I think the point is valid. We have to constantly monitor what people are doing and communicate with them in that manner. Things come and things go. When’s the last time you sent a fax? Broadband penetration has changed Web content (I remember when all pages had to be less than 50k). I think mobile connections will change a lot of what we do. It might not be time yet, but I think providing some level of mobile information, like what Neal is doing, is called for. I read too many new stats about mobile Web penetration, and, frankly, it hits home when you’re at a restaurant and you see people all around you accessing something on their smart phones.

Oh, and people who leave voicemails for something that needs to be done are missing something. And I don’t think it’s a “camp” type thing. But if you need me to do something, you need to get on my list. And my “list” is my In box. Again, I don’t say this because I’m in a certain camp. I think we’ll see that certain communication devices are better for certain things. There will end up being unwritten rules that people will apply. For example, I’ll never text my boss: Sick 2day. CUl8r. Thx. (though I might want to)

It is frustrating for me that some people absolutely refuse to communicate on anything other than a phone or in person. But I’m sure it’s equally frustrating for them when I e-mail them back. But my reasoning is that, as a tech guy, e-mails provide a history of discussion that is plainly laid out and there’s more than ample room for details that I can go over as many times as I wish. If it’s on the phone or in person, I either scramble to write notes, perhaps leaving something out, or perhaps they will leave out an important detail. I’d much rather a very long, detailed e-mail than a short face-to-face meeting that doesn’t get anything done and has to be followed up with x number of phone calls or more face-to-face meetings.

So that is an interesting point: my clients want one thing while I would rather another. To me, and I’m hard-headed, I see it as preference vs. requirement. They see a meeting as a preference while I see a detailed e-mail as a requirement. So of course I win! But often that’s not the case.

As for the site itself, we don’t have any explicit plans to make it more accessible by PDAs or cells, but if it came as a cost-efficient part of a redesign, we’d probably consider it. But I’d say that well over 95% of the content of our site is more commonly going to be looked at with a regular computer rather than a PDA or cell (where maybe phone numbers, addresses, perhaps a map will be read).

The communication issue is a different one altogether, and one that perplexes me still. I don’t carry either a pager nor do I access my email from a handheld device. Maybe I should. But I do check voicemail frequently when I’m not in the office, and email is accessible from anywhere I can access the Internet. And my admin has my cell and home phone numbers. Maybe I’m a knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing troglodite, but I’ve yet to encounter a situation where I wasn’t reachable quickly enough.