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updated posting on March 28, 2009 google wireless -- what about family?The Google proposal for WiFi 2.0 is exciting news for those of us who want to be online -- anytime, anywhere, you'll probably be able to get online (at least anywhere you used to be able to get TV or radio reception. The drawback is that there will soon be no safe haven from being online.
I know, I know, you're wondering why I'm asking for such a heretical thing. Here's why: see, back in the day, when you left work,
you left e-mail behind. You changed contexts entirely. You were "out of the loop" on anything that happened at work in the evening.
I'd like to think that it's a function of my cultural situation -- I still think e-mail is cool and that being online is a rarefied state of affairs. Thus, for me, it's an unusual activity that gets those endorphins moving. One might argue that our kids -- the next generation -- doesn't experience online connectivity as anything unusual. A parallel cultural moment was the experience of GenX growing up with television. The "greatest generation" (or their surrounding gens) hadn't grown up with television. It was a new original experience, worthy of adulation. By the time GenX came around, we were watching Sesame Street in the womb, and we could -- sometimes -- take or leave television after school. Sure, there were addiction issues and an overindulgence in television in many cases. But I would like to think that the current generation really has a different perspective on television -- they know it's not the panacea it was once thought to be. Neither is it an unmitigated evil. Perhaps we'll soon have this perspective on wireless spectrum and connectivity.
becoming a geek by exampleupdated posting on April 15, 2008 Cross-posted to projects with my kids: I think that Kevin Kelly really put his finger on something when he talks about the models we provide for our children. After all, whatever my children see me doing is what they feel is "normal", or "expected" for an adult. So if I'm writing and performing drama or if I'm carving pumpkins or spending time coding on the computer, my kids on some subliminal level will feel this is a "cool" adult activity.
Science fiction author Neal Stephenson mentioned this first to Kelly when he note an unfinished kayak under a tarp. He said he was slowly working on it, in part to mentor his kids, even though they did no work on the boat, nor express the least bit of interest in this project. None-the-less he continued puttering on the undertaking while they were home. Stephenson said when he was a kid, his dad was constantly tinkering on some garage project or another, and despite Neal's complete indifference for any of his dad's enthusiasms at the time, he was influenced by this embedded tinkering. It was part of the family scene, part of his household, like mealtime style, or the pattern of interactions between siblings. Later on when Neal did attempt to make stuff on his own, the pattern was right at hand. It felt comfortable, easy. Without having to try very hard, he knew how to be a nerd. So as Kevin Kelly notes, Neal continued the tradition in the faith that while his kids showed no outward enthusiasm for his weekend projects, and didn't pick up a tool to help, they were being trained and coached in a subterranean way.
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I personally think this was a positive thing for family life, and for connections with those people who should be mattering most. But
now I find it hard to resist checking my iPhone (formerly my Blackberry) during the dinner hour, or when I'm supposed to be playing
baseball with my kids in our backyard. My home wireless network makes that possible. Yet in the near-term, I won't need to configure
any kind of network. As you can gather 
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