Wi-fi set to Re-Wire Social Rules

Filed in archive Business on March 13, 2006

BBC NEWS -- Mar -- In some British cities, plans are advancing to set up so many hotspots that entire neighbourhoods become wi-fi enabled. One of the biggest will be in London's Square Mile; it will give more than 350,000 workers always-on access to the net. Dr Jo Twist, senior research fellow at the Institute for public policy Research, said once the net is ubiquitous like power and water, it has the potential to be "transformative". The divide that separates people from their online lives will utterly disappear. Restaurant reviews could be tagged to buildings. "If we have a ubiquitous, cheap or free wireless network that our portable and mobile devices can access, therefore skipping the need for a pricey PC, then that could be incredibly empowering for lots of people. It could be really empowering and it could help encourage innovative uses of that network which enliven our public spaces as well as our networks with each other," said Dr Twist. FULL ARTICLE @ BBC NEWS

Mark Brooks: As I said at the mobile dating convention...we're going to go 'Star Trek' eventually. Ubiquitous connections with talking PDA pads complete with voice recognition. I'd give it ten years. What will online dating look like in 7-10 years? Your comments please. I'll start the ball rolling on this one...