hello 3

There has been a major development in the world of 'two-way television' in the last month.  I knew this day would come eventually, the day that an idea passes from theory into reality.  Who ever thought that something like two-way television would ever be buyable in a store like Best Buy in 2010?  I certainly did not.  But that is exactly what happened on November 15, 2010, when Cisco brought out a new kind of TV called "Umi" (pronounced 'you-me').  After I saw how the TV operated I had to double-check my senses.  I drove over to the next nearest Best Buy store in the Philadelphia suburbs and said, "Could I take a look at the new two-way TV that just came out?"  


The salesman replied, "I'll check but I never heard of that."  More polite back and forth and he said, "Oh the you-me (Umi)."


There it was, the same unit as in the other store.  It's not exactly what I had in mind but, then again, my own money wasn't behind this TV.  Cisco, once a company larger than Apple or Microsoft at the height of the dot.com boom, was.  In entering the consumer market, Cisco was departing into mostly-new territory, but their deep pockets should mean that the Umi will survive.  If I'm right, you won't have to go looking for it; it will come looking for you.  I mean that in the best sense, in the same way that iPod and Kindle came looking for all of us, two groundbreaking devices which heralded major shifts in the way we get our music and, for the Kindle (from Amazon), our books.  I've already seen advertisements on television for the Umi TV with Ellen Page, the young, Canadian, Oscar-nominated movie actress appearing in them.  Or log onto cisco.com/umi where seven short videos await you demonstrating it.


What exactly is it?  Well, it's a TV that lets you video-chat with someone else from your own living room.  The other person could be in Starbucks sipping a latte, sitting in front of a webcam built into their laptop, or could be sitting at home on the couch with their spouse.  You really must visit cisco.com/umi.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and these promotional videos from Cisco present the new Umi better than I could describe.  But I will sum it up this way: I remember in 1951 at the age of 7 my father carrying our first TV in the door.  We were the first house on the block to have it.  Overnight I became the most popular kid in the neighborhood as our living room filled up at 5:30 PM every night to watch Howdy Doody, a puppet show.  The launch of the new Umi is an event which could be as significant as the first black-and-white TV.  The picture entered our living room in 1951; in 2010, it left.  That is a major feat of engineering when the picture quality and sound are this great.  Congratulations to Cisco for what they have accomplished.  (Silent 'awesome' respectfully inserted here)  Who knew what lay ahead for the iPod when it first appeared?  It is possible that there is a place in most everyone's home for a TV that lets them video-chat with family and friends.  We will have to see if Sony or LG follows with a competing product of its own.


Those of you who have been to my own website...twowaytelevision.org...or two-way-tv.com...or two-way-television.com...all 3 web addresses go to the same home page...will know after checking out the Umi at Best Buy that two-way television is still alive and well.  There are some singular differences between us.  For instance, there are no number-buttons on the Umi's remote control.  The idea to allow TV viewers to dial telephone numbers of their friends on the same numbered keypad of the remote that now selects TV channels is an original idea of mine who's time will come.


Hats off to Cisco.  Your own comments welcome.


James Connor

hello 2

All this was running through my head on May 31, 2009, nearly ten years later, as I stared at the laptop screen on my apartment desk. Encyclopedias...how often had I consulted them? Not that often. I was anything but an egghead. Their language, point of view, their tone...the wheels began turning, digging up memories as far back as my college years when real, library-shelved encyclopedias served more of a need for me. I also recalled reading recently on Wikipedia that "a neutral point of view" was sought. That was going to be sticky. Should the founder of something as potentially big as two-way television also be the one writing its description for all the users of this online encyclopedia to read? And when at the end it asks me to provide my sources, am I suppose to type "two-way-television.com", my own website?! I wrote every word of it! Before I began giving out my brightly-colored, professional-to-a-tee cards in the 1990's, who had ever heard of two-way television? (Answer: not a soul on the planet)

My fingers began to glide effortlessly across the keys as if they had a mind of their own...

"Two-way television is a developing theory that would allow the viewer at home in front of their own TV to communicate back to the person appearing on TV. Built-in cameras would make the interaction possible. Users of two-way television may bypass normal TV operation by using the handheld remote to dial telephone numbers on the same keypad presently reserved for channel-changing. In this capacity, the remote keypad essentially functions as a cell phone's. The alignment of the ten number-buttons on both the remote and cell phone is the same, allowing a toggling key to be added for switching between the two. A picture call results when the call placed from the TV remote is answered. In theory, two, three or four people might communicate in split-screen on their home TVs, known as video-conferencing in business today."

I took a deep breath. That paragraph had gone much better than I thought. With so much I could have said on the subject, I was able to condense it down pretty well. And the meaning of the words aside, gave myself an "R" for Rhythm. I felt more confident going into my succinct conclusion.

"Two-way television involves a re-arrangement of our thinking about present-day TV as it puts the viewer in the picture. Frightening to many, exciting to others, two-way television remains in the early stages of development."

Then I launched it into cyberspace hitting the appropriate button. On the subject of providing my sources for the article, I instead chose to 'protect my sources.' Translation: I chose silence.

...and so, for the first two weeks of June 2009, that's how it stood. Was I proud! Anyone searching for "two-way television" on Wikipedia would have found it, just like that. My own creation in an online encyclopedia.

hello 1

Over the course of the last few years I had searched for "two-way television" on Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, any number of times. It was always very much a coin-toss whether I would come up with anything. When I came up blank once again on May 31, 2009, I decided to avail myself of the invitation presented on the screen in front of me: "You can create an article on this subject yourself." I had to think a minute. What an unusual idea for an online encyclopedia to allow anyone to create articles like this. But I was the founder. I had thought it up two decades ago. More, perhaps. I had really lost track of the years. And promoted it myself on pocket-sized cards that I financed, designed, and printed up myself at Minuteman Press' office in a Philadelphia, PA suburb. That was only the beginning. Then watching the cartons be loaded into my trunk and onto the back seat of my car and wondering where I would be when the supply ran out...Idaho, Utah...probably somewhere in that region. That would likely mean I had distributed them from the white, sandy beaches of South Jersey, two hours east of my home in Philly, across the entire country to California, north on Interstate 5 through Portland, Oregan, up to Seattle, and then homeward-bound east again to "snow country," except it was the summer in Denver, and I was flat out of cards standing outside of a Colorado Rockies night game. The dark blue waist pouch around my waist was empty as spectators to the game filed past and I heard the Spanish being spoken. "Que pasa." I only knew a few words of Spanish, and the four gentlemen looked at me quizzically. Then the man second in from the far side reached across two of his amigos and accepted my last card. My last card of a run that counted 50,000 at the start...now in late August 1999 those cards would be spread out across the lower 48 to sunbathers on beaches, people in shopping malls, state fair goers, concerts and ballgames, ending here at the foot of the Rockies.

All this was running through my head