Introduction
Imagine a world where it is possible to communicate instantaneously with someone thousands of miles away. Where people operate chat-rooms, have personalised addresses, so information can be routed more quickly. Where items can be purchased more quickly and cheaply and delivered to your door in a matter of days.
This sounds like the world of today, but in fact, describes America of the middle nineteenth and early twentieth century where the medium was Morse code and the telegraphic wire.
In his book The Victorian Internet the author, Thomas Standage describes this world of technological wonder, and shows that while new technology will always advance the world always adapts and complements this advance.
This is mirrored today, where new advances in wireless technology with more advanced and shrinking hardware size, are heralding a new era of communication where the by words will be total operability, anywhere, anytime, and any device.
English: Artone bluetooth loopset is a small wirel...
Handheld wireless radios such as this Maritime VHF...
Palm TXAs the hospitality industry continues to embrace new technology, from the way that rooms are distributed, to ordering goods by e-mail, to faster and more efficient table turnover, the industry is finally finding that the traditional methods and attitudes of hospitality management are changing as quickly as the technological advances that shape them. As organisations realise the value of good information and knowledge management, new technologies will begin to have an effect on what matters, the profit margin.
Over the last ten years we have seen the dawn of an increasingly networked and computerised world, and we can see that attitudes to new technologies have matured. New technology is not as daunting as it used to be, and with a more familiar and educated workforce, the future is bright.
Chapter 1
÷New Applications in the industry
In the hundred years or so since Marconi pioneered the first wireless technology, it...