ManyMedia

Ten years ago I was attending a meeting of a smallish group of futurists and thinkers. I asked if I could have an introductory moment, something to set the tone. My statement was from Chu, a person from the future.

Thank you for inviting me to speak with your gathering. My name is Chu, I’m 16 years old, and I was just awarded the Sing Low Prize for Creative Thinking in Mathematics. I learned just before I came here that my Sr. High School thesis was downloaded by over 200,000 sites, representing 37 different countries. I’ve gotten feedback from over 120 people, 17 of them rather famous mathemeticians and scientists!

I talked with a couple of my elders before coming here, so I hope I say things you’ll understand and find interesting.

My grandmother told me it used to be different in the old days, but the NetChit I received from the downloads of my paper, combined with the Sing Low prize money, will allow me to attend college for another two years. There’s a local extension on the west end of my town that connects me with the rest of my class. The extension’s computers have multiple big desk and wall screens that enable us to work cooperatively on our assignments and interesting problems. I just plug in my WalkAbout, all the authorship and authenticity is taken care of, and I’m in.

Of course, I’m always online through my WalkAbout, but its operating system and functionality are more geared toward my lifestyle. I have a lot of friends–some of them don’t like math as much as I do. But we all keep in touch a lot.

My great-grandfather told me stories about his parents and how they used to wear their clothes and shoes with big Nike and Disney names on them. I can’t believe that anyone used to be so attached to those big companies of the past. During my great-grandfather’s days, he watched what they used to call “brands” slowly become less popular until at one point he said some companies were almost giving their stuff away! We have seen many examples in the last several decades of how so many big companies struggled and failed to adapt to the new ways. These days, when people want to take on a new persona, they might start out with a Def–a default persona that my great-grandfather says was kinda like a brand name that could be customized.

A couple other things you may be interested in. My grandmother told me you used to have things like digital watermarks and trademarks and such. I never quite understood these things or why anyone would do that. These days, a document’s content is keyed to authorship and authentication factors. The nature of the content is important, sure, but it’s also weighed against bodies of work by those and other authors. When some information is treated as a fact, its origins and context can be traced. Anonymous documents are represented by one or more Surety bodies.

Also, we have a truly global flow of information. The PublicNet is a vast, interconnected bit-pipe with no switches and no editorial controls to slow things down. The artists and other content creators connect directly to interested people. Our terminals, like my WalkAbout, have transaction, crypt, translating, summary, and other editorial preferences set by each user.

I understand you are all meeting to explore these and related concepts in the next couple of days. You can rest assured that meetings like this are happening all over the world, in a furious fashion, and that you have some big battles yet to come. I wish you well in your work–your future is my present and if all goes well, it’s a compelling one.

Thank you again for inviting me.

by Judi Clark
15 September 1998

Thank you to Jerry and others in that group for the opportunity to dream.

Life, Scenarios brands, education, future, Scenarios, wireless

From Lockergnome news:

“Being close to a Wi-Fi transmitter is heaven for laptop users, but being close to several is something else entirely. In buildings with dozens of Wi-Fi transmitters, signals can overlap and interfere with each other, slowing data transmission. But Propagate Networks in Acton, MA, is introducing so-called swarm logic software that lets access points communicate with each other and choose nonconflicting frequencies or adjust their power levels to eliminate overlap.”

From Propagate’s site:

AutoCell turns 802.11 access points and clients, into a self-organizing network. It’s lightweight. It’s powerful. It’s embedded. It runs continuously. It automatically controls the RF environment.

Network 802.11, interference, mesh, mobileTech, self-organizing, swarm, wi-fi, wireless

PhoneScoop has the news (and a link to FCC docs) on Motorola’s new mobile phone.

The FCC today approved the Motorola CN620, the first phone capable of operating on both mobile and Wi-Fi networks. Although the phone was developed by Motorola’s iDEN group, the phone supports only GSM and Wi-Fi networks. Voice calls started on Wi-Fi networks can be handed off to a GSM network. The reverse is possible only for certain types of calls. Features of the phone include a large color main display, an external display, speakerphone, eight-way navigation, and PTT (push-to-talk). Although the prototype approved by the FCC operates only on GSM networks, FCC documents reveal that the final model will support all three major types of Wi-Fi (802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11a), as well as quad-band GSM.

Devices, Policy 802.11, FCC, GSM, IDEN, Motorola, push to talk, telephone, wi-fi, wireless

 Necklaces, snow-boarding jackets, a wristwatch that uses your bones as part of the phone… new technology posing as mobile phones. Ok, the jacket is also an MP3 player. Will this make people who are talking on their cell phones in certain public places less annoying? Businessweek reports:

Now, get ready for another big makeover: In the coming year, you’ll see cell phones that are cleverly disguised in watches, bracelets, jacket lapels, backpacks — any imaginable place that will make gabbing a fashion statement (see accompanying Photo Essay for examples of several wearable devices discussed here). In the past year, European and Asian consumers have had a taste of wrist watches, pendants, and powder cases — all doubling as cell phones. Such wearable devices already account for between 1% and 5% of all cell phones sold worldwide, says analyst Michael King of consultancy Gartner. U.S. consumers, always behind the Old World in most things wireless, have been left out.

Devices cell phones, Europe, MP3, wearable, wireless

Chaska, MN, is lighting up the entire city, predicting 2,000 of its 18,000 residents will sign up for its new high-speed wireless service.

The city’s newer wireless network also is intended as a public safety tool. Computers now found in police squads will be adapted for Wi-Fi use, for instance.

But the network is primarily intended for home users, which makes Chaska and its technology partner, California-based Tropos Networks, consumer-Wi-Fi trendsetters.

Tropos specializes in adapting the short-range Wi-Fi technology for long-range use. This is accomplished with radiolike devices installed atop light poles and other vantage points. The devices don’t require hard-wired access to the Internet, only power, which means they can be deployed quickly and affordably.

In Chaska, 64 of the wireless-networking devices are scattered over a 4-square-mile test area. About 200 will be deployed over 12 to 13 square miles by mid-June to create a citywide network, Mayer said.

This is all well and good, said one industry expert, but Wi-Fi isn’t necessarily the best technology for a citywide wireless network.

Network broadband, city, muni wi-fi, Tropos, wi-fi, wireless

Financial Times reports that an online phone directory proposed for all cell phones is raising fears about possible incoming marketing calls:

But consumer groups fear that wireless users may be flooded with calls from telemarketers – particularly because wireless phone customers, unlike traditional customers, are charged for each incoming call.

‘People better be given a serious chance to opt in to the directory,’ said Mark Cooper of the Consumer Federation of America. ‘They have to be apprised of the decision being made.’

In Congress, legislation has already been introduced that would prohibit wireless companies from listing numbers without customer permission, or for charging customers to keep unlisted numbers. All the big US wireless carriers except Verizon plan to give users the option to be listed.

In fact, ATT is already sending text ads to some of their cell phone user accounts, touting their other services. A good way to build brand loyalty–or not?

Content, Policy cell phone, directory, marketing, opt-in, opt-out, wireless

A coffee shop in Washington (state) is offering free Internet phone service, for the price of a latte. And why not? Doesn’t cost anything more than the broadband connection because it doesn’t connect to the regular (PSTN) telephone network. But it does connect people, and is a good demonstration of one possible future (goodbye Qwest?).

The phone at Urban Grind, which Johnson hooked up last week, is the only free public Internet phone anywhere, as far as PTP knows. Anyone can walk into the cafe and give the phone a whirl for the price of a latte, opening a new front in Personal Telco’s campaign to install free wireless Internet across Portland.

Network coffee, free, phone, VoIP, wi-fi, wireless

Motorola’s new mobile phone supports music and video content, has memory expansion cards up to 1GB, has stereo speakers and FM radio, color screen with video cam, and more.

‘The device formally known as the cellphone is now our wireless entertainment portal, connecting us to the music, videos, artists we love, and the information we want,’ commented Motorola’s ‘chief brand officer,’ Geoffrey Frost. ‘Through wireless innovation, partnerships and open standards, we are delivering a new way for artists to reach their fans, and for music-lovers to enjoy their favourite tracks.’

The question is: which service providers will be first to sign up?

Devices cell phone, entertainment portal, mobileTech, open standards, phone, service providers, stereo, video, wireless

A new addition to the wireless environment:

Hajimiri’s radar on a chip could replace a lot of existing dish antennae, like the kind you have on your roof to watch satellite TV. The frequency at which the chip runs – 24 Gigahertz – falls right into the spectrum allocated by the FCC for vehicular radar systems. These chips could be embedded into a car to give it 360-degree, all weather vision, protecting the occupants from reckless drivers and other highway hazards. …

But the most interesting thing about Hajimiri’s radar-on-a-chip is how it can be used to do things that aren’t typically associated with radar. For instance, the chip could be used for mobile phones* and to send and receive high-speed wireless data. That’s because the chip has an array of eight tiny antennae that beams its signal in any specified direction, just like a parabolic radar dish does. But while a radar dish has to physically move in order to direct a signal, the radar-on-a-chip directs its radio beam by electrically adjusting the phases of the oscillating current going through its eight antennae (which don’t look like antennae – they are metallic leads etched onto a circuit board).

Devices, Network 24 Gigahertz, broadband, chip, direction, radar, vehicle, wireless

Five-pen computing? Certainly mobile. Still in the works.

The design concept uses five different pens to make a computer. One pen is a CPU, another a camera, one creates a virtual keyboard, another projects the visual output and thus the display and another a communicator (a phone). All five pens can rest in a holding block which recharges the batteries and holds the mass storage. Each pen communicates wireless…

Devices computer, cool, display, mobileTech, output, phone, virtual keyboard, wireless