Remembering Dewayne Hendricks – Doc Searls Weblog
Thank Dewayne Hendricks for Wi-Fi. Hell, thank him for what Bob Frankston calls ambient connectivity: the kind you just … assume. Like you are now, connected to the Internet without wires.
That item was my biggest take-away from the 3+ hour memorial zoom we had yesterday for Dewayne, who died of cancer in September. I took a lot of notes on the call, which featured many people who knew Dewayne far better than I did (mostly through fun and informative hang times at conferences and other gatherings). One that stands out is what a former FCC official said (this isn’t verbatim, but close enough):
He was early-early at the FCC, in terms of wireless data and wi-fi evangelizing. And he was the glue that held us all together. He’d come in and say things like “it could be,” and then make things happen. He knew how to hack whatever it took. This was when 2.4 gHz (where Wi-Fi first got used) was called a “junk band,” because it was license-exempt. Microwave ovens were there. Industrial stuff. Dewayne’s approach was,”Let us try this. Play with it.” By demonstrating what would work, his influence was enormously important.
Dewayne also did a lot of what academics call field work: in Tonga, tribal lands in New Mexico, the Dakotas, Montana. Places in Asia.ย Anywhere wireless was the only way to address extreme connectivity challenges. A huge sci-fi fan, he was always “a step beyond,” as one friend put it. I can’t think of anyone more grounded equally in the future and the present, the far-out and the right-here, the possible future and the impossible presentโand seeing paths between those extremes.
