Wiring Homes for the Future
Wiring your home doesn't just mean electricity, phone jacks and a cable connection anymore. Homes being wired for the future integrate high speed Internet access with video and voice communications...and even security. IBM thinks this will get so big...it has created a spin-off company....Home Director.... headed by Mary Walker...
"Our mission is to integrate all of these different technologies together so that the consumer can have all the promise of the Internet age without having the hassle of trying to be a LAN administrator in their house."
Home Director is working with home builders and contractors...
"Because this really is a professionally installed environment. This year, though, we will be expanding into retrofit homes, again, using our professional install channel, but you can expect that we will have other ways that the consumer can buy the product."
And the wired home will include wireless connections too. Allowing handheld or notebook computers to communicate with the PC in your home office...
"What we're doing is we're now combining wireless capability...things that are detached with things that are attached...and no one else is really doing that today."
Pricing for systems for new homes can start at about five hundred dollars. You can find more information at ibm.com/homedirector.