Wireless Education

In the 21st century, a person who comes to a class, seminar or meeting without a computer is bringing only half a person.

You do not have to look any farther than Microsoft's May 1999 decision to take its campus wireless to see why. (N.B. our campus is now also networked wirelessly in many locations, with more added continually.) This article describes Microsoft's experience:

Highlights of the article:

A survey of pilot users at the conclusion of the pilot project found:

* Usage models: 90 percent used their wireless notebooks for email, 15 percent for enterprise applications, and a substantial portion for Web access.

* Productivity gains: 50 percent saved one to one and a half hours per day due to the WLAN connection.

* Increased flexibility: 24 percent used the WLAN for more than six hours per day, and 93 percent used their laptops in new locations.

This information was central to providing Microsoft IT with a proof of concept and a way to concretely measure its benefits. At the conclusion of the pilot program, the WLAN was rolled out throughout Microsoft's corporate campuses in 70 buildings in Redmond and 23 international locations.

Significant Productivity Gains

A key objective for the WLAN was to provide the workforce with enhanced productivity. With wireless laptops, people can send or respond to email, retrieve or share documents, and take notes in any location on a Microsoft campus, including a conference room, seminar hall, lunch room, hallway, lounge, colleague's office, even a courtyard.

At the University of Kentucky, scientists check the relevant literature during seminars, retrieve an author's papers, examine patents, and even perform calculations on data presented. Notes taken on a computer actually get transcribed into a useful form in a timely fashion, and posted on Blackboard for other students. Collaborations based on the seminars or discussions can be set up immediately via email before they hit the bottleneck of someone's desk, and students can be reminded of important references that they might have missed.

A team manager in beta technical support at Microsoft said, "With my wireless laptop, I'm 10 to 15 percent more productive than before. I save about five hours per week." Some of these savings result from the ability to be productive during otherwise dead time, such as when waiting for a meeting to begin. For a global help desk business manager, wireless connectivity helps him get out of the office at a reasonable hour. "Our WLAN lets us take care of urgent issues during meetings, so conversations don't get bottlenecked at someone's desk."

Lessons Learned

- A WLAN can be effectively installed in a large-scale organization with tens of thousands of users, like the environment at U.K.

- Deployment of a pilot program ensures the success of full-scale implementation by providing proof of concept and a way to measure value. (We are that pilot program here.)

- Tremendous, measurable productivity gains result from giving office workers wireless laptop connectivity.

- Today's security measures — including 802.1X standards and certificate-based authentication — offer proven protection against intruders and interference.

- The costs of installing a WLAN can be quickly offset by the productivity gains it provides.

- To take full advantage of a WLAN, wireless laptops should be outfitted with maximum processing power and long battery life.

UK is spending a lot of money to make our campus wireless like Microsoft and other campuses. Let's make that investment pay off, and teach others how they can do it, too.

For more information, read Bill Gates on Wireless