Continuous Computing

Wade Roush, Technology Review’s senior editor and San Francisco bureau chief, is working on a long cover story about something he calls continuous computing. To try out some of his ideas, he has created a blog on the subject. Have a look and tell us what you think of his idea.

Wade is one of the smartest writers I have ever worked with: he is deeply informed about all things to do with information technology, and he thinks clearly and writes very elegantly. Wade believes that “in industrial countries, and very soon in developing ones, people equipped with a modest, affordable set of technologies will travel throughout their day inside a kind of invisible ‘information field.’” He distinguishes continuous computing from previously hyped trends like ubiquitous or pervasive computing because the phenomenon is real (indeed, continuous computing has, almost invisibly, become the dominant trend in technology in the last 12 months) and because it is essentially social and personal. He is thinking about the different families of social computing like blogging, RSS feeds, tagging, and skyping, of course; but he believes continuous computing will be deeply disruptive because it is location-based and wireless.

One way to think about it: the early promises of the Internet might, finally, come true. Network technologies could expand our human potential in unexpected and delightful ways.

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