Columns Ragan Report Wireless technology and future trends
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| Wireless technology and future trends |
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| Written by Jerry Stevenson | |
| Monday, 21 April 2003 | |
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The impact of the Internet on professional communication has been remarkable over the last 10 years. I can still remember working in PR at EDS in 1993, arguing with my boss over using e-mail to send press releases to journalists. (Journalists that covered the technology beat, mind you.) Needless to say, I was pro, he was con. Today, the question is whether you should bother with a paper copy at all. How things will change over the next 10 years is the source of endless speculation. What new tools that seem outrageous or cutting edge now will be taken for granted in 2013? It’s a question I frequently hear from clients. And while I think we all have our hands full trying to figure out the best ways to use our current tools, it’s probably a good idea to keep an eye on the horizon for what’s next. In my opinion, one important trend that every professional communicator should watch is the spread of wireless communication devices. The impact of the Internet on professional communication has been remarkable over the last 10 years. I can still remember working in PR at EDS in 1993, arguing with my boss over using e-mail to send press releases to journalists. (Journalists that covered the technology beat, mind you.) Needless to say, I was pro, he was con. Today, the question is whether you should bother with a paper copy at all. How things will change over the next 10 years is the source of endless speculation. What new tools that seem outrageous or cutting edge now will be taken for granted in 2013? It’s a question I frequently hear from clients. And while I think we all have our hands full trying to figure out the best ways to use our current tools, it’s probably a good idea to keep an eye on the horizon for what’s next. In my opinion, one important trend that every professional communicator should watch is the spread of wireless communication devices. What do I mean by “wireless communication devices”? If you’ve walked in to a mobile phone store in the last year, you’ve probably noticed that phones have started doing much more than just allow you to have spoken conversations with friends. E-mail, Web, text messaging, calendaring and many of the tools associated with computers are now being built in to these pocket-sized devices. At this point in time, only a handful of them are worth owning, because few companies have made them easy enough for the average person to figure out. Or afford. But within the next two years, prices will continue to drop, usability will evolve and nearly everyone will own a constant, mobile connection to the Internet. This opens up some remarkable possibilities. It’s one thing to connect to the Internet at home or work, from a stationary computer, and retrieve some bit of information that interests you. It’s quite another to be shopping in a wine store, pull out a pocket-sized device and find out how Wine Spectator reviews every item that interests you. Or to walk onto a used car lot with instant access to the invoice price, crash ratings and consumer reviews of every automobile on the lot. It’s the difference between having access to information and having access to it when and where you really need it. The impact on commerce is only the beginning. Some of the current devices, and nearly all the ones that will be built in the future, include GPS (Global Positioning System) location awareness. This opens up some fascinating possibilities, both promising and frightening. On the positive end, caffeine junkies will be happy to know that finding the nearest Starbucks, no matter where you are in the world, will be a snap. You’ll instantly get directions from your current location to where you need to go. Parents will be able to find out whether their teenagers are actually at the library, or shopping at the mall. Dating will take an interesting twist when your phone chirps at you when a compatible mate is nearby (this is already happening in Japan). Similar to dating, you may find yourself easily able to meet people who share your political, religious, culinary or artistic sensibilities who were formerly strangers in a crowd. The spooky part about all of this is how privacy rights will work when tools like these become ubiquitous. Will we allow government agencies to track suspected criminals using information from their phone? Can you get a speeding ticket for driving your car too fast when you’ve got your phone with you? Will stores have permission to send coupons to our phones when we walk past their doors? Will the unsolicited e-mail of today become the annoying chirp (or vibration) in our pockets? All of these issues and ones we haven’t dreamed up yet will be debated over the next decade. The changes to how corporations communicate will be every bit as interesting. I predict most companies will end up replacing office phones with some type of wireless device as prices for both service and hardware continue to drop. Like computers, a standard type of phone will be offered to most workers, with a few more advanced models for executives. Beyond voice calls, this little device will probably be used by your laptop to connect to the Internet and the corporate intranet, providing you with access wherever you need it. The question of where work ends, and where your personal life begins will grow even more interesting. Speaking of intranets, companies will once again have to evaluate the media they use to provide information to employees. Corporate communicators will need to consider what information is needed and relevant to employees from a handheld device vs. what belongs on a traditional intranet with more screen real estate, a mouse and a larger keyboard. If we learned anything from the Web, it’s that sticking all of the stuff from an old medium (print, back when intranets started) onto a new medium is usually a recipe for disaster. We also need to consider how location-awareness might play an important role in our communication activities. On a very simple level, this could mean giving employees the ability to easily navigate office buildings to find the location of their meeting rooms. Or alerting people that a new product is being demonstrated in the cafeteria if they are interested. I’m sure some enterprising office tricksters will find ways to track their bosses, so they can switch from playing solitaire to working in Excel without getting caught. But the business implications of having instant access to information, wherever you are, and put in the context of your current location, will be dramatic, and fascinating to watch unfold. |
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