Will Wi-Fi Fly?

The cover story in Barron's this week was entitled "Will Wi-Fi Fly?". The sub-title was "Wireless networks are proliferating, but making money will be tricky". Eric Savitz did a really good job covering WiFi in a very comprehensive way. I enjoyed discussing my views with him and he quoted me several times in his story.

First was "Telephony is just another Internet application," says John Patrick, a consultant and author who until his retirement a year ago was IBM's chief Internet guru. "The telecom industry thinks of the Internet as one of the things you can do with telephony services, but it is exactly the opposite. Telephony is one of the many things you can do with the Internet." I also said "Business travelers with 30 minutes to check e mail don't want to go looking for war chalking," says former IBMer John Patrick -- meaning they don't want to take time hunting down free access points. "I happily pay T Mobile for that reason. When I get to an airport, I head to the Admiral's Club, log in, and as soon as I hit the browser and enter a password, I'm a happy camper."

Eric wrapped up his story with "We're very much in parallel with where we were with the Internet almost 10 years ago," he says. "I remember looking at the Internet at IBM in 1994 and thinking: 'This is really cool, but where's the money?''' The questions people have about Wi Fi now are the same ones we had in '93 and '94 about the Internet. Skeptics say it doesn't scale, it's not secure, it's not industrial strength. It's the same things people said about the Internet. But there's no stopping Wi Fi. It's a grassroots technology, totally distributed, standards based, global, with nobody in charge. Those are the reasons the Internet has flourished. And the implications are huge."

WiFi April 29, 2003 04:15 PM

WiFi - Update No. 8

WiFi Update No. 8 will be posted in the morning. I just finished it but it needs a spell-check and some editing.

WiFi April 24, 2003 10:58 PM

FTC Spam Forum

Next Friday, May 2, I'll be in Washington participating in a Federal Trade Commission public forum to explore the issues regarding the proliferation of and potential solutions to unsolicited commercial email ("UCE" or "spam"). The forum will also look at how the unique qualities of spam contribute to and hinder both fraud and its prosecution. The panel I hope to contribute on is entitled "Federal and State Legislation". This is an unlikely place for me to participate but I will be the voice arguing that legislation is *not* the right answer. (read more)

Public Policy April 22, 2003 10:03 PM

Hiking

>From time to time I digress from WiFi and Internet Technology. In recent years I have come to appreciate hiking, even though I have had no training and haven't even read anything about it. Just putting one foot in front of the other seems to work -- and it is a lot of fun and good exercise. There are many beautiful places to hike and in the hiking log is a list of some of them I have been fortunate to experience. The details for most of the entries here are sketchy, but I'll capture better information from now on. (read more)

Travels April 21, 2003 09:49 PM

Hiking

From time to time I digress from WiFi and Internet Technology. In recent years I have come to appreciate hiking, even though I have had no training and haven't even read anything about it. Just putting one foot in front of the other seems to work -- and it is a lot of fun and good exercise. There are many beautiful places to hike and in the hiking log is a list of some of them I have been fortunate to experience. The details for most of the entries here are sketchy, but I'll capture better information from now on and keep it in the hiking log.

Hiking April 21, 2003 11:53 AM

Always On -- almost

For a number of years I have been talking about the next generation of the Internet -- Fast, Always on, and Everywhere. (There is a chapter on each of these characteristics in my book, Net Attitude). Although we have a long way to go, I think we have now reached the tipping point. WiFi is a major contributor to that. It doesn't’t seem that long ago that I was at the Holiday Inn in Beijing and felt relieved that I could get connected at 1,200 bits per second and in Prague with a pair if pliers and screwdriver re-wiring a wall jack to get connected. We all have many similar stories from throughout the world – including in America. But, times have changed. (read more)

Gadgets April 18, 2003 04:48 PM

Finding Members For The Board Of Directors

Board Member magazine (May/June 2003) included a story entitled "Where To Find New Directors". The point of the story was that "reform-driven regulations are focring companies to look for additional outside directors who will bring special skills to the boardroom". I could add some comments about this but the interview on the phone with Rob Norton was quite comprehensive and his reporting was accurate.

P.S. WiFi Update No. 8 is in the works. I hope to post it during the weekend at the latest. Many new developments.

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People April 16, 2003 09:46 PM

Honesty In Action

A young systems administrator at IBM in Cambridge, Massachusetts took a taxi cab ride home to his apartment on a recent Friday night. Seconds after getting out of the cab, he realized that he had forgotten his backpack. He turned to see the cab disappear into the night. The backpack contained an IBM ThinkPad storing billions of bytes of pictures, music, email, financial data, and important business information. In addition were his digital camera, stereo headset, and various other computer and electronic devices. Calls to both the taxi company and the police department yielded recorded messages that were less than helpful. Ten days later came a telephone call from Issam. (read more)

People April 15, 2003 11:04 AM

Earth At Night

In case you haven't seen this image, I wanted to share it -- courtesy of NASA. This strking image was taken at night from the space station. Click here for the NASA picture of the day. Or if you want something closer in, here is London at night.

Travels April 14, 2003 04:59 PM

Knovel

When I entered engineering school almost forty years ago (is that possible?), I used a slide rule and engineering reference manuals. I think of that as the first of three generations of using engineering and scientific data. The second generation was web-based data with PC's for standalone and separate analysis. Knovel Corporation (pronouced nah-vil) has introduced the third generation -- "Knovelized" data with deep search and a high degree of interactivity. Knovel brings boring reference manuals to life and in the process saves engineers and scientists many hours of effort. It is a good example of an information service that is available "on demand" from anywhere -- and anywhere has new meaning, thanks to WiFi. The Danbury News-Times ran a nice story about Knovel in the business section today.

Disclosure: I am an investor in Knovel Corporation and a member of the board of directors.

Internet Technology April 10, 2003 10:46 PM

Motorcycle Log

The sky is blue and I could not resist a motorcycle ride. It was twenty five degrees but sunny. I am ready for Spring -- without electric gloves and vest. The forecast for tomorrow calls for 6-12 inches of snow!

Motorcycles April 6, 2003 06:11 PM

Books, Plays, and Restaurants Update

Harley-Davidson Rolling Sculpture - A Pictorial Celebration Of The First 95 Years by Doug Mitchel. Nobody but a Harley rider would be interested in this book. It is a very nice chronology showing how the bikes have evolved. Great photography.

This weekend marked the twentieth year in a row that a group of longtime friends have gone to New York City to a broadway play and dinner. The play this year was Hairspray and it was really outstanding. Dinner followed at Chez Napoleon -- yes, a French restaurant. (more)

Favorites April 6, 2003 01:31 PM

e-tirement update

When I "retired" fifteen months ago after 35 years at IBM, my friends and colleagues held an "e-tirement" party. I'll never forget it. What is "e-tirement? Not sure there is a formal definition -- I guess it is mostly continuing to do what I have been doing for quite a few years -- writing about, speaking about and participating in the world of Internet technology. I don't play golf or tennis and I never had any thoughts about heading to "the beach". I have been fortunate to be able to take a couple of nice trips (more on those in another post) but overall e-tirement have been busier than ever. patrickWeb has a section listing recent press coverage and my upcoming presentations. This posting contains some of the highlights. (read more)

e-Business April 3, 2003 09:20 AM