Exploring the impact of broadband and technology on our lives, our businesses, and our communities.
The $100 dollar computer
MIT's $100 dollar computer is beginning to take shape. The idea is to create a computer that is affordable for virtually everyone in the world, and does not have the power-hogging and environmental requirements that work fine in air conditioned homes and businesses but that are entirely unsuitable for use in rural villages without reliable electric power.
What baffles me is why this was not developed years ago by a major computer manufacturer. Those companies, with the exception of Apple, don't seem capable of thinking beyond the ends of their noses. They have decided consistently to ignore a market of several billion computer users to chase after a much smaller market of just a few hundred million users.
The $100 computer will unleash tremendous creativity, and will create incredible opportunities for developing and marketing software. Users of $100 computers will jump on Open Source software, but there will be plenty of room for commercial software as well, but priced quite differently than software is now. Instead of trying to sell, say, 50,000 copies of a piece of software for $100 (grossing $5,000,000), imagine selling 300 million copies of software for twenty-five cents (do the math). If there are, say, 3 billion computer users, going after 10% market share is not unreasonable.
One more thing....I wrote out the specs for this $100 computer almost eight years ago, and published it in the BEV Briefing Book. MIT's computer is eerily similar; perhaps great minds think alike. The original article is below as a PDF.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 Hundred_dollar_computer_v2.pdf | 1.58 MB |
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Serenity
With movie attendance down this year, it has apparently forced the studios to think outside the box a bit. Universal Studios has been offering free previews of the movie Serenity to bloggers around the country. The idea is that the bloggers, will, um, blog about it, and create buzz.
It appears to be working. Serenity is a science fiction film based on an obscure cable TV show called Firefly that lasted only seven episodes. But tech-oriented Web sites and blogs are abuzz with discussions of the movie, most of them positive.
While the film will probably not be a monster hit, the strategy of consciously using the 'net in a new way to market a traditional product like a movie is a good thing.
I work mostly with small towns and cities on broadband and economic development issues, and one of the things that comes up over and over again is, basically, fear of the future. No one ever comes right out and says, "I'm afraid of the future." Instead, concerns are telegraphed in other ways, like "We've never done that before," or "Prove that it works and then we might try it." And of course, it is difficult to "prove" something works if it is new and untried.
Life does change. History is one long story of change, and I often think we simply don't study history enough. We all seem to long for some mtyhical "good old days" about thirty or forty years ago that did not really ever exist. Was life really better without community water and sewer systems? Was the community a better place without rec centers, libraries, and public parks?
And even newfangled inventions like cars, which have had a mixed history of positive and negative impacts have enabled lots of things families half a century ago were not able to do, like drive to the beach in half a day or less for a family vacation. Or visit relatives and friends more often.
The marketing of Serenity is an example of the new blending with the old in interesting ways, and hints at the kinds of opportunities the 'net offers for civic life and economic development.
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IP TV meets Chris Rock
IP TV may break out even sooner than I expected. We may now have an answer for what Google plans to do with its nationwide fiber network and a huge colocation facility it just bought in Manhattan--TV.
Google Video is showing the entire premier episode (22 mins) of the new TV show "Everybody Hates Chris," the autobiographic story of Chris Rock's childhood, when he was the only black kid in an all white school in New York City.
When you open the browser window, there is a nice chunk of white space on the right--a fine spot for Google ads.
The video is occasionally a little blocky, and at one point, the audio got out of sync with the video for a moment, but it was eminently watchable. And it was terrific without ads, although they may well show up as this catches on.
Who are the losers in the IP TV world? The old-fashioned TV networks and Tivo. Who are the winners? We are, and advertisers. We both get more choice (of what to watch and where to advertise).
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Space elevator tests go well
Initial tests by the Liftport Group of Washington state of their robotic lifter went well, and the company says the next test could use a mile high fiber composite ribbon.
Arthur C. Clarke, the writer and scientist who developed the concept of the geostationary satellite, writes in The Time of London about the potential of the space elevator.
I get a lot of skepticism about my interest in the Space Economy, but it is not space itself that intrigues me, but the potential for spinoffs. The 1960s space program spurred the development of integrated circuits, which then ignited the personal computer revolution and provided the inexpensive hardware for the Internet--arguably the thirty best years in the 225 years of the U.S. economy.
Is a colony on Mars going to change your local economy? No, of course not. But commercial spinoffs of specialized equipment and new technologies could.
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VoIP will be huge
"VoIP's gonna be huge." That's what the Register headline says, and the article goes on to say that the traditional telcos are running scared--that telco VoIP offerings are being rolled out because the companies fear that if they don't, VoIP upstarts will steal all their voice business.
The article goes on to say that advanced services--IP TV, gaming, video on demand, home security, etc.--will be where the real profits are in the future. Voice telephony will be just one of many broadband services, and the telcos have to adjust or die.
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Truveo video search engine
I still get massive skepticism when I tell people traditional TV is dead. But every day, there is more and more activity in the IP TV world. Everything that is wrong with traditional TV (lack of variety, repetition, lack of viewpoints, mediocrity) will be offset (but not eliminated) in the emerging IP TV universe, where anyone can be in the television business, and many already are.
Here are some interesting projects and links:
- The BBC is putting everything it has into an IP delivery model.
- DaveTV is aggregating video content via an IP delivery model.
- Participatory Culture is an Open Source effort to deliver "channelized" video via RSS feeds
A sure sign of the emerging IP TV dominance is the Truveo video search engine, which takes your keyword search and returns video clips. And my perfunctory trial suggests it works pretty well.
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Bloggers fight free speech restrictions
In a perfect example of the Law of Unintended Consequences, a Federal campaign reform law has created confusion about whether or not it applies to blogs, which are normally written by just one or perhaps a handful of people.
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) officials don't even agree on what is correct. Some commissioners think bloggers and Internet campaigning generally are exempt, and others disagree.
Strictly interpreted, any time a blogger discussed politics, it would potentially generate paperwork and FEC reports, and taking political ads on a blog site would trigger more reporting.
Since bloggers generally don't make a full time living from their blogs, and most do it as a no-income or low-income sideline, any reporting requirements at all would force them to avoid any discussion of politics, abridging their right to free speech.
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Too much information
As access to content, data, and information becomes ubiquitous, we are beginning to see some uncomfortable anomalies.
The landing of the Jet Blue plane with the crippled nose landing gear is a disquieting example. Jet Blue has always provided satellite TV access on its flights. While the crippled plane flew in circles for three hours, there was plenty of time for the news networks to provide live coverage (People may die a horrible death! Stay tuned!) of the event.
The passengers on the plane were able to watch their own crisis unfold in real time--what I would call "way too much information." If I'm about to die in a plane crash, I really don't want to watch a CNN anchorperson interviewing my wife and friends about how they think they will feel to watch my plane crash and burn. Or something like that.
The video was turned off just before landing, so the passengers did not have to watch the flames shoot out from the landing gear. Thankfully, no one was hurt, due to an incredibly skillful landing by the pilots.
Hurricane Rita is another example of too much information. It is apparent that the massive traffic jams are being created in part by a news media that is providing 24/7 semi-hysterical coverage: Biggest Storm Ever! End of World to Follow! Stay Tuned!
Let's hope that the storm does not create widespread damage and that few are injured or killed. At the same time, we need to learn how to better distribute, absorb, and react to "too much information." And we need to teach our kids to be more critical. If these storms are teaching us anything, it is that ultimately, we need to take responsibility for own safety--there is only so much government can do. And that includes not over-reacting to hysterical and/or misleading information. And sometimes, we just need to turn the news feed off and trust our own instincts. News channels, third parties, and the government can't think for us.
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Xerox: world's worst customer service
Xerox has the world's worst customer service, largely because they have the world's worst IT infrastructure.
I've been trying for two days to get a toner cartridge for my printer/copier (which is a terrific piece of equipment). But Xerox has a maze of disconnected phone and Web services that don't work with each other or with the company's internal customer tracking and billing systems.
One example of utter insanity: I can access my account online, which shows a balance of zero (I don't owe any money). But when I call to order a toner cartridge, I have a "credit lock" on my account and the order can't be processed. The person I am talking to has no idea why. He just shunts me over to billing, where after navigating phone mail hell for a while, I'm told by the voicemail system to hang up and try again. Nice.
More utter insanity: I went online a few days ago to pay my bill, and I could not pay online because my account was "locked." No one knew why. In this day and age, you have to wonder about a company that refuses to take payments online.
When I finally got to someone on the phone who could actually take a credit card payment, they told me it would take "two days" for the billing system to process the payment. Huh? I can pay someone in Belgium for something and they get the money in their bank account about fifteen seconds after I hit the Submit button on my Web browser. But a high technology company can't move bits around any faster than two days?
But wait--there's more. I have a service agreement that includes supplies, but as far as I can tell, there is no way to order prepaid supplies online. You would think they would try to drive transaction costs as low as possible, but no, they apparently like high service costs AND annoying customers with toll free numbers that don't work and voicemail systems that never get you to the right person.
This is an IT department failure of the highest order. Xerox is losing millions, perhaps tens of millions of dollars a year from these systems. The IT department has hijacked the entire company, saddling it with expensive and ineffective systems that drive away customers.
Even sadder: it is obvious no one in the company has ever tried to use its own customer service systems.
Update (2/21/06)
Two people from Xerox contacted me and asked if I was continuing to have problems--I have not. They said my postings had triggered an internal review of their customer service procedures and they were working to try to ensure that I or any other customer did not have this kind of experience again.
Good for them.
I'm delighted with the copier-printer I have. It cost more than the cheap laser printers you can buy in OffficeMax for a few hundred dollars, but it has been worth every penny. It prints and copies reliably, never jams, and I can get it fixed if something breaks. I'd much rather buy from a company that is willing to say, "Boy, we screwed up but we want to try to fix things," than a company that will not acknowledge that, or worse, that you can't even contact for help (I bought the Xerox printer after having horrible experiences with a Samsung printer).
Will my next printer be a Xerox? Yes--the quality and reliability, the ability to get the machine repaired, along with a company anxious to do better makes it a no-brainer.
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Google tramples on authors
Google is coming under increasing fire for its controversial book scanning project. The company is scanning hundreds of thousands of books from several major university libraries, with the intention of making the searchable and viewable on the Web. Each viewed page will, of course, have Google ads.
Why would prestigious universities like Harvard, Stanford, and Oxford agree to participate in such a bald assault on copyrights? Most likely, Google is giving these libraries a big chunk of money.
Google's feeble excuse is that authors who don't want to participate can opt out. The company is abusing copyright law, which says the copyright owner is responsible for enforcing copyright. But what Google is doing is ethically odious, and the law was never intended to give projects like this free rain to trample copyright.
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