Wi-Fi Changes Virtually Everything

"Wi-Fi is taking off fast. More than 64 million Wi-Fi systems are expected to be sold this year, up from 24 million in 2002, says researcher IDC.

Already, Internet companies such as ESPN.com are tailoring features to customers with Wi-Fi. In September, ESPN.com launched a host of features. Among them: live chats with sports experts, more video clips of big plays and tools to help fantasy football fans track their teams.

It's a big change from ESPN.com's initial design, based on targeted users who watched the game in the living room and dashed to an office PC to check scores or stats. ESPN launched the redesign after focus groups said they were using Wi-Fi to take the site into the living room....

Entertainment portal Yahoo TV caters to Wi-Fi users, too. Customers are starting to use a Wi-Fi-equipped laptop while watching TV for interactive viewing, says Director Doug Hirsch. When a big show is on, traffic on the Yahoo site jumps, he says....

Wi-Fi fans say they'll never go back. 'I'm addicted to it,' John Furrier says. 'I can't imagine life without it.' " [USA Today, thanks to Steven!]

Today at SLS we held a Tech Summit at which I presented "How to Use RSS to Know More and Do Less," and it went very well. The participants were very enthusiastic, and we were able to go in the training room for half the session so that they could play with Bloglines, which really the light bulbs go on much faster. And I am happy to report that I did see lots of light bulbs! For those who are interested, you can view the presentation online as a PDF.

Also, Tuesday's presentation to the academic librarians about blogging is now available online (again, it's a PDF file).