<p>With wireless hotspots in cafes and bookstores, cell phones that browse the Web and eBooks that download bestsellers with the touch of a button at our disposal, we may think that we are living in a wireless world already. In Web on-the-Go, though, Bala Sankar argues that we could be doing so much more with wireless technology. Extrapolating into the near future based on current inventions and infrastructure, Sankar portrays a time in which wireless is fully integrated into everyone's lives for the good of all.</p> <p>A resident of Palo Alto, California, author Sankar has a background in developing software for the major corporations of Silicon Valley, including Google. His book is the result of collaboration among industry experts and a creative team.</p> <p>Sankar begins Web on-the-Go with an extensive introduction to the philosophical and historical basis of his ideas. He extols the virtue of innovation, or visionary creative thinking, blaming our current recession on a lack of innovation, rather than financial straits. While this point is highly debatable, Sankar is on firmer ground when he describes leaps forward in technology propelled by innovators such as da Vinci and Arthur Clarke, the conceptualizer of transistor radios.</p> <p>The bulk of Web on-the-Go details scenarios in which a thoroughly wireless world could be useful. In one chapter, a family lost in the wilderness is found with the help of a wireless broadcast of their last known position. In another chapter, a business owner tracks containers of goods from China through embedded wireless transmitters that communicate their location. Each example stretches the possibilities of current technology to their plausible limits, arguing that improved wireless technology at all levels of society would benefit everyone.</p> <p>Web on-the-Go is clearly written, and its simple style is accessible even to a non-technical audience. Some of the scenarios read like fictional scenes. The engaging presentation of the material may inspire some readers to the type of innovation that Sankar glorifies.</p> <p>Unfortunately, the book tends to defeat itself. Its proposed scenarios are so similar to our current conditions that it is easy to gloss over them or to say, "So what?" The sketchy illustrations add nothing to the book, either. Finally, Web on-the-Go in its dead-tree format, as opposed to an eBook, blog posts, or a Webinar, does not take advantage of the technology praised so highly in the book, thus undermining the concept of wireless as a progressive panacea. This timely book would thrive better as a message delivered by digital or Web means.</p> <p>Reviewed by: Elizabeth A. Allen </p> <p>source: http://www.amazon.com/Web-Go-Preview-Living-Wireless/product-reviews/098249081X/</p>

<p>I work for a major university, specifically in their fundraising departments and one of the things that we keep hearing more and more about is social media and how to maximize on the whole web "thing". This is one of the reasons I wanted to read Web On-The-Go: A Previews of the Way of Living in a Wireless Web World.</p> <p>Author Bala Sankar starts his book off by giving us some history into how technology came to be (there is even a section with Leonardo Da Vinci! He segways into how human beings have developed a "love" and sometimes "hate" relationship with technology, but his main point is strongly heard throughout the book - technology is advancing at an incredible speed and we need to be able to keep up and to understand just what is possible right now and what is coming.</p> <p>This book is very complete and will be a dream book for all you techno addicts out there. Absolutely every aspect of the world of technology is covered - including things like "why cells don't work in the forest darn it - and how come they haven't gotten to that point in technology yet" (this was a favorite of mine as this has happened to me!!!).</p> <p>This book is definitely a book on gadgets, the web present and future and while I thought it might have been dry (full of facts), the author did a surprisingly good job of detailing the subject matter in an everday, fun, conversation type of voice. I especially like it when stories were included.</p> <p>This is an interesting read and frankly a bit of a scary one as I keep asking myself what on earth else our little brains can think of to develop! </p>