This article originally published in Self-Service World magazine, January 2007.
What starts on a drawing board thousands of miles away often winds up in the back of Jack Karter's trucks. Karter is the operations manager for WDS in Dallas. His company completes local pieces of national kiosk rollouts brokered to them by Technical Transportation Inc. His career has spanned 15 years, during which he's seen a lot of kiosks and ATMs.
SSW: What do you do?
Jack Karter: When we get an order, it's my job to make sure it goes as flawless as possible. We bolt (the kiosks) down, show the customer how to put the cash in them, run the (printer) tape in them and show the customer how that is done.
SSW: Do you remember the first kiosk you delivered?
JK: It was about 11 years ago. It went into an Eckerd's (pharmacy). It was a kiosk for all kinds of information you could get on different types of prescriptions and whatnot. 
It had a list of the drugs you wanted to know about, and you could highlight that and it would print out a fact sheet for you. It was actually the size of the small ATMs with the surround. It was quite large.
It had a list of the drugs you wanted to know about, and you could highlight that and it would print out a fact sheet for you. It was actually the size of the small ATMs with the surround. It was quite large.SSW: What's the most recent kiosk you've installed?
JK: The most recent was a payment kiosk that we're putting into the Verizon wireless phone stores.
SSW: Was the Verizon kiosk very different?
JK: From the first one I saw? Definitely. The main thing is, they're just so much more user-friendly. With the payment kiosks, like Verizon for instance, you can go get online and your payment is immediately recognized.
SSW: What would you most like to use a kiosk for?
JK: There's applications in the grocery store. Those little signs they have hanging (above the aisles) don't tell you a whole lot. The sign might say dog food or this and that, but you go over there and there's bottled water.
