Exploring the impact of broadband and technology on our lives, our businesses, and our communities.
Just turn off the TV
This editorial from the LA Times discusses rumblings from the FCC that the agency may try to regulate "violence" on television, and may try to extend the agency's control to cable and satellite broadcasting--entirely new for the FCC.
The FCC is apparently using the recent catastrophe at Virginia Tech (right here in Blacksburg) as justification for extending its reach. But the editorial has it right. The FCC is not our "mommy and daddy." With hundreds of cable channels and millions of IP TV choices, and the rapid growth of alternative video programming, what the FCC should be discussing is getting out of the business.
When TV was available only via the scarce resource of over the air radio spectrum, there was some justification for having a watchdog agency. But with so many ways to get video programming today, the notion that a) oversight and control is still needed is archaic, and b) how on earth does the FCC propose to monitor literally thousands and thousands of "channels?"
This is a fundamental failure of government to adapt to change. Recall that this is the same FCC that believes if a single person in a zip code has broadband, everyone does. And we want these folks telling us what we can watch on TV?
It is tawdry for the agency to be using the deaths of my friends and neighbors as an excuse to expand the power of the Federal bureaucracy. If we don't like what is on a TV channel, we can change the channel ourselves, or just turn off the TV.
And I can tell you that in Blacksburg, most of us did just that once NBC started airing the demented ravings of the lunatic murderer and tried to call it news. We had better things to do, like attending funerals. The OFF button is a wonderful thing.
Knowledge Democracy:
FCC to look at broadband
The FCC has announced that the agency will take another look at broadband, meaning the Federal Communications Commission might actually revise the definition of broadband to something that is actually meaningful, rather than the current 256 kilobits, or in shorthand, "...a little faster than dial up."
While one third of Japanese homes and businesses already have fiber connections, with 50 megabit service going for as little as $27/month, the FCC has stubbornly tried to prop up incumbent telephone and cable broadband providers by setting the broadband bar so low as to make the U.S. the broadband laughingstock of the rest of the world. Vienna, Austria is busying running fiber to every premise in the city, while "advanced broadband" discussions in the U.S. usually mean a couple of underpowered wireless access points on Main Street.
Even more encouraging, the FCC is apparently going to rethink the way it counts broadband in the U.S. Currently, if a single home in a zip code area has DSL or cable modem service, the FCC counts the entire zip code as having broadband. This explains why we see government statistics claiming something north of 90% of the U.S. has broadband.
The Federal government is not going to solve the broadband problem for communities. Most state governments do not have the funds to help with much more than initial planning efforts. So communities that want to increase economic development and help create new job opportunities will have to do it themselves. Fortunately, there is plenty of money locally to do this, and raising taxes is not required. Call us if you want more information about how to get real broadband in your community or region.
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Is India's "free broadband" a good idea?
India has announced an ambitious plan to provide free wireless broadband throughout the country.
It is not at all clear that "free broadband" is sustainable. The longstanding problems with free services (in any market, not just broadband) include market distortion and low quality service.
Market distortion occurs because "free" services suggest to users of the service that supply is inexhaustible, and so users use as much as possible. Not everyone thinks this way, but a small number of users who hog bandwidth can consume all available supply.
This leads to low quality of service, in part because there is no pricing feedback to users (see above), and in part because the lack of revenue makes it difficult to expand capacity as demand increases.
In fact, fees alone do not guarantee a sustainable business model. In the U.S. and most other markets, the current broadband business model is upside down. Service providers enjoy maximized profits when customers, paying a fixed fee for Internet access, don't use the service at all. Service providers make the least profit if customers
like the service and use it a lot.
From an economic perspective, charging a fixed fee no matter how much bandwidth a customers uses is exactly the same as giving the service away for free. Neither one provides the funds necessary to expand capacity, increase service areas, pay for proper maintenance and upkeep, and add new services.
A solution is to move to a service oriented architecture (a different network architecture AND a different business model) that conveys a clearer relationship between supply and demand to customers. Customers pay for services, rather than buying a bucket of bandwidth. Service fees are based on the real cost of providing the service, thus providing information to customers about supply and demand. This can be done easily with both wired and wireless networks.
If the Indian government is going to build a digital road system and let private companies use the road system to sell services in return for a share of revenue, the system could work very well.
Providing a free 2 megabit connection but no services is very similar to the way roads are managed--governments build roads but allow businesses and customers to use those roads for entirely private business transactions.
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Community news and projects:
Open ditch policies
It is spring, and around the country, many communities are starting water, sewer, and road projects of one kind or another. On the way back and forth to a project Design Nine is working on, I pass a water line project--a couple of miles of new water line along a major artery and business corridor, and the main route between two communities.
Any telecom duct going in the ditch? Nope. None. Zilch. For a very small incremental cost, duct could be put in alongside the water line that would provide an opportunity to create a major new fiber connection between those two towns, as well as hooking up businesses and homes along the way.
Another region is talking about the need for regional fiber connectivity, but a couple of years ago, they installed a major water line between two key towns and did not bother to put duct in the ditch. Now it is going to cost them a lot more to go back and install fiber.
Every community and planning region should have an open ditch policy that requires planners to evaluate water and sewer projects to see if fiber and duct should be installed, and to look at road repaving and sidewalk upgrades and improvements the same way.
The key to making this relatively simple is to spend a little money developing a community telecom infrastructure plan that outlines where fiber is needed. Once that is done, it is simple to determine if a duct or fiber should be installed alongside a water or sewer line.
Technology News:
Macs rocket ahead of PCs
An Apple blog reports on a Gartner Research study of computer sales. While growth of PC sales has been an anemic 2.6%, sales of Macs over the last six months have been increasing at a rate of 30%.
My guess is that uncertainty over Vista and the potentially high cost of upgrading existing PCs or having to buy new ones is depressing PC sales. Apple appears to be benefitting from the ability to run Windows natively right along side the Mac operating system, giving users an easy migration strategy.
Technology News:
The dark side, the bright side
The tragedy here in Blacksburg earlier this week highlights the dark side and the bright side of technology and the Internet, and is a useful reminder that technology is neither good nor bad--how people use it--for good or for evil--determines its value at any point in time.
Part of the dark side is the intense and almost suffocating media coverage, which began while events were still unfolding. Just a few years ago, this would have been a largely local event for at least a day or two, but with satellite and Internet technology, news organizations were covering this before it was even over. There is something surreal sitting in your office listening to the sirens wailing almost continuously as they carry the wounded to local hospitals--and watching live news reports via the computer and Internet. I could have walked over the scene, taken pictures, and uploaded them to this site or to others, and indeed, others did exactly that.
The phrase "too much information" comes to mind in this context. The NBC videos provided by the killer are more than we need to know, and may likely spawn copycats, just as the killer himself was obviously influenced by a dark Korean film of murder and mayhem. The constant repetition of the phrase "country's worst massacre" will likely encourage the next deranged individual to try even harder to surpass the Blacksburg death toll.
On the blogs, there are already countless thousands of articles, mostly playing Monday morning quarterback about what should or should not have happened. At some point, it all becomes noise.
The bright side is that this very same technology, used in precisely the same ways, has enabled an outpouring of kindness and compassion. Email, blogs, and Web sites are being used to help the families of the victims, to organize counseling and support, to reach out to those suffering from the effects, to encourage prayer, and to just send a few words of comfort.
We have a mighty tool in our hands, and how we use it is a measure of who we are and what we stand for.
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Disaster highlights Internet robustness
Unfortunately, the horrific murders here in Blacksburg yesterday highlighted yet again the technical superiority of the Internet during emergencies. For most of the day, it was difficult to make a phone call on a landline or cellphone, with most calls being greeted with "All circuites are busy." But the local public and private Internet networks kept chugging away, providing students and parents a way to connect. Instant messaging also proved important, and the Internet is used as a gateway between different cellphone messaging services.
Rescue personnel, first responders, hospitals, and health officials were using a pre-planned emergency management Web site to help manage the heavy casualties. No one local hospital was able to handle all of the serious gun shot wounds, and four hospitals in the Blacksburg and Roanoke areas were providing assistance and coordinating activities via the Internet.
Public safety and disaster management is a key use of Internet technology for local government. A robust, high capacity, community-managed broadband network can be an engine for economic development and an important tool for public safety.
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Community news and projects:
Civility in social discourse
The blow up over Imus' idiotic remarks and a raging debate among bloggers about the need for civility online may just be the tipping point for a long overdue honest appraisal of the lack of civility in our social discourse. There is no question that over the past decade, the way we speak to each other and the language that we use has been coarsened to the point that sometimes I think we need to cover our ears. Shock jocks on the radio, the heavy use of profanity online, and a general lack of respect for viewpoints that differ from our own has made talking about issues difficult, if not painful.
The online debate focuses on the tendency of some bloggers and those that comment on blog articles to engage in what can only be described as childish diatribes, ad hominem attacks, and often just plain incoherent rants.
How did we get this way? It is not just the Internet--it is just as easy to be civil online as uncivil, so let's not shoot the messenger. But writing anonymously does seem to loosen our social inhibitions. Even if someone is posting a comment with their real name, in an online universe of a billion people, most of whom will never meet you, it is much the same as being anonymous. Somehow we have to pull ourselves back from the brink.
As always, it's not about the technology, it's about helping people learn to use it--respectfully and thoughtfully.
Knowledge Democracy:
Blogging: At least know what it is
There are several stories about blogging making the rounds of the news sites, as well as an ongoing discussion in the business world about employee blogging.
Item One: Katie Couric is in the news because she tried to pass off a producer's made up story as her own thoughts. Couric is supposedly blogging, but as it turns out, other people write her blog. And those other people, as it turns out, did not have much to say either so they were cribbing from the Wall Street Journal.
Blogging Rule Number One: Don't bother to blog if you can't think of anything to write. Blogging, fundamentally, is writing and nothing else. Some people like to write, some people are actually good writers, and other people, like Couric, have some other talent they should be pursuing.
Item Two: An obscure blogger who had a comment posted by a reader has become the focus of a huge discussion on the Internet. The reader's comment made a disparaging remark about a firm called JL Kirk. The Kirk firm served an order on the blogger to take the comment down. But there is just a tiny problem; the Supreme Court has already decided that bloggers are not liable for the comments posted by readers. The bullying tactics by JL Kirk have guaranteed that the Kirk firm will be remembered for a long time as clueless bullies. A better tactic would have been to ignore the whole thing. By overreacting, they have probably caused irrepaparable damage to the firm.
Blogging Rule Number Two: Even if you don't read blogs, at least know what they are, how they work, and their immense power to focus both positive and negative publicity on an issue. I still meet many people who thinks blogs are insignificant because they personally don't bother with them. Big mistake, and from a community and economic development perspective, huge lost opportunities.
Item Three: Are your employees blogging about your company or organization? Do you even know how to check? If they are blogging, are they writing positive or negative things?
Blogging Rule Number Three: Have an employee or organizational policy about blogging about the company, have it in writing, and make sure it is enforced fairly and consistently. Employees and staff have every right to blog on their own time about non-work topics and interests, but you don't want a disgruntled employee slamming your firm online.
For communities, blog-type Web sites can be a critical marketing tool--done right. Few community leaders and economic developers understand the potential of blogs for economic development, and even fewer get good advice on how to design and manage a blog strategy.
Remember that most business relocation research is being done on the Web. If your community or region is not using modern tools to tell the right story in the right way, you are losing jobs and business opportunities to other areas.
Knowledge Democracy:
Long commutes are good news for rural towns
The Wall Street Journal (page B5) reports today that the number of workers who have to commute 90 minutes or more each way to work has doubled since 1990. That adds up to three hours or more in the car every day. It takes a toll on job satisfaction, personal life, and family life.
Some of those commuters are looking for a place to work where commutes are not as long and not as stressful. When we lived in Craig County, I had a thirty minute "commute" back and forth to work, but the drive was so easy (no traffic) and so beautiful (down a highly rated Virginia Byway) that I looked forward to it at the end of the day as a way of unwinding on the way home.
For rural communities that have a plan, these millions of commuters are potential residents that can stop the flow of people moving away. What's in the plan?
- Transform your 1960s style Main Streets into business and entrepreneurial business districts. This means less emphasis on tourism and gift shops, and a sharp focus on creating the right infrastructure to attract businesses, including high quality rehabs of old retail spaces into downtown business incubators and office spaces, high quality coffee shops and restaurants, and the right service businesses (copy services, shipping services, business accounting and business attorneys).
- The right mix of middle class and upper middle class housing, both in town neighborhoods and residential neighborhoods a little farther out of town. This is one thing a lot of rural communities miss because economic developers don't see this as part of economic development. Business people and their families need good quality places to live, and not everyone wants to live in 100 year old "fixer upper" farmhouses.
- An economic development strategy that is making significant investments in quality of life issues. There are still too many ecnomic development plans that pay lip service to this but are not actually putting development dollars into execution. Business incubators out by the interstate or down in the woods somewhere is not what attracts businesspeople and entrepreneurs today. They want to live and work in traditional small towns, with services, restaurants, and amenities a short walk from the office, not yet another long drive from the incubator ten miles from town.
- And finally, you need affordable, modern, high capacity broadband services. DSL is fast becoming the dial up of this decade, and you need a broadband strategy that is more than, "We've got DSL on Main Street."
How about your community? Do you have an economic development plan that is carefully targeted at attracting businesspeople tired of long commutes? Are you making the right investments to get them to take a close look at your region?
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