If I may, I'd like to return this discussion to the original topic --
the seeming increasing ubiquity of mobile connectivity in developed
countries and the implications for records managers.
I work for a technology company that manufactures many of these
devices. I have a couple of handsets that are "3G" rated (the US term).
These handsets have the ability to act as cellular modems for my laptop
and provide throughput at what I would consider slower broadband
speeds. My understanding is that cellular providers elsewhere in the
world are looking at "4G" systems that are even faster.
In addition to Wimax and wi-fi, there is another technology coming on
the scene -- femtocells. This is presently being tested in Europe.
Essentially, what this does is provide a cellular base station in your
home or office that you connect to your broadband connection to the
Internet. The base station will connect to registered mobile devices
and provide the "backhaul" to the telephone network. This will enable
the use of mobiles in locations where the mobile network does not exist
or cannot be extended. In cities, this will limit dead spots in
buildings. In rural areas, a landowner may be able to deploy femtocells
to provide mobile connectivity within his or her property.
What all this means is that we are rapidly moving to a place where
wireless broadband connectivity may become ubiquitous and seamless. As
others have noted, this brings about a fundamental shift in how people
work. If you look at the transformation of communications that has
accompanied the Blackberry, Motorola Q and related devices, you see
that people are looking for "always on" connectivity with their office
and office information and communication resources. Extend that
functionality to the laptop (or any similar device that allows normal
typing) and you take productivity up a notch.
Granted, this assumes a tremendous amount of infrastructure --and the
wherewithal to provision the technology to the masses. But once people
have the ability to connect wirelessly to their home systems, the game
changes in a very radical way. Some would call this "back to the
future" because the real breakthrough will be corporate use of VMWare
and Citrix connections to virtual machines in the corporate data
centre. This will eliminate local storage of corporate data / records
and provide more opportunities for records managers to properly
influence the retention and disposition of records.
At the same time, there is tremendous risk that records could become
more dispersed. So the key for records managers is not to stop the
onrushing bulldozer but to ensure that the bulldozer properly shapes
the landscape.
Oh, and just to give you more pause, take a look at some of the press
releases from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week. The
next big thing is using mobiles for film-making. At least one mobile
will be offered in the near future with a video editing suite and the
ability to post the video directly to YouTube. Imagine the person in
the organization who starts making videos on his mobile, editing them
and wanting to store the video (because it is work-related) to a
corporate version of YouTube. How do we manage those records?
Patrick Cunningham, CRM
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"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
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