Where In The Wired World Is?

Colleges and universities have often been the testbeds for new technologies. When I returned to college in the early 1990s to finish my degree, I had the good fortune to use an early version of the World Wide Web in the form of newsgroups, email, and a few limited file transfer services. (I didn’t use the actual Internet until late 1995, when I was documenting the software behind one of the first search engines on the Internet.)

It should come as no surprise, then, that several universities, including the University of Windsor (Ontario, Canada, across the river from Detroit) and RSU (Rogers State University in Oklahoma) are or have setup Wi-Fi networks spanning their respective campuses. These are just two schools that I’ve come across; there are probably many more.

No doubt networking and communications vendors would wet themselves to be part of such case studies. So here’s a suggestion to said vendors: pick a school local to your headquarters where there either is no Wi-Fi network, or the network is limited. You can even use a college for a testbed for RFID-based contactless or touchless payment systems. Each and every campus has some sort of food court, coffee shops, or at least vending machines. (As much as I despise the idea that digital money might entirely replace paper and coins, virtual cash will still be used no matter what I say. So I encourage the wise, anonymous use of it.)

Give students an incentive to use digital money, such as points or cashback - or discounts on their textbooks. If the young minds of today do not like the technologies in question, or their implementation, then survey them. Ask them how things could be improved.

Now this is a tall order, but I suggest that you do all the network setup at no cost to the university or students. If you throw in workshops and seminars in Wi-Fi and/or RFID technologies as well, you might just get some students interested, and they might just become your company’s future bright minds. You’ll also gain a ton of case study data, the analysis of which will no doubt be invaluable.

These suggestions may or may not be original. So if anyone is already participating in such case studies and cares to share their experiences, please do so.

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