Technology Futures

The provincial government of Ontario is spending millions to help rural communities get high speed broadband. They have a nice slogan: "Turning miles into milliseconds." And that is really what it is about; rural communities have traditionally been isolated because of distance--many miles to major population centers and jobs. Broadband is the 21st century equivalent of the interstate highway, getting people closer to jobs, businesses, and economic development opportunities. The provincial government is providing a one-third match for the telecom investments, which is a big incentive for communities to get organized, raise awareness, and get started.

This note from ComputerWorldUK suggests that the problems for Vista run deep. With so many applications having compatability problems with Vista, companies are sticking with older machines, buying used machines that will run XP, and are evaluating alternatives like Linux and OpenOffice. There are some really good Linux variants available; one I've played with is Ubuntu, which is impressive. The interface has borrowed the best of Windows and Macintosh features, and is easy to use and very fast--even on older computers. And OpenOffice is a respectable replacement for Office. If your word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation needs don't use a lot of special features, you may not need Microsoft Office at all.

Enough poorly thought out and/or underfunded online services are dying that someone has started a death watch blog. This is a market where too many startups thought they were going to capture 10% of the market and make gazillions with their wizzy Web 2.0 service (file storage, online collaboration, etc.).

Many of these services are just quietly turning off the servers with little or no notification of their customers. So buyer beware if you are storing all your company documents or family baby pictures on one of these sites--your backups may just disappear one day.

Design Nine has been working on broadband planning with several communities recently, and during our meetings, some interesting stories have emerged.

One businesswoman moved her business from a big city to a beautiful small town, only to discover that broadband services were limited or nonexistent. She just took it for granted when she moved that services similar to what she was able to get in her previous location would be available in the small town. When she learned they were not, she remarked, "You have got to be kidding." She now has to drive farther to work than she wanted to because she had to locate her business in an area where there was broadband available.

I met another businessman who had just moved from Boston to a small town in rural Pennsylvania. His business is entirely Web-based, and moved for the quality of life. He was able to get broadband at his home, but told me the town is otherwise badly underserved.

The lesson for rural communities: People and businesses want to live in small towns, but they have to have affordable broadband at home and in downtown and commercial areas. Communities that can market broadband availability on their economic development Web sites have a distinct advantage.