Free the geeks! Or moving the web out of our homes and into the world.

Imagine a World Wide Web that you access everywhere, all the time, without ever sitting behind a computer.   

I think that's the future, but in order for it to happen, we need a new paradigm regarding the Internet.

Excepting a few, limited mobile Internet technologies, the web is still something we primarily access from our homes and offices, sitting in front of computer screens. 

The future, as I imagine it, would be a person walking down the street, accessing information about everything around them, without looking at a screen or typing into a keyboard.

Here's how I think we can achieve that with technologies that exist or are emerging today:

1. Centralized computing or cloud computing.  

The device offering connectivity would not need massive processing power or storage space; it would simply be a means of accessing on-line storage and processors.  

2. A head's up display that integrates information into the world around the user.  And if you think glasses are dorky, perhaps you'd prefer the contacts version.

3. Hands-free computing.  There are a number of solutions currently available.  Voice recognition seems like an obvious choice, but would be inconvenient in public or noisy environments.  I anticipate direct brain control over our electronic devices, and probably sooner than we think.  UC Irvine scientists are currently working to develop a noninvasive brain to brain communications system.  Carnegie-Mellon scientists can distinguish the thought pattern for a hammer from the thought pattern for pliers.

The idea that computers sit on a desk in a study will seem as ridiculous as the early computers that took up several rooms in a building.  We just need to start thinking outside the office to get there.

One day the phrase "web-surfing" will only be used to describe people who are literally surfing and accessing the Internet at the same time.

-Robot Crusoe