Hyperconnectivity = Lots of cell phones, or is it just a fridge that orders groceries?

As you probably read by now, Hyperconnectivity is Nortel’s foray into global market noise around a cause. Their competitors have done it too though so it was no big surprise when a major campaign was launched to raise awareness of the [s]problems[/s] opportunity this new “mega-trend” can create. I was a gadget-toting geek like many of my technically inclined brethren back in the late 90s when cell phones were the size of bricks and “advanced” was getting a Blackberry that had a calculator screen and couldn’t possibly be carried in even the largest of pants pockets. But now, with one device capable of navigation, VoIP, computing, Internet, and everything else you can imagine it isn’t about who has the most toys, it’s about who has the fewest toys but the coolest features. So why now, with advanced capabilities converging into a hardware singularity is Hyperconnectivity such a big deal? It’s not. Kind of… The unfortunate thing about Nortel’s push to Hyperconnectivity was that in an attempt to help people identify with the concept the most common example used was about cell phones. The concept quickly became abstracted from a customer’s current concerns and it was turned into a one-chart intro in a PowerPoint deck that was detached from the rest of the meeting’s true purpose. So what is Hyperconnectivity? According to widely-used but not always reliable sources, it was coined many years ago by a social scientist to describe trends of interpersonal communications. Doesn’t seem very applicable to a stodgy old telecom vendor but then again Nortel has come a long way. Lots of connections means there is a need to bring networks to devices that didn’t used to need networks. It also means that more highly integrated, intelligent applications will be required to handle not only the volume of traffic but also the diversity of modalities that will be present in the new world to enhance the human experience…. for now, anyway. Nortel is in a perfect position to help [s]SkyNet destroy humanity[/s] enhance this experience through their knowledge of products and services to make these connections, deliver the bandwidth required to support them, and to design networks that will support the growth of Hyperconnectivity in the future.