Exploring the impact of broadband and technology on our lives, our businesses, and our communities.
Creating "old" neighborhoods
The Washington Post has an interesting article that I think is a must read for rural communities. It is about a rapidly growing trend away from the typical "sprawl" subdivision and towards denser neighborhoods that include low rise and mid rise condos carefully mixed with downtown amenities like stores, libraries, restaurants, and other pedestrian (i.e. cars not needed to get around) destinations.
Sound vaguely familiar? These new developments are a lot like the old small town neighborhoods that surrounded and spread out from the Main Street shopping district.
Rural communities that want to attract entrepreneurs and families should be looking very carefully at zoning and land use issues to ensure that local builders and real estate developers are designing new neighborhoods and rehabbing old ones in ways that will meet the expectations of people moving from urban areas. And don't forget to include telecom duct under the streets and to every home.
Telecom is the not the big challenge for small towns and rural communities. It is land use issues. If you get your land use issues in order, and land use includes telecom right of way management, prosperity will follow. But if towns and rural counties continue to build low density sprawl that eats up farmland and forests, they will be behind the curve, and the communities will be less attractive to the people that want to move to small towns.
Why is this happening? One trend is baby boomer empty nesters. As the kids have grown up and moved out, baby boomer couples don't want to live in a faceless suburb where you have to drive miles to get a cup of coffee or go to the library. These affluent couples want to live closer to the action, closer to other people, and closer to amenities.
Is your town ready? If not, are you planning to get ready?
Technology News:
American companies supress freedom
There is something both wierdly ironic and deeply depressing when American companies happily work with repressive regimes like China and now Myanmar, selling them Internet hardware and software for the express purpose of suppressing free speech (hat tip to Instapundit)
This report in the NY Times covers a deal between Myanmar (Burma) and Fortinet. Fortinet products are used by the Myanmar regime to block all sorts of topics related to freedom and democracy.
American companies have flourished precisely because this country has always supported free enterprise and free speech. To then build a business based on repressing those bedrock principles that led to the success of your company is wrong. The stockholders should be outraged, and the managers of the firm apparently have no principles at all.
Technology News:
Community news and projects:
Privacy and the double meat pizza
The notion of a national ID number is being considered for a variety of reasons: the Social Security number was never intended as a national ID number, but is used that way, the illegal immigration crisis is due in part to the difficulty of identifying valid U.S. citizens, and law enforcement, insurance agencies, and health care providers all like the idea of having a better way to keep tabs on people.
Meanwhile, we have Google and the credit card companies tracking and aggregating information on everything we do.
For an idea of how this might all work in the future, check out this funny but frightening demonstration.
Technology News:
Knowledge Democracy:
15 megabit mobile VoIP in Japan
Japan has announced a plan to roll out mobile Voice over IP services nationwide in less than two years, leaving the U.S. in dust. The new system will handle data speeds of 15 megabits/second, or 15-25 times faster than typical wired DSL and cable servie in the United States and nearly a thousand times faster than typical 3G cellphone data services.
Why are so many other countries so far ahead of the United States, and why are our local leaders so willing to let their communities languish without competitive technology?
Technology News:
Community news and projects:
Rural Telecon: Fiber should be free
The Rural Telecommunications Congress 9th Annual Meeting is over, but I'm still catching up on presentations. Matt Wenger of PacketFront, a company that specializes in the network hardware and software needed to manage communitywide networks, presented an interesting model for promoting innovation and paying for the network.
Wenger did not say "fiber should be free" in precisely those words, but that is what I took away from his remarks. Wenger argued that it is services that people are interested in--VoIP, video on demand, security, network backups, etc.--and that a connection-based business model (what everyone uses now) actually penalizes both users and service providers.
In a connection-based model, where you pay for a connection of a certain amount of bandwidth (e.g. a T1), if you use services that require a lot of bandwidth, you have to pay more, both on the service provider side and the customer side. So success in marketing your services, or using lots of broadband services, is discouraged.
Wenger pointed out that it is particularly bad for service providers; if they successfully sell lots of services, their costs go up, unlike practically any other business on the planet, where costs typically decrease as business volume increases.
Wenger insists that the way a communitywide broadband network should work is to charge a small fee (e.g. 5%) on the revenue of service providers. In other words, customers and service providers can connect to the network for free, but fees paid to the community network manager increase based on demand, rather than on bandwidth.
Sound crazy? It might be, except PacketFront already has it working in a community in Sweden, where more than 60 service providers are selling services over a community broadband network, and doing so successfully.
Technology News:
Does Palm have a winner?
Palm has announced the new Palm TX, yet another version of its venerable PDA. Over the years, Palm has struggled as the company failed to update its software, released too many overlapping models with a confusing mix of features, split the company into two different hardware and software firms, and then pulled them back together.
Along the way, it became clear that PDAs are a niche market; people that have them love them, or they end up in a drawer. Apple has steadfastly refused to market a PDA since Steve Jobs killed the Newton, the grandfather of all PDAs.
But Palm just might have a winner with the TX; it has WiFi built in, and comes with email and a Web browser, just like the Newton had almost ten years ago. You have to wonder what took Palm so long, and therein sort of shows the problems the company has had.
A PDA that can grab your email and can be used for casual Web browsing can replace a laptop in a lot of situations, and you might ask, "What about a Blackberry?" and other multifunction phones?
The problem I have with them are the tiny screens. Even the popular Blackberry has a small screen compared to the new Palm TX, which is big enough--you can't really say that about any phone, in my opinion. It can also handle relatively large attachments--up to 5 meg, unlike a lot of other small handhelds, which has been a longstanding issue.
Technology News:
The Day TV Died, Part II
Another nail was hammered in the coffin of analog TV yesterday with Apple's one-two hammer slam. The company rolled out a new version of the full size iPod that stores and plays video. They also rolled out a new version of iTunes (works on Windows and Macs) that allows you to store video on your Mac or Windows computer just the way you store music.
The online iTunes music store also has video for sale, and the selection includes music videos (predictable) and full length television shows. A deal with ABC Studios has several selections, including the hugely popular Lost. You will be able to download and watch these ABC shows the day after they air on broadcast TV.
But wait! There's more!
Apple also rolled out a new version of the popular all in one iMac computer. Sleeker and thinner than the old model, the new version has a video camera built into the case (for videoconferencing), and a remote control so that you can sit on the other side of the room and control your TV--oops, I mean iTunes--which will play video full screen on the iMac.
So we now know who won the "Is the TV a computer or is the computer a TV?" war. It was the computer. Apple has offered a seamless, end to end video experience--one click downloads of your favorite TV show while you sit on the couch, and one more click to play them full screen on your computer.
What's missing? No cable TV or satellite TV connection is required.
What's needed? A good broadband connection.
What's needed when everyone watches TV this way? Fiber to the home, because current DSL and cable systems can't handle the load.
Communities that don't have a technology master plan to get a fiber roadway installed that is free and open to all content providers will be left behind. Are you trying to attract entrepreneurs and high tech companies to your community? Do think they want to live in a town where they can't watch TV via broadband?
The short answer is, "No, no, and double no."
There is an interesting postscript to this "TV or the computer" issue. Microsoft bet a billion or more dollars that the TV would win this battle. It was a lot of money to find out no one wanted to surf the Web on a television. Their WebTV product is long forgotten.
Technology News:
Rural Telecon: Breakfast Keynote (Tuesday)
Hilda Gay Legg gave the morning keynote address at the RTC conference today. Until very recently, Legg was the Federal Co-Chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission. She has had extensive experience working with rural communities and as a sociologist, really understands rural America. She had a lot of interesting comments:
- Greenfield projects in urban and suburban areas are getting fully wired with fiber to the home. Why are builders and developers in rural communities doing the same, and why aren't local leaders stepping up to make sure that happens?
- Loma Linda, California, requires builders to install structured wiring and fiber to the premises on all new construction. Why aren't rural communities doing the same?
- An MIT study (data covers 1998 to 2001) showed that communities with affordable broadband were growing 20% faster than communities that can't offer affordable broadband.
- Do rural leaders really understand how important broadband is the future of rural communities? Why aren't they doing everything possible to ensure that rural communities get good broadband service? If they are not doing their job, why not?
- In Japan, 46 megabit broadband service is available for $26 a month. In the U.S., we pay $45 for 1 megabit service. Why is that and why do we put up with it?
- The world is not waiting for U. S. communities and leaders to catch up. They are moving--fast--and creating an increasing gap that is leaving rural communities in America at a disadvantage.
- Communities should be pursuing open ditch and common trench policies to speed the deployment of fiber throughout the community. Water and sewer projects should include placing fiber alongside.
- There is nothing more important to the economic future of the United States than affordable broadband.
- Rural communities are not competing against each other, or even against more urban communities in the U.S. Get over it. They are competing in a global economy. Get used to it.
Legg has a good grasp of the issues, and she is one of a very few speakers on telecom who has identified correctly that cultural barriers in rural communities are a much bigger obstacle than lack of infrastructure. That has been my experience as well--rural communities that want to succeed do, but it requires a change of cultural and appropriate local leadership. Legg gave a great talk.
Technology News:
Rural Telecon: Luncheon keynote (Monday)
Pete Johnson, the Federal co-chair of the Delta Regional Authority (the Mississipi delta of several states and 10 million people) spoke at lunch abou the importance of infrastructure to the health and vitality of communities. He made several points in the early part of his talk:
- Communities are competing in a global economy, not a local or regional economy.
- A key role of government is to provide basic infrastructure, and telecommunications is now basic infrastructure.
- Communities must look to the future (with the implication that too many are trying to hold on to the past).
- Technology is and must lead the way for every kind of initiative in rural America.
Johnson gave a brief history of the Delta region starting with the War Between the States, and up to the present day. He has been heavily involved in dealing with the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which caused heavy damage to infrastructure in the Delta region as far as 200 miles inland.
Johnson enumerated four areas of technology and telecommunications infrastructure investment that he sees as critical for rural communities.
- Distance learning has great potential to improve educational outcomes for youth in rural areas.
- Telehealth can similarly overcome disparities in the quality and quantity of services available in rural areas, which are typically underserved.
- GIS mapping systems are vital to rural communities to better manage infrastructure, help visualize buisiness and customers clusters as economic conditions change in rural areas, and to help focus where extra effort is needed, especially if a region is suffering from population contraction.
- Interoperability of first responder and public safety telecom systems, which have changed little over the past 40 years. The hurricanes revealed serious communications weaknesses in the current, very old system.
Technology News:
Rural Telecon: Opening Keynote
I am attending the 9th Annual Rural Telecommunications Congress Annual Conference, which is one of the oldest community technology meetings in the country. The group is meeting in Lexington, Kentucky this year, and has a record attendance of more than 400 people.
The opening keynote talk was delivered by Coach "Tubby" Smith, head basketball coach for the University of Kentucky. He talked about his work in introducing technology in underserved neighborhoods by providing after school technology programs that include technology, training, mentoring, and equipment in the home to help kids.
But the most interesting remark that he made was about his own basketball team. He said that he had to work very hard with his basketball players to encourage them to communicate with each other, and with him. He said the players had so many gadgets--PDAs, cellphones, iPods, etc. that they were constantly fiddling with them, and in the process these youth were tuning out not only the coach but other team members. He said it was a constant struggle to get the players to put the devices away and be present to what was going on around them.
It is ironic that the proliferation of inexpensive and capable communications devices are, in some ways, making us less communicative.
There are many other examples of how the technology is improving human to human communication, but we need to remain thoughtful about the effects of technology, especially on our youth.
Technology News:
Pages
