Top Ten Posts for 2007

1. Cities as Complex Ecosystems: Mother Nature Knows Best
If it's a glum worldview Frenay presents, it's not without hope. Frenay offers us hope in technological innovation, which changes the rules of the game and reshuffles the pieces on the game board, even enables a new paradigm. We're seeing convergence of different technological platforms, from IT to telecom to entertainment. The changes of digital technology and the Internet, combined with globalization and environmental impacts like global warming beg the question - is it time to consider a new paradigm to replace our "machine age" model?

Change is more easily accomplished at the local level, which gives relevance to this train of thought. Thinking about the future of your city holistically, you are bound to consider a network project at some point, because any complex ecosystem needs a communication medium, and metropolitan broadband offers that medium.

2. What's Municipal Wireless Good For? The Whole Enchilada
The presence and growth of the Municipal Wireless industry is prima facie evidence of a market demand. That demand is for greater broadband options, increased innovation, lower prices, which has not been satisfied by the incumbent operators. So when a technology comes along to let municipalities take control of their telecom destiny, some step up, a few at first, but more and more as the costs and risks go down, and so a new industry is born in the vacuum left by an old one.

1. a stimulus for national debate on broadband...
2. a vision in the absence of national leadership...
3. a Straw Man to Consider, at a time when a call to action is needed...
4. a new wireless applications industry...
5. a spur to community innovation and creativity... and
6. a new vista of economic development alternatives.

3. What's in a Name? A Lot, if it Signifies an Attitude and an Approach
The advent of Metropolitan Broadband networks changes the environmental dynamic of the city IT Director or CIO, making their job both bigger and ultimately, easier. Now their task of using high technology to help city departments accomplish their goals can use the same infrastructure that the rest of the city will use for other tasks. Do we talk about city streets as a private network that is there to get city workers around to accomplish their city tasks? Is the electric grid a private network? Indeed, city streets and electric grids are apt metaphors for the city Local Area Network (LAN) that is used as a shared common infrastructure.

MetroNetIQ is using just such a shift in focus to give a new perspective to metropolitan broadband projects. There are trade-offs that come with this shift, but they are worth it. The project will take longer and will have more up-front expenses. But it is likely to turn out better in the end and pay long-term dividends.

4. Small, Simple, Cheap, and Fast - OHMMMMMMMM
We're now living in a world that is undergoing near constant change, on a rapid basis. When you have such dramatic change so consistently, doesn't it make sense to approach things differently than you have in the past? Doesn't it make sense to experiment with new models and try on new ways of doing things? Doesn't it make sense to take some risks? That's yet one more benefit of using new business models enabled by these new technologies - they allow rapid feedback cycles, which enable rapid improvement cycles. It's just like Open Source Software. Lots of experiments, lots of innovation, lots of improvements.

A divergence from the status quo is called for, and an opportunity presents itself to model the success of Open Source software development. This is what we will see more and more of in the coming year - more experimentation, more innovation, more change. As consumers, we should open ourselves up to new ways of doing things, exploring what we value and what we can do without. There are multiple lessons to be learned if we will set off on this path.

5. A Declaration of Independence for Broadband Connectivity
A new opportunity for connectivity independence has emerged.
Connectivity is vital to individuals and communities.
Big business and government have been slow to adapt.
The system that would give us ubiquitous broadband is broken.
The system no longer acts in the best interest of the citizen: we need a Plan B.
A national dialogue on connectivity independence is needed.
Political will is necessary to make a paradigm shift.
Collective action is key to changing the paradigm.
Cities, Chambers, and Neighborhoods have roles to play to create a new network.
In a highly dynamic environment, a portfolio of small players is less risky than a handful of large players.
Community cooperatives are a compelling alternative to large corporations.
Natural systems use collaboration and competition to deal with uncertainty, so can we with connectivity.
Infrastructure is only a path to applications, which provide solutions and value.

6. On the Cutting Edge - Citywide Broadband on Steroids
My AHA is that it's Not EITHER FTTH OR Wireless Broadband. That's a false choice. It's BOTH FTTH AND Wireless Broadband.

Wireless Broadband can lead, if it's mobility that's most crucial, but a fiber loop will be needed for back haul initially, and the network will need to grow into a full FTTH network over time to provide necessary capacity to meet future capacity requirements.

7. Phoenix MetroNets, Rising from the Ashes
Municipal Wireless 1.0 - the Pioneer Stage. In the beginning ...Intel's promotion of the Wi Fi standard and the sales efforts of early Wi Fi Mesh equipment makers and WISPs combined with inquisitive, motivated city officials to produce some very early stage projects in 2004 and 2005. Collectively, they had in common that they were making things up as they went. The gear they had was not as developed and was more expensive than it is now. Their experience with deploying and network design was next to nil. And not surprisingly, they made a lot of mistakes along the way. But that's how it is when you're learning to do something you've never done before.

Municipal Wireless 3.0 - the Emergent Customization Stage. I think we're emerging into a new stage of this industry, where we'll see the adoption of a variety of new business models, call it "MuniWireless 3.0," which I've labeled the Emergent Customization Stage. Imagine a shotgun blast, where pellets emerge from the gun barrel and explode into a broader, widening pattern. That's where we are with business models - we've matured to the point that interested parties have a menu of options to consider, and they can browse (pardon the pun!) to get the right option for their particular needs - a Custom business model, if you will. As cities learn more, they are able to take a more autonomous role, and we will see several different paths emerge, because cities are widely divergent in their local situations and preferences. Long Live Freedom of Choice!

8. Tangled Webs, Wicked Ways
In similar fashion, I've been posting articles on the unfolding scandal of FISA and Telecom Immunity, not only because it's fascinating to watch this ornate story unfold, just like the best of the detective stories, but also because it may well shine the light on a carefully constructed myth: call it "Broadband by Bell." For it is a tangled web that the incumbent broadband providers have woven, not only in the networks they've built - literal tangled webs - but also in the line they've fed society that they are the only ones able to manage broadband. Yet our large telecom (and cable) companies are here to stay and the central question for our society when it comes to broadband telecommunication is

For better or worse, our very complex communication web in this country is based on a history of government outsourcing development risks to the private sector, in most cases, to a regulated monopoly (AT&T). From the start, it's been a complicated yet incredibly successful venture, one that has evolved into a myth, starting with Alexander Graham Bell's "Watson Come Here" line and moving forward to Bell Labs series of technical discoveries in the 20th century.

9. A Wicked Wind Blows Through the Senate, The Shankill Butchers Ride Tonight
We are a nation that remains, six years after that horrific attack on September 11, 2001, a nation in fear. We live in fear of another attack. We're reminded, in gory detail, by our president and opportunistic politicians that we could be subject to another attack at any moment, and encouraged to trade away our civil liberties in exchange for an opportunity to feel safer. (Over 1 Million Hits in Google search for "Bush+fear mongering" - or If you prefer the evidence in video form, see this search of You Tube for "Bush+fear mongering" - 58 hits, though some may be repetitive).

In the Senate, two competing versions of the FISA Act have passed out of Senate committees. One, passed last month by the Intelligence Committee, saw Democratic Senators Schumer and Feinstein vote with the Republicans in favor of a version that contains immunity for telecom firms that cooperated with requests from the executive branch to break laws and provide surveillance of domestic data traffic without warrants.

10. Shamalama Ding Dong - Life is a Highway
The potential of the Internet is more like a highway system than a railroad system. And only when all the connecting roads and streets are finally built out - the Last Mile network - and everyone is out there on the road, will we begin to see the full potential of the Internet. It's still a long way off, but those days are coming.

Change is happening fast, the world is not the same as it was four years ago when I started in this space. What will the railroad operators do when the tracks no longer go where people want to go? What will they do when alternatives, like roads and cars, come along to compete with their railroad monopolies? Some will adapt, but others will go away.

It's been a fun year...next, a look forward at 2008. 2008 ... that's going to take some getting used to....