The lowly mobile phone (remember when we all called them cellular phones?) is on the verge of transforming our society. Think back, way back, to 1994. Few had heard of the Internet and those who used it were almost all government or university employees and a sprinkling of early adopters using services such as Prodigy. But then along came Netscape, Yahoo, Google, and billions of web sites and the world was changed. Porn sites and on-line gambling are changes that many would be happy to do without, but the vast majority agree that the Internet has made the world a better informed, more tolerant, and smaller place.

But holding us back is the need to use a computer in order to properly access the Internet. I love the iPhone but let's not confuse the ability to see a web page properly on your mobile device with the ability to properly access the Internet. Few would trade their laptop or desktop computers for an iPhone if that was the only way they could get their work done. So what happens next? What happens when devices like the iPhone and the networks to which they connect actually become good enough that we prefer to access the Internet on our mobile devices? What happens when we can access virtually all of the information ever created by anyone with a device that slips into our pocket and is always with us?