Wi-Fi vs 3G

I am posting this for Tim Oren, IFTF affiliate and a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley. Relates to the earlier entry on a continual battle btw wi-fi and 3G.

See Tim's non-interactive blog at

http://www.pacificavc.com/blog
Well, if I read this article and the context was North America, I'd say it was just plain wrong. In the NA context, while I'm skeptical of 'standalone' branded hotspot subscription models, it does seem to me that an add-on model to ISP and mobile subscriptions may be viable. I like models like Cometa, so long as they are ruthless in keeping their expenses and APPU expectations low. The analyst is correct in diagnosing back-haul expenses as the most problematic issue - and they are likely a good deal higher in Europe than here. But he's just plain wrong - here, in Europe, anywhere - in saying "Bluetooth and WLAN are complementary technologies that rarely compete". They certainly do, at least for silicon space and BOM costs on portable devices, and I'm already aware of US targeted products that have dropped (or never considered) Bluetooth in favor of WiFi. (See my recent blog post for some relevant details: http://www.pacificavc.com/blog/2003/06/20.html#a267)

Now things may be different in Europe. It has always been more skewed to mobile phones than laptops, and the market seems to be willing to pay (for instance) 10 cents to a dollar equivalent for an SMS text message rather than use IM for free. You'll note that the Euro-centric analysis is all in terms of mobiles as a driving market force, leading toward Bluetooth as the conclusion. I've also heard lately that WiFi acceptance in Japan lags here, but I haven't seen it interpreted as a Bluetooth win.

Cell phone repairs and ubicomp

This is a bit off-topic, but I've recently gotten interested in the subject of cell phone repairs, and the effect that mobile, handheld gadget service might have the evolution of smart mobs and ubiquitous computing.

I recently had a string of bad experiences getting my phone fixed, and it made me realize two things: 1) the speed with which I've come to be dependent not just on cell phones, but on the particular constellation of features and form factors that define my phone (versus the bricks that they give out as loaners), and 2) the fact that as technologies like cell phones, PDAs, etc. become more deeply integrated into our lives, bad repair service is going to become increasingly intolerable.

I was interested enough in the subject to ask a couple people I know in Korea and Japan about repair policies there, and got a couple interesting responses (here's the report from Korea, and here's the report from Japan). Clearly the U.S. is way behind on this.

More updates as I gather information from other parts of the world.

Mob rules

James Harkin has an interesting piece in today's Guardian on the growing use of mobile phones for coordinated social activity, ranging from passing on word of celebrity sightings to warnings about SARS. (I find the Guardian never fails to interest me, even when I disagree with it. And they have had some terrific coverage of international news.)

The piece is obliquely critical of Smart Mobs, suggesting that the vision Howard Rheingold lays out is still kind of futuristic-- but that mobile coordination is happening in the here and now, and activist groups should take full advantage of it.

The essay is taken from "Mobilisation: The growing public interest in mobile technology," which is available as a PDF. Demos isn't an outfit I'd heard of before, but they sound interesting:

Demos is a greenhouse for new ideas which can improve the quality of our lives. As an independent think-tank, our aim is to create an open resource of knowledge and learning that operates beyond traditional parties, identities and disciplines....

For Demos, the process is as important as the final product. We bring together people from a wide range of backgrounds to cross-fertilise ideas and experience. By working with Demos, we expect all our partners to develop
sharper insight into the way ideas shape society.

[from About Demos]

[from Relevant History]

Ring Ring: Can You See Me Now?

I conducted my first interview with a 25-year-old male law/PhD student, “M.” He is currently in a joint JD/PhD program at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB).

There were a few captivating aspects of this interview.
* M uses connectivity and space to create social space that is “fun.”
* A glimpse into what one cafe offers for the socially inclined.
* The PDA: Out of sync?
* M’s sense of being “bounded by battery life” whenever he visits wireless cafes.
* Temporal space and transportation.

His enthusiasm was contagious.

Ring ring: Can You See Me Now?
M uses his cell phone, which has infrared and Bluetooth, to take pictures of friends and scenery and then uses these pictures for the caller ID function. He also changes the background of his phone using the pictures he’s taken. “I take pictures of all my friends and those photos turn out to be the caller ID. So in a sense that’s wireless.” M’s friends and family don’t get the usual caller ID number. Instead, the receiver gets a fun picture of him. For example, M likes to use pictures of his parents and friends on his cell phone rather than phone numbers. “This is fun,” M says with a smile. “When my boyfriend calls I get to see his picture and not just his phone number. Or if my parents call, their picture pops up on my screen. When my friend C called, he grew up on a phone in Minnesota, so he took a picture with a cow, sent it to me, and that’s his caller ID. . .. I receive a picture by email on my computer, and then I beam them to my phone.” M says this makes him smile in the middle of the day because the “pics” he gets and uses are usually funny ones.

He also uses his cell phone as a “gaming function.” He convinced some friends to get the same cell phone because he liked his so much; “It was adorable.” Using Bluetooth, they now share games on their phones. “This is fun,” he said.

Café Zeb
One café that M frequents 2-3x a week is Café Zeb. One side of the café has good food fare. Business students often come to Café Zeb because the food at the business school is apparently less enticing. On the right side of the café are tables, chairs, and a couch. Located on the 2nd floor of the law school, Café Zeb is M’s social hub at UCB. UCB is the “locust” of his “professional life.” Using his laptop and the wireless service, he checks email and the Internet for news and hopes to run into friends and people he knows by “pretending to study.” He reveals that out of two hours in the café, he more realistically studies for about 15 minutes. His primary interest is to socialize and to catch-up with his friends. One drawback of the café is that “there aren’t too many outlets” for his laptop. Students work, eat, study, hold study groups, and swap files by wirelessly emailing one another. Daily newspapers are provided on a stand, although some students like M get their news through the wireless service. Professors and teaching assistants may also hold office hours in the cafe.

Out of Sync?
M notes that the PDA for him has become less useful. When he was living with his parents after college, he would download daily news from websites like CNN and the NY Times onto his PDA and then share the news with his folks at supper. “This was kind of fun. But now that I have wireless access I can get news instantly.” In another instance, M took his PDA to class for note taking because his laptop was cumbersome to carry; students typically bring their laptop for note taking. While synchronizing the class notes with his laptop one day, a full day of class notes was completely lost. After this incident, he decided that using the PDA and losing the information was too risky. M now prefers to use his laptop. The laptop has the original program so he’s no longer interested in trying to synchronize the PDA and potentially losing information. The PDA has become a mere tool for addresses and calendaring.

Bounded by Battery Life
While wireless access is the reason for why M visits cafes, he is also “bounded by battery life.” M tells me that he takes his backpack, an AC adaptor, two batteries--one that has “extra capacity and runs about 3-1/2 to 4 hours,” books, and whatever else he needs for studying. So in a sense, he is always looking for an outlet in cafes. He has to be aware of things like battery life and who is sitting at a table that has an outlet nearby. In a neighborhood café called Jumping Java, M has a favorite table that is located in the middle of the café. This table is also a favorite of a number of patrons and it is almost always taken; it has an outlet and it’s near a window with natural lighting. In other words, M keeps an eye on the table and actively pursues moving to the table whenever the patron leaves to avert using his laptop battery or running out of battery time.

When I asked M how enabled technology would be more useful to him, he replied:
"I would like to see cards that we could carry around which would have our hard drives on them. Then we could plug them in to terminals everywhere, anywhere. Also it would be nice to see engineers work on batteries that could regenerate or charge themselves, without ever having to be plugged in (or, ideally, small <8ounce batteries with 15-20 hour life spans at least, for long flights and airports)."

Transportation and Temporal Space
While reflecting on our interview, M realized that he uses his cell phone to keep in touch with friends and family when he is riding on public transportation or taking the train. Because he doesn’t have a car, and has “dead time” in these transition spaces, he uses this time as social space. This is a useful he notes, because when he gets home after school, for example, he can make dinner, eat, and get back to work.

WLAN--The Next Dot-Com Bust?

some interesting input for our discussions and scenarios concerning WLAN in Europe -
Regine

Source: http://www.telecom.paper.nl/index.asp?t=a&i=30499&n=500

Public WLAN hotspots will be the next dot-com crash

09:12
Friday June 20, 2003, Telecom.paper

A new brief by Forrester Research forecasts that there will be 286 million Bluetooth-enabled phones, laptops, and PDAs in Europe in 2008 compared with 53 million WLAN devices -- mostly laptops. But Bluetooth and WLAN are complementary technologies that rarely compete. Significantly, and contrary to today's vendor and operator noise, public WLAN hotspot business cases will largely fail -- as they’ll only serve a paltry 7.7 million users in 2008.

"With all the hype today about the rollout of WLAN public hotspots, it's as if the dot-com boom and bust never happened," said Forrester Senior Analyst Lars Godell. "We believe that much of the money being poured into public WLAN today to enable access -- from places as diverse as bars, marinas, hotels, and airports, as well as train, bus, and metro stations -- is being wasted. Simply, basic constraints on the number of devices in use and users' willingness to pay a significant amount for Internet access on the go will limit public WLAN users to numbers well short of planned networks' carrying capacity. Additionally, the sky-high costs of providing Internet backhaul from hotspots will kill many hotspot business cases."

Observation Insights: Wayne’s Coffee (Kaisaniemi, Helsinki)

Below are my collective insights from all nine or so observation sessions at Wayne’s on 8-31 May 2003. The observation times have ranged from early morning to lunch to late afternoon/early evening mainly during weekdays but also on a Saturday.

It seems that the time of the day has more influence on the rhythm of the place that the day of the week – mornings are pretty quiet, lunchtimes are busy and it really starts buzzing after work. Also there’s more socializing going on after work.

The other manager (there are two) at Wayne’s gave me a permission to hang out at the place and approach their customers for interviews. Still, just like Marina, I did feel compelled to buy something each time I was there.

Insight 1: Setting up a WiFi connection is way too cumbersome
This can defintely serve as a barrier to adopting the technology. My story: In order to understand what being wireless is all about I needed a wlan card and associated software for my laptop. I encountered the first obstacle with our IT department. Apparently there’s a non-WiFi policy in the house largely due to security reasons. I finally got the necessary add-ons and in principle was all set for wireless existence.

I tried the wireless connection at two cafés – Café Carusel and Robert’s Coffee. At the former my connection spotted a Telia HomeRun hotspot and the latter a Sonera wGate one. As Wayne’s is my observation spot, I decided to buy a Telia HomeRun prepaid card (24 h for 15 euros – counting starts at first sign-on) from there. (I consider this very expensive as I’d only be using the connection for two hours or so). Wayne’s had run out of the cards. I asked for them two more times during the same week – no luck! The manager told me that “ordering more cards is a thing one easily forgets to do”. I concluded that demand for the cards cannot be high.

Had I not known before going to Wayne’s that they have a hotspot, nothing in the place would have informed to that effect. There is no Telia HomeRun sign or other indication of the service in sight. I accidentally found brochures advertising the service in a distant corner – a space so hidden that only customers sitting in that specific corner can spot the brochures!

The possibility to borrow WiFi iPAQs is advertised on every table in transparent plastic frames and also on a glossy A4 print above lunch menu on a wall by the counter (I noticed the latter only when I visited the place at lunchtime).

I have used the iPAQ a couple of times before. I borrowed one on my first visit and soon realized that it’s quite ok for checking emails but writing – especially longer – emails is a pain. Furthermore, I’d rather access my company email client rather than web mail. I definitely would not use the device for surfing especially as there is a PC with Internet access at Wayne’s! Using the connection is free of charge and limited to 30 min. per customer (but no one seems to control this.) To add to it all, with the wlan card the iPAQ feels unnecessarily heavy and rather clumsy.

The next time I wanted like to borrow an iPAQ I was told that a customer is using the other device and the other one was charging.

Insight 2: Physical, tangible communication about WiFi is required to promote trial and adoption
The printed material advertising the wireless iPAQ service may not be enough to communicate about and generate interest in the service. Something more concrete, tangible, hands-on may be required. As the manager at Wayne’s told me, the devices should be more easily accessible (now they’re behind the counter, often out of sight) but this is infeasible due to practical reasons. By the latter he refers to the devices being expensive and thus to the need of exercising control over their use.

I discussed the iPAQ & WiFi projects with the Wayne’s manager. He told me that their aim is to provide something extra for their customers but the available technology must not add to the workload of the staff. Also technology can make customers stay longer at Wayne’s per visit but that does not necessarily increase sales.

Insight 3: Technology is just a mediator in human interaction
The PC with Internet access is almost in constant use at Wayne’s. I’ve got to observe several people using it, mainly for (personal) emails. It’s quite amazing to see these persons’ expressions as they non-verbally communicate with the PC screen – just as if it was the person they were communicating with! I’ve seen smiles, puzzled faces… A backpacker seemed to even talk to the machine when typing Hotmail messages. It’s as if the other person is transferred to the same space via the Internet even though s/he may not be there in real time.

Insight 4: Even in places where the use of technology is supported, one can feel too conspicuous when using it
Wayne’s is definitely a place that supports use of technology. However, whenever I’ve been there and used my laptop, I’ve felt conspicuous. I’ve seen only two other people using a laptop there – a man briefly on a morning and a traveller at lunchtime. And the more technology (my tops: laptop, iPAQ, Nokia 9210 Communicator) I’ve had with me, the more I’ve felt I stand out.

Laptops seem to be strongly associated with working. I was having lunch at Wayne’s with two colleagues. Another colleague, now on maternity leave, walked in and did not want to disturb us because she concluded from the closed laptop on the table that we were having a working lunch. In this case, also our party likely served as a cue to associating our activities with work.

After working hours Wayne’s becomes a place for socializing – even more so than earlier during the day. Then using a laptop feels downright inappropriate.

Insight 5: Being in the moment may be of such importance that technology usage is avoided
Most people do seem to have their mobile phones with them at Wayne’s. I’ve only seen one person with his own PDA. (This person became my first interviewee as he uses the PDA wirelessly via his mobile phone and infrared). Phones are used for talking and texting. However, I expected to see more mobile phone usage, texting especially, than actually took place.

It may be that people value person-to-person interaction (those who are here in groups) and therefore perceive using any other forms of communication as intrusive and/or against social protocol.

Those who are at Wayne’s on their own seem to use mobile phones slightly more often than those in groups. Nevertheless, usage is not heavy. Loners may value the moment of solitude and thus avoid anything that would break it.

Insight 6: Using mobile devices can be a sociable activity
(This insight does not contradict insight 5 but relates to the behaviour of a minority of Wayne’s customers).
I haven’t seen many people using the WiFi iPAQs – only two different pairs of teenage girls and a girl who obviously was a staff member off duty. On all these occasions the usage of WiFi was semi-social in that the girls had a conversation when using the device(s). It may be that the small display/size of PDAs contributes to social use in two ways. Firstly, others cannot as easily what’s on the display, i.e. privacy is maintained. Secondly, the device is less intrusive. Furthermore, only one table is equipped with the the fixed Internet access, which limits its social use. I cannot comment on the social vs. solitude usage of WiFi on laptops as I did not observe with certainty such usage occuring. (It may be that either or both laptop users – both working on their own - did have integrated wlan cards in their devices.)

I also saw two young men taking turns talking to their mutual friend on a mobile phone.

Insight 7: True wireless use is place independent
It seems – also on the basis of my interviews – that WiFi is not the determining factor for coming to Wayne’s (or any hotspot) but the place itself. Internet can be accessed from different places but people come here because of the comfortable atmosphere, good coffee and sandwiches. WiFi then, seems to be a value-adding but not a driving factor for a place.

A fixed Internet access, on the other hand, does seem to be a driving force. Some people come in, head straight to the PC, use it for a while and then leave. If the PC is being used, they take a seat elsewhere and the move to the PC once it’s free. As far as I observed, all these customers did buy something.

On one occasion, on a Saturday afternoon, I came to Wayne’s with my boyfriend. The place was packed and we took seats by the PC as they were more or less the only ones available. I felt rather uncomfortable thinking that there may be people around whose main reason for being here is the Internet access. Therefore, we soon moved to another, now free, table.

Insight 8: Information available on the Internet generates communication
I observed quite a few people using the fixed Internet access. The information – I assume most often in the form of emails - these people retrieved via the Internet often generated other activities such as replying to emails, checking one’s calendar and writing things in it, phone calls and texting.

On a couple of occasions I checked the visited URLs on the PC. These are
· web mails (Hotmail)
· portals that also offer web mail (MTV3.fi, suomi24.fi)
· search engines (Google)
· educational institutions (webmail.hut.fi, evtek.fi)
· digital imaging (pixmania.com, dpreview.com)
· music (koneisto.com, rogerpeople.com, valentinerecords.co.uk,
kissonline.com)
· an operator site (elisa.fi)

Insight 9: Space can mold behaviour by giving cues and enabling certain activities
The physical cues – books, magazines, sofas – seem to communicate that one can linger here. And this is indeed what happens at Wayne’s.

The available baby chairs convey that it’s ok to come here with your baby. Indeed, I’ve seen quite a few mothers with their babies here. Most of them tend to stay by the door not only because the baby chairs are piled there but also because there is more floor space than elsewhere, i.e. the space is convenient for prams.

On the other hand, although the space enables and even promotes the use of technology, it is not widely used (Insight 5). It thus seems as if social cues were also needed in addition to physical ones to convey that an activity is fully acceptable (see Insight 4).

Tables are bolted to the floor, which may render the space not entirely suitable for larger groups of people. The space can be modified only by moving chairs.

There are different types of spaces within Wayne’s. The corner beyond the PC is a hidden nest and therefore suitable for a longer stay. Also the sofas by the long wall are also suitable for this purpose although do not provide as much privacy. The table by the windows and in the central area are for a short stay like having a quick cup of coffee or using the place as a meeting point before going somewhere else.

Insight 10: A place can take on several roles
It’s the people who determine what those roles are but the place facilitates their formation. In addition to the available artefacts such as magazines and books, personal belongings help render the space a certain role.

Wayne’s seems to take on several roles judging from the activities that take place there:
· Meeting point – mostly arranged but also spontaneous (accidentally meeting
someone) meetings, mostly private but also business
· Library/home for learning or revising for exams (a girl with a text book)
· Office/place of work
- a youngish woman, most probably a teacher, was reviewing exam papers
- loners with printouts, photocopied articles, etc., highlighters, calendars…
- a couple of times I’ve seen a group of people working on something
together, checking and writing down notes on papers in front of them
- a middle-aged man (most likely out of town) taking care of business on his
mobile phone
- two men (not in suits) working on their laptops; the other one with luggage
· Extension of home
- a young woman organizing (non-digital) photographs in an album
- a young boy playing online games with parents present and having a
conversation with each other (not involved in playing)
- reading magazines and newspapers, books rather rarely
· Another third place/home
- using the Internet
- drinking, eating
- socializing with friends/acquaintances/family members/…

Introduction to observation location: WAYNE’S COFFEE (Kaisaniemi, Helsinki)

I’ve now been to Wayne’s nine times, mostly to observe but also to conduct an interview and have lunch.

Wayne’s Coffee is a originally Swedish franchise chain of coffee shops (alcohol is not served here, which rare for cafés in Helsinki). Wayne’s is currently located in six places in Finland, four of which are in the greater Helsinki area (Yrjönkatu and Kaisaniemi in the city centre, Itäkeskus shopping centre in easter Helsinki and Iso Omena shopping centre in Espoo). My observation spot is Wayne’s in Kaisaniemi.

“My” Wayne’s is located almost in the heart of Helsinki city centre and the surroundings are urban. The central railway station, the main business, shopping & bar/restaurant streets, the university and some hotels are in close proximity. There is a lot of outbound(one-way street) by-passing traffic (cars, trams, buses…) just outside of Wayne’s. Right beneath Wayne’s there is an underground station. Due to the central location there is a lot of also pedestrian traffic in the immediate surroundings.

The closest businesses on street level located around Wayne’s are
- Across the street: Kinopalatsi movie theatre, mobile operator’s (DNA) store, hairdresser’s, kiosk
- On the same side: bank, clothes shop, big Irish pub, model store, another hairdresser’s, home store (Kodin Ykkönen)

The place itself feels like a haven in the midst of the hectic surroundings. It invites to step in by having the big outer glass doors are wide open to the street and lets one observe the outside world through huge windows.

The interior is easy-going and livingroom-like. I’d say there’s nothing pretentious or bumptious about this place. There are lots of round and irregular shapes, and earthy yet youthful colours (terracotta, lime, grass, sand, brown) and materials (wood, leather). The walls are mainly white, orange in one corner, and blue behind the counter. There is an ad for the wireless iPAQ service in plastic frames and a sugar shaker on each table.

The ceiling is lowered and there are three different “platforms” where the tables are placed, which adds to coziness. This also creates different types of spaces within Wayne’s.

There’s a loungy feel to the furniture – there are soft chairs and couches. Lighting consists entirely of halogen spots, two above each table plus general ones in the bar area. There’s mellow music (soul, soft funk) playing on the background.

The place facilitates and promotes certain activities. There is a bookstand crammed with paperbacks, a rack with a wide variety of magazines, a PC with Internet access in one corner (there’s a big MSN logo above the space), and two WiFi iPAQs. There is also a Telia HomeRun hotspot available but there is not sign to this effect.

The iPAQ service is sponsored by HP, MSN and Coca-Cola. Customers can borrow the iPAQs from the counter in exchange for an ID which serves as a pledge. The ads on the tables promote especially Hotmail and an e-card service. E-cards can be sent from msn.fi and two people (sender & receiver) get two bagels and Coca-Cola Lights for the price of one with a printed e-card.

There are different types of artefacts available
· B-guided.net map & Wayne’s offer leaflet on a high central table
· flyers to clubs, festivals, yoga classes, free papers (Nöjesguiden, City) by the exit

The place is non-discriminating, which is reflected on the clientele. Overall, most customers are young or youthful adults but there are also teenagers and elderly people. There are students, mothers with their babies, business people, tourists… A common denominator seems to be casual wear – I’ve only a couple of suits here!

Silicon Valley Observation with a Retired Boating Enthusiast

Silicon Valley Interview, 6.12.03

Today I interviewed a retired software engineer who has "two lives," one in Silicon Valley, where he lives with his wife (also retired) and the other in British Columbia, where he has a boat docked in a beautiful harbor enabled with wi-fi. The interviewee took an early retirement like so many others in the Valley in the midst of the economic recession. The couple also has a daughter in the Valley who lives separately but whom they see frequently. The daughter seems to be the reason they still spend a lot of time here. In the future, the family intends to spend more time in the British Columbia area. They are looking into buying a home on the U.S. side of the Olympic Peninsula in a place called Sequim. I went to the site describing Sequim, and here's what it says:

"Sequim ("S'kwim") means quiet waters in the native language of the S'Klallam tribe, a perfect name for this valley community located in the sun between the deep waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the breathtaking Olympic Mountains of Washington state.

What makes Sequim unique and worth a visit? The weather is a major reason! The sun shines here more than anywhere else in western Washington. The "rain shadow", caused by the Olympic Mountains, protects the valley from the rain that falls east and west of Sequim."

Not surprisingly, because of the beauty and good weather (unusual for the Northwest), this place has become a sort of a retirement destination for Californians and other Americans. The interviewee lamented that on the one hand, this is causing the place to change its character, on the other it's a real draw for people like him.

The boat which he and his wife use as a home during their 2-3 week stays in Canada is docked in a harbor that has has wi-fi (recently installed by Broadband Express). The exciting thing is that wi-fi covers the large harbor area that stretches between Canada and the U.S. According to the interviewee “This is better than my cell phone. When I go from the U.S. to Canada, it has to switch to roaming but with wi-fi it makes no difference. Switch off is automatic.” Interestingly, after he moved the boat from the Bay Area, the harbor where his boat was docked there also installed wireless.

Things he does now while on the boat:

Looks up navigational directions (a lot, before going out)
Checks weather
Does e-mail
Manages finances (lots of that)
Spends about an hour a day online

The wife spends more time online, does more e-mail, pays bills (all the bills are online).

He was extremely happy to find out that there are repeaters in the harbor waters, so that he can be online not only in the marina but also when far away. However, there is a place called Desolation Island where they also installed repeaters and that has changed the nature of the place. “There are some places I go to where I just don’t want to be connected, these places are really different. When I go to Desolation Island, I want to be in a completely different world. Since they installed repeaters, people tend to stay in the place longer because they can do more things. Before, you couldn’t be connected, so people couldn’t stay for a long time. Now they come for longer periods and some anchor their boats there and fly back and forth to the mainland. The place is becoming more congested.” Of course, he doesn't have to use the technology while on the island but once technology is available, he is drawn to use it.

When asked how has life changed for him with access to wi-fi directly on the boat (compared to when the boat was docked in the Bay Area), he mentioned that he is very happy not to have to worry about running into Starbucks or some other place to find a connection. Now he can be connedted anywhere, anytime, even when he is far away from shore.

Insights: The biggest insight for me in this interview is how isolated places that are far aways from the hustle and bustle of the world are changing their character and the way people use and relate to such places. The Desolation Island is no longer a place of desolation. Not only it's changing character, becoming more congested, people also tend to use it differently--they stay longer, they mix commuting with nature with work and other "wordly" activities. I wonder what is happening in this respect in Finland, where most everyone has a second home by the lake. Most of such places purposefully don't have electricity and other amenities. In the summer, people really like to get away. Will such places stay unconnected?

The other interesting thing about the interview is the intersection of retirement and freedom that one gains in that life stage and the freedom of access to the larger world via wi-fi. The community where the boat is docked mostly consists of retirees (some older retirees and others who retired early or semi-retired). Obviously companies providing wi-fi to such "boat" communities (both in Canada, in the Bay Area, and apparently in many other places) are tapping into the need for connectivity among this group that is freer to roam than their younger counterparts.

WiFi User Interview: Japanese Professor

I did my first interview with a Japan based WiFi user last week. “K” is a 61 year old Japanese professor with a background in engineering, born and raised in Tokyo. He has a highly wired home office (100MB fiber with multiple Ethernet access points plus AirMac WiFi) where he lives with his wife who is a design professional. His university lab, just outside of Tokyo, has had WiFi for four years, and three years ago the entire university campus implemented WiFi. I would like to highlight two things that emerged from the interview, the role of WiFi in the university, and K’s personal management of different forms of internet connectivity.

The Wireless Campus

First, the university and the lab. Prior to the campus-wide implementation of WiFi, students generally used the computer labs attached to libraries and other quasi-public spaces to access the internet and to do computer-based work. After WiFi was implemented, “students did whatever they could to get their own laptop.” This has meant that now most students have a laptop open during classes, which K thinks can be a distraction. Also, it means that the university is now “dominated by Microsoft Office.” K says that once personal laptops and personally purchased software became the standard, students stopped using higher-end applications like those by Adobe, and now everything is done by Powerpoint and Word. This has had a subtle but pervasive effect on student work.

Faculty, too, now often take their laptops to meetings. Given that Japanese universities often have extremely long meetings that faculty are expected to attend, with WiFi these meetings become more productive (?) and he suspects that many faculty are dealing with email and other things. He says there is something of a digital divide, however, among the faculty, with those in technical fields generally bringing a laptop and those in the humanities not. This can be a source of tension.

K’s lab in the university is a unique space, unusual both within this particular campus and within the Japanese university system in general. It is a small stand-alone building with a central gathering space with modular furniture, rimmed by graduate student offices, and with a student lab space in the back. The first floor also has a kitchen corner and the office manager’s desk. The second floor is a rim of faculty offices that look down into the central space over a banister. Research meetings are often held in the central space. At other times, students are often milling about, with their laptops connected via WiFi.

K explains that there are relatively few places that students at campus can appropriate for this kind of casual use and contact. Students that are highly involved in the research of the lab gain key access to the space, although other students are also free to come and go during the regular work day. K says that his relationship to his students has changed dramatically since his lab space was established. There is much more casual and ongoing contact. Previously he had taught classes in classrooms around campus, and his contact with students was limited to scheduled classes and meetings. WiFi is now an established part of lab community life and practice.

Managing Connectivity Across Places and Devices

K spends most of his time at either his home office or his university office. Other frequented places are meetings rooms at the university or corporations he works with, or occasionally a meeting at a hotel lobby or café with one colleague that he works regularly with. The university is quite far from his home. He generally commutes by car, though will sometimes use the train. In either case, the commute takes 1 and a half to two hours. He leaves the house around 8 and returns around 9. He carries his laptop with him at all times when he is involved in work. For his occasional recreational outings, such as to play tennis or go out to a bar with students of colleagues, he does not take his laptop. He generally carries his mobile phone everywhere, on a strap around his neck, but sometimes he leaves it in his office when he is going to a meeting with his laptop.

What was most distinctive about K’s wireless connectivity was his management of email. With the launch of I-mode several years ago, K started having all of his email forwarded to his mobile phone. “This was a big change for me, to be able to see email all the time.” Even prior to then, email was his preferred communication modality, but the mobile internet made it more so. He says he checks his phone for email about 20 times a day. He always has the ringer turned off. In transit, if in the car, he will look at his email during stops and in traffic jams. When on the train, he will write on his laptop or read a book, and checks his phone for messages.

He describes the persistent internet connectivity via mobile as alleviating a great deal of stress because he knows he is always in touch. He mostly does not respond to messages via his mobile phone, as he dislikes inputing through the keypad. But he will send short replies such as “will write later,” or “okay.” His communication priority is to always be connected to email. Voice is secondary, which is why he sometimes leaves his mobile phone in the office if he knows he will have his laptop during a meeting. Students will generally contact him via email, though they will not make voice calls to him. Work colleagues will also use email as he asks them too. If they call, they will call his work number. He receives few calls on his mobile, except from his wife (who does not use email as often). When he travels, he does take his laptop, but does not always connect it to the Internet as he is checking email from his mobile phone. Prior to having the mobile phone internet, he would often struggle to get his laptop connected from his hotel.

His ibook laptop is his base-station in terms of email, but he also receives the same email on his desktop machines at work and at home as well as his mobile phone. This is a difficult coordination task that he is still looking for an elegant technical solution to.

K has a clear hierarchy of connectivity. Email is most important, and critical and he is always connected. Voice is secondary, important but not critical. Web is third and optional.

WILD@Stanford

This is an interesting group at Stanford. I am planning to do some observations in the Wallenberg space and also interview some students who use wireless as part of their daily education.

WILD@Stanford
WILD@Stanford is a special interest group that includes faculty, researchers, and students on campus and throughout the Bay Area who use Wireless Internet Learning Devices to improve teaching and learning. Monthly meetings will explore current applications and future innovative potential of these devices.

WILD@Stanford is directed by Roy Pea, director of SCIL and professor of education and the learning sciences. The group meets the second Tuesday of each month at 4:30 PM in the Peter Wallenberg Theater in Wallenberg Hall (Building 160 on the Main Quadrangle). These meetings are open to the public; new members are welcome.

You can find out more at

http://scil.stanford.edu/events/wildSIGindex.html

A meeting on the sand

Another FT piece that looks at a ad agency located in Mallorca. Their business model, excluding the place issue, is progressive -- no retainer, shoestring budgets, transparent accounting. The location was chosen for a number of deliberate reasons, primarily related to their business approach. Another in the continuing saga of "why do I need to locate where everyone else is located?"

Special Reports /Creative Business
Your room is here, by the beach
By Alex Benady
Published: June 2 2003 21:43 | Last Updated: June 2 2003 21:43

Picture the scene. It?s 7.00 am. The sun streams in through the shutters. It?s too hot and bright to sleep, so you stumble out of bed for some coffee. There in the kitchen is the account planner from your ad agency, eating breakfast.

Most marketers would admit, albeit under duress, that they couldn?t live without their ad agency. But that doesn?t mean they want to live with them. That, however, is exactly what is expected of clients at Welcome to Orange County, an ad agency set up by four Scandinavian advertising executives, for marketers with pan-European aspirations.

...If the prospect is underwhelming, the good news is that WtOC is located in the pretty town of Caller, on the northern coast of Mallorca. Clients are put up in one of four architect-designed guest suites, with 20ft ceilings and 12ft windows, carved out of an old cloth-dyeing factory.

...It is tempting to dismiss their ?way of working? as little more than a clever rationale for a bunch of scamsters intent on the good life. But while there is undoubtedly a quality-of-life argument, there are also powerful business reasons for being in Mallorca, claims Wastberg.

For one thing, it?s accessible. ?If you are doing pan-European work, you have to locate somewhere and there will always be lots of travel involved. Mallorca is only a couple of hours flight from anywhere in Europe and there are many flights a day to most countries from Palma.?

It?s also cheap. With the advent of budget airlines, travel costs are possibly lower than for other locations. Property costs are also significantly lower than in more established cities, (how else could WtOC afford to put up clients?), as are local labour costs.

...So far, WtOC has devised the launch of a global liqueur brand, developed a new brand strategy for furniture giant Ikea in Denmark, and plotted the pan-European debut of an online digital business service called Chambersign. ...