The culture has shifted

In 2003, I speculated that wireless LAN technology could at some point become the preferred option for connecting to networks - that we would see wireless trump wired connections in many cases. In 2009, it looks like we're seeing that starting to happen.

Six years ago, there were deep concerns about bandwidth constraints and security and interference.

Then, a year and a half ago, Burton Group Senior Analyst Paul DeBeasi wrote a report called "The End of Ethernet," which said that wireless technologies would win out. The bandwidth constraints aren't so bad with 802.11n, he argued, and the other concerns lose out to the killer app: mobility.

With every day that passes, we become more used to our mobile phones, mobile gadgets and mobile computers. Children have never known a world without mobility, and the concept of being tethered to a specific location and a specific Ethernet cable has to be foreign to them.

This is what Apple was picking up on when it released the MacBook Air laptop computer without an Ethernet port, though it was criticized for that. Perhaps it was just a bit ahead of its time.

Last week, Network World's John Cox reported that organizations are finding more of their wired Ethernet ports unused. It's not just because of layoffs, either. Cox reports that there is a "pretty significant change in culture" afoot, and it's probably most felt in colleges and universities. Many of those organizations paid some serious coin to wire their buildings for the 21st century, only to find out that the 21st century doesn't need wires.

Jeff Caruso is site editor at Network World.