Ever since College president John G. Kemeny and Professor Tom Kurtzas invented the BASIC programming language in 1963, Dartmouth College has been known worldwide as a technological innovator. From developing its own e-mail standard to deploying wireless across campus, Dartmouth has been on the leading edge for over 40 years.
Dartmouth's wireless network, which now runs on 584 access points and covers roughly a square mile, plays a central role in students' daily lives. With the wireless network blanketing campus, laptop users can access the Internet and check their BlitzMail from virtually anywhere on campus.
In October 2002, Wired Magazine even dubbed the College "Unplugged U." for its widespread use of wireless technology.
Today, the College's nearly ubiquitous access points use the 802.11b network standard. In the fall of 2002, 88 percent of the Class of 2006 chose laptop instead of desktop computers, an example of the growing appeal of wireless. Indeed, in a testament to students' increasing W-Fi usage, 98 percent of the Class of 2007 opted for laptops over desktops.
New applications for the network are under constant development. In the fall of 2003, the College introduced softphones, which make use of voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) software to allow wireless users to make phone calls on their laptops with a headset. Because Dartmouth is one of the first fully wireless campuses, it is a testing ground for undergraduates, graduates and faculty members doing research related to wireless technology and security.
Future plans for the College's wireless network are ambitious but still tentative. According to Dartmouth's Director for Telecommunications and Network Services Bob Johnson, the College hopes to more than double its access points, bringing the tally from 584 to 1400, as well as improve network security and increase bandwidth.
When the College completed its wired network upgrade in the spring of 2003, it laid the groundwork for convergence -- Cable TV, voice and data traveling over one line. Dartmouth recently rolled a pilot of DarTV -- a service that delivers television over Dartmouth's data network -- which broadcasts 40 channels to wired users.
While other universities typically wait until a technology proves itself, Dartmouth has been a consistent early adopter of new technology. In 1985, before modern e-mail protocols had even been developed, Dartmouth community members -- many of them undergraduates -- developed their own form of e-mail, called BlitzMail. The system, created before the term "e-mail" came into usage, has stood the test of time.
It was adopted quickly by technical and non-technical users alike for its simplicity and continues to function as the College's primary form of communication. Students and professors exchange instantaneous e-mails over the system and often choose to utilize Blitz instead of phones. Not even its inventors could have foreseen that the program would remain in use, 16 years after its inception.
Developed by Kemeny and Kurtzas, the BASIC programming language on which BlitzMail is based quickly became one of the most widely-used general-purpose computer languages. Derivative languages are still in use today.
