January 18, 2005
Can this service put pub quiz at risk?
The Times Online has a great article on Any question answered (AQA), the mobile phone service which allows anyone with a British mobile to text with any question on any subject at any time.
"It will, before long, kill the pub quiz, as more devious users have realised. Publicans will be forced to go to draconian and expensive lengths, buying scanners and metal detectors.
"We know Any Questions Answered (AQA) has won several pub quizzes already. Our customers texted us to say we helped them to victory, hiding their phones under the table,” Colly Myers said, a Zimbabwean who spent a decade heading two of the world's leading computer companies.
Suggestions of cheating at pub quizzes came under the spotlight this week after a dispute during a quiz at the King's Arms in Bedford resulted in a £17,000 libel settlement.
AQA is also proving a danger in the exam hall, prompting one college near Grimsby to use a phone detector.
The AQA service began last April while Mr Myers and a friend were sitting at Lord's cricket ground, frustrated by a crossword clue. It now receives up to 2,000 inquiries a day, the majority from men between 18 and 30. The record of 70 texts in one day is held by a woman."
[...] And The Times let some of its most cunning questioners loose on AQA, with mixed results.
Related articles and services:
For related mobile "Ask Expert" services, this category in Textually.org.
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