Internet Systems Developer Interview

Last week I conducted an interview with a 31-year-old Internet systems developer, N. He works for an Internet related business in central Tokyo and used to work for NTT, including early WiFi work in the late nineties. Most of his work time is spent at his desk or at the offices of his business partners and clients. He forwards his email to his phone filtered to only allow work and important personal communication through. He recently switched from a PHS mobile phone to a new au mobile phone with GPS. He does not respond to his email via mobile phone but when he gets to the office or partner office he immediately checks and replies to email. At home, he has an ADSL connection and his runs his own server. He often works at home, particularly now, as he is working on a book and is very busy. He lives with his wife in Tokyo. He does not have much separation between work and home.

Wired Workplaces

N always takes his laptop when out and expects that there will be a net connection that he can use at the other offices. He often has materials on a server that he expects to access during his meetings, so it is a problem if there is no net connection. He is online throughout his meetings with his laptop as are his colleagues. At the first part of the meeting he is generally checking and replying to mail while keeping one ear open to the meeting.

It used to be the case that he had to use his PHS/Air H card to access the net while at other offices, but after mapping out his personal places he realizes that WiFi connectivity has become the standard. He rarely has to use the mobile phone connection for Internet access now.

Wired Travel

When he is traveling, about 4 times a year, he expects to be connected at airport lounges and hotels. His company selects hotels based on Internet connectivity. He does not care if it is WiFi or Ethernet. Before he unpacks his bags, he connects to the Internet. His boss travels very frequently, and he communicates with him regularly on IM when he is away from the office.

Limited “Inbetween” Times and Place

Because of his busy schedule and the fact that he travels from office to office, meeting to meeting, he N has relatively little dead time. He showed me his schedule and it was extremely full, with even transit times closely accounted for. Transit times are generally short, and he does not usually use his laptop. On the occasions when he does travel longer distances he does usually open his laptop.

When he is visiting a client or potential client the schedule is tight. At partner businesses that he visits more frequently, he can connect to the net and work if he arrives early or has to wait. On the rare occasions that he gets somewhere early he stops for a cup of coffee or goes to an electronics store to browse. He goes to Starbucks to get coffee several times a week, but does not use it as a place for WiFi connectivity.

Reflections on WiFi

When N was working on WiFi at NTT in the late nineties, it was extremely expensive to set up. In 1997 a card costed over a thousand USD and the base stations over three thousand. At that point, they realized that price was a huge obstacle and felt that it was probably only universities that could afford to implement WiFi. The introduction of .11b in 1999 was a turning point and WiFi suddenly became affordable. He is surprised that WiFi has become so popular. He never would have guessed just a few years ago.

His parents had resisted using a dial-up connection, but they are now happily using WiFi after he set it up for them. N says that there is a real sense of more casual and easy use when connectivity is through WiFi.

Even as early as 1997 there was discussion of spreading WiFi through cafes near train stations. But N feels that there are still barriers to this kind of dissemination. Places like MacDonalds rely on fast turn-around and are not WiFi friendly. High-end cafes seem more likely, but there are still relatively few people that frequent these places who are technically literate enough to be mobile laptop users.