Networker: Mobile computing
Mobile computing
The rise of the internet as a means of mass communication has made the requirement for interconnection between personal computers almost universal. The primary means is through the international telephone network. This is known as data communication.In the last few months there has been a surge in commercial interest in a new approach using wireless portable communications, based around the wireless application protocol (WAP). Today, this is one of the most hyped areas of internet development.
The basis of WAP is the introduction of a range of small digital devices, including mobile phones and ultra-small computers called palmtops. Just why someone would want their mobile phone to be connected to the internet is unclear, but it is taken as an item of faith by the large computer and phone companies investing billions of dollars in the area.
One suggestion is that people would like to get their email wherever they are. Another suggestion is that people would like to receive stock market information or football scores immediately.
One reason that the purpose of WAP applications is so vague is that European companies, which dominate the world mobile phone market, and US companies, which dominate the personal computer market, differ over what they are trying to achieve. While European corporations are trying to find a use for sending a little bit of information to a mobile phone, US corporations are trying to figure out how to send a massive amount of data to a mobile phone.
WAP may have implications for the internet. WAP is not compatible with the protocols (sets of technical rules) that the internet operates on. Therefore, if you send a message from a WAP-enabled mobile phone to someone on the internet, it has to go through a gateway which converts one set of protocols into another. Control of these gateways is mainly in the hands of the telephone companies. For this reason you can think of WAP as an alternate, private internet.
This raises the issue of access to information currently available across the internet. The creation of multiple private internets has significant implications for freedom of access to information because the gateway controllers can impose arbitrary rules on what users can and cannot see. One of the reasons for the success of the internet has been the absence of such control.
As well as limiting the free flow of information, WAP is a headache for potential business applications. Because of the gateway between the WAP sender and internet receiver, it is impossible to encrypt (secretly encode) information from one end to the other, limiting its usefulness for commerce and banking.
As soon as one set of profiteers start messing around with the internet, it limits profiteering opportunities for other. So almost by accident the internet muddles through.
BY GREG HARRIS