Howdy, Bubba! Hey, if you're new around these parts, I just want to say how much I appreciate you dropping by! Oh, and you may want to subscribe to my feed. Thanks, and a tip o' the hat to ya!

Ubiquitous Computing

That phrase kinda rolls trippingly off the tongue, doesn’t it? I don’t know about you, but stuff like this always set off my jargon alert apparatus (sirens, klaxons, red lights flashing, and for some strange reason, confetti). I can just hear you saying to yourself, “What the heck is ubiquitous computing, and why should I care?” Well, Bubba, it may be a description of the future of computing, so you just might want to know about it.

To understand ubiqui- (let’s call it UC, shall we?) UC, I offer this description, from Mark Weiser, considered to be the father of UC.

We already have significant computing power built into the most common items: all types of phones, PDAs, notebooks and desktops, watches, appliances (both large and small), cars – and that’s only the most obvious ones. How about out there in the real world? Every traffic intersection, repair shop, hospital – gee, maybe it’s easier to think about where computing power is not (or at least, not yet).

The really big issue, as I see it, is risk. What is the risk of implementing such a future? Believe me, you don’t want to walk into this blind! Adam Greenfield, author of Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing, a talk (talk? when is a talk not a speech?) at Ci’Num where he presented his 5 principles of UC:

• Default to Harmlessness – in a world where it is possible for a device to broadcast your most intimate details, user’s safety (physical, psychic and financial) must be ensured.
• Be Self-Disclosing – ubiquitous systems should be technically and graphically self-disclosing, so that users encountering them are empowered to make informed decisions.
• Be Conservative of Face – ubiquitous systems must not necessarily embarrass, humiliate, or shame their users.
• Be Conservative of Time – ubiquitous systems must not introduce undue complications into ordinary operations and should be respectful of our time.
• Be Deniable – ubiquitous systems must offer the users the ability to opt out, always and at any point.

I’ll come back to this in future posts, but for now, I ask you to ponder the following questions for a bit:

• Do you think these principles are enough?
• Are they practical in the Real World?
• Should such limitations be “hard-wired” into the UC systems themselves?
• And what about Mary Lou?

OK, I made up that last one.

You know, it would just be absolutely finer than a frogs hair if you would subscribe to my RSS feed!