I got handed a flier for this whilst in London today; it looks interesting:

"The Sultan’s Elephant is a spectacle you’ve only imagined... Created by theatrical magicians Royal de Luxe, it tells the story of a sultan from far-off lands and his magical, time-travelling mechanical elephant. Forty feet high and 42 tonnes in weight, this beautiful creature will capture the hearts and minds of everyone who sees it.

The Sultan’s Elephant is played out over four days in the streets, squares and public spaces of central London. Whether you dip into it for three hours or follow its progress for three days, this breathtaking show will live in your memory forever."

Charlie linked to a brief post I hurled up about instant messaging and SMS, and it's gotten me thinking: what's in this for the various parties involved? Who gains and who loses if I can see presence info for, say, the folks in my address book?

What am I more likely to do if I see a friend is unavailable? Send a text, or not call at all, instead of calling and leaving a voicemail. What do operators earn from a leaving-voicemail/checking-voicemail/call-back sequence, compared to what they earn from an SMS/call-back or SMS/SMS? I bet there's someone somewhere in the organisation scared of cannibalising existing revenues who'll put the boot in.

This is one of the places where new operators like 3 or the MVNOs can really do new stuff: they don't have a history or entrenched views, and there isn't someone working somewhere in Billing to throw a hissy fit when your new service - which customers might love - is going to take revenue away from their empire. (Not that I have anything against anyone who works in Billing - God shall be their judge, not me)

And what about users? How much would I pay to expose presence information about myself, and to see presence information of my friends? And how do we manage the inevitable conflicts of interest: what happens when you want your boss to see you're busy, but your friends to be able to contact you? I suspect that managing this stuff on a mobile is a fairly tricky interface problem.

Meanwhile, here's a use case where IM is great and which operators have failed to deliver on: the 3-way (or 4-way, or 5-way) horrendo. That is, where you want to have a group chat. I think there's money to be made from anyone who solves the "synchronising a group of mates on a Friday evening" problem...

AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!

The myth of "keeping up": "You can't keep up. There is no way. And trying to keep up will probably just make you dumber.You can never be current on everything you think you should be. You can't simultaneously be current on:

And on and on and on..."

I like some of their ways around this though:

• "Unsubscribe to as many things as possible
• Pick the categories you want for a balanced perspective, and include some from OUTSIDE your main field of interest"

Fish ties, of course!