World Comes, World Goes

The exciting aspect of the WCIT 2006 for me, is the focus that the crowd put on Digital Access. A few reflections as the week comes to a close:

1. We are all much more alike than we are different. When we gather a group like that and discuss IT, despite our different perspectives, we have so much in common and I'm impressed with the openness and willingness to connect and to do business that I saw last week.

2. Of the three main topics of focus - Health Care, Privacy & Security, and Digital Access - it was the third that tied the conference together and became the main focus of the conference.

3. Widely acknowledged was the need for better connectivity, starting with hardware. Whether AMD's PIC, Intel's Discover the PC Initiative, or Nicholas Negroponte's $100 laptop (One Laptop Per Child), much of the focus last week was on the hardware at the end of the network.

4. But much of the conversation among the attendees was on communiciation, which was acknowledged as a missing element at this IT conference. Despite the fact that much of the presenters talked about ICT, the conference is missing the C - the communication companies have not been included in the past, but I think that will change going forward. Communication will be an ever bigger deal, and while everyone looks to mobile phone growth among the poorer segments of the world's population, many were also talking about the new broadband technologies that we talk about here - Wi Fi Mesh and WiMAX.

5. The NANOnet solution offered on my new website, www.metronano.com , is made to order for meeting the needs of the Developing World. It's Small, it's Simple, it's loaded with Local content, and it's Cheap. Small, Simple, Local, and Cheap - that's the secret that the Gates Foundation talked about last week for the Developing world. And that's what we've put together. Stay Tuned!