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December 2006 Archive

A River Runs Through It

Benchmarking Box

Every city now aspires to be the next Silicon Valley. The motivation is obvious. As Pittsburgh has learned, high tech startups experience two-and-a-half times the job growth of existing companies. And high tech employment pays 50 per cent more than average work. But while many localities pursue this Holy Grail, few are likely to succeed. And in this national competition, Pittsburgh trails many comparably-sized cities. Steel Town to Tech Town: The Metromorphosis of America - Council on Foreign Relations

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" This was a common, even serious question when I was young, but today it carries a note of irony, because I am grown up. In fact, I'm "way grown up," turning 50 next year. And now that I'm grown up, I realize that that is one question that never really get's answered. "Growing Up" is a process and a journey, maturing is what we do as adults, as we remake ourselves, over and over again. Sure we are different people at 20 and at 50, but the real challenge is to be different at 40 and at 45 and at 50.

Those of us lucky enough to realize this secret don't stop growing up, we grow up purposely and aggressively, readily taking on new challenges and acquiring new skills, because like sharks, if we stop moving, we die. That's the rule of the jungle in this 21st Century, when technology-driven change and innovation, globalization, and ever-increasing competition transform our environment at an increasing pace. We have to change and adapt to our environments, or else we fall behind.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how cities are like people, with personalities and attitudes and characters all their own, unique to themselves. It's a helpful analogy. And I've been thinking about change in my own life, how I can get stuck, and how it's often a catalyst, from an illness or injury, an (unwanted) change in employment circumstance, or a family disturbance that forces me to change, reluctantly, and on later reflection I realize that the change was just what I needed, but that I also needed a whack upside the head to get me to change.

So what leads a city to change? Similarly, its often a crisis of some sort. What was working before no longer works. Often, actual physical change in a city is preceded by political change in response to some unsolved problem. I've been thinking about how a municipal wireless project can help a city to transform itself.

Many cities, the most attractive ones in particular, have a river running through them. It's no coincidence, because in the past when cities formed, a river was generally the preferred means of transportation and it also provided water and sustenance. Many cities with the most promise have purposefully highlighted this historical amenity and turned it into green space and a focal point. They're blessed with a certain beauty that cities lacking a river don't enjoy.

A river is a great metaphor for change as well. Like time, a river flows, and the river is never the same, from moment to moment. Our lives, and the lives of the cities we live in, flow like a river, and they're never the same, from moment to moment.

The question for all of us, especially poignant as this old year winds down and the new one revs up, is this: " Does change happen in my life TO ME, where I am passively watching the river flow, or does it happen BY ME, where I actively control the flow and determine its direction? Are you an agent of change in your own life? in the life of your city? That's the question we all should be asking, and especially that city leaders should be asking. And if they're not asking that question in your city, perhaps you should start asking it, and see what kind of response you get. That will tell you a lot about your city's leadership. It will also help you to determine what you can do personally to make things better.

I you'd like to talk more about how starting a metropolitan broadband project can be a means to force a dialogue on that question, drop me a line, because I've realized this past year that the principal benefit of a municipal wireless project just may be that it shakes things up and by asking questions about the future and challenging the status quo, it acts as a catalyst for change.

Even a burr under the saddle can be worthwhile, and these projects can be as disruptive as you want them to be. A well-managed project has a way of asking all sorts of questions that challenge the status quo in a healthy manner, not only making the comfortable uncomfortable, but also benefiting the entire city and all of its citizens. Uncomfortable change often accompanies growth. Just think of what a caterpillar goes through to become a butterfly. It may be time for your city to pick up the pace and start growing up, again, so it can find out what it will be when it grows up.

Posted on December 28, 2006 at 06:40 AM | Comments (0)

New Books added to library

I am adding these three new items into the Books, Books, and More Books entry in the Books and Whitepapers section on this website. I review Richard Florida's books on regional economic development. They're timely and poignant, especially in this municipal wireless field, where increasingly, we see an Eco Dev justification and rationale for Muni Wi Fi projects.

There will be more additions to follow, as I catch up and update my on-line library to reflect growth in my real world library at home. The year 2006 saw lots of new and interesting books added.

The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life by Richard Florida. This NY Times Bestseller from 2002 has become what may be called a 21st Century Economic Development bible. If you are involved in city government at the leadership level, or in an Economic Development role, even at the staff level, this is recommended reading. Florida, a PhD in Regional Economic Development, formerly of Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh and now at George Mason University outside our nation's capital of Washington, D.C., has demonstrated Pioneer Spirit and Big Thinking by stepping out to create a new vocabulary for a change in society. Often those who get to name something do quite well, and that seems to be Florida's path.

What Florida gave a name to is a shift in working behavior patterns, and the advent of a new class of workers with new ideas about working and living. These young knowledgable workers are representatives of what Florida labels the "Creative Class" a new demographic category. Worklife has evolved over the past 125 years, changing society as the nature of work has changed. Agriculture was the dominant category, but the Industrial Revolution brought more and more workers into the city in search of preferable Industrial jobs, which became the dominant category for much of the 20th Century. But by the second half of that century we began to see the rise of the Service Sector, where workers provided services to society. Florida notes that more and more, there are new Creatives, who do not fit in the previous three categories, and who represent a sea change in their approach to working and living.

They make a living using their brains, and many are highly paid. They choose a place to live first, and a job second. They don't go to job interviews and then go to where their new employer sends them. They identify an area first, and those areas chosen seem to score high on what Florida calls the Three Ts: Talent, Technology, and Tolerance.

First, workers seek a high concentration of talented workers like themselves, reasoning that there will be plentiful jobs in the area, and acknowledging that the average tenure for their types of jobs tends to be measured in a few years rather than in decades like their parents generation. They want to know that they will have choices when its time to move on, so they won't have to move away. Second, workers seek a concentration of technology, the engine of economic growth in this new economy and an employer of choice for Creatives. Third, they seek an Open Society characterized by tolerance for diversity. Florida cites the Bohemia Index and the Gay Index, two ways to measure and compare cities and rank them according to diversity and tolerance. These types who live alternative lifestyles tend to congregate in cities that are open and accepting of diversity, and it's no coincidence that these same cities attract a large proportion of the Creative Class workers.

From my perspective at MetroNetIQ, the bottom line lesson for those interested in Metropolitan Broadband is that there is a connection here between having a citywide wireless network and fitting in with these cities, like Austin (my hometown is highlighted throughout this book, which is fun), San Francisco, Boston, and Seattle. In addition to ranking high on Florida's Creative Class criteria, all of these cties successfully attract creative talent in droves AND are out in front in terms of ensuring ubiquitous and affordable broadband access, both wired and wireless.

Cities and the Creative Class by Richard Florida. Florida came out with this book as a follow up to his widely succesful first effort, providing a raft of statistical analysis to back up his provocative text from The Rise of the Creative Class. I read this one too, but at some point, I figured it was too much detail for an amateur like myself, and my interest began to wane. I recommend this book for your bookshelf, but it really is more of a reference book than a book to cozy up by the fire with.

The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent by Richard Florida. I haven't read this one yet, published in April 2005, so this review is conjecture at this point. If Florida has done his homework and he is one thorough Subject Matter Expert, so I expect he has, then he has expanded the scope of his work to provide global relevance. I'm a firm believer that when it comes to cities and urban life, we are much more alike than we are different, so I'm hopeful that this will be a valuable addition. I'll get it and read it and share my thoughts in the near term.

Posted on December 19, 2006 at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)

Wireless Mesh: To Tell The Truth

"Sliced Bread?" "Little Black Dress?" "Duct Tape?" "Humbug?"

These days, its hard to know whom to believe. Personally, untiil I've done my homework on a subject and/or gotten to know someone as a person, I hone to "In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash."

So what to make of this still relatively new wireless mesh technology that has enabled this upstart new industry known as Municipal Wireless and/or Metropolitan Broadband?

I'm reminded of the old To Tell The Truth TV series - this is dating me - where the contestant had to pick the original from the other two imposters, by asking questions and discerning which ones were bluffing. So which identity holds for municipal wireless, more particularly, wireless mesh technology?

Is mesh the best things since sliced bread? A foundation like a little black dress? A highly versatile and cheap tool like duct tape? Or is it a humbug / charlatan / poseur?

On one extreme in this industry, promoters would have you believe that a wireless mesh is "All That," "the greatest thing since sliced bread." It can replace DSL and cable broadband, as well as cellular data, and even landline telephony. That position would be what I would call "a stretch." There is plenty of hyperbole out there, and the "All That" pitch should be seen for what it is, optimistic exageration to promote a new technology and solution.

On the other extreme in this industry, we find detractors who declaim wireless mesh because 1) its running on unlicensed spectrum and there's no option to overcrowding; 2) it has inherent insecurities, because it's wireless and open; 3) it's insufficiently powered to overcome noise in the RF environment; and 4) with its multiple nodes, its still way too expensive to be a competitive solution. These are just a few of the objections we hear from skeptical audiences, and they too are exageration, but of the pessimistic variety, intended to delay or put off a decision to go down this path, for a variety of reasons, some well intentioned and others not so much.

And what about the "little black dress"? OK - let's be up front here - when I open a blog with a reference to fashion, you know I'm going out on a limb ... you can tell how fashion conscious I am by the row of khaki pants in my closet. I'm not. But I've heard my wife and other ladies reference the little black dress as a must-have foundational item in a woman's wardrobe, good for so many occasions. Well, that does it, that about sums up what I know about women's fashion.

Now duct tape - or perhaps"duck" tape to you - that's a subject I can get wrapped around, so to speak. Was there ever a more utilitarian product put up on a shelf? Running out of duct tape is unthinkable in our house.

Re the Apollo 13 disaster, duct tape played a key role:

Ed Smylie, one of the NASA mission control engineers who designed the scrubber modification in just two days, said later that he knew the problem was solvable when it was confirmed that duct tape was on the spacecraft: "I felt like we were home free" he said in 2005. "One thing a Southern boy will never say is 'I don't think duct tape will fix it.'" Wikipedia on "Duct Tape"

So what, you may ask, could wireless mesh possibly have to do with a woman's wardrobe or a hardware product, like duct tape? Is wireless a fashion statement? Is wireless a mere tool in a toolbox? Is it something that makes you feel good when you put it on? Does it solve an immediate problem, quickly, at least for now? Well, the answer to all of these questions is "Yes," but as the speaker often tells me when I respond to one of their questions for the audience, "That's a great answer, but not exactly what I'm looking for."

As usual, the truth lies somewhere in the middle of these two extremes, even between the black dress and the duct tape. And that's where I tend to gravitate, to the middle. But first, let's debunk the two imposters on the extremes.

Wireless Mesh is not "All That." It does not provide the same throughput as fiber, yet. It is subject to interference as a wireless technology. If cheap DSL is available, that's probably a more attractive consumer option.

Neither is Wireless Mesh a humbug , a fraud if you will. "Humbug" is such a good, but archaic word. I like the reference to "Humbug" in Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy castigates the Wizard as a fraud on getting a peek behind the proverbial curtain. So beware of those who would tear down what wireless mesh offers without offering you an alternative, more competitive solution. Often the bottom-line of their argument is "I don't know what the answer is, but I know its not Wi Fi." In other words, they're saying "Wait and tolerate your current solution," and for many that is no alternative at all. Don't let negativists rain on your parade, or spoil your Christmas like Scrooge would do, with a curt dismissal and a
"Bah, humbug!"

I can attest what I see in Wireless Mesh, what it is to me. You draw your own conclusions. I trust this technology, this new tool, for what it offers right now.

A wireless mesh can become a foundational element of a city's communication infrastructure, like a little black dress. It can also become an answer for what ails you right now and into the near term (next few years), like duct tape. The presence of a wireless mesh network enables so many things for a city, and it can take the city in so many directions. Its ultmate value depends on your situation and your imagination.

Want new police applications for improved public safety? A wireless mesh will make selecting applications that much easier. Want an automated meter reading system? Start with a wireless mesh network and you won't be disappointed. How about a parking meter overhaul, or improved traffic lights? Again, the wireless mesh network is your starting point. Need to lower broadband rates and stimulate your local economy? Mesh is looking more and more attractive to accomplish that.

A municipal wireless system is a highly versatile tool for a city that can be what you need. It's a general purpose system that can enable specific applications that would be out of reach but for an affordable communications infrastructure. So as usual, simple answers elude us. The answer to the question "Is a wireless mesh network right for me, at this time?" is more complex than either polar argument would lead you to believe.

The answer is "It depends," and it depends on what you want to use it for, how urgent your situation is, how compelling the solution that depends on the network, and the out-of-pocket expense. To answer these questions, you are going to have to roll up your sleeves and do some homework. The alternative is to buy in to one of the extreme positions, which like most quick and simple short term decisions, will leave you disappointed in the longer term. Municipal Wireless technologies do present a useful solution for many, making them worth a longer look before jumping in on a pitch or writing off a proposal.

So, roll up your sleeves, and get busy on finding some answers - you could be missing an answer to your problems. Why stay stuck where you are? You can do better, start today to give your collective imagination a work out, to learn more - initiate an investigative project in your town.

A better future awaits any one of us when we get busy and start working together, focused on the best that is yet to come. Let faith and knowledge drive your decisions, not fear and ignorance.

And what better time to turn over a new leaf and start a new project than at the New Year?

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to you, my unknown but beloved readers. May the New Year lead you and your community to a call to action that will bring better times for all!

And who knows, maybe that package way back there, under the tree, almost hidden by that low branch and so overlooked...maybe that package is your own little black dress or roll of duct tape, a versatile gift from Santa, just what you've been looking for...

Posted on December 15, 2006 at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)

So this is Christmas, and What Have You Done?

So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear ones
The old and the young

John Lennon, Happy Xmas (War Is Over), 1971

This may be one of my favorite Christmas carols, among many. I love this time of year, and even though the time pressures can be a pain in the ***, it's still fun to hear the songs, follow the rituals, watch the kids' excitement grow, and count the days until Christmas comes - and don't forget its partner holiday, the New Year, which is soon to follow. I think a principal reason I like this song so much, besides the art and soulfulness that John Lennon always brought to his work, is the lyrics themselves. In this beautiful poem, Lennon is his most optimistic and dreamy self, as he skillfully ties together the spirit of the season not only with warm wishes to loved ones and for peace on earth, but also highlights the cycles of time and the close of one year and the birth of a new one that we all experience.

So, do you take stock at the end of the year? I like to pause and reflect at this time of year, but I also find myself getting pensive on my own personal major anniversaries, my birthday, my wedding anniversary, my children's birthdays. But this particular season of year end and Christmas remembrances is just over-the-top sentimental, the classic time to look back and then, to look forward, as the old calendar comes down and a new one goes up.

So what have I done? Speaking for this industry, I'd have to say we've done quite a bit. More narrowly, speaking for my own company, I know MetroNetIQ certainly has. We've come a long way in 2006. This website was just launched a little over 10 months ago, for one thing, and I also launched WikiMetroNet. We evolved our identity and purpose to land firmly in the camp of filling an unmet need by acting as an early stage procurement consultant for cities - I wouldn't have guessed that destination back in January 2006. But I'll wait and make a more complete answer to this question the focus of another blog - my "end-of-year" pensive piece. I'd like to keep this blog focused on you.

So what have you done? What has your city done? Are you moving forward with new technologies, or are you treading water doing things "the way we have always done them?" Or are you avoiding making waves by not bringing up anything controversial? Have you moved beyond the "let's go to a conference" stage? Have you spread the discussion beyond the users (Police Chief, IT Director, etc) to involve the City Manager, the Mayor, and the Council? Have you engaged the non-governmental leaders and stakeholders in your community?

Until you can spread the discussion far and wide, until you have seriously contemplated your next steps, until you have "tried on" a metropolitan broadband network and looked at yourself in the dressing room mirror as a new kind of city - until you've done these things, can you seriously say that you're progressing? So, what have you done?

I hope that more and more cities will add these serious, concrete steps to their New Year's Resolutions list and get serious about taking control of their destinies. I hope that this time next year, you will all be able to hum this John Lennon tune and reflect back on 2007 as the year when your city started to get busy, started to take concrete steps to bring positive change and innovation in, started by using a metropolitan broadband network as a catalyst. That will be a fine recollection next year, if you can point to all that you did to move your city along and bring a network in.

Posted on December 09, 2006 at 02:54 PM | Comments (0)

Wi Fi Mesh + the Birds and the Bees = Creative Class Attraction

In this early stage of metropolitan broadband and municipal wireless industry development, most attention has been focused on such practical mobile application benefits as more cost effective public safety and city services, as well as the social equity of ubiquitous and affordable access to broadband, AKA Digital Inclusion (formerly "Digital Divide"). While these two principal benefits will remain stalwarts in the Benefits Argument made by proponents of Municipal Wireless, there's a new horse I see coming up fast in the outside lane: Economic Development and Regional Competitiveness. Let me explain.

In nature, the battle to attract is well-known. Whether it's flowers attracting bees with colorful displays so that their pollen can be picked up and transferred to other flowers, or bucks attracting does with massive racks, peacocks attracting pea hens with massive tail feathers, or babes attracting dudes with hundreds of dollars spent on Jazzercize, sexy red dresses, makeup, perfume, and highlights and permanent curls, the Art of Attraction is alive and well in our modern biological world of competition for resources and success. Cities fit in this model as well, with the most successful giving considerable thought to highlighting what makes them attractive and different, what makes them appealing, and then executing on strategies to promote their cities as viable sites for relocation and development.

For many cities, 2007 will be the year when they realize they can deploy a Hot Zone or even a city-wide network, and use that new asset as the basis of an economic development campaign to recruit companies and individuals.

According to this recent article in the New York Times Cities Compete in Hipness Battle to Attract Young, cities are in a pitched battle to attract not only companies and employers, but they are also waging a new battle to attract young knowledgable workers, representatives of the "Creative Class" a demographic category (and new budding one-man industry, by the way) touted by economic development rock-star Richard Florida, formerly of Carnegie Mellon and now at George Mason University and author of the 21st Century Economic Development bible The Rise of the Creative Class and his more recent Cities and the Creative Class, followed by The Flight of the Creative Class. (Watch the Books and Whitepapers section on this website, where I'll add reviews of these best-selling books by Richard Florida, which I consider valuable reading for any student of metropolitan broadband).

Attracting factories, manufacturing plants, corporate headquarters, data centers, and other major employers is old school Eco Dev, the bread and butter of regional competitiveness, and it has not gone away, not by a long shot. It's just been added to, one-upped, first by such cultural amenities as sports franchises, museums and art galleries, and more recently by newer cultural amenities like hiking and bike trails, skate parks, live music venues, all amenities that appeal to the younger more active set of knowledge workers we can refer to, with a nod to Florida, as "Young Creatives." And next on the menu of cultural amenities, so goes my argument, are wireless mesh Hot Zones and city-wide wireless networks.

The benefit of these assets is that they are highly versatile. Not only is a ubiquitous wireless broadband network a practical means to support the more mundane aspects of city government service delivery, such as mobile data access, sensory device support, and public safety and disaster response. That same network is also a means to attract companies and individuals who have come to acknowledge broadband as a new utility, as vital as electricity and telephony, and in some cases more important than television or film as an entertainment medium. It's a one-two Economic Development punch: efficient city government AND attractive social amenities.

The trend line is apparent if you just look. Business enterprises deployed internal wireless LANs to support more efficient business practice and early adopter consumers purchased Wi Fi access points to network their home environments as price points declined. Soon, coffee shops, hotel lobbies, and airport terminals adopted small wireless Hot Spots as a strategy to attract and retain laptop-toting guests. Then began the move outdoors. Almost behind the scenes, college towns around the US saw small campuses become early adopters of wireless mesh zones and Wi Fi technology, promoting a services hospitality trend that continued to expand on college campuses, where masses of students congregate in open-air environments and in the areas surrounding buildings. So, small towns that began to deploy downtown networks as early as 2003 are not altogether different. Large city network plans with signficant media coverage may have shifted our attention away from the small towns and more modest networks, but that hasn't slowed the trend or muted the potential of smaller networks.

As price points come down and the technology matures, Wi Fi mesh begins to look like a very affordable and safe technology to light up a downtown area, in even the smallest towns. A Hot Zone can be a focal point of an economic development strategy for any town, well within the reach of all city budgets. And a Hot Zone, loosely defined as an outdoor network of 10 or less wireless mesh access points, holds the potential to be a first step to a larger network for thousands of towns and cities nationwide. What's missing is a guiding hand and the will to act. But as the New York Times and Richard Florida indicate, creating an attractive environment to target and attract a specific demographic is the new incarnation of economic development and that provides a compelling reason to act on a wireless broadband project.

I'd suggest that Wi Fi Mesh Hot Zones will make a name for themselves in the coming year as a tool to implement these economic development strategies and make a community more attractive. Wach the small college towns next year.

Posted on December 02, 2006 at 07:29 AM | Comments (0)