Fed II Star - March 12, 2006

REAL LIFE NEWS: VIRTUAL MOURNERS AND LONG-DISTANCE AUTOGRAPHS

The Internet allows us to do things remotely so we no longer have to travel to a specific place and meet people face to face, and two recent development highlight how this can change the way people interact.

First is a report that a crematorium in Hull, England, is installing webcams so that people who are unable to travel to a funeral can pay their respects online. Hull City Council said they got the idea for this after seeing people filming funerals on camcorders.

This doesn't mean that anybody will be able to ogle the rituals remotely - it's intended to be an invitation-only thing, with mourners being given an access code so they can log on and watch the proceedings in real time. I wonder how good the security will be, though!

The other development is an invention by British author Margaret Atwood, who has invented a "magic pen" called LongPen that allows her to sign books remotely. The autographs are signed on an electronic pad, while she chats to the fan using a video link. Seconds later, two metal arms holding a pen reproduce the signature in the fan's book.

The author invented this gadget after getting fed up of travelling around the world on book tours. "You cannot be in five countries at the same time," she said. "But you can be in five countries at the same time with the LongPen".

The pen had its first public outing at the London Book Fair recently. In a demo of the technology, Atwood remotely signed a copy of her new short story collection, The Tent, for her chief publisher who was in another room in the exhibition. The pen will next be used to allow Atwood to autograph copies of the book for fans in New York and Guelph, Ontario.

If this invention takes off it could have enormous implications for publicity tours of all kinds.