Information technology (IT), as defined by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), is “the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware.” IT deals with the use of electronic computers and computer software to convert, store, protect, process, transmit, and securely retrieve information.

This covers an ever increasing amount of ground: smartphones, MP3 players, games consoles, software for any platform, ATMs, and even the checkout at the supermarket are examples of the breadth of IT.

In my experience, IT means PCs, and mainly Windows, to most people. When these go wrong, it’s a work department called “IT” they expect to help… or not: hence the association.

The strange thing is that they don’t associate it with the mobile phone in their pocket, or any of the devices that have become ubiquitous at home. How long is it going to be before everything uses “electronic computers and computer software to convert, store, protect, process, transmit, and securely retrieve information”?

It seems clear that the world of tomorrow is going to be poorer: much of the pre-crisis money never actually existed, it was borrowed from the future. Whatever the reason, everyone is going to have less to spend. Production volumes are dropping, a feature of recession anyway, which combined with badly weakened Western currencies is going to lead to higher prices. So how is product development going to react?

The focus of product development, and maybe life in general, should shift from new products to incremental improvement. With little money around, the time is right to consider total cost of ownership: I want most of my kit to last a while, but still do a useful job.

Building on existing products rather that new launches will be the path. Longer component design lives, combined with modularity minimise the scale of component replacement necessary to add new functionality: no more ditching the iPod because your music collection has grown.

I also expect product ranges to shrink, freeing funding to concentrate on those with a real market and user base. The same will be true of functionality, every product has features almost nobody uses: why so many cup holders?

Consolidation is the theme, so tomorrow will be smaller, but I suspect better for it.

Here’s the near future dream; they can get a lot wilder.

I’m working on my latest project on the train, in a tunnel, whilst I travel to a meeting with a client. I reach a critical part where I need to see the big picture, so I find transfer the output to an LCD display in a coffee bar at the station.

It’s not going smoothly, and I decide I could use some help, so I call a few colleagues and arrange a conference in 15 minutes time. Once we’re all virtually present, it’s early remember, I’d show them the problem by sharing my display output via the network. Each using our own devices we work together, version controlled and still conferencing, until we crack the problem.

I thank everyone and leave for the Client’s office. Once there I transfer the presentation of the key project details to a large TV in the conference room and send a hardcopy to the printer in the office.

Oh… and all seamlessly without wires. Of course, this is a picture of the utopia of perfect interoperability and security, but what are the chances?

Interoperability.

The device layer interface is a key feature, with transparent support a wide selection of drivers and protocols, I don’t want to have to get involved. As many devices aren’t wireless enabled at the moment, have poor device driver support, or use proprietary communication protocols, this is a real challenge.

Getting input.

Input is probably still the good old keyboard and pointing device, of which there are several approaches for those who don’t mind carrying extra kit.

• Fabric keyboards that can be folded away, like the Just Mobile RoKy².
• Projected light keyboards like the I-Tech Virtual Laser Keyboard are compact and lightweight.
• The pointing is easier, a wide range of Bluetooth mice and other devices already exist.

And for those that do?

• Traditional mobile phone keyboard. I hate this, I’m too old to be any good and have an aversion to developing arthritis in my thumbs.
• Touch screen keyboards, the Apple iPhone is the best implementation I’ve come across.
• Stylus on touch screen for handwriting recognition as used by Palm.
• Or just being able to use any input device I find lying around, wireless of course.

There are other options like voice recognition, cameras, and detecting eye movements which could find wider use in the future. I’d like a direct mental link, so I can just think what I want to do, but I’d probably end up with a nasty brain wiping piece of malware!

Displaying output.

Displaying output raises important issues surrounding the usability of the actual user interface, after all, I’m proposing to go from working on a typical PDA size display to a 40 inch TV! I want to make the best use of the visible area on any given device, whilst avoiding 4 inch high characters.

The experience of designing for different web browsers, screen resolutions, and colour maps could be leveraged for this new platform. CSS can be targeted at different media types and such an approach could be adopted throughout the new system.

Staying mobile.

Power management is vital for extended mobile operation and I’d like to be able to work normally for several days at least.

This may be achieved by longer battery life or a totally different energy storage or generation technology. Fuel cells, solar panels or even nuclear power could be used; though even I’d be a bit concerned about carrying around a nuclear reactor. What if the fuel cell ran on a range of organic feed stocks, just like I do? I could recharge my computer at the same time as myself in any restaurant.

Wireless recharging could be an option, maybe inductive charging such as WildCharge pad. I’d prefer my device to selectively recharge at any opportunity, and from any source, so that I don’t have to be in any particular place or make any conscious decision. The device could decide to top-up from a nearby power cable, the sun as I walk around, or even using the heat of a warm day. Again, I don’t want to know it’s happening or how.

How long?

Much of the software architecture and implementation technologies already exist to make my dream device a reality, the real work is in perfecting the hardware at a cost that makes loss or damage acceptable; it’s portable remember. At the current rate of development I suspect I won’t have to wait too long for the device itself. But the legacy issues for hardware interoperability?

Ultimately it’s my guess that computing and the Internet will become indivisible; not sticking my neck out too much since for many of us it already is. If some of the wilder concepts of ubiquitous computing come to pass I won’t need a single device anyway, I’ll just pick up computing resources whenever I need them from the environment surrounding me.