I visited the Microsoft Life Squared 'environment' (Life2) this afternoon (I can't do a mathematical 2 representing 'squared' on here so please accept the number instead). It's a little virtual village in the depths of Fulham/Chelsea that's kitted out as the future in terms of technology. And prety impressive it is until you stand back and think.
We had a nice tour of the site, based around an old Victorian school due to be demolished in the next few weeks, looking at technology injected into a small business (Marsh Marine), linked to the school, the home and remote working. They were lovely people one and all, obviously chosen carefully to represent MS. I liked it, it made me think, it made me question what I was doing in terms of work (focusing on ICT in schools).
But with reflection it makes me wonder, 'so what?'. Ok, so there's a thin client computer in every room (or several in every room) all linked up to a wireless broadband connection; you can watch DVDs anywhere in the house, communicate with anyone in the 'village', download music anywhere and watch TV on a range of platforms. And? So? This is now, not the future - it's just not necessarily a 'now' we recognise.
All of this technology is already available, just not necessarily configured in that way with that kind of connection. Is it looking to the future or to what is already possible with a bit of thought? I suppose the latter really. It was certainly thought-provoking but I'm not sure it took us anywhere. Other than to illustrate the future of the so-called "digital divide". I need to mull it over.
The future is fine in small packages.
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