November 8th, 2006
The Absent Network
In a moment of deep irony at Web 2.0, I’m listening to the Corporate VP of Global Foundation Services at Microsoft preach that it’s all about the infrastructure, and at the same time struggling with the sponsored WiFi network, which has been crapping out all morning. I’ve got draft posts on Google Docs — and I can’t access them! So here I am opening up MS Word.
Flying out here from the East Cost, I was painfully aware of the absent network, and all the things I couldn’t do.
Yes, the network will catch up — it will eventually be as reliable and ubiquitous as electricity, but until we get there, we need to keep our eye on the brick wall.
One of the most interesting comments from Google’s Eric Schmidt yesterday was his reference to the strategic problem of running out of electricity — John Battelle just quipped about the Microsoft and Google competing for union electricians in Washington State.
If you’re reading this post, it’s because I won the wack-a-mole game with the WiFi network.
Topics: Web 2.0
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[…] So, any browser-only information I might need (email, documents, photos, etc) are completely inaccessible on my fully wifi-enable, ethernet-ready laptop. “I’ve got draft posts on Google Docs — and I can’t access them! So here I am opening up MS Word.” - Scott Karp […]
Oh gee, if you have to take notes in non-wireless en vironments, don’t use Word. Use NoteTab ( http://www.notetab.com ). Trust me on this one.
The Deep Structural Problem of Advertising 2.0 9 hours 56 min old The Absent Network 14 hours 46 min old The Upside and Downside of Google’s Newspaper Deal 2 days 19 hours old Publishing 2.0 at Web 2.0 3 days 6 hours old The Delicate Balance of Participatory Media 4 days 9 hours old
If only a big comms company like Level 3 was sponsoring the conference/summit and helping out with connectivity, this wouldn’t happen.
What do you mean they’re a Gold Sponsor?
The desktop/Web integration theme was hot this year - with Adobe and Laszlo both in attendance. I will explore both technologies in future posts. Also Zimbra announced an offline mode for their web office suite. As Scott Karp nicely put it to me later, the offline technologies we’re seeing are very reflective of this transitional online/offline period of the Web. Broadband is not ubiquitous yet (ironically demonstrated by the poor WiFi at the Summit venue!), so that’s why
The desktop/Web integration theme was hot this year - with Adobe and Laszlo both in attendance. I will explore both technologies in future posts. Also Zimbra announced an offline mode for their web office suite. As Scott Karp nicely put it to me later, the offline technologies we’re seeing are very reflective of this transitional online/offline period of the Web. Broadband is not ubiquitous yet (ironically demonstrated by the poor WiFi at the Summit venue!), so that
[…] that we’re not there yet. Scott Karp – November 11th, 2006 | Email | Print | Link | Del.icio.us Bookmark | Submit to Digg Categories: Web2.0 […]