San Diego's Wireless Testbed
If you’re in the wireless world, you know that San Diego is always the place where they test out new wireless technologies. There are so many people there working on wireless technologies, and thus it’s a great place for wireless early adopters – and to watch the wireless early adopters. Fast Company is running an article talking about four different wireless applications that are in early use in San Diego, that paint an interesting picture of how wireless technologies will be used in many different ways as they spread. Most of the examples use Wi-Fi (one is EV-DO). They’re all worth reading about, but the example of a hotel was particularly interesting. It’s yet another example where the main reason for having WiFi on the location came in helping the staff do their jobs – and not to provide customers with an additional for-fee service. In this case, the process of cleaning rooms and making sure the cleaning staff can communicate with each other, while management can more efficiently manage where the cleaning teams need to be – all done via a WiFi system. The hotel staff can’t believe how helpful the system has been, and the fact that they then use the same WiFi to give guests free WiFi is seen almost as an afterthought.
