Exploring the impact of broadband and technology on our lives, our businesses, and our communities.
The emerging revolution in health care
Fourteen major U.S. hospitals are experimenting with trial programs using the Apple HealthKit tools, which provide health and fitness tracking on iPhones and iPads.
I recently upgraded to an iPhone 5S, which came with the Health app installed. The software will track an incredible variety of health and fitness factors. Some of the data requires manual entry and/or a separate health device (like a blood pressure monitor), but right out of the box, the app starts tracking the number of steps and distance traveled in a day, using the iPhone's built in motion sensor. The difference between my level of physical activity during the work week (sitting at a desk most of the day) and the weekend is an eyeopener, and has made me realize that I need to walk more--every day. It is also interesting how much exercise I get on travel days; while it feels like I spend the whole day sitting in an airplane, the distances I have to walk in airports is good news for my health. The realtime graphs turn exercise into a bit of a game, where it becomes a challenge to see if I can beat yesterday's distance/step numbers.
But this is the tip of the iceberg. As more Bluetooth-enabled health monitoring devices become available (e.g. a blood pressure cuff that can talk, via Bluetooth, directly to the iPhone), more and better kinds of data will be available, and this will improve early diagnosis of problems--and in turn, save enormous amounts of money--early treatment is almost always less expensive.
Broadband is still regarded by many as a kind of luxury...."who needs a Gig?" is a question I hear almost daily as Design Nine rebuilds the nation's broadband infrastructure, one community at a time. Broadband and the Internet are not just about Netflix, buying stuff from Amazon, and gaming. Just as the music industry was disrupted by the iPod and the Internet-enabled iTunes store, health care is about to see major disruptions, and those changes will benefit all of us....if we have the right kind of connectivity.
Design Nine helps communities build infrastructure for the future. Give us a call if you want to future-proof your community.
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Knowledge Democracy:
2015 Intelligent Community Forum Smart7 Candidates Announced
The Intelligent Community Forum announced the Top7 Intelligent Communities for 2015 today.
The Top7 list is dominated by the United States with three communities: Arlington County, Virginia; Columbus,Ohio; and Mitchell, South Dakota.
The others come from four nations: Ipswich, Australia; New Taipei City, Taiwan; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Surrey, Canada. Four of the cites are on the Top7 list for the first time: Mitchell, New Taipei City, Rio de Janeiro and Surrey.
“Each is ‘revolutionary’ in its own way, and each has planned its future in a way that is consistent with its cultural identity, while using universally available digital tools and broadband technology," said Intelligent Community co-founder Lou Zacharilla.
Disclaimer: I have been a juror for the ICF for several years. The ICF work is important because broadband, by itself, does not make a community "smart." Intelligent communities develop an integrated community and economic development strategy that makes broadband an infrastructure building block that supports a broader set of goals and objectives.
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If you still think broadband is not important....
...consider this. Apple sold half a billion dollars in apps during the first week of January.
Think about that. Remember getting in your car and driving to the store to buy software? I do...vaguely. Everyone under thirty would have no idea what I was talking about.
Like it or not, the Internet is transforming the economy. One company (i.e. Apple) sold half a billion dollars of product in one week, and it was all delivered to customers who had broadband connections. No broadband, no sale.
This is a huge challenge for rural America. I just talked to a rural county where they estimate as many of 20% of households are still on dial up. I can pretty much guarantee no young people between the age of 18 and 30 live in any of those areas--they all left as soon as they could, and they probably left the county.
Rural America can't wait.
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Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha....
Excuse me for the headline....I could not stop laughing. Verizon's snazzy cloud service, eponymously named "Verizon Cloud," will be shut down "for up to" 48 hours. Granted, it is being done over a weekend, but suppose you are a retail business open on Saturday and Sunday? Do you close the store? What are they thinking?
There is only one possible explanation for a 48 hour shutdown, and that is a terrible, really awful, horrible technical design. Somebody screwed up bigtime, and now they have to fix it.
If you put stuff in the cloud, you have to treat it like you treat a hard drive: you have to assume that the cloud WILL crash and that you could lose everything. The cloud is not magic, and don't treat it that way.
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Death of TV: Part LXX: The fat lady just sang!
As the old saying goes, "It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings." Dish Network just brought the fat lady out on the stage, and she is singing Sling TV. It's a new OTT (Over The Top) streaming video service that will include ESPN, Disney, CNN, TNT, and a bunch of other "channels," and I have "channels" in quotes because it is an archaic concept that dates back to the 1950s. But we know what it means.
Here is the money quote from the CEO of Sling TV:
"Millennials don't choose paid TV," said Roger Lynch, who was named CEO of Sling TV LLC. "So we designed a service based on how millennials consume content, with no contracts. You can come and go as you please."
If you are responsible for economic development in your community, ponder that statement. Or better yet, let me re-phrase it for you...."No one under 35 cares about cable TV." Or put another way, if you want young people to stay in or move to your community, you better have Internet capable of streaming multiple HD channels of "TV" over the Internet. It's a quality of life issue that you can't ignore.
Want help getting the right broadband infrastructure in your community? Give us a call (540-951-4400) and ask for Dave Sobotta. We would love to help.
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Knowledge Democracy:
Death of TV: Part LXVIV: The dam just broke
Not with a whimper, but a bang. The Washington Post has an article indicating that ESPN is going to roll out a streaming service for its sports content. This lack of live sports on the Internet has kept a lot of households tethered to a costly and bloated cable TV subscription. I think what happened is that ESPN figured out they were passing up huge revenue growth by staying tethered to cable. Many households, once they cut the cable TV bill, may well end up spending more on streaming video, but it will be in small amounts....FOR EXACTLY WHAT THEY WANT TO WATCH. Choice...it's a wonderful thing.
The cable companies will limp along for a while by doing what they have been doing for several years now: ratcheting up the fee for their Internet service by 5% to 10% per year. But from a community perspective, hitching your economic future to a failed, copper-based business model is a recipe for stagnant jobs growth and a tough hill to climb in terms of business attraction.
Here is the Washington Post article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2015/01/05/espn-goes-streaming-through-dishs-sling-tv-no-cable-required/?hpid=z1
Newsletter:
Death of TV: Part LXVIII: Kids are cutting the cord
New data suggests that the death of cable and satellite TV is being led by children. Kids don't care about watching the latest episode of a cartoon...reruns are just fine to keep them amused. Kids are growing up with on-demand services like Netflix and Hulu for their video fix. When they strike out on their own, the notion of buying a package of cable TV is going to seem quaint.
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Knowledge Democracy:
Sony irony and "The Interview"
David Strom has a thoughtful analysis of the Sony hacking mess and the subsequent North Korean threats against the Sony movie "The Interview," where he points out several sad ironies in the two incidents.
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Knowledge Democracy:
Comcast must read this blog
Comcast must be reading my stuff. I have been noting for years now that the cable HFC network is not meeting the needs of home-based workers. Via Lightwave, Comcast has announced a new service to improve connectivity. But it sure sounds like you can't get it unless your company buys corporate service from Comcast, as the article mentions "low" construction costs to get fiber to your place of business. So it will likely be of limited usefulness. I'm skeptical that very many businesses are going to switch their business Internet provider to support work from home.
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Just what we all need: A WiFi doorbell
The SkyBell is actually pretty cool. It is a WiFi-enabled doorbell with a camera and microphone. Stick it on the wall next to your front door. When someone pushes the "doorbell" button, you get can talk to them via your smartphone. It also has a motion sensor, so the camera turns on and notifies you if someone is hanging around your front door but has not rung the bell. Which might really be very useful if you live in a neighborhood with some sketchy individuals around (I'm thinking about some friends who live in Manhattan).
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