What better start for any child?7
What better start for any child?”7.25pm: two visitors in their twenties have been listening in the background. Ravi, aged four, who has never used a computer before, is transfixed. Stuart loads a CD-Rom, and after a couple of minutes, Ravi masters the mouse, and looks as if he should be doing the demonstrations.7pm: meet the other local distributors: Sonja from Abingdon, a recent convert from Tupperware, and Norman from Didcot, who was a removal man until his back gave out. We are shown into an immaculate sitting-room, where we unpack the demonstration computer, to the delight of the two small children. “But at the other end of the scale, someone is on course to make pounds 180,000 this year.”
I joined Stuart Miller, a distributor, for a typical evening party on a smart housing estate in Oxfordshire.6.40pm: DKFL distributors usually arrange for the party to be held at a friend’s house, in this case on the outskirts of Bicester.
“They’re probably still hoovering,” says Stuart as we arrive. The sales network for these “computer Tupperware” parties has been built up by Dorling Kindersley Family Library – part of the company that is best known for its highly illustrated books and CD-Roms. Growth has been phenomenal: DKFL now has 10,000 people working as distributors. “Most people do it part-time, and make a few thousand pounds a year,” says the managing director, Peter Cart-wright. Fortunes are being made by home-based networkers who are selling to friends and neighbours.
Two years ago, nobody had heard of multimedia. But in that time, the all-singing, all-dancing PC has moved from hi-tech shops to superstores, and now to the suburban sitting-room sales party. A lot of things we are concerned about now will not be a problem for the next generation.”. “If you want to know how your mother is, a picture gives you much more information And you can show things to each other I can show my brother the baby. We have been installing video technology in schools and spent time with teachers and children, and the kids love it.”Mr Cooper is convinced that a homes market will begin to emerge once people are convinced of the benefits. If you had a video camera which could be pressed into life and catch you unawares, people would not like that.
There is some interesting behaviour that the camera engenders. You see yourself [in a window on the screen], so people on video- conference take advantage of that to make themselves presentable.”People can be less comfortable if they think they have no control over this thing looking at them. “Many people aspire to work from home, but feel unable to do so. This will facilitate it.”Martin Cooper, head of the human factors division at BT, says: “The overall experience is very positive. Do people really want to adjust to a new way of working?”BT has been researching consumer responses to video-conferencing, and says that there is little resistance, provided customers can perceive a clear benefit from it, and feel in control of the technology. Adrian Butcher, BT’s manager for visual solutions, says video-conferencing could be given a real boost “The accelerator will be working from home,” he says.
The key question is culture, and the operational reasons for using video-conferencing. Some corporations use video-conferencing only for executives, while document-conferencing is available to less senior staff.”The first step is document-to-document communication, and that could take off as quickly as the fax did,” says Kevin Walsh, managing director of On Demand Information, consultants and IT service providers “Video- conferencing is real; it is going to be with us. Users can share documents, but cannot see each other: they need software costing about pounds 200 plus a modern modem. Kiosks with built-in screens, which allow customers to interrogate databanks before communicating directly with sales staff, are proving successful with banks and travel agents. And early trials for use in medical diagnosis are encouraging, allowing patients to be seen sooner by consultants, more conveniently and in the video-conference presence of their GPs.But a lower-tech version of video-conferencing, called document-conferencing, could be a bigger growth area in the short term. Lucas Industries has established video-conference links with component suppliers in Japan, reducing the need for executives to fly over to inspect components and packaging.Philip Hamer, a solicitor, is enthusiastic about video-conferencing, which he has installed in each of his offices in Hull, Leeds, Doncaster and Sheffield, and uses for inter-office meetings.
