Friday, June 23, 2006
Are we wireless yet?
I went to the ja-sig conference in Vancouver at the start of June. Very interesting. Lots of high thinkers and good coders all in the same place. A little bit on the techie side, not really a 'users' conference (ja-sig is the host of uPortal, an Open Source portal written and used by a number of universities), but still a very intriguing event. After all, it's not every day you get to have lunch with someone from Sweden.
Tim Bray gave an interesting if rambling talk on 'stuff'. One of his topics was Wikipedia. Is it the best thing since sliced bread, or devil's spawn? He basically said it's up to us to decide, and we'll decide by using it(or not) and by supporting it (or not).
I've been to a number of conferences, and there are usually rows of public access computers for attendees to check their email, but that was not the case here. The conference centre where it was held had wireless. And, of course, everyone (except me) brought their laptops.
So all those with laptops where checking their emails whenever and wherever they wanted. There are two interesting things to note about this:
1) People were checking their email anywhere, anytime, including during sessions. In the past people have always opened laptops in sessions, mostly to take notes (me, I still write it down by hand, then type the notes in back at the office), but now they're checking their email, IM-ing, playing Sudoko online (I sat behind a guy doing this). Maybe I'm old fashioned, but why go to a conference and then sit in front of your computer the whole time? Not to mention the fact that it's just plain rude to the presenters.
2) Session layout. ALL the session had tables. The keynote was in a room with narrow straight tables. Other sessions had this same setup or round tables, but every room had tables. I had never been to a conference with this setup before. Of course, these tables were very handy to put your laptop on (I surmised after a day that this was the purpose of the tables).
Not only did the rooms have tables, but all the table were wired, not for IP, but for power! For the long straight tables, the prime spots were in the centre where the extension cords ended in power bars. All the laptops users got those spots early.
So, all the rooms had a separate extension cord running from the back (or front) of the room to each table. Fifteen to twenty extension cords, all different colours, plugged into power bars and ending in power bars, gaffer taped to the floor so no-one would trip. Does anyone other me think this is odd? (Kevin might appreciate it).
I suppose one of my conclusions from the conference (and not the kind that I expected to get) is that the wireless problem was easier to solve than the power consumption/battery life problem.
So I guess I'm still waiting for my first truely wireless conference.
Tim Bray gave an interesting if rambling talk on 'stuff'. One of his topics was Wikipedia. Is it the best thing since sliced bread, or devil's spawn? He basically said it's up to us to decide, and we'll decide by using it(or not) and by supporting it (or not).
I've been to a number of conferences, and there are usually rows of public access computers for attendees to check their email, but that was not the case here. The conference centre where it was held had wireless. And, of course, everyone (except me) brought their laptops.
So all those with laptops where checking their emails whenever and wherever they wanted. There are two interesting things to note about this:
1) People were checking their email anywhere, anytime, including during sessions. In the past people have always opened laptops in sessions, mostly to take notes (me, I still write it down by hand, then type the notes in back at the office), but now they're checking their email, IM-ing, playing Sudoko online (I sat behind a guy doing this). Maybe I'm old fashioned, but why go to a conference and then sit in front of your computer the whole time? Not to mention the fact that it's just plain rude to the presenters.
2) Session layout. ALL the session had tables. The keynote was in a room with narrow straight tables. Other sessions had this same setup or round tables, but every room had tables. I had never been to a conference with this setup before. Of course, these tables were very handy to put your laptop on (I surmised after a day that this was the purpose of the tables).
Not only did the rooms have tables, but all the table were wired, not for IP, but for power! For the long straight tables, the prime spots were in the centre where the extension cords ended in power bars. All the laptops users got those spots early.
So, all the rooms had a separate extension cord running from the back (or front) of the room to each table. Fifteen to twenty extension cords, all different colours, plugged into power bars and ending in power bars, gaffer taped to the floor so no-one would trip. Does anyone other me think this is odd? (Kevin might appreciate it).
I suppose one of my conclusions from the conference (and not the kind that I expected to get) is that the wireless problem was easier to solve than the power consumption/battery life problem.
So I guess I'm still waiting for my first truely wireless conference.
// posted by Bob Walker @ 9:51 PM 
