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Unwired, but Not Unplugged
1/19/2005
If only we could broadcast power like we do connectivity. Unfortunately, there is little doubt that broadcasting power would involve some serious personal and public health issues. Occasionally I head about some new developments in small fuel cell technology, but I don't follow it enough to know if two-day batteries for laptops are on their way or still a pipe dream. (I figure it's the latter.)
At my home right now, we are completely renovating the kitchen and dining room, which were added on to the core of the 1870 house in 1941 and 1964, respectively. Guess what, there were not enough plugs! But there will be. In the dining room alone, which is about fifteen feet by fifteen feet, there will be three sets of double power outlets along each wall, for a total of 24 outlets. That should be enough . . . I think.
Are we building more power outlets into buildings on campus? I am sitting here right now, as I write this, and kicking myself for not having looked around the Stata Center at MIT when I was there recently. I'd be greatly impressed if there were power outlets every few feet along the internal "Student Street" there.
I saw a statistic lately about our lives in the "built environment." World wide, it is estimated that by 2030 more than 50 percent of the buildings we live and work in will have been constructed since the year 2000 - http://www.scup.org/knowledge/scuplinks.html#462. I sure hope we're building in enough individual power access. But I would not be surprised to find out that we're not. If we are not, then we are making assumptions about power needs and supplies of the future that may or may not be right, and may even be implicit rather than explicit.
Anyway, if you see an older guy with white hair and a beard at the airport in Detroit this afternoon (or coming back in the New Orleans airport next Wednesday), probably wearing a tweed jacket, sitting on the ground near an outlet, with an extension cord, it might be me.
Just ask, and I will be very happy to pull out my power strip and share!
About the author: Terry Calhoun is Director of Communications and Publications for the Society
for College and University Planning (SCUP). You can contact him through CT's IT Trends forum by clicking here. View more articles by Terry Calhoun.
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