Internet Democracy – Take Back the Beep

From time to time there are those whose sufferings can be taken no longer. For these people they resort to a new form of digital revolution, the “Social Network Call to Arms”. The past few months I’ve witnessed countless instances of people using their network connections to accomplish many tasks. Take this story by New York Times Technology Blogger, David Poque.

He could no longer suffer the injustice of having to wait for the mandatory 15-second voicemail instructions messages that play before each persons voicemail. Poque claims that the customers are paying for it.

These little 15-second waits add up–bigtime. If Verizon’s 70 million customers leave or check messages twice a weekday, Verizon rakes in about $620 million a year. That’s your money. And your time: three hours of your time a year, just sitting there listening to the same message over and over again every year.

In 2007, I spoke at an international cellular conference in Italy. The big buzzword was ARPU–Average Revenue Per User. The seminars all had titles like, “Maximizing ARPU In a Digital Age.” And yes, several attendees (cell executives) admitted to me, point-blank, that the voicemail instructions exist primarily to make you use up airtime, thereby maximizing ARPU.

Poque has decided that by using the power of the internet and his readerbase that he could take it upon himself to make these corporate giants listen to what he had to say. He goes on to rally readers together in a collective effort.

Right now, the carriers continue to enjoy their billion-dollar scam only because we’re not organized enough to do anything about it. But it doesn’t have to be this way. You don’t have to sit there, waiting to leave your message, listening to a speech recorded by a third-grade teacher on Ambien.

Let’s push back, and hard. We want those time-wasting, money-leaking messages eliminated, or at least made optional.

I asked my Twitter followers for help coming up with a war cry, a slogan, to identify this campaign. My favorite, though, is the one that sounds like a call to action: “Take Back the Beep.”

Poque then lists a point of contact for each of the major cell phone providers and leaves us with these words. “I have a feeling that the volume of complaints will be too big for them to ignore. To that end, I hope you’ll pass these instructions along, blog them, Twitter them, and spread the word. I hope you’ll take the time to complain yourself. Do it now, before you forget.

Since the story has been picked up by many other popular blogs such as The Consumerist and Engadget and each story has hundreds of supporting comments. Today it has become possible for the smallest person to rally together masses of people in support of ANY ideal and make your point be heard.

Through blogging, digging, and twittering alone, think of how many people can you can reach. Imagine the effect of thousands of people calling the same customer service center or email bombing the same address. I picture alot of chaos on their end trying to keep up with the sheer volumes of call’s and emails that a coordinated collective effort would bring. That is why I think that the internet has brought us the only true democracy.