Recently a new
business buzzword, and also a desired future for many people.
I like to be
connected. Many people don't, but I will ignore
them for a moment. I enjoy knowing that my
wife and kids can contact me at a moments
notice. I like having a work related
cell phone - while it does tend to disrupt me at odd times, it allows me more freedom and ability to
prioritize my
work, and
react more
quickly to situations which may otherwise get out of control. I like being well connected.
Ubiquitous
communications are a big field today. The ability to contact another person at any time regardless of where you two are located is a
holy grail for many people.
The cell phone is an example of such a system right now. While the saturation hasn't reached 100% by any system of measure, you can roughly gurantee cell phone connectivity anyplace there is a low to medium to large
concentration of people.
What I'd really like, though, is ubiquitous information access.
My laptop is redundant. All of the information on it is also located at
home and at
work. 90% of what I use it for is information
retrieval and
storage.
If I could have a device tailored to information
transmission and
reception, I could remove 90% of the weight, increase 90% of the usage time before recharging, and essentially carry
terabytes of information with me.
Ubiquitous, at its foundation, is everything, everywhere. You can keep your experts in
Hell, Michigan, your information in three
data centers around the world, you could bounce between
Fiji and
London depending on the
weather, and do all of your work without considering the time or place you happen to be in.
It makes the world smaller in terms of communication, and larger in terms of ability to relocate.
Then
I'll be ubiquitous.