Of what value is wireless technology now that colleges have already installed ubiquitous networking?

Admittedly, wireless technology would have been much more useful had it emerged before colleges spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to cable every office, classroom, and residence hall. Nevertheless, there remain several niche roles for wireless network devices on the typical college campus.

• Classrooms and auditoria: While every classroom has a single data jack for instructor presentations, few possess data ports for each member of the class. Furthermore, existing room furniture make it impractical to place a cabled data port at each seat, particularly for classrooms where the seating is rearranged from class to class. Wireless would be far more convenient for the students and less expensive than attempts to recable every room.
  
  
• Outdoor activities: Student culture has long cherished the tradition of studying on the lawns on warm spring days. Wireless networking is the only feasible method to support such connections.
  
  
• Museum displays: In planning the spaces within the new Tang museum, considerable time was spent devising a cabling infrastructure that enabled high-tech exhibits while keeping the data ports invisible during more traditional exhibits. Wireless networking offers a much more practical approach to such spaces.
  
  
• Laboratories and studios: Many science labs and art studios are harsh envrironments for computer technologies. The presense of strong chemicals along with wet surfaces introduce a range of safety concerns when stringing cable lines. Wireless networks permit computer usage with far fewer safety hazards when students are working in such environments.

The Java Initiator technology (Jini) will be an important enhancement because it offers the potential for wireless computer devices to configure themselves automatically to take advantage of the equipment contained within each classroom or laboratory.

Why wireless will not replace the cabled campus.