The Wireless Future of Library Computing

[Roy Tennant]

On Sunday, July 28, 2002, at 01:51 PM, Richard Wiggins wrote:

> snip

> There are multiple next new things, not a single one.

That is so right. I couldn't agree more.

> We are doing wireless at Michigan State, including in our Engineering
> Library.  But right now, in the year 2002, if you made me choose 
> between a
> public or a research library whose carrels include a power port and an 
> RJ-11
> port willing to host me as a DHCP guest at 100 megabits/second, vs. one 
> with
> building-wide WiFi, I'll choose the wire in a hearbeat.

The funny thing is, I'd choose wireless if I couldn't jack in where I 
wanted to sit. I know that sounds stupid, but it's at least _my_ 
reality. Wireless often equates to convenience. You be where you want 
and you're still connected, not 'you have to be where  the jack is'. For 
convenience you may take a performance hit. So what? Many, many times 
that's a perfectly fine trade-off. For example, there isn't enough 
bandwidth in the world for me to give up lying on the carpet in front of 
the fire watching movie trailers with my kids rather than us all 
standing around my desk in the office. The point is that the network 
experience can be wonderful or it can suck in so many ways, and 
bandwidth is only one. Since you ended your post with the observation 
that there are multiple next new things, not a single one, you certainly 
must believe that as well. But hey, if not, I can almost feel another 
debate coming on...<grin>
Roy