[April 6, 2005]

Chaos Gives Way to Order

BY ROBERT LIU

When I first played around with Apple’s Airport wireless LAN solution in 1999, I never imagined the technology would give birth to an entire industry. It was, after all, then just a novelty. For the next three years, I followed that industry as executive editor at internetnews.com and the world has discovered along with me that it wasn’t just a novelty.

But because the bubble had burst amid the harshest IT recession in history, companies even as large as Microsoft, IBM and Sun Microsystems were forced to scramble to cope with new realities like commoditization of technology – no doubt a survival mechanism adopted in recessionary times. SMBs led the charge in business or application development for the new wireless technology. But despite all of their efforts to be the next Intel, nothing really advanced without involvement from industry heavyweights.

Through it all, I watched over WLAN development in some cases much like caring for my own children, sorting things out while two sisters argued about how to establish a new wireless scheme. I am happy to see that subsequent wireless standards took shape amid a much more subdued climate. And while enterprise applications aren’t any closer to being truly platform-agnostic despite the hype of software architects like Stephen Mills and Bill Gates, wireless Internet access has lived up to its billing.

I’ve joined TMCnet and its parent Technology Marketing Corp., you could say, to wrap up a little unfinished business. The wireless industry has clearly come a long way since its adolescence. When the IEEE ratified WiMax last summer, it was clear that a marketing plan, brand and an entire organization was already put into place to safeguard its deployment. That’s a far cry from the early days when its cousin, 802.11b, first came into being with a label that only an electrical engineer would appreciate. (FYI – the “Wi-Fi” logo was added after the technology hit the market.)

At a recent meeting of NYCwireless, the volunteer organization dedicated to enabling free wireless Internet access ran though its month meeting on cue and stayed in lock step better than a rehearsal for the Academy Awards broadcast. The agenda was reviewed; guest speakers were introduced; and the tax benefits of membership were touted. In fact, according to NYCwireless Director Laura Forlano, the Federal Communications Commission recently called on the group’s board to be part of a consumer advisory panel, sitting with the likes of Verizon and SBC Communications.

It is reassuring to see the industry has matured into an organized community that can support a vibrant marketplace. Now I am here to see to it that new developments like wireless Voice over IP, voice over broadband, or WiMax become part of our everyday workplace. I predict the cost-saving mentality of the last few years will once again be replaced by the fire of innovation. I also believe we have learned from our mistakes. Innovation won’t come at the expense of organization. The days of chaos and scrambling are gone.

Robert Liu is executive editor at TMCnet.  Previously, he was executive editor at Jupitermedia and has also written for CNN, A&E, Dow Jones and Bloomberg.  He can be reached at [email protected].