Using the Web While Offline

Abstract

Whilst access to the internet is becoming increasingly ubiquitous in highly populated, urban areas, for much of the planet web connectively is still largely absent. This is mainly due to geographic remoteness, but bad connectivity or governmental controls might also prevent web users from accessing desired resources. The authors have previously outlined a general approach to cope with such situations, which they termed “Web in your Pocket” (WiPo). WiPo assumes that the user has a smart device to which appropriate data, ideally in curated form, can be pre-loaded so that it remains accessible offline. In this chapter, the authors present the potential usability of WiPo by considering three important use-cases (tourism, health, and search and rescue) demonstrating the vast potential of WiPo. The chapter concludes by considering the practical issues that need to be overcome before it might be implemented in real-world situations.