A workshop to discuss and try to foresee the future of wireless. It can be argued, wireless/mobile is the new "last mile" of computing. As more applications move to the web, software and media are moving to a model of cloud computing. At the same time, better devices and faster, more affordable wireless networks, are making it possible to stay connected almost anywhere.

Together these trends should ultimately, and fundamentally change the tools we use to live, work, play, govern and more. However, how will this future play out?

In particular, what role might "open" models play into our expected -or- ideal vision of the future? (which may or may not be the same thing).

To begin, we'll try do develop a working definitions including

What is Open?
What do we define as "wireless"?
Who's future are we talking about?

There are a lot of players (eg. mobile operators, consumers, media creators, software giants, entrepreneurs, policy makers, NGOs etc.) in or affected by the wireless industry. We'll pick a few of interesting ones and delve into their rolls and agendas when it comes to the future of wireless, openness, infrastructure.

Finally, how does our perspective change if we are in Europe, in North America or in Africa?

This workshop is intended to tie together some big themes but very Lift themes: technology, people and the future. It's hoped that, by gathering some of the great big brains that come to Lift to talk about Openness and the future of Wireless, the ideas that come out of this workshop will go on to be talked about, blogged about, even implemented.

If you are interested in the future of wireless come Learn, contribute, takeaway some ideas you can use.

This workshop will be facilitated by Thomas Purves. Tom is a Canadian entrepreneur, three-time Lifter, and the independent Canadian wireless blog WirelessNorth.ca