Technology Futures

Lauren Weinstein, an expert on privacy issues, has written an open letter to Google asking the company to create the Google Privacy Institute. The new organization would not only advise Google on how best to protect the privacy of individuals and organizations using Google services, but also serve as a think tank and example for how to manage privacy in an Internet-connected world.

According to this USA Today story, teachers are finding that WiFi and laptops in the classroom is a mixed bag of results.

Students are coming to class, flipping their laptop computers open, and going shopping, among other activities observed by teachers. They are also answering email, chatting, downloading music, and doing anything but learning.

USA Today has an article today on the front page of the Life section about Microsoft's bid to sink its tentacles into every kind of digital entertainment. There is a quote in the article from an analyst at at Morgan Wedbush Securities, and he said:

"Microsoft...recognize[s] their software needs to be the gatekeeper to that kind of commerce."

This article talks about Verizon's new claim that net neutrality "limits" the company, and the nothing but a scare tactic of claiming they won't be able to roll out any new services unless they get to erect toll gates.

One thing net neutrality does limit is the ability of one or two big companies from setting up walled gardens that keep consumers locked into a few choices (from, say, Verizon or Comcast). Net neutrality gives consumers and innovative startups a chance to play on a level playing field.

I'm on location this week, planning a major fiber build for a region of eight communities that have decided they can't wait any longer for world class connectivity and services. It's a rural area with lots of two lane roads. One of the things Design Nine is doing is surveying right of way and existing pole infrastructure.

This hair-raising story from the UK is an illustration of the dangers that we all face from identity theft. A British security expert was able to obtain, among other information, a Dutch citizen's passport number and date of birth from a discarded boarding pass stub--the little scrap of paper many of us discard in the nearest airport trash can as we walk off the plane (I have been taking mine home and shredding them for years).

Dell has been pre-installing spyware on their computers that is apparently quite difficult to remove, and then asking customers to pay $49 to have it removed.

The search wars continue to heat up. Just days after Google complained that it wasn't fair that Microsoft wanted to use its own search engine in the next version of IE (imagine that), Amazon's A9 search engine has dumped Google as the backend and switched to Microsoft's MSN Search. This article notes that Google has already "complained informally" about how unfair that is.

Skip Skinner, the forward-thinking administrator of Wise County, Virginia, suggested do it yourself fiber to me three years ago. I've proposed it to many other groups since then, and everyone thought I was crazy.

In the bottom story of the day, heavy-handed search powerhouse Google is complaining that Microsoft doesn't play fair. In a NY Times story that probably won't be available for very long, Google is upset that Microsoft intends to make MSN Search the default search engine in the next release of Internet Explorer.

Jerry Fuhrman, who writes from rural southwest Virginia, has an interesting observation today that I think is applicable to many rural areas of the country.

He notes that one of Virginia's main exports is wood (mostly to China), and one of Virginia's main imports is furniture (mainly from China). Fuhrman's question is how will high energy prices affect the cost of goods, since it takes a lot of energy to haul wood to China, turn it into furniture, and then haul it back to the U.S?

Congress is at it again. Apparently our Federal legislators don't have enough to do, so they have cooked up a new bill that would require every service provider and Web site to maintain access records indefinitely. Sponsored by Colorado Democrat Diana DeGette, the bill is supposedly to fight child pornography. But the bill would give law enforcement officials unlimited rights to snoop everywhere that anyone has ever been online, forever.

Buy electric power when the cost is low, store it in your home or business, and use it when the price of power is high. Many electric utilities are moving toward differential pricing; during peak use hours (typically daytime and early evening), they charge more for electricity, and charge less in the middle of the night, when they have excess generating capacity.

While at the Digital Cities conference in Reston, Virginia earlier this week, I was able to get some detailed information about Vasteras, Sweden, where they have implemented the kind of open service provider communitywide broadband I advocate for communities in this country. Vasteras is a medium-sized city of about 80,000 people. In past eighteen months, they have run fiber to 7000 homes, 23,000 apartments, and 2000 businesses.

Right of way issues are central to the future of communities. Right now, cable and telephone companies are trying to wrest control of right of way from local government. They want the Federal government and/or the states to control right of way, and they may well win if local officials don't get involved quickly.

A distinguished group of technology leaders has begun a Save the Internet campaign, which is intended to provide information to legislators on the network neutrality issue.

Many of the incumbent broadband providers want to start charging differential fees for access to their broadband networks. The effect will be to squeeze much of the innovation and opportunity out of the Internet, leaving only deep pocket companies that can afford to pay the tolls--and that is all they really are.

There was an article in the Roanoke Times this morning about a local businessman who sold his private water utility company to the city of Roanoke--in 1949. So as recently as fifty-five years ago, we had local leaders taking on privately owned utility services.

Anthony Townsend, an expert on the social impacts of technology, has written an important article about community WiFi projects. Townsend is concerned that community leaders, in the rush to show some progress in broadband, are inking deals that give away too much.

A fight is brewing in Congress over COPE, a new telecom bill that seeks to create national franchise agreements for video. As the phone companies try to get into the video services marketplace, they are at a severe disadvantage--the cable companies have had decades to negotiate local cable TV franchises. For every community the phone companies want to approach with video, they have to negotiate a franchise, which can take six months to a year.

A new kind of LED, the OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode), provides a brilliant white light that will replace incandescent and flourescent bulbs in many homes and businesses. 20% of all the electricity generated in the United States is used to power light bulbs, and more than 90% of that power is wasted as heat, not light.