n.
A metaphor for any service that provides easy, universal access to some other product or service using a variety of devices and regardless of location.
Example Citation:
"This will lead to the 'Internet dial-tone', in which connection to the Net from all manner of devices will be as automatic and simple as getting a dial-tone connection to the telephone network when we lift up a phone handset."
—Jim Higgins, "Web agents work while you live life," The Press, November 17, 1998
—Jim Higgins, "Web agents work while you live life," The Press, November 17, 1998
Notes:
As the citation above shows, this metaphor is based on the humble telephone dial tone, a service that provides easy and near-universal access to the phone system, and that works with a wide variety of devices (telephones, modems, security systems, and so on).
Another "dial tone" example that hasn't quite made it out to the mainstream media, but that's making the rounds of e-book and e-publishing circles is "content dial tone":
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