Wi-Fi in a baseball park? When the San Francisco Giants announced in April that they were offering free Wi-Fi at SBC Park, I was plenty skeptical myself. Who in their right mind is going to lug their laptop to the ballpark and actually take it out and start Web surfing?

But this isn't about laptops. We've got PDAs that support Wi-Fi and we're less than a year from two to three commercial cell phones that support Wi-Fi. Now that's a whole different ball game (sorry, I could't help it).

What I most enjoy about watching the evolution of Wi-Fi are all those creative applications that people use their networks for. Wi-Fi is known for providing Internet access, but that's just the beginning. Because Wi-Fi is standardized, because the gear is dirt cheap and because millions of people are buying Wi-Fi enabled devices, we're going to see a lot of creative applications take hold.

For starters, the Giants have launched the Digital Dugout.

Digital Dugout is a Web site that offers:

� Highlight Videos
� Real-time MLB.com Stats
� Interactive Games
� SBC Park and Local Information

Everything is free right now, but I expect that to change. I can see services customized by seat section and eventually seat holder. Wi-Fi will allow the ballpark to create truly personalized services.