Networks without a Net

I just posted this piece to TheFeature, about whether the most interesting wireless networks will be those that arise independently of the Internet altogether.

…Just as the Internet has fostered a sense of global connectivity for users pinned to their desktops, the wireless network — by coming along in one’s pocket — can enhance users’ connections to their immediate environments and temporary communities. After all, wireless users have left their homes and offices for a reason. Away from their desktops and, in many cases, laptops, they are in “nomadic mode”, not office or home mode.

Software developers must learn once again not to write software that adapts emerging technologies to their older brethren, but applications native to the environments these new devices create.