Exploring the impact of broadband and technology on our lives, our businesses, and our communities.
Connected cities
Over the past couple of weeks, three major cities in the U.S. have announced ambitious plans to extend connectivity of one kind or another. New York and Philadelphia are moving forward with plans to create wireless blankets over most of each city.
New York's plan is more ambitious. The city is looking at making virtually every lamppost available for WiFi and cellular telephone access. Part of what is driving this is money. Even at the modest fees the city says it will charge for the right to mount antennas, it represents new income to the municipal government. What is less clear is if the plan will succeed. Some elected officials and citizen groups have raised concerns about the amount of additional EMF radiation that will be propogated by the plan. Not everyone is keen to have 24 hour/day gigahertz frequency radiation emanating from an antenna just a few feet from their second floor apartment window.
Philadelphia's plan is to create a WiFi blanket throughout the core area of the city, to make the place tech friendly. Both cities will rely on the private sector to spend the money to do the work, and will simply put the ordinances and fee structure in place that will allow those companies to place antennas and equipment on public property.
The third city, Chicago, is planning to put 2000 remote control surveillance cameras throughout its neighborhoods and city streets, with the dual aim of curbing crime and providing better coverage of potential terrorist targets. The system will be tied directly into the 911 system, which will allow 911 operators to pull up real time video of a crime, fire, or accident in progress. In Chicago, some groups have raised concerns about the potential privacy issues related to such comprehensive surveillance. In the end, the city will probably have its way, as we have no constitutional guarantee to privacy in public places.
All these initiatives are mixed news for smaller and rural communities. On the one hand, these initiatives not only raise the bar for what kind of infrastructure is expected in our communities (i.e. WiFi blankets), but as this kind of infrastructure becomes commonplace, smaller communities especially lose any competitive advantage they may have had from early investments. That is to say, instead of touting public WiFi as an economic development advantage that other places do not have, public WiFi is now going to be increasingly seen as part of the base, required infrastructure--imagine trying to promote your community without a public sewer system in place.
On the other hand, thanks to the small size and low cost of such systems, smaller communities can easily put in exactly the same systems--in other words, you can have exactly the same infrastructure as big cities. Coupled with a desirable quality of life, short or no commutes, good schools, and great recreational opportunities, small towns and cities will measure up pretty well. But you have to have a plan to do this. Do you?
Technology News:
Last chance to save money on RuralTelecon conference
If you have been thinking about attending the Rural Telecommunications Congress 8th Annual Conference, Friday is the last day to save $100 on early bird registration. If you are a vendor, it is a great place to meet the representatives of community and regional broadband projects from around the country. If your community is interested in broadband, it's a great place to hear about what has worked and worked well.
For the past eight years, RuralTeleCon – the annual conference of the Rural Telecommunications Congress – has been the premier venue for understanding the issues surrounding the deployment and use of advanced telecommunications in rural communities. Each year, the event focuses on a critical issue facing rural communities and rural residents as they use telecommunications for community and economic development. This year’s theme is “Putting Broadband to Work.”
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
- Anthony (Tony) G. Wilhelm, PhD., Director, Technology Opportunities Program (TOPs), National Telecommunications and Information Administration, U.S. Dept of Commerce - Find out the latest on NTIA TOPs programs and initiatives.
- Hilda Gay Legg, Administrator, Rural Utilities Service (RUS), U.S. Department of Agriculture - Hear RUS success stories demonstrating broadband applications as rural solutions.
- K. Dane Snowden, Chief, Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) - The current status of broadband deployment in rural communities.
- Andrew M. Cohill, President and CEO, Design Nine/Virginia – Discover why community investments in technology and telecommunications often fail to have the hoped-for impact, and how you can integrate technology with other community and economic development goals and objectives.
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Dane A. Deutsch, President and CEO, and Pete Adams, COO, DCS Netlink – Meet “Bobby Blackhat” and learn why we need to take Internet security seriously today and tomorrow.
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Plus more Speakers and Panels including experts on telehealth, e-commerce, entrepreneurship, education, e-government, deploying and maximizing the broadband infrastructure, and economic and community development, all focusing on rural issues.
For more info and to register visit www.ruraltelecon.org.
For Sponsor and Exhibitor opportunities, contact: coordinator@ruraltelecon.org
Technology News:
Taiwan well ahead of U.S. in broadband use
A new report from Taiwan shows that the country is far ahead of the United States in broadband use, with more than 56% of the population using high speed services, or about double U.S. use. That makes Taiwan the fourth biggest per capita user of broadband in the world, behind South Korea, Hong Kong, and Canada.
It is important to remember that Taiwan is smaller than many U.S. states, and probably smaller than some planning districts/regions in the U.S. The higher population density there makes it easier to justify the investments. Nonetheless, it suggests that here in the U.S., regional approaches to broadband are more likely to be successful than individual town and community projects.
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Fiber to the home projects in the U.S.
PCWorld has a nice summary of fiber to the home projects, mostly from the telephone and cable company perspective.
Some of the key ideas in the article:
- A single of channel of HDTV requires 9 megabits/sec, well beyond the current cable and DSL offerings.
- Countries like Japan have 100 megabit fiber service in much of the country already, putting the U.S. at a disadvantage globally.
- It will take 5 to 10 years to get high speed fiber services (i.e. that will support HDTV and other high capacity uses) to most U.S. homes and businesses (meaning communities should be in this for the long haul and not look for "magic" broadband fixes).
- Major price drops in the cost of fiber and fiber electronics have made FTTH (Fiber To The Home) much more affordable.
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Supercomputers for hire: the new ED infrastructure
Almost a year ago, I wrote enthusiastically about Virginia Tech's low cost, high powered supercomputer, and suggested that supercomputers for hire were a way of attracting businesses into a region, just as water and sewer were attractors forty years ago.
This Slashdot story describes Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson's latest venture--a supercomputer for hire in New Zealand.
Jackson's 500 node machine is relatively modest, ranking only 77th among the top 500 supercomputers in the world. A modest cluster can be assembled for a lot less than some regions are spending on shell buildings out by the interstate, and as a marketing tool for Knowledge Economy businesses, even a small supercomputer cluster is more likely to get your region on the short list for a relocation than a shell building.
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RuralTelecon Conference one of the best
Early bird registration for the 8th Annual Rural Telecommunications Congress Annual Conference is still available through September 10th.
If you live in a rural community and are interested in economic development and broadband issues, this is one of the best conferences going. The RTC conference works hard to keep the sesssions focused on best practice, lessons learned, funding opportunities, and solid, practical information.
If you are interested in funding opportunities and national policy issues, some of the most important Federal and private agencies will be in attendance, with staff and speakers, including the Appalachian Regional Commission, the USDA, NTIA and the Technology Opportunities Program (TOP), and RUPRI.
The conference is being held in Spokane, Washington, with affordable downtown hotel rates, lots to do after hours, and of course, the conference is a tremendous opportunity to meet vendors, network in the hallways, and get valuable information for your community. Disclaimer: I'm on the RTC Board of Directors, but I agreed to join the Board because I was so impressed by the RTC conferences.
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MIT invents community network
Apparently at least one faculty member at MIT has been off the 'net entirely for the past twenty years. This story discusses Professor Keith Hampton's iNeighbor network.
Distributed by the New York Times New Service, apparently both MIT and the Times failed to do even a single Google search for "community network," which would have shown that there is not only a well-established national organization focused on online communities of place (the Association For Community Networking), but also hundreds of thriving local community network projects, some of them more than a decade old.
The article has the look and feel of a press release; apparently the Times no longer bothers to do any research or get second opinions. It's almost laughable in parts, especially where someone describes in glowing terms how they found a tennis partner online. This is news? Community networks have been supporting local social networking since the eighties.
Technology News:
Web sites gone wild
I visited two Web sites this morning that illustrate perfectly two problems that I write about frequently:
- The tyranny of IT departments.
- The tyranny of Web design firms
The first site I visited was a well-known educational software publishing house. I wanted to order a typing program for one of my kids. For the second time in the past six weeks, I went through the entire order process, only to have the final "procesing your order" screen sit there and grind away without ever finishing the order. I had tried to place an order back in July with the same results.
I picked up the phone and got a nice salesperson who took my order, but I added another item, and she had to put me on hold because her internal company sales system would not show the item. She first had to look on the Web to establish what the product was, and then had to go ask someone how to enter the missing product into the system. She also admitted that the company knew the Web site did not work; "they are working on it," she told me.
It's almost beyond belief. The Web site ordering process has been broken for at least six weeks? This is pretty simple stuff these days. Even more unbelievable is that the in-house system can't even show all their products, and they probably have less than a hundred total. Here's an idea--give your ordering folks a piece of paper with the product names and numbers on it so they don't have to waste time looking on the Web site for it.
This is tyranny of the IT department in its purest form. Everyone in that department should be fired--they are costing the company untold amounts of revenue while they fiddle around with their software. The only possible explanation is "IT bullies;" the IT folks have completely flummoxed the company with jargon, arcane technical mumbo-jumbo, and IT fiddle-faddle. The IT department is running the company, with disastrous results. The IT department serves the company, not the other way around. Companies do not exist to provide full employment and ever-increasing budgets to the IT staff, but many IT departments have managed to pull this off.
The second site I visited was for a political candidate running for a statewide office. I found a perfect example of tyranny of the Web design company. They had designed a perfectly hideous site that did a wonderful job of showing off all their bandwidth-wasting splash screens, their bag of cute Web tricks, and their complete lack of attention to actual content and ease of navigation. It will probably help them get the next job, but it sure won't help that candidate get elected.
If you are going to spend money on IT and/or a Web site, make sure you get your requirements and needs down on paper (get help with this if you need it), and don't rely entirely on the IT/Web folks to tell you what you need. They often don't take the time to find out. IT and Web designers tend to want to sell solutions--it's much quicker than actually taking the time to find out what it is you do and how IT or the Web can support your core mission. Disclaimer: Design Nine helps you write specifications for IT systems and Web sites so that you get systems that work for affordable costs.
Technology News:
UPS trucks powered by hydrogen
If you think the Hydrogen Economy (part of the emerging Energy Economy) is some distant pipe dream that your region can safely ignore for another twenty years, think again.
UPS is testing hydrogen fuel cell-powered delivery trucks in three different parts of the country.
UPS says the trucks have power and acceleration comparable to the same size gas or diesel powered trucks, and 10% more space for cargo because of the compactness and efficiency of fuel cells. Even better, the trucks have zero emissions.
Yes, they cost more right now, but UPS has 80,000 vehicles in its fleet. Fuel is a major cost and rising. Over time, the new trucks can potentially save the company money--savings that will go straight to the bottom line.
As Skip Skinner, in the Lenowisco Planning District in southwest Virginia, is fond of reminding me, coal has a lot of hydrogen locked up inside it. Could it be that the coal belts in the U.S. become the hydrogen producers of the future? Could coal become "king" again? If it did, would your region be able to participate in that boom?
Technology News:
Carbon nanotubes generate electricity
An Indian researcher has discovered that passing a gas over specially designed carbon nanotubes can generate measurable amounts of electricity.
Windpower is a growing industry that is increasingly competitive with coal and oil-generated power. But current windmills have drawbacks, including the noise, potential danger to birds and wildlife, and complex mechanical design.
The carbon nanotubes are solid-state (no moving parts), generate no noise, and would be much less intrusive than windmills. The system is still strictly experimental, but it's another piece of the emerging Energy Economy. One of the most important things to remember about the Energy Economy is that it will create entirely new businesses, and in turn, entirely new kinds of jobs. Is your region ready?
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