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
