Exploring the impact of broadband and technology on our lives, our businesses, and our communities.
It's official: Computers drive us to drink (and smoking)
I had a hard time figuring out where to put this item...I finally stuck it under "Future Trends." A UK study shows IT problems are the leading cause of stress in England, with a third of respondents reporting that their number one stressor was the computer. Some of those surveys admitted too much stress drove them to drink and smoke more.
Technology News:
U.S. government converting to Open Source databases
The General Services Administration has signed a contract to use mySQL. The GSA manages bunches of government services and databases, and is only one of the latest Federal agencies to dump proprietary databases for the Open Source database system. The Department of Defense, NASA, the Census Bureau, and Los Alamos National Labs are among current users.
Open Source software protects users to a greater degree from product obsolesence and constant "mandatory" upgrades that typically involve big fees. MySQL AB will provide GSA with service and support of the database system, but the code itself is freely available. Using Open Source is not free; you still have to update and maintain the system, like any commercial product, but code upgrades and security patches are free and allows a company or organization to spend IT dollars differently, and provides more flexibility in decisionmaking.
Technology News:
The government is not Big Brother...
In yet another example that government is not usually the biggest threat to our privacy, a political blogger just bought the phone records of former presidential candidate Wesley Clark. For $90, the blogger got them from a company called Celltolls.com that has a business selling your phone records to anyone who wants them.
So while we are having a national dialogue about trying to track down a few terrorists using wiretaps and the purely theoretical assault on the privacy of U.S. citizens, meanwhile any snoop in your neighborhood can find out who you are talking to. Or the company you work for, an angry ex-spouse, or a co-worker with a grudge.
We certainly need to make sure the government follows rules that protect the privacy of U.S. citizens, but at least the government has some checks and balances in place and officials who violate the rules can get in serious trouble.
But meanwhile, the phone companies are selling our call information to anyone who wants it. And there are no checks and balances at all on this.
Both issues are important, and both require our attention and vigilance. But right now, I think the more serious threat is coming from private sector companies that take my money as a customer and then turn around and sell my privacy to anyone with a credit card.
Technology News:
Knowledge Democracy:
Communities with broadband prosper
One of the problems with community investments in broadband is the lack of data showing the value of such investments. Community leaders are somewhat wary of spending public money on unproven infrastructure. A new study from Carnegia Mellon and MIT shows that communities that have invested in broadband infrastructure are doing better from an economic development perspective than communities that have not.
The research team used extensive government data to analyze these investments and to develop the conclusions--this is not some casual vendor report.
Among the findings are these:
- Increases in employment growth of 1% annually over communities that have not invested in broadband. Over a period of several years, this is extremely significant.
- Property values increase, with rental rates (making rental properties more valuable) were 6% higher.
- A 1/2% higher annual growth rate in businesses; again, aggregated over several years, this is extremely significant.
- Within the IT/high tech business sector, a 1/2% higher annual growth rate in those businesses. Communities with broadband do, in fact, attract more high tech businesses.
In the summary section of the report, here is welcome news for community leaders that have been promoting the benefits of broadband:
"Policy makers who have been spending their time or money promoting broadband should take comfort that their efforts and investments are not in vain.....Broadband is clearly related to economic well-being and is thus a critical componenent of our national communications infrastructure."
In other words, broadband infrastructure investments by the community pay off, by creating jobs and attracting businesses. This is welcome verification, indeed.
Here is the whole article, as a PDF file.
Technology News:
It's now illegal to be annoying
In yet another vivid demonstration of why scissors and other sharp objects should be kept away from members of Congress, our esteemed lawmakers have passed a bill that *seems* to make being annoying illegal. A bill passed to protect women from sexual harrassment has language in it that was apparently added to address online harrassment as well (e.g. repeated unsolicited email). But according to this article, the language got watered down somewhere along the way and now seems to say just being annoying could be illegal.
Among Internet pundits, this is getting a lot of discussion this morning, and is likely to make a big splash in the mainstream press as well. There are conflicting opinions on the wording of the law, with some arguing that the statute is written narrowly enough not to be problematic. One issue being debated is just how one defines "annoying." I daresay many of us are annoyed whenever we get one of those happy talk emails from the CEO about "synergy" and "convergence of optimized customer relationships," but can we now have our boss arrested? Disclaimer: I'm a CEO, so perhaps I need to be worried.
Technology News:
Google will sell video content
Google has announced that it will get into the video business. This was not really a surprise to anyone; the company has been trialing its video service for several months.
The announcement confirms that getting our TV via the Internet is not just some fad--it's here to stay. But we're currently in the Betamax-VHS phase, where each company or consortium is using proprietary video formats that require specfic software on your computer and/or a particular portable video player. Apple's video won't play on anything but iPods, and video bought from Google won't play on, well, any portable player. Go figure. And Google apparently does not even have a Mac version of the player needed for video purchased from its store.
All these companies think they are going to somehow lock up marketshare with proprietary formats, encouraged, no doubt, by Apple's success at locking up something like 80% of the portable music/video player market. In the long term, these strategies retard growth of the market--people worry about not being able to watch or listen to something they bought. Eventually, I think even Apple will have to loosen up.
Technology News:
Search engines are leeches
Jakob Nielsen probably knows more about the psychology of the Web (how people use it) than anybody else in the world. So when he says, "Search engines are leeches," it is a good idea to pay close attention.
Nielsen has actually done the math to show how search engines like Google make more and more money at the expense of the businesses placing ads. In a detailed analysis, he even shows how redesigning your site to improve the user experience and to make the site easier to sell your products or services tends to make Google more money than you.
If you advertise on the search engines, read this article carefully. At the end of it, Nielsen provides some strategies for weaning your company/organization off search engines.
Technology News:
Has Skype won the VoIP wars?
Several business associates and I decided to try a Skype voice conference call the other day. I had not looked at the Mac Skype software since it was first announced; at that time, I was not impressed. The latest version has an excellent interface and features built in chat and file sharing.
Voice quality was superb--better than a Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) landline. The built in address book makes one click dialing dead simple.
But we had some glitches. One of the people trying to join the call discovered that his broadband access provider was blocking Skype--more on that in a moment. And about forty-five minutes into the call, I had trouble with my microphone input--it just stopped working, for no apparent reason. I had to call back to get it working again.
Despite the problems, I was impressed with the ease of use, the excellent design of the interface, and the terrific sound quality. There are still bugs to work out, and to be fair to Skype, I occasionally have the same sound input issue with iChat, Apple's voice/chat application. So it's not clear that that problem is even a Skype issue.
We're on the verge of an enormous change in the way we make voice calls, and the software and hardware is just about there--good enough that millions of businesses and individuals are using VoIP systems every day. But one glitch is the growing resistance of broadband providers to free and fee-based IP voice systems like Skype. From their perspective, companies like Skype use their bandwidth for free, and that's essentially correct.
Hence we have companies simply blocking Skype packets, rendering the service unusable on their networks. The Wall Street Journal reported last week (subscription required) that the major broadband providers, including BellSouth and SBC/AT&T, are beginning to consider charging content providers for network access. It's not just voice that is driving this; as more and more people download movies and television shows, the broadband providers have to deliver more and more network capacity, but have fixed price contracts with customers, meaning their costs go up as their customers use the network more, but their income stays the same.
The current cost/price structure for broadband is untenable, and we will see much confusion in the marketplace over the next several years as new price models emerge. But companies like PacketFront have already solved this problem by providing a comprehensive communitywide network operating system that is service-based, rather than bandwidth-based. In a service-based model, broadband connections would be free, and if you wanted a VoIP phone, you'd select from several different VoIP service providers that have contracts with the network operator (e.g. the community or private broadband provider). Part of the fee for VoIP service would go to the network operator to cover the cost of providing the network. This model is very similar to the way we build and manage roads, and that model has worked well for decades.
Technology News:
FAA working on space tourism rules
The FAA continues to develop rules for space tourism, with a final set of recommendations expected in July. Virgin Galactic expects to begin regular commercial space flights in less than four years, and the FAA is trying to establish ground rules to safely manage commercial space flights. Requirements are expected to be similar to the rules set for terrestial airlines, and the the FAA will probably not try to regulate health issues--leaving that for passengers to decide for themselves if they are fit enough for launch, weightlessness, and re-entry.
Technology News:
Nuclear power warms up
This report says that Europe is starting to invest again in nuclear power [link no longer available]. Like the U.S., most of Europe stopped building nuclear power plants after the 1970s Three Mile Island disaster.
If you look strictly at deaths directly attributable to nuclear power and compare them to deaths from coal power, coal loses every time. There are mining disasters regularly, with the latest tragedy right here in Appalachia.
Nuclear's biggest problem was that during the sixties and seventies, every nuclear power plant designed was a one-off...that is, a custom design. It's like building cars by hand--expensive and increases the risk of problems. What we need is just one or two standard nuclear power plant designs that are well understood. Training and safety systems would be standardized, it would much easier to evaluate and test components, and the cost of off the shelf power plants would be much lower.
Nuclear power plants have virtually no emissions, do not generate acid rain or carbon dioxide, and don't require transporting large amounts of fuel (coal, oil, natural gas) across great distances. France generates 80% of its electricity from nuclear power, and has done so safely for more than twenty years. The U.S. needs to take another look at nuclear.
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