April Fool’s Day
I’ve never really observed April Fool’s Day in the sense of initiating practical jokes. However, while editing the Alpine Times I once published a joke article on the front page.
It was to the effect that some rogue bears had been sighted in the hills near Porepunkah. The bears had supposedly escaped from a circus many years ago and established a colony in the bush … etc.
But my lack of interest in the April Fool tradition meant I nearly let one prank catch me off-guard earlier today. I received this e-mail from the acting CEO of Alpine Health:
I have just received notification from HumeNet (the provider of our Hume Region IT and Communications network) that funding has been provided for Alpine Health to participate in a new technology innovation - EMAIL VIDEO.
There will be a one month pilot project (the APRIL Project) to test the technology which provides the opportunity for us to avoid having to type emails. Instead each desktop computer in Admin and SMT has been provided with a desktop camera on their computer (it’s already installed) and to email we simply speak to the computer. Verbal and visual commands will be used to direct your email to appropriate recipients. Those who do not have Video Email will receive a typed version in the normal way.
Once again Alpine Health has been selected to lead the technological way and as such our pilot has been named the First April Real Test (F.A.R.T.) of Video Email. Try it now!! This email was prepared with the new technology. Please let me know how you go.
I was quick enough to respond though, that if the trial fails the newspaper headlines will read: “Alpine Health blows FART trial”.
Apparently a few staff made enquiries about how to work the video e-mail system!
I'm a 41-year-old father of four working as a newspaper editor at Mount Gambier in South Australia.
