Living in Renaissance Times

Culture is what we choose to repeat. Can we live for a new Renaissance? The origin and charge of historical Renaissance suggests it is possible. - Mark Beaulieu

This page reprinted from Wireless Internet (c)2002 mark beaulieu. Some revisions made for this web page.

Getting Ready for a Wireless Future

There is nothing truer for developers than the fact that the wireless Internet is happening all over the world and that new technology and business opportunities are arriving in different places, at different times, and in different degrees. As you plan and build, what are the best ways to know of the advancing technology and business opportunities? Conventional wisdom says read marketing research reports, expert books and industry magazines, visit wireless portals, attend trade shows, study the competition, listen to experts, and talk to friends already in business. There are deeper sources of inspiration.

We may be on the verge of a digital renaissance. Its ignition depends on a number of factors. Finding the roots of rebirth dormant in communication and Internet origins uncovers a range of stimulating forces. A past model of dramatic cultural change is the activity in late 1400s Western culture that led to the Renaissance. Simultaneous discoveries, a capital economic model, and artistic growth in all levels of society brought on the great changes. To “prepare for a wireless future” consider forming a strategy based on the forces that prepared the earlier Renaissance.

Travel to Discover

People in some cultures live in the future already. The time machine door is open, all you have to do is step in. As described earlier, for the US the wireless Internet in Japan is said to be 24 months ahead, Europe is 18 months ahead. Talk to scouts, make direct contact in email, read studies, find out about foreign successes like Japanese i-mode and European SMS. How is it used, what lessons can be learned? Above all, travel and see it. Another future arrival point is to interview early adopters using new applications or talk to youth who send messages on stylish phones. Yet another point are trade shows like CTIA and VON - think of these as the mountain rendezvous of the 1700 & 1800's that Michner describes where traders and explorers; competitors and allies; buried hatchets, came to tell stories, challenge one another, share experiences - parlay and party. A destination for the old breed and the new breed.

Study Research : Science Labs

What is the science, the new technology, and where is it headed? Research leads this. Study it and, if possible, visit the leading research labs. Great labs today include MIT Media Lab, SRI International, DARPA, Yokosuka Research Park, Xerox PARC, major chip producer’s labs, and startups. They explore new forms of transcodable communication, optical radio nets, and make strange things like “radio paper.” The scenes of invention and experimentation are educational, military, and commercial. They give inspiring insights and early lessons.

Observe Real Models : Art Studios

Artists, including Da Vinci and Michelangelo actually looked at a human body before drawing it. This socially unacceptable practice of objective observation was articulated in perspective, a method of drawing born in a new way of seeing making Art a science. The restoration of perceptivity, of objective and rational approaches to the arts and sciences unseated prevailing behaviors, practices, and laws.

It is important to observe research and technology to bare practical fruit. Military and industrial institutions found practical benefits from wireless technology many years ago. By seeing what works, large corporate campuses now use wireless laptops to connect to the institution’s network. Industry applies wireless technology to deliver packages and process customers returning cars.
Just as personal computers were an attempt to give everyone their own mainframe, the miniature handheld delivers powerful industrial and military mobile capabilities. Perceiving the present chips and base technology in production offers new possibilities. Like any attempt to bring fire down from the mountain — you have to see the flame first. Before us is a new human model based on activity and information in motion.

Excavate The Past

To stand on the past European ruins in a city you know was a starting point for Italian Renaissance architects such as Alberti and Brunelleschi. Architects considered the possibility that earlier life and buildings held hidden values. The quest of some Renaissance architects included excavation, careful reconstruction, and understanding earlier classical life. The Italian Renaissance rediscovery of Roman and Greek architecture revealed “new” living patterns successful for earlier generations. Greek writing restored from foreign sources, fortified science, and philosophy. The rediscovered ancient philosophical school and science of Aristotle influenced many. The restored Greek view supplanted many of the Latin practices of the times.

The best may have come before us. Sometimes at the origin of a technology, elements are overlooked in favor of others that have led to early successes. This is a tenet of deconstruction. Often all these forgotten elements are critical later as the dominant technology matures. There is much to learn from the General Magic user interface, the user conceptual model, and communications architecture. GO, an early mobile device company produced powerful models of social computing and mobile work force. The Newton component objects were among the best interface designs ever. Buried with these elder technologies are many fine concepts. When the long lost memories, methods of earlier civilization are recovered and reborn, they can challenge “modern” thinking enough to restore valuable practices and stimulate new ones.

If you travel and explore, observe and see, research and study, excavate and restore you are on the road to building a better wireless solution and creating a new wireless culture. These strategic activities leading to growth were the basic pattern behind the Western Renaissance. In the production of wireless technology, the classic practice of apprenticeship, of learning from somebody who allegedly already knows, could be helpful in today’s research lab. In the past, apprentices sometimes worked with quacks but some discovered masters and learning from them was invaluable.

Another part of discovery and "personal excavation" is paying attention to youth. Their patterns and interests are ultimately the future, but their first sense of change and play is an important clue to the future.

The wireless Internet era is in many ways a rebirth of the imagination of earlier computer and telecommunications periods of invention. As technologists and business professionals anticipate the future, they travel, study, observe, and excavate in order to form a productive cultural view.

Living the Wireless Internet

To live the wireless life first-hand is important, for it is not enough to study wireless technology. To get any feeling for la vide wireless, use a Web phone, a handheld, a two-way pager, a voice portal, a wireless camera, write a video blog. Try various sites and services. Personal travail is how you learn what is worth the effort to become informed and passionate and improve the wireless world. The journey can be interesting, but it is not the reward. Fully mobile pioneers are not content to create a new world. The end of their journey is the created land worth exploring. It is the beginning of a thousand journeys. The wireless Internet is the backdrop for a potential global renaissance. It affects every dimension of your identity - you, your family, your neighborhood, your education, your job, your government, and your world.

quote originally  "The future has already arrived; it is just not evenly distributed yet." was said to Paul Saffo by William Gibson.

referenceCentennial by James Michner. Yellow Apron p173.