Time-to-Adoption: Two to Three Years

Now that networks are essentially everywhere (and broadband over power lines and Wi-Max will take it the rest of the way), exciting applications are unfolding that include presence-awareness, grid computing, and mesh networks. Presence-awareness will make it possible to deliver tailored information or services based on a user's actual physical location or state of attention. Grid computing involves shared data storage and increased power, enabling networked personal computers to combine speed, memory, and storage to perform operations that they could not perform on their own; essentially, it is large-scale distributed computing.

One example of a technology which uses grid computing is e-Science, which collects and stores data from many different sources, such as satellites, lasers, and telescopes. Mesh networks are decentralized ad-hoc networks which can include wireless devices and can be either static or kinetic. Worldwide grid computing is still in the future, but limited grids are already being used on a small scale. As more and more devices such as mobile phones are configured to obtain access to the Internet and to transmit data to each other, spontaneous mesh networks are appearing.

Relevance for Teaching, Learning & Creative Expression

• increases the potential for collaboration in research and teaching
• increases access to data and teaching material
• allows for expanded types of student-teacher and student-student interaction, in various places and by various means
• increases the capacity for information storage and retrieval

Examples

• The Cambridge University e-Science Center has a Molecular Informatics project in which robots "read normal journal articles and extract the molecular data, which is turned into XML, aggregated, and validated in CML (Chemical Markup Language)." The data is then represented in a generic architecture. This is part of a United Kingdom initiative for grid computing and e-science. http://www.escience.cam.ac.uk/projects/mi/ and http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/escience/

• Numerous institutions are already working toward grid computing or mesh networks on both technological and pedagogical fronts. Syracuse University estimates that grid computing will be available to its faculty by 2007: "By 2007, advances in network capacity and GRID-computing will give researchers vastly greater computing power and speed. GRID computing and the wider adoption of open systems will allow faculty to solve problems that require massive computing and manipulation of huge data sets. Real-time distant collaborations will be commonplace, and the vision of a worldwide community of scholars will continue to advance as a reality." http://cms.syr.edu/projects/complan/final/plan4.cfm.

For Further Reading

The Future of Networking in Higher Education
(Richard N. Katz, EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 40, no. 4 (July/August 2005): 62-75.) Discusses the history of networking and describes the trends, issues, and implications of integrated cyberinfrastructure in education. http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm05/erm0547.asp

A New Outlet for Broadband
(Eric Hellweg, Technology Review, July 18, 2005. ) This article discusses broadband internet access becoming available over electrical power lines. http://www.technologyreview.com/InfoTech/wtr_14622,258,p1.html