Folks…
Note: To watch ASL Video, go this link –
http://www.edsalert.com/2009/04/27/organic-minutes/
A friend of mine used the term, Organic Minutes and it really hit off
what I’ve been trying to say all along. This is also to follow up on
a couple comments that asked about should this and that be permitted
or not; what does the FCC regulation say? and so on.
Definition of organic: Free from chemical injections or additives,
such as antibiotics or hormones: organic chicken. c. Simple,
healthful, and close to nature: an organic lifestyle.
This is clear enough. I have organic vegetable garden now. No
chemical solutions for herbicides, and pesticide are used. Compost –
healthy soil; for pesticide, I use hot pepper, insects and whip them
into a solution and spray plants; for herbicide, I use my hands.
Result, healthy vegetable and delicious to boot and not have to worry
about residues of sprays from chemicals used for pesticide and
herbicide (Round-up, etc – horrors) affecting our health.
Same with Organic Minutes. It means purely consumer driven minutes.
In other words, no telemarketers, no daily internal video conferences
(by VRS staff), no online classroom or similar minutes are done. This
is how I view VRS industry ought to do; this is how I percieve TRS
rules to mean. TRS rules seem to be clear that any relay calls (text
relay, Internet Relay, STS, VRS, and other horde features) should have
two way participating parties thru relay agent/video interpreter. In
other words, both caller and called party should activately
participate with each other. So online classroom is out because this
is not a true two way conversation. The execption is answering machine
and voice mails (it is in the relay rule). Video conference calls are
permitted, but it seems that a few VRS providers abuse that just to
ramp up VRS minutes; not for the real reason why video conferences are
held.
Another important point to consider. This is NOT about accessing
various services available for hearing persons, this is about
complying what existing federal relay rules (Title IV and subsequent
Public Notices, Rule and Orders, etc from FCC) say what is permitted
or what is not permitted.
So Organic Minutes means purely and clean relay calls between
participating caller and called party. Period. I bet if VRS industry
follows that, the total VRS minutes probably will be reduced maybe as
much as 30% or more.
I realize this is a very controversial issue. I repeat, this is about
what federal relay rules are about. If you think online education
should be permitted, address this with the FCC directly as FCC already
said classroom interpreting is not permitted for VRS. Same with other
services that seem not to be permitted.
eyes open & thumbs up,
Ed Bosson
Email: [email protected]