Future of computing may lie in interpersonal connections- What Ray Ozzie thinks

We may use personal computers and live in the Information Age these days, but we’ll soon be using interpersonal computers and live in the Connection Age, predicts Ray Ozzie, chief of Groove Networks Inc.

JON VAN Chicago Tribune

Ozzie, who developed Lotus Notes, grew up in Chicago and was educated at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. While a student, he used an experimental multimedia computer tool called Plato, which gave him a glimpse of what the Internet would be like long before it was available to most people.

The popularity of the Web over the past five years may seem breathtaking, but Ozzie cautions that the whirlwind of change is only a breeze compared with what will come.

"We’ve only seen the first five years of what will be a thousand years of Internet," he said. "We haven’t scratched the surface."

As more wireless gadgets become networked at superfast broadband speeds, people will find new ways to contact each other and probably will carry an array of communication devices, Ozzie said.

"New options will permeate society more quickly than we ever could imagine. Changes will sneak up on us that will have a fundamental impact on society, as fundamental as building roads or railroads."

Although computer users today tend to focus on messages and documents, they’ll soon use technology to focus upon other people, Ozzie said.

"Today, people are accustomed to being in touch with one another audibly," Ozzie said. "The next step that we haven’t seen yet will be ways technology can help you find awareness of others. You see if someone is online or offline. You’ll have a much greater ability to be aware of what others are doing–where they are geographically, are they busy, can they be interrupted?"

Even when unaccompanied by others, people needn’t feel alone, he said. "You can be more in the presence of others you want to be in the presence of."

Ozzie, whose software company is based in Beverly, Mass., will be back in Illinois next month as a speaker in a symposium at the University of Illinois’ Urbana campus. He is scheduled to talk April 29 as part of a program to recognize the 10th anniversary of the Mosaic Web browser, which was developed on campus and was essential for the commercial success of the Web.

Generation gap: Wireless Internet using third-generation cell phone networks has been a dud so far, Douglas Lamont, an author and consultant, said at a recent meeting at DePaul University’s computer science school.

Lamont, speaking at an event sponsored by the Mayor’s Council of Technology Advisors Technology Advocacy Committee, said that revenues from wireless data services have disappointed carriers and Wall Street. Short messaging has been a bright spot, he said, and in China it played a role in revealing the existence of the new mystery respiratory infection when government officials tried to keep it quiet.

But, Lamont advised, it may be time for the industry to abandon Plan A and move to Plan B–equip all laptop computers, cell phones and other portable devices with the ability to tap into wireless local area networks, popularly known as Wi-Fi.

Perhaps most in the industry aren’t ready to give up on third-generation technology yet, but Chris Galvin, chief at Motorola Inc., voiced a similar sentiment at a recent wireless industry gathering in New Orleans. He said that cell phone firms ought to concentrate on the basics of improving the quality of voice calls rather than chasing wireless data applications.

"We really have to look at the relevant problems that consumers want solved," Galvin said.

Copyright © 2003, Chicago Tribune

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0303290300mar29,1,6915476.story?coll=chi%2Dbusiness%2Dhed