Multimedia Backpack 08

IN THE COMPANY OF SEVEN third level multimedia students (boom and camera at left) during a day-long media trip to Dublin yesterday, we thought nothing of upstreaming video from my Nokia E90 on the grounds of Trinity College and it was simple to snap our DV camera onto a tripod and offer a two-hour live session for people to watch at Online Meeting Rooms. Getting email on your mobile phone, once reserved for people with expensive phones, is now a common occurrence for students who have the fundamentals of personal entertainment systems in their multimedia backpacks. Twenty years ago, when I first taught adult education in education centres near Heidelberg, students looked at German holiday snapshots by passing around the photos. Now, everyone sees their work on the Web, often as Flickr photostreams.

Five years after first musing about our multimedia backpacks, we still have issues about free and open internet access. I travel to Dublin with a short list of open wifi locations in Ireland, often spending a few hours where I can eat and browse. I wish more pubs, cafes and hotels considered wifi as a service like heat in a room or lights overhead.

Six years ago, Bob Frankston said, "the most successful wireless productivity device won't be the 3G phone, or even the BlackBerry, but the ubiquitous and inexpensive WiFi notebook. In a shape and size to suit every need." Some might say the highly successful 3G iPhone fits this description and that you don't need a laptop anymore. Although I know I can do most things with an ultraportable computer (my Nokia E90), I need a small laptop that can upload images and that contains both a USB port and a Firewire port. That can't be too hard to find.

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Previously -- "Multimedia Backpack" 4 November 2003.
Bob Frankston -- "Trapped by the web", 2 September 2002.

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