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Name: Alex Estill
From: Ohio
Bio: College Educated, Mechanically and computer capable person, gadet junky
Area of Expertise: Futurist/Consultant
Topic: Technology
Headline: Wireless at its full potential
Nutshell: Wireless is the biggest advent in internet history since it began; full-access wireless service will revolutionize what the internet can provide and how it will be used.
Vision:Wireless internet is here. I can sit on my couch and access the world. No cable, no fuss. But that is just a start. The internet provides for the technology what the industrial revolution provided for technology – the opportunity for mass production, or in this case, mass consumption.
Internet music services can provide the user with access to nearly a million songs at a push of a button, many more than they could afford to maintain themselves.
Information is available faster and with more thoroughness than ever before.
I envision a system that allows wireless access to the internet anywhere in the country. With the limits of 802.11, this would mean a new protocol, possible an integration with the cell phone network, to provide a large enough range to reduce the cost of installing access points. However, once it is available, all communications, voice, text, and otherwise, will be integrated.
Information resources will be availabe anywhere: in your car, your cabin by the lake, or your bathtub. Multimedia can be collectively stored and accessible by millions, providing a efficiency of scale to the digital age.
While some may question the full integration of comupter technology in society, I will welcome it as a new revolution in human development. Not a crutch, but a catalyst of development of human society.
Date Submitted: November 12, 2004
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