Mobility

In the overall landscape of Web technology and its myriad relevancies to all our lives, there are huge and compelling issues that can either bottleneck or push its forward development in a way too rapid and dynamic to be termed an "evolution" ... more like a revolution! There is a certain air of chaos, passion, unpredictability and excitement implied by the word "revolution" and for some reason, I associate evolution with dinosaurs and half primate, half human life forms. Has the nature of change changed as well?

Right now, the piece of this revolution that is most blowing my mind is mobile Web technology. It is one thing to come home on a Friday night to see that there is a drumming in the park and letting it pull me out of the nest and into the fray. And then mid-next-week I see on Facebook that there is a Tweetup at the Sky Club and I get to meet new people in a new place in my home community. The lines between virtual and "real life" (RL) community are blurring more every day. And the lines between neighboring communities are melting away, too. I have witnessed the conjoining of two distinct MSAs over the last 20 years as facilitated by a new interstate connection (about an hour drive between them) and by Internet technology (the ability to participate in multiple communities is much more practical with technology tools for participation). As I live between the two, I have become one of many who have had the opportunity to live in one community, work in second community and socialize in a third. Each of my three homes has a drastically distinct personality and each offers me different amenities. I am richer for having three homes and I hope that each benefits, even if only from my economic support, from my virtual and RL participation. The more I participate in each, the better I become as a person, as a professional and as a mother, as a citizen and as a neighbor.

And then comes mobile web technology. Now we have an iPod touch, cell phones, netbooks and laptops, PDAs and Blackberries. With the ability to mobilize the Internet, we have access to information on the run. I compile my grocery list from the online sale flier for my grocery store, store it in Google docs and pull it up on my iPod in the grocery store. Though there is not yet free wireless, I have cached it on the device and have the entirety of my documents available to me in a device that fits in the palm of my hand.

But the most significant role of mobility here, I believe, is in its facilitation of production of Internet content, much moreso than the consumption of it. As cool as it is to be able to watch video in the hospital waiting room, locate movie information or sports scores on the run, reference a shopping list or check my email; the explosion here is in the opportunity for citizen journalists to report to infinite interwoven webs of real people the sounds, sights and textures of their physical communities. They do that now with graduation photos, vacation videos and shared videos and news stories.

The potential impact of this technology is mind-bending when I start imagining mobile digital media training labs that fit into a box in the trunk of the car. MiFi technology, being released tomorrow by Verizon, enables the portable cloud of high-speed wireless bandwidth that can be shared by up to five users within 30 feet. The small wireless battery-operated card fits in a pocket and runs up to 4 hrs on a charge. You don't even have to take it out of your pocket or bag. It works in a moving car or on the beach!

Mobile Web hardware's built-in digital cameras and video recording will continue to evolve (there's one place I feel comfortable using that term) and the ability of the cloud to deliver higher speed uploads and downloads. The delivery of consumer-produced content is proliferating in direct correlation to affordability of hardware and mobile connectivity. This is a global phenomenon sweeping even third world countries.

Already, the lines between virtual education environments and physical classrooms are blurring, too. New developments in mobile Web technologies are pushing education out of the classroom walls and into the real world laboratory where it should be. Learning can be both high-tech AND hands-on! And mobile Web technology is making it happen. It is the force melting away the concrete and steel divisions between the brick-n-mortar buildings that separate education, government, business, arts, media and public service from the worlds they serve and from each other. We can thrive in a collaborative--as opposed to competitive--society. We may even flourish.