It's time to think about tomorrow.

Don't bother commenting on what happened yesterday with wireless technology, a telecommunications veteran advised the editorial writers assembled at the Space Needle.

Because tomorrow is all that really matters.

Steve Hooper, managing partner and founder of Ignition, a venture company that is helping propel the wireless Internet, opened a lunchtime address midway up the Needle by quoting Edward R. Murrow: "A reporter is always concerned with tomorrow. There's nothing tangible of yesterday."

That is especially true of the exploding business of wireless technology, and the rapid convergence of the personal computer, the Internet, and wireless devices, said Hooper, a former top executive at Teledesic, AT&T Wireless Services, and McCaw Cellular Communications.

Wireless is a wave rolling quickly across the world. In August, the United States marked its 100 millionth cellular user, Hooper said. But wireless is moving even faster in other countries, such as Finland, Sweden, Italy, and Japan. By 2004, Hooper predicted, there will be 1.1 billion wireless devices in use, and half will be Internet-ready devices.

So what is coming tomorrow? Hooper's forecasts include:

* "Unprecedented mobility of information." The power of the personal computer, the reach and breadth of the Internet and phone service, and the orderly convenience of a Palm Pilot all will be packed into one small wireless device. "We really believe that wireless technology will change the world as we know it today," Hooper said.

* Huge new opportunities for the world's most creative technology companies. Hooper predicted that a new global wireless company eventually will emerge, a company bigger and more powerful than Microsoft or Intel is today.

* Exciting new freedom to access a vast array of information wherever one wants, whenever one wants.

* Deeply troubling privacy concerns, including the likelihood that many more people and companies may know what you do, where you shop, what you buy, even where you are at any given moment of time.

Public discussion needed

Newspapers and editorial writers should weigh in on these unfolding issues concerning wireless technology, Hooper said. Many of the questions surrounding the future of wireless technology, such as the balance between freedom and invasion of privacy, will be resolved only through much public discussion and political negotiation.

"You in this room will play a key role in shaping the answers," Hooper told the editorial writers.

In response to a question about how people in the wireless future will get their news, Hooper predicted that printed papers will "stay around for along, long time." But the most successful publications will find new and innovative ways to get their content to customers in wireless forms.

And that's something else to think about tomorrow.

NCEW member Rick Attig is associate editor of The Oregonian in Portland.