Re: <nettime> New Adventures in Mobile Computing

[enquiry@nextwaveit.biz]

To all nettime users

New Adventures in Mobile Computing

Wireless networking is revolutionising the way people work and play.
By removing physical wiring commonly associated with high-speed
networking, individuals are able to use networks in ways never thought
possible in the past. The wireless revolution will require bringing
the Internet and mobile devices together into a seamless mobile
system, allowing access to information that is not only independent of
the source of the information, but also independent of the location of
the person accessing it. Wireless voice communications build on the
mobile phone network, and wireless data applications that are based on
that and the Internet has the potential to be a huge future market.

The mobile system is not just the mobile device, but also the
combination of air network, cable connections, servers, PC?s,
software, networking, information, and everything else that makes the
mobile device in my hand usable.

Mobile devices will have to be handheld and small enough to put in
your pocket to become usable everywhere. Examples of mobile devices
are mobile phones, personal digital assistants, and mini laptops.
To find information on the street with a laptop can take up to
three minutes. If you can?t pick up the mobile device and walk out
the building while maintaining contact and continuing to use the
applications you were using, it is not really mobile.

Independence of the user network, whether it is cabled or wireless, is
one feature of the web revolution that has changed the way we design
applications and information systems. The browser is the platform on
which you design the information access and interactions of the user,
not the operating system. Family members can check email from anywhere
in the house, and they can pool resources with neighbours and share
one community broadband Internet connection.

Wireless users have many more opportunities in front of them, but
those opportunities open up the user to greater risk. With wireless
networking, there is little physical security. The radio waves
that make wireless networking possible are also what make wireless
networking open to eavesdropping. A user can be anywhere nearby
listening to all the traffic from you network.

Wireless networks are showing up everywhere. Businesses are deploying
WLANs to allow employees to roam freely around locations without
leaving the network. People weren?t meant to sit in the same place,
day in and day out, the combination of a PDA and wireless networking
providing Internet access wherever we go is liberating. Some airports
offer wireless access so mobile users can continue to be productive
while waiting for plane departures, and communities are banding
together to provide wireless Internet access to homes that may not
have direct access to wired broadband networks.


Mark Bower
Director
NextWave.IT Limited
www.nextwaveit.biz
enquiry@nextwaveit.biz




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