Technology Futures

Add AT&T to the growing list of broadband access providers who are making noises about charging for access to their broadband networks (and customers).

With a hat tip to Chris Miller, this article underscores the seriousness of the broadband crisis in the United States. We're paying more than anybody else in the developed world for "broadband," while getting a lot less, performance-wise (50 to 100 times slower in most cases).

Your first reaction to the headline may be skepticism--iPods as a training tool? It may sound like a sly way to buy upper management a new toy, but it is nothing like that. A restaurant chain has thrown away its DVD-based training videos in favor of iPod playlists--short 30 to 60 second video clips that show an employee exactly how to do just one thing. According to the company, it allows the employees to train at their workstation, where they can watch how to do something and then do it immediately.

The whole Internet wireless system marketplace has become increasingly complex and confusing. This short article from the Register points to several other articles that discuss the new MIMO (Multiple Input, Multiple Output) wireless gear. MIMO systems, which use multiple antennas at each end, promise speeds as high as 100 megabits per second, so in theory they could replace fiber as a first mile option for services like IP television.

Skype continues to expand its grip on the Internet voice telephony marketplace by providing technical specs that describe how to build a phone with Skype software built in. MSNBC has an article that describes a whole slew of new Skype phones. The new handsets untether Skype calls from a computer handset.

I had the good fortune to hear Mark Ansboury, the COO of One Cleveland, talk about what he and other leaders in Cleveland have been doing to build what is probably the best planned community broadband infrastructure in the country.

For years, I've recommended that communities and regions build MSAPs (Multimedia Service Access Points). From our experiences operating one in Blacksburg as far back as 1999, we found that these local data exchange points save everyone in the community money. St. Louis is building a regional MSAP, which I call an RNAP, or Regional Network Access Point.

Take a tip from what Europe is doing wrong, and use it to give your own region a little boost. This report says businesses are moving their plants and investments into the U.S. and Asia, where the regulatory climate is less onerous.

Do your economic developers regularly talk to local businesspeople to find out about red tape problems? Can you do more to make it easier to start and to run a business in your community or region?

It turns out that kids who have spent years playing video games learn to use complex information systems more quickly. The U.S. military reports that new recruits pick up the use of highly specialized and complex data systems easily, compared to youth in other countries, where some of the same systems are exported and in use.

We have an education crisis in the United States. We're graduating kids from college that don't know how to evaluate a credit offer, use a checkbook, or calcuate a tip. If you are running a business and need workers, are these folks you want in the hiring pool?

I have been following news on the health effects of radio frequency radiation for twenty-five years, and I remain concerned about the possible effects of being bathed in microwave frequency radiation from cellphones, portable phones, and wireless Internet adapters. Keep in mind that all those devices use the same frequencies that a microwave oven uses to turn hot dogs into charcoal, albeit at lower energy levels.

If your job involves working with youth, or if it should (economic developers take note), you may want to read this article about the kind of people that visit Apple's iTunes Music Store. You might call people that fit the profile the "iPod Generation."

As many rural areas of the country continue to overbuild low end business incubators and pin their employment hopes on just one more call center, opportunities to step away from the me-too crowd and do something bold and different continue to slip by.

In yet another example of "...the sky is NOT falling," video downloads of popular TV shows appear to be actually raising the ratings of some shows.

In other words, people are downloading shows they have not watched on TV, and then decide that a) they like the show, and b) they tune in during prime time to watch it.

This article on the problems of smaller New England towns and communities could apply easily to most rural communities in America--youth leaving, lack jobs, decaying downtowns, and sprawl.

Northern Ireland is the first country in Europe to have 100% availability of broadband (typically DSL) to every home and business. Government investments helped get the job done.

But the real measure is impact. The CEO of the MJM Group, a highly specialized joinery firm in the country, had this to say:

"It would have been impossible to have achieved our export growth without broadband internet access which came to Rathfriland in 2004..."

I still see too many community organizations taking their Web sites for granted. It's not uncommon to find community and economic development Web sites that are badly out of date, with stale information, poorly designed graphics, and/or hard to find content. A new study shows that people form a first impression of a Web site in as little as 50 milliseconds. Researchers previously thought that it would take at least a half second to do that.

The National Consumer Council in the UK says consumers are losing their rights to the music and videos they are purchasing. As content publishers try to fight piracy, they are making it more difficult for legitimate purchasers of digital content to actually play and own what they think they are buying. Publishers want restrictions on what machines can play what content (forcing hardware manufacturers to include built in controls), when it can be played, and how often.

Via BoingBoing, some companies are painting the tops of their buildings so they can be viewed from space.

If this elicits a "Huh?" response, keep in mind that tools like Google Earth give everyone on the planet a free satellite view of their neighborhood. Target is doing this, but others are sure to follow. And it makes perfect sense; if someone is trying to find a Target store, a giant Target logo visible from the space view works.

If I were a reporter or a doctor, I'd want one of these. There have been various iPod add-ons that allowed you to record audio, but this one is neatly integrated and provides high fidelity recording.