Editor's note: I haven't written at all about the future of the wireless internet but Alesso and Smith sure have. Check out this small excerpt from the first chapter. And at the bottom of the page is a link to the entire first chapter in pdf. They have a website about the book, too, worth browsing if you'd like a "big picture" view of this important step in the internet's development.
The Intelligent Wireless Web by H. Peter Alesso and Craig F. Smith
Chapter 1: Developing a Framework for the Intelligent Wireless Web
In this chapter, we define what we mean by the Intelligent Wireless Web and discuss compatibility, integration, and synergy issues facing the five central technology areas that we believe will form its framework:
1. User interface: Transitioning from the click of a mouse to speech
2. Personal Space: Transitioning from local systems connected by a tangle of wires to interconnected multifunction wireless devices
3. Networks: Transitioning from a predominately wired infrastructure to integrated wired/wireless systems
4. Protocols: Transitioning from the current Internet Protocol (IP) to Mobile IP
5. Web architecture: Transitioning from dumb and static applications to those that are intelligent and dynamic ouldn't it be great just to tap your "combadge" and be able to speak to anyone, any time, anywhere--the way they do on Star Trek ? Or to say "Computer," followed by a perplexing question, and receive an intelligent answer?
It is not difficult to imagine that, in the foreseeable future, advances in information science, the Internet, and communications will continue at a very rapid pace and that technology convergence will begin to yield major improvements in the usefulness and productivity of technology. Science fiction may become reality as technology provides devices that increasingly mimic the features of the Star Trek "combadge."
In reality, advances in technology have frequently followed the imagination of futurists and science fiction writers, but it is much more difficult to chart the course of technology development than it is to imagine the end point. Building the Intelligent Wireless Web requires developing the framework in which a science fiction-like end point can be achieved through advancement in five technology areas--areas in which considerable ongoing work is being successfully performed so that convergence [1] will enable the next major advance in productivity. To begin, it is important to describe what we mean by the "Intelligent Wireless Web." Let's take each term in turn, explain how we are using it, and indicate how each relates to the contents of this book. First let's consider what intelligence in the Wireless Web implies.
Intelligence: Although most people have an implicit understanding of what is meant by the word intelligence , there is little agreement, even among experts, on precise definitions. This is true for both biological systems (that is, human beings) and machines. Intelligence usually refers to the ability to reason, solve problems, remember information, and learn and understand new things. A chess player who can conceptualize and evaluate large numbers of alternative positions for the next few chess moves is thought to demonstrate intelligence. A mathematician who can calculate a complex math problem in his mind demonstrates a different type of intelligence. The child prodigy who can memorize a vast number of facts shows yet a different form of intelligence. Yet each of these forms of human intelligence has been well demonstrated by modern computing systems. Computers are at their best when used as tools in solving complex problems that require brute-force calculation and prodigious amounts of memory. And we have all observed the dominance of Deep Blue, the chess-playing supercomputer from IBM that finally, in May 1997, beat the best chess master in the world, the reigning World Champion, Garry Kasparov.
Notwithstanding the difficulty of defining intelligence (in humans or machines), it is worth recognizing that terms such as artificial intelligence, intelligent agents, smart machines, and the like refer to the performance of functions that mimic those associated with human intelligence. These topics are reviewed in Chapter 6. Although one can formulate the concept of an intelligence quotient (IQ) for humans as a surrogate measure of the phenomena we associate with human intelligence, a similar concept of "Web IQ" or "Web performance index" will someday likely be developed to provide measures of the effectiveness of hardware and software systems in achieving the goal of delivering intelligence through their applications and of learning and growing in time.
Wireless: "Wirelessness" is the current rage. In a sense, the term wireless is self explanatory and obvious. Even so, the current emphasis on development of new wireless technology is a symptom of the present evolutionary trend in information technology toward convenient, mobile access to information systems any time and anywhere.
It's interesting to consider the development of telecommunications technologies over the past century and to note that hardwired connection has been the norm for communications for most of that time (for example, telegraph and telephone services), whereas, for broadcast information (for example, television, radio), wireless transmission has been the usual method. In the last few years, this arrangement has been dramatically altered. Both television and radio are frequently delivered to the home by hard wire (for example, coaxial cable) whereas telephone communications is rapidly shifting toward wireless delivery (that is, cell phone). In the rapid expansion of cell phone usage, we have become quickly accustomed to the idea of any time, anywhere connectivity. Expansion of this idea to include the full range of information services is the logical next step, and we are seeing the introduction of a variety of portable user devices (for example, pagers, personal digital assistants [PDAs], Web-enabled cell phones, small portable computers) that have wireless connectivity. Thus, although wireless connections among devices in our local area networks (LANs: see Chapters 4 and 5) are an important development, the extension of information services to the mobile user is perhaps even more exciting.
The Internet and the World Wide Web
The Internet can be considered to be a huge network of networks. It links networks and users together through the use of a layered set of protocols known as Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).
Computers connected to the Internet run software to access and view information. The Internet itself is the transport medium for the information stored in files or documents.
Computers on the Internet may use any of the following Internet services:
Electronic mail (e-mail) to send and receive mail or access e-mail based discussion groups
TELNET or remote login to log onto another computer and use it remotely
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to rapidly retrieve complex files intact from a remote computer
The World Wide Web (WWW, the Web) is a set of protocols and standards for multimedia information exchange on the Internet. It includes the HyperText Markup Language (HTML), HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and Uniform Resource Locator (URL).
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Web: The word Web is another widely used but somewhat ambiguous term. Although it is usually used interchangeably with the term Internet , the distinction between these two terms is itself interesting. The historical development of the Internet extends back nearly 40 years to concepts that were introduced for a highly reliable, fault and damage tolerant network of interconnected computers. At a critical stage in the resulting evolution of the Internet as a network of networks, the World Wide Web was introduced (in 1989) as a set of tools (that is, programs, protocols, and standards) to permit the creation, display, and transfer of multimedia information. Many attribute the rapid growth of use of the Internet to this critical development.
Thus the term Web can be considered a shorthand term for the World Wide Web, but the common usage of the term is broader than this and is inclusive of the entire Internet, including the multimedia enhancements. The Web is what the Internet has become in its current formula large, rapidly growing, multimedia-enabled network of networks.
But why do we suggest putting all three of these terms together into one concept -- the Intelligent Wireless Web? It is certainly possible to develop intelligent applications for the Internet without media (that is, audio/video) Web features and/or wireless capability. It is our suggestion, however, that Web media, such as audio, can lead to improved user interfaces using speech and that small wireless devices, widely distributed, can lead to easier access to large portions of the world's population. The end result could be not just an intelligent Internet but a widely available, easily accessible, user-friendly, Intelligent Wireless Web.
As a result, the concept of an Intelligent Wireless Web weaves together important concepts related to the growing and evolving system of information technology software and hardware known as the Internet. Intelligence (in particular, the ability to learn) and "wireless" (with its attendant mobility and convenience) promise the delivery of increasingly capable information services to mobile users any time and anywhere.
Fundamentally, our vision for the future of an Intelligent Wireless Web is straight forward -- an Intelligent Wireless Web is a network that provides any time, anywhere access to information resources with efficient user interfaces and applications that learn and thereby provide increasingly useful services whenever and wherever we need them. What exactly do we want our future communications and information processes to become? How can we construct such a system? In the following sections, we will lay out the framework and building blocks for future communications and information resource processes that will enable the construction of the Intelligent Wireless Web.
The Wireless Communication Process
Where were you the last time the stock market dropped? Chances are you were in a car, in a meeting, or walking to your next appointment. In other words, you were away from your personal computer (PC) and unable to check your portfolio or make vital trades.
Or how about the last time you opened up your notebook computer and were unable to readily connect to your company network to transfer that all-important business report you were sure would guarantee your next promotion.
Today, our desire for immediate satisfaction in conveying our message is growing exponentially. How fast we communicate is becoming as important as what we have to say. The challenge is that we urgently want our technology to provide communication at a distance as conveniently as we communicate face to face. From e-mail to paging, fast is just not fast enough.
As we enter the twenty-first century, the use of wireless communication technologies -cellular telephones, personal communication systems (PCSs), satellite phones, paging systems, wireless modems, and local area networks (LANs), plus local multipoint distribution services (LMDS) for wireless delivery of television and Internet serviceis expanding rapidly. The proliferation of components and devices offers multiple options for communication development.
Ideally, we would like the future wireless communication process to start with a user interface based on speech recognition by which we merely talk to a personal mobile device that recognizes our identity, words, and commands. The personal mobile device would connect seamlessly to embedded and fixed devices in the immediate environment. The message would be relayed to a server residing on a network with the necessary processing power and software to analyze the contents of the message. The server would link to additional Web resources that could then draw necessary supplemental knowledge from around the world through the Internet. Finally, the synthesized message would be delivered to the appropriate parties in their own language on their own personal mobile device. . . .
Read the rest of the first chapter by clicking here to download the file in .pdf format
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Footnote
[1.] Technology convergence is expressed in several different ways. We see hardware convergence of products such as pagers, cell phones, and personal digital assistants where the features found in different devices are gradually being incorporated into multifunction devices. Functional convergence is seen in the use of the personal computer for such functions as telephone communications, audio and video broadcast reception, and a player for DVD movies. Software convergence is seen in the interoperability of office software packaged as a suite of programs. [back to text]
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