In The Same Room, But Apart

It's possible that the next frontier for social technology is to connect people locally, rather than across continents. When I work at home and my wife is in an adjacent bedroom/office, it's easier for us to use IM and email that goes out to servers from Memphis to Mongolia, than to use our own little network. Laptop users in public places can't readily recognize each other in cyberspace, not even through cell phones. Bluetooth has some limited capability, but it has a short range.

The problem is everywhere. If I see somebody with a cell phone and want to talk to them, I can't look up the number or ping them, even from just yards away. I have lots of occasion to be with people in short bursts of time, such as conferences, classes, professional group meetings, and the like. These are people I see rarely, but may desperately need to contact with questions or to have them render quick decisions. I may not even know them by sight, or by full name. For example, I'm a member of the local UPA, and we put on a yearly conference for World Usability Day. It attracts speakers I don't know, members I haven't seen in a long time, sponsors, attendees, and many others I might not be expected to pick out in a crowd. Another organizer comes up to me and asks "Does Dr. Willoughby (a speaker I haven't met) still need this wireless mouse?" Beats me, and I can't just ping him to find out. What would help is to have a short-distance option in my cell phone that would operate much as my laptop does when it enters a wireless field. My laptop seeks out whatever signal it knows, and if it doesn't find one it knows, it tells me that. Otherwise, it just logs on. I'd like to see something similar in cell phones. I could haul out my phone and open a screen that lists the profiles of everyone within, say, 100 yards. You could hide your profile if you wanted, so the phone would show only "Hidden Account". But prominent people who speak at conferences usually want to be noticed, so I would scroll down until I found "Dr. Lance Willoughby", highlight him, and press the "Go" button. I'm connected to his phone.