At a session on mobile content, at AIIM/info360 last week, consultant Larry Hawes from Dow Brook Advisory Services and Dan Levin COO at Box.net discussed the changing face of content in a mobile world. 

Hawes explained that consumer-level mobile devices have put mobility within reach of any company and that's changing how we view content. Instead of carrying around heavy binders with the repair manuals for each machine they service, for example, service technicians can now carry an iPad with all of the manuals on one thin device. It's searchable and if the technician has access to a wireless network, he or she can interact with other technicians to find answers to issues more quickly.

Levin added that he's a pilot and he carries his flight manual with him in the form of an iPad and he definitely doesn't have wireless access when he's flying his plane.

Several factors have brought mobility to the forefront of content. First of all the price has come down. As Hawes pointed out mobile devices have been around for years, but they have been costly and proprietary. With the iPad and other tablets, these devices are now within reach of most organizations and that means that sales people, technicians and others who have had to deal with paper or bulky laptops can now use a light-weight tablet and get the most updated content on a regular basis.

What's more as Levin pointed out, the software ecosystems that have developed around the tablets make it easy for an organization to create a custom application specifically for an individual company's use case without a huge investment.

Finally battery life on the iPad is up to 10 hours. That means you can carry it all day long without a recharge, and there aren't many laptops that can say that just yet.

For those with security concerns, Hawes says they are valid, and you should be careful about the types of content you store locally on your portable device, but that's really no different from security concerns around other portable storage devices and laptops for that matter. Any time you can walk off with your content, that's going to be a concern.

But the convenience of the tablet form factor and the ability to update content on a regular basis, and when available communicate directly with co-workers, makes it a very attractive option. As we move forward, look for companies to begin to address the security issues in more depth.

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