers or Bell. Yes folks, that graph actually says that Rwandans can download mobile porn for 4.625% of the price that Canadians can. Now I have nothing against Rwandans and I wish them all the ... content they can consume, but Rwanda is not a member of the G8, nor are they one of the world's leading technology producers. They aren't home to one of the better computer science schools in the world (University of Waterloo), or - perhaps more to the point - RIM, the company that has a virtual stranglehold on the wireless device market to the point that the US government stepped in to their patent lawsuit to keep the network online because they can't function without it.

If I sound a little bitter, it's because I spend a lot of time with my colleagues from the US, and since we're all a bunch of tech people, a big chunk of that time is spent with our BlackBerries and Treos and Qs and Blackjacks and etc. in hand. Our American friends blithely surf the web and show us streaming videos and download music and we sit in the corner, shamefully browsing with images turned off. If you think our data rates are bad at home - and they're almost disfiguringly bad - you should see what we pay when we're roaming.

So how do we fix this? As Tom points out, the problem largely rests in the hands of the CRTC, who are governed by the Canadian Telecommunications Act. Though you wouldn't know it by looking at the millions carriers spend on advertising, there's an almost complete dearth of real competition in the Canadian wireless market (I believe that there's a single carrier in Saskatechwan and Manitoba). We have new 'carriers' (known as Mobile Virtual Network Operators, or MVNOs) appearing, like the oddly named Amp'd, but they aren't really bringing any diversity to the market since they just piggyback on other networks (Amp'd uses Sprint in the US and Telus in Canada). They have to cover the cost of their own network usage in addition to making a profit from your services, so don't look to them to lower rates any time soon. Rogers and Bell charge what they charge precisely because they can charge it; we may rant and rave and post vitriol filled blog posts, but I still cough up $60 a month for data on top of my voice bill and I'll keep doing it if I want mobile service. This isn't limited to data rates, of course. Don't even get me started on how they're screwing us on SMS short codes, although you have to love the "let's hold hands and be friends!" message of the Catch the Code site which makes it sound like the carriers just want you to come and play with sunshine and lollipops all day. You have to pay their consortium an astounding $1500 for the first three months of the 'lease' of your shortcode, which effectively places SMS marketing out of the hands of small businesses who might use it for innovative programs. Now the carriers, bless their cold, slimy, black hearts, are pushing to end net neutrality so they can arbitrarily charge us more for data access whenever they feel like it, all the while pushing new initiatives like being able to video chat or watch YouTube on your mobile phone (I won't give them any link love, so look for Rogers Vision in the Google results). If our government, at the federal, provincial, and municipal levels, is so intent on promoting Canada as a leader in ICT (Information Communication Technology), they need to step in and end this insanity. The current pricing model stifles innovation and virtually guarantees that any exciting new wireless technology developments will not come from Canadian companies because the market and the funding to develop those products will not exist at home. I'm not usually a fan of legislating the rates that companies can charge for their services, but the only way the carriers are going to achieve parity with our cousins to the south is if they get hit with a big stick.

Update: Martin Cleaver has a bunch of great in-depth information about who regulates the carriers (not the CRTC for things like rates), and on how we can get out of this mess. I stand by my statement that the government (in some form) needs to step and in and apply some beat downs, but you should go read his post to be better informed. Thanks Martin!

UX Report: The Series!

Since there's a lot to talk about, I'm going to break this up into a series of posts over the rest of the week. While many of my colleagues are down in Austin frolicking at SXSW, I'm going to stay where it's still cold and wet and tell you all about a trip to the one place in the tech industry that's pretty much the complete yang to the SXSW ying. I do it for you, really. Can you feel the love?

Today's post is about the setup and format of the two days, while the rest of the week will tackle specific sessions and presentations. Here's the breakdown:

    
• Today: Format (c:)
    
• Tuesday: The New Microsoft (Again)
    
• Wednesday: Design Matters (Maybe?)
    
• Thursday: Expression
    
• Friday: Wrapping Up

I'll come back and turn those into links as the rest of the pieces get published so you can always just tune back into this post to find them again.

Behind Enemy Lines

Let's get the bit about being the contrarion out of the way first: As a lifetime Mac user and passionate believer in Open Source, Culture, and Community, I viewed this trip as an opportunity to visit the beast's lair and to peek behind the curtain at what it contained. Back when my youthful naievity hadn't been dulled by the wisdom of time, I fought the Holy Religious War of the Operating System with all of the passion that a teenaged fan boy can muster.  I lost the need to convert the Great Unwashed Masses to the One True Jobsian Way sometime around the point where I became really interested in the User Experience of technology. As I got older, I realized that they're all just tools - some nicer than others - but in the end the importance is the outcome. I still think Apple makes better machines and software (although it has plenty of faults of its own), and we run our business almost entirely on Macs, but I'm happy to admit that there are plenty of times when their technology is not the right answer. This was a chance for me to go spend a few days with people who I respect a great deal, in a friendly and welcoming environment, and to learn what the other half will be up to for the next few years. It was interesting to note that there were four MacBookPros out of fifteen attendees and that four or five other people around the table admitted to owning a Mac at home (just for the kids to play on, of course).

Around the Table

Since the event was organized by Microsoft Canada, the Round Table consisted of some of the best and brightest Canadian UX minds. A quick introduction:

    
• Ryan Apps, Traffik Group
    
• Colin Bowern, Official Community
    
• Audrey Carr, Organic
    
• David Crow, Radiant Core
    
• Nicole Flippance, High Road Communications (Microsoft Canada's PR Company)
    
• Tom George, Design Axiom
    
• Dave Goodwin, University of Waterloo
    
• Anthony Hempel, Blast Radius
    
• Bryce Johnson, Navantis
    
• Kerri McKenna, imason
    
• Ben Skelton, Haberñero
    
• Gene Smith, nForm

Our Hosts

We were graciously hosted by a number of Microsoft Canada folk in addition to the great list of speakers. Thanks go out to:

    
• John Oxley, Microsoft Canada Director Community Evangelism
    
• Daniel Shapiro, Microsoft Canada Audience Manager
    
• Jerome Carron, Microsoft Canada Developer Evangelist

Format (c:)

As per my Reporting Live from Bellevue post, the event was held at the beautiful new Westin Bellevue hotel. We camped out in one of their conference rooms for two days and heard presentations from an amazing group of speakers:

Day One: UX at Microsoft

    
• Darren McCormick, Worldwide UX Role Owner for Microsoft: What’s up with UX at Microsoft?
    
• Will Tschumy, West Coast User Experience Evangelist (formerly Director of Experience for Flock): User Experience in Research - the Ribbon in Office 2007
    
• Jeff Pettiross, Senior Program Manager: User Experience in Practice - Health Explorer
    
• Kevin Gjerstad, Group Program Manager (WPF Reader): A User Experience Story – NY Times Reader
    
• Michael Suesserman, Technical Evangelist: Windows Vista Desktop and Live Gadgets

Day Two: Expression

    
• Erich Zocher, General Manager Tools (Expression): Turning UX Ideas into Reality (The Tools Roadmap
    
• Arturo Toledo, Technical Product Manager (Expression): Expression Design and Expression Blend
    
• Wayne Smith, Senior Product Manager (Expression): Expression Web
    
• Angela Baxley, Product Manager (Expression): Expression Media

The presentations largely consisted of someone speaking to a PowerPoint deck, followed by a Q&A with the Round Table panelists. These posts are based off my extensive notes taken during the presentations, but if I missed something and you were there to catch me on it, please add it in the comments!

That's it for Day 1 - tune in tomorrow for The New Microsoft (Again)! I'll leave you with a neat PictoBrowser of all my shots from the event:

Turns out that the folks who work at Microsoft are good people! We're particularly enamoured with John Oxley, Director Community Evangelism Microsoft Canada, who graciously ignored the above mentioned glowing fruit and invited yours truly down to Bellevue to participate in the first Microsoft User Experience (UX) Round Table. Despite any harsh criticisms of the past, I'm not above turning a new leaf and it's definitely true that Microsoft's UX Research teams are the hot spot du jour (not disimilar to Xeorx PARC in days of yore). Besides, free trips are always good trips, particularly when accompanied by Mr. David Crow, whose penchant for double bourbons is well known (particularly to my own precious liver who strains vainly to keep up).

We caught an Air Canada flight from Pearson to Settle-Tacoma which turned out to be delayed an hour. The plane was an Embraer 190 which was equipped with the very latest in En Route Inflight Entertainment systems, a topic which I'm becoming increasingly familiar with (see my recent I've-never-even-touched-it review of Virgin America's Red). The E190s feature the Thales Group's TopSeries Inflight Entertainment system, in this case heavily branded with the Air Canada livery and delivered in both English and French. I wasn't able to snap any shots on the way down (I'll try to grab some on the way back), but picture your basic 9" touchscreen embedded in the seat in front of you. These units lacked remotes and many of the features were "Unavailable" (including the Map, News, and Games), though they did feature a USB plug to the left of the screen for charging your ever present array of electronica. Placing the plug at eye level guarantees you'll see it - though the lack of markings might make you hesitate before you plugged in your trusty iPod. Not I! In the interest of journalism, I can confirm that it provides a steady charge but no much else (it might be more natural to place the plug in the armrest, nearer to where the iPod is likely to rest, but progress is progress and who are we to stand in its way?).

The system seemed a little buggy - David's seatmate crashed his twice (though no Blue Screen of Death, so one supposes that it's running on some Linux derivative). There's some markedly weird Information Architecture in the menu system (e.g.: going into the Kids section and selecting Movies drops you into a hidden section of the Movies menu, bizarely merging the first and second level menus), and the touch screens weren't overly responsive (the "Fullscreen" button in movie mode had to be mashed at least three times before it stuck, as did the "Turn off Display" button in the "Screen Brightness" control), but the fact that you can watch or listen to (almost) whatever you'd like elevates airtravel from tedious to almost pleasant. As noted in the review of Red, introducing this kind of tech into a cramped space repleat with expected interactions can bring some unexpected behaviours into play. The screens definitely pumped out a fair amount of heat - noticeable by placing your hand near them - and the cabin was a fair bit warmer than usual, bringing to mind all kinds of stories about library architects not taking into account the weight of books. I also found it surprisingly difficult to settle into Clint Eastwood's excellent Flags of our Fathers after my seatmate started the same film about three minutes before me. Whenever the action lulled, my eyes were inevitably drawn to his screen where the future was foretold in off-colour, angled LCD watching. All the same, the mere fact that I could choose to watch a seemingly unedited print of a great film instead of a heavily censored version or poorly selected rubbish more than made up for it. Sure, it lacks the über cool social chat features and inseat food ordering from Red, but it's aeromiles ahead of craning over heads and seatbacks to see a blown out projection and listening to a tinny soundtrack through a set of hollow rubber tubes.

Further excitement lurked in our shuttle when we blew out a tire on the highway from the airport to the hotel. It was pretty uneventful in the end; a fifteen minute wait on the shoulder until a different van - complete with cracked windshield and flaming skull license plate frame - picked us up. The Westin Bellevue hotel itself is brand new and beautifully decorated and I'm moments away from crashing in the Heavenly Bed. More tomorrow as we start the sessions!