It's a future that will be determined by function and shaped by design. Fred Hapgood is a Boston-based technology writer. Add cell phones to the mix, and there was little reason someone on the road couldn't access the same information he could while in the office. Then companies began building intranets for critical applications. Mobile workers who are worried about being cast out of the information loop can relax.
Several tools make Internet access easy from the road.
AvantGo Inc., based in San Mateo, Calif., offers software products that allow PalmPilot and IBM WorkPad users to access Web-based information. Through partnerships with content providers including The New York Times, Wired News and Excite, mobile users create content channels on their handhelds with AvantGo Desktop software. Each channel represents a URL with hyperlinks to Web pages and can include intranet-based information. AvantGo Client software delivers Web-based information to the handheld device. For example, if Joe User creates a channel called Joe's Customer List, he can include customer names and addresses, with hyperlinks to information that's on the corporate intranet.