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FEATURED TOPICDigital Transition -The term "Digital Transition" describes the process all organizations must go through in the 21st Century, as they leverage new technologies that provide new options for Applications, Equipment, Processes, and Networks that make them more effective. In contrast, the term "Municipal Wireless" is limiting. It puts the network technology ahead of the application and process changes that drive the business case. ORIENTATION |
« March 2008 | Weblog | May 2008 » April 2008 ArchiveEarth Day: Infrastructure, Efficiency and ExcessI wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day At some point, the dots will start to be connected between infrastructure and efficiency, and that point may be when shortages cause us all to take a second look at things we now take for granted, most notably, ready access to conveniences and what have become our excessive lifestyles. Infrastructure makes possible the conveniences of life that define our modern lifestyle, but overconsumption made possible by such infrastructure is excessive and increasingly threatening. There is such a thing as "too much of a good thing." Smart infrastructure that leverages modern technology can be turned to a different purpose, that of providing efficiency AND limiting excess. When the time comes that shortages raise our attention level and it looks like it may soon be here, we're bound to have a national conversation on efficiency as an alternative lifestyle to what we've grown quite accustomed to in modern society since the end of World War Two: excess as a lifestyle, best characterized by the three step thought process, 1. "A is good." 2. "More of A is better." 3. "Repeat Steps 1 & 2." You don't have to look far for evidence of this ethos, from Obesity, to Addictions, to Deforestation, to Exhaustion of Fisheries, to Climate Change, to McMansions, to now ... Rising Prices, Dwindling Resources and Looming Shortages. In a NY Times Op Ed piece on Tuesday (Earth Day), Running Out of Planet to Exploit, Paul Krugman raised the question of reaching real hard limits in our society, similar to the points I raised in a post back on January 15 titled The Party Never Ends ...Cartoon Lemonade. I have small ranch just west of Austin, and I can tell you, as I build my small eco-barn - my current project, remind me to post pictures some day - I'm thinking a lot about infrastructure (or more accurately, the lack thereof, and what I don't currently have access to out in Dripping Springs). I do have electricity, and while that's a big step, it's the only modern convenience I have at present. I've noticed, for instance, that it's a lot more efficient to pull water out of a faucet in the wall, like I do in my city home, than it is to haul 5-gallon jugs out for our use during the weekend, as I do now. (WATER UTILITY NETWORK) With no bathroom, my wife will only hang out with me for a few hours before heading home. (WASTEWATER UTILITY NETWORK) It's far more convenient to drive on the series of interconnecting highways and county roads to get to my ranch, than it is to drive my car once I go through my ranch gate. (ROAD NETWORK) It's more efficient to call someone by telephone than to drive over to see them. (TELECOM NETWORK) It's more efficient to turn on the light switch than it is to light candles. (ELECTRICITY NETWORK) And it's more efficient to surf the Web and pick up a deal on Craig's List, than it is to shop the classifieds or hit individual garage sales. (INTERNET NETWORK) Obviously, this list could go on and on, but I think I've made my point - Infrastructures bring efficient delivery of goods and services, which is a huge plus in our modern economy and a huge contributer to our modern lifestyles. And that's a good thing. But, it seems, it's too good of a thing when efficient delivery can easily lead to over-consumption and under-appreciation, which I would describe as a pretty good short-hand definition of waste and excess. It's not just oil that has defied the complacency of a few years back. Food prices have also soared, as have the prices of basic metals. And the global surge in commodity prices is reviving a question we haven't heard much since the 1970s: Will limited supplies of natural resources pose an obstacle to future world economic growth? What Americans mostly remember about the 1970s are soaring oil prices and lines at gas stations. But there was also a severe global food crisis, which caused a lot of pain at the supermarket checkout line - I remember 1974 as the year of Hamburger Helper - and, much more important, helped cause devastating famines in poorer countries. In retrospect, the commodity boom of 1972-75 was probably the result of rapid world economic growth that outpaced supplies, combined with the effects of bad weather and Middle Eastern conflict. Eventually, the bad luck came to an end, new land was placed under cultivation, new sources of oil were found in the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea, and resources got cheap again. But this time may be different: concerns about what happens when an ever-growing world economy pushes up against the limits of a finite planet ring truer now than they did in the 1970s. For one thing, I don't expect growth in China to slow sharply anytime soon. That's a big contrast with what happened in the 1970s, when growth in Japan and Europe, the emerging economies of the time, downshifted - and thereby took a lot of pressure off the world's resources. Meanwhile, resources are getting harder to find. Big oil discoveries, in particular, have become few and far between, and in the last few years oil production from new sources has been barely enough to offset declining production from established sources. And the bad weather hitting agricultural production this time is starting to look more fundamental and permanent than El Niño and La Niña, which disrupted crops 35 years ago. Australia, in particular, is now in the 10th year of a drought that looks more and more like a long-term manifestation of climate change. Suppose that we really are running up against global limits. What does it mean? For some, it means "I've got mine, screw you." For others, "Nothing I can do about it, so I guess I'll just keep on doing what seems to work for me - I wanna rock and roll all nite..." But for those of us who already HAVE, and want to continue to live a quality life in some manner, I think our choices lie along this continuum: 1) Ignore what's happening - Hope as Strategy; 2) Watch our lifestyles ebb away and grow resentful and blame others - Pointing Fingers as Strategy; or 3) Acknowledge limits, leverage technology to be more efficient and shift our basis for happiness - Reality as Strategy. Krugman continues with his statement of the problem, but alas, offers no solution ... Even if it turns out that we're really at or near peak world oil production, that doesn't mean that one day we'll say, "Oh my God! We just ran out of oil!" and watch civilization collapse into "Mad Max" anarchy. But rich countries will face steady pressure on their economies from rising resource prices, making it harder to raise their standard of living. And some poor countries will find themselves living dangerously close to the edge -or over it. Don't look now, but the good times may have just stopped rolling. Running Out of Planet to Exploit - New York Times So assume that we grasp the problem and have zoomed past denial and anger to acceptance ... What about a solution? Well, for one, it starts with a changed attitude...for a more in-depth look at Earth Day's roots, check out this Interview with Earth Day Pioneer Denis Hayes. It's less about "hugging trees" and more about "being real and surviving." And this brief article brings wireless infrastructure into the picture as a part of the solution. It describes how two inventions harness natural earth rhythms with new technologies to provide efficiency through infrastructure: Smart Streetlights and Smart Sidewalks. Lunar-Resonant Streetlights, designed by the Civil Twilight Collective, respond to ambient moonlight, dimming and brightening as the moon cycles through its phases each month - and can result in a potential 90-95 percent energy savings over standard streetlights, which account for 38 percent of all electricity used for lighting in the United States. Pilot installations are on the near horizon, and the Civil Twilight crew is also working on an off-grid variation that's solar-powered and WiFi equipped; it will be presented at a World Bank conference on Lighting Africa. After Earth Day This article digs deeper on the Lunar Lighting project... This computer-generated image is the vision of Civil Twilight, a design collective based in San Francisco's Mission District. With its concept for a new approach to outdoor lighting, the group asks: What if streetlights could respond to ambient moonlight, dimming and brightening each month as the moon cycles through its phases? On clear nights when the moon is full, streetlights might even turn off completely. The scheme, which they call "lunar-resonant streetlights," could save as much as 80-90 percent of the energy used in street lighting while bringing back the experience of moonlight and stargazing to urban areas. The concept, a small and simple intervention that could impact light pollution and energy use on a global scale, won this year's Metropolis Next Generation ideas competition. For the first time, the four-year-old program took up a theme: energy - its uses, reduction, consumption, efficiencies, and alternatives. Runners-up included an LED display for faucets that makes people aware of water usage; a multistory residential unit that generates renewable energy and treats waste; thermo-responsive architectural cladding that expands and contracts to regulate building temperature; and a highway sound barrier that absorbs airborne pollutants. Perhaps the most fascinating fact that the collective's research revealed, however, is a little-known detail about the history of electricity: in the 1930s, with the spread of electrification and the consolidation of utilities, streetlights became a convenient way to off-load excess energy from the grid at night, when power demands dropped significantly. This intentionally inefficient system determined the norm for nighttime outdoor lighting levels, a standard that has not been revised since, even though the need for off-loading ended in the 1970s. What we now assume is a safety measure is in fact the forgotten remnant of an obsolete energy practice. Next Gen juror Fred Dust, head of IDEO's Smart Space design practice, says the jury found this part of the proposal both shocking and compelling. "It's such an archaic concept that it seems like science fiction," he says. Questioning current lighting standards and asking what level of illumination is actually necessary brings some surprising answers. Willis explains that the human eye, with its complementary systems of rods and cones, evolved to adapt to both full-sun days and moonless nights. "We can see an incredibly broad range of intensities," he says. "The difference between sunlight and starlight is something like a hundred thousand orders of magnitude." Bright moonlight is in the transitional part of this range, when both rods and cones are active. "It's a natural biological benchmark," Willis says, "because we evolved with it." Meanwhile, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' recommendations for artificial lighting are only about ten times brighter than full moonlight - almost nothing compared to what the human eye is capable of seeing and yet significant in terms of our ability to appreciate the night sky. So what are the current standards based on? Comfort levels and perceptions regarding nighttime safety. Since the off-loading days of the 1930s, we've become accustomed to the feel of brightly lit streets and parking lots. But ironically, studies have shown no link between outdoor lighting intensity and crime or accident rates. What's more dangerous, Willis says, is the drastic variation in light levels within an urban area. As you drive, for example, from a well-lit major thoroughfare to a darkened residential street, your eye does not have time to adjust, and your vision is impaired. Moonlight is much more even, he explains, and that makes it more effective for human vision. By filling in only what light is needed, lunar-resonant streetlights would help restore this evenness and actually improve nighttime visibility. "We're interested in the question of standards," Willis says. "Do you need to be able to read a newspaper in the middle of the night outside, and is that really worth all of these other things we've lost?" As Seely points out, another thing we've lost is an appreciation for electric light itself. "The evolution of streetlights was partly decorative," she says, "and this project is in some ways about getting people to reappreciate light where it's spectacular, tapping into the wonder of how beautiful it is." As her photographs show, the gradual ratcheting up of artificial lighting means that spectacle is harder and harder to achieve. Her 2006 photograph Metropolis: 36 10 N 115 8 W, taken from the desert outside Las Vegas, makes the city look dangerously radioactive. A light beam shooting from the top of the Luxor hotel pyramid looks like it would be visible from space, raising questions about what its competitors will do to top it - and how long ago it was that Las Vegans last saw a star in the sky. Lunar Light
If I could sum up the wisdom of this approach, it would be this - As a first stage in dealing with pending shortages, we need not sacrifice a thing but our archaic and unconscious, and sometimes, lazy habits of consumption. That's a relief! We don't have to sacrifice ... yet! It's like realizing that you don't have to start dieting and exercising - no situps! - yet, you just have to give some thought to what you are putting in your mouth and get up and move around now and then...small changes make big differences, if started in time. "You can Pay me now, or Pay me later," as the old Brake Check commercial used to say.... By taking a new look at how we do things and asking questions about why we do things the way we do - "why don't we take advantage of new technologies that enable new solutions?" - we can achieve dramatic savings that have no negative impact on our lifestyles, in fact, that may even improve our lifestyles. But such an approach requires a conscious approach to examining what we do and how we do it. No more living on habits and going through the motions to find happiness by consuming more and enjoying less. A key benefit that we can realize from metropolitan broadband that is only now becoming appreciated is that the new infrastructure affords city governments as well as other large enterprises the opportunity to do just what I described above - to examine how they do things and why, and then adjust their processes by using wireless broadband to reduce excess costs and avoid adding labor costs - in other words, to do more with less. Such is the growing and changing perspective on the value of infrastructure - no longer pipes that provide water too cheap to meter, but smart pipes that detect leaks to prevent waste... Posted on April 24, 2008 at 07:37 AM | Comments (0) Home has a Hold on MeMy last post talked about Small Towns, and the post before it about the impact of Rural Broadband. I'm getting all sappy here: as I concluded that post on small towns with an image of the Texas Hill Country, where I have a small ranch - call it a ranchette, only 20 acres but I know every inch...the images I looked at made me realize how pretty the central Texas Hill Country is, and how much I like it. Somehow, I was reminded of Gary P. Nunn, the Texas songwriter, and his song, You Ask Me What I like About Texas. Years ago, in my wild, misspent youth, I was a bartender at the Last Waterhole Saloon in Amsterdam's Red Light District It was fall of 1982, I was 25 and single, and that period only lasted from sometime in September until just after Christmas - only about 13 weeks, when you think about it... During my day shift, I bartended and checked people in to the youth hostel upstairs (the saloon was on the Warmoesstraat, just 2 blocks from the train station, just off the Damrak, the main street in downtown Amsterdam). The Last Waterhole was one of those cafes you hear about in Amsterdam, where you can get stuff to smoke...it was, quite frankly, one of the wildest places I've ever been to on the planet... Picture of a pub on the Warmoesstraat...
The Last Waterhole looked something like this, only darker, and much more sinister, more skanky, well, just considerably more scummy, if you will. Three pool tables and a stage and heroin junkies I had to kick out during the day...Needless to say, many stories ensued....it seems like another lifetime ago, indeed, it was. If my kids only knew! I used to describe the bar scene as something similar to a bar scene in the Star Wars.
Imagine the thick smoke, young people from all over the world, partying like they were, well, on vacation ... loud rock and roll ...green Grolsch bottles and draft Heinekens in little pils glasses... One story connects Amsterdam to Texas: Gary P. Nunn was coming for a European Tour in 1983, and the Pride of Texas band had gotten back together in order to back him up on his tour. They practiced during the day, during my shifts, so I listened to the same songs, over. and over. and over. again. and again. Some nights I drove with the band to Belgium, or northern Holland, and acted as a roadie and assistant for their shows. Other days I drove with the promoter and saloon owner out to Paris, or Stockholm, to line up gigs for Gary and his tour with my friends from the Pride of Texas... It was a gas to be a cowboy in Europe. But I did miss Texas. I bring all this up to underscore the importance of home for all of us, the pull it has on our heartstrings, and the association of geography and location. I think you have to be an immigrant or an ex patriot at least once in your life to really understand what it's like to miss home - deeply. And I was only a temporary immigrant back then, hardly with an experience to match those of millions of immigrants ... but I did miss home that year I spent bumming around Europe. I think it's especially poignant when you reach a certain age and can appreciate the value of home, family, and community. And I think it's very heartfelt, this attachment to home, especially for those who live in small towns, because the "home" experience is so much more immediate in small towns. Posted on April 23, 2008 at 07:39 PM | Comments (0) Small Towns ... and BroadbandWell I was born in a small town All my friends are so small town Educated in a small town But Ive seen it all in a small town No I cannot forget where it is that I come from Got nothing against a big town Well I was born in a small town Small Town by John Cougar Mellencamp (does he still include the Cougar middle name?) More recently, for Barack Obama! And, I hear that he'll be appearing for Hillary Clinton soon also ... I'm guessing he's a Democrat? The Small Town/Broadband Connection? This article today caught my eye, from the Washington Monthly blog... SMALL TOWNS....Tyler Cowen compiles his (impressive!) list of "anti-American attitudes." Among them is this: 4. I could not live in rural America and be happy. Perhaps this is food related? Tyler's a foodie, and there's not a lot of interesting ethnic food in the sticks. I, on the other hand, could pretty much subsist on burgers and fries every day if it came down to it, so I'd do fine. Overall, I've always had a hard time identifying with the largely esthetic dislike so many people have for one style of living or another. I grew up (and still live in) the suburbs, so obviously I don't have a problem with suburbs. But I like big cities too and I think I'd enjoy living in New York or Boston or London if the chance arose. (And I adore subways - though I've always wondered if I'd adore them quite as much if I had to rely on them on a daily basis.) As for small towns, they've always seemed attractive too when I've traveled through them. Very tranquil and quiet. I like that, and as long as broadband is available I can do my job just fine. Reading past that nonsensical commentary - who cares?? - that last statement caught my eye. Fact is, when you think about it, having broadband in a small town, a job that relies on being on-line most of the time, and the dramatically lower cost of living - all three combine to make living in a small town not an altogether unappealing prospect for a lot of us, especially for those of us whose idea of a great Friday night is a video and a pizza on the couch with the family...go ahead, guess MY age! Vive Simpllicite! You can go into town when you need to, but live with a view like this out your back door! (Texas Hill Country image that came up in my Google Image Search of Dripping Springs, Texas, the Small Town closest to where my ranch is located...just outside Austin - 35 minute drive from my house).
So, what's not to like?? May not be everyone's cup of tea, but from where I'm sitting, with broadband available, what's not to like? Posted on April 23, 2008 at 06:21 PM | Comments (0) Impact of Rural Broadband OverlookedIn a compelling and heartfelt, if depressing Op Ed in the NY Times this week (see Lost Town Blues), author Tim Egan laments the decline of rural job opportunities and a sense of bitterness and despair over the ultimate fate of these once pleasant towns where a "real" life was possible. People who live in small towns that have been passed over don't need to be told that they're bitter, or heroic. They're stuck, is what they are. The honest ones say they would follow their kids out of town, if only they had the means. A few years ago, a University of Nebraska survey of 3,087 people in rural counties asked people how they felt about their lives. Only 11 percent of them said they were satisfied with where they lived. Optimism, as much a part of the landscape as winter wheat, was disappearing. This sentiment, real but wrapped up in pride over place, may be in part why the polls show little change in Barack Obama's standing since his comments about the bitterness of small towns and the working class. The pundits and voters are having two different conversations, not for the first time. But what is often overlooked is that once remote jobs become possible with cheap access to broadband, the nature of Where one is located is far less vital than is How one is connected. Suddenly, it makes sense to locate where workers are available, where real estate is cheap, and where broadband is plentiful ... in short, rural America starts to look better than the Third World, or urban America, for that matter, for certain jobs. As broadband spreads, I hope this will become more and more apparent. Still, Tim Egan suggests, don't hold your breathe. More after the jump. So, solutions? On John McCain's Web site, he talks as much about reviving small town America as he does about Lindsay Lohan's love life - zilch. Clinton and Obama each have detailed, multi-point proposals. They're heavy on new energy solutions - solar, wind, converting crops to fuel, with faded factory towns doing the work. The problem, as we've seen with the huge rise in commodity crop prices, is that when food and fuel compete for the same source, family budgets strain. Hillary is out with a new ad in Indiana, promising to keep defense jobs in the state - pork as public policy, another sleight-of-hand trick for small town America. Is it too much to ask one of these candidates for an honest but painful statement suggesting that perhaps a lot of these towns may never come back? Or that the way to economic revival is to lose the pipe dream that Google is going to relocate to an old steel town because they have a tax-free enterprise zone and some cool mountain-bike trails? Maybe not Google, but countless small business opportunities become much more viable with the low costs and high connectivity that rural towns represent. While most of the comments overlook this fact, at least one commenter gets it, He may dismiss the promise of telecommunications in the Rust Belt, and yes, it's unlikely that data centers will spring up willy-nilly (although many corporations are indeed looking at North Country locations because the cost of cooling data centers in them is much lower than in sunnier climes). But one can gain expertise in numerous occupations in an urban center, then find much lower real estate prices and much more relaxed quality of life in any town well-equipped with broadband. It is up to these communities to equip and market themselves for the future of remote work. Look for a few small towns to differentiate themselves with connectivity and strategies that emphasize quality of life, low real estate costs and lower overall Cost of Living, and great broadband connectivity. In time, this path holds tremendous potential for rural and rust-belt America. It won't solve all problems, and doubtless, many towns will dry up and blow away. But many will survive in this way, and some will thrive. No town or city has a lock on a secure future, but some have more attractive potential than others. Future Success for any town is an alchemy that involves natural beauty, climate, personality, attitude, strategy, community cohesion, and CONNECTIVITY. Posted on April 20, 2008 at 06:40 AM | Comments (0) Sh Boom, Sha BoomLife would be a dream ... if more people learned about metropolitan broadband by reading MetroNetIQ.com ... if you like what you read, please tell your friends! Posted on April 18, 2008 at 11:07 PM | Comments (0) Metropolitan Broadband: Embracing DestinyA hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man. Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces In his epic Star Wars film series, through all six episodes, creator George Lucas traces the mythic character arc of the Hero, be it the anti-hero/chief protagonist, Annekin Skywalker, aka Darth Vader or his son, the true hero, Luke Skywalker. The Hero's Journey, a common process followed by the archetypal hero, is brilliantly documented by professor of comparative mythology Joseph Campbell, in his groundbreaking 1949 work, The Hero of a Thousand Faces. For a special tie in of the academic and the film, I recommend the 1988 Bill Moyers interview series The Power of Myth, actually filmed at George Lucas' studios, aptly named "Skywalker Ranch." What, you may ask, could this possibly have to do with metropolitan broadband? Individuals, cities, AND societies have an opportunity to take a hero's journey whenever they take on a difficult task, face a difficult truth, or accept a difficult challenge and in so doing, take the proverbial Road Less Traveled, bucking the conventional path for one more suited to their needs, but also often one more difficult, even more dangerous or risky. Believe me, politicians do indeed view these projects as dangerous and risky - to their elected positions...but they are forging ahead, nonetheless. When city leaders decide to do the right thing for the right reasons, based on their own situation, even if its less acceptable to those who hold tight to the status quo - they are modeling heroic behavior, acting out of principle rather than going with the flow. In my opinion, city leaders who choose an alternative broadband path after careful deliberation and consultation, be it a wireless or fiber solution, are putting themselves out on the front lines and are engaging in a classic hero's journey. Seattle is taking the hero's path - read about their Fiber project in Daily Wireless' coverage Seattle: Fiber For All. City leaders are choosing to take the reins on their broadband destiny by launching a project, wireless, fiber, or both. They're not doing it because they like to do risky things, or because they're looking for adventure. Rather, they've decided that the future is digital, and they have to move their communities along that path, as I suggested in a post a few months back (see Digital Adolescents Stuck in Digital Puberty). There's a great article in the February 2008 Issue of Broadband Properties Magazine, which goes into good detail and should serve as a good source of background information - see Municipal Broadband: Demystifying Wireless and Fiber Optic Options. The article is subtitled "Communities can greatly benefit from owning municipal broadband networks and opening them to multiple providers. But implementing such The Hero's Journey If you're not familiar with the Hero's Journey I've referenced herein, I recommend you spend a little time reading below. It is uplifting to realize that some of the more challenging tasks you yourself take on, could be examined under these guidelines...who knows, it may change your perspective. Consider these stories, which you're probably familiar with ... Consider this list of films, from Pitch a Screenplay: Know Your Hero's Journey - Titanic (1997) grossed over $600,000,000 – uses the Hero's Journey as a template. - Star Wars (1977) grossed over $460,000,000 - uses the Hero's Journey as a template. - Shrek 2 (2004) grossed over $436,000,000 - uses the Hero's Journey as a template. - ET (1982) grossed over $434,000,000 - uses the Hero's Journey as a template. - Spiderman (2002) grossed over $432,000,000 - uses the Hero's Journey as a template. - Out of Africa (1985), Terms of Endearment (1983), Dances with Wolves (1990), Gladiator (2000) - All Academy Award Winners Best Film are based on the Hero's Journey. - Anti-hero stories (Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990) etc) are all based on the Hero's Journey. - Heroine's Journey stories (Million Dollar Baby (2004), Out of Africa (1980) etc) are all based on the Hero's Journey. The Hero's Journey is also sometimes referred to as the Monomyth. Here are the five key steps: 1. A call to adventure, which the hero has to accept or decline Now doesn't that sound like what a city leader or team goes through in the process to bring more broadband opportunity to their city? For some serious detail, there's the Wikipedia description of the archetypical Hero's Journey, from the entry for The Hero with a Thousand Faces... PART ONE: The Adventure of the Hero Chapter I: Departure * 1. The Call to Adventure The adventure begins with the hero receiving a call to action, such as a threat to the peace of the community, or the hero simply falls into or blunders into it. The call is often announced to the hero by another character who acts as a "herald". The herald, often represented as dark or terrifying and judged evil by the world, may call the character to adventure simply by the crisis of his appearance. * 2. Refusal of the Call In some stories, the hero initially refuses the call to adventure. When this happens, the hero may suffer somehow, and may eventually choose to answer, or may continue to decline the call. * 3. Supernatural Aid After the hero has accepted the call, he encounters a protective figure (often elderly) who provides special tools and advice for the adventure ahead, such as an amulet or a weapon. * 4. The Crossing of the First Threshold The hero must cross the threshold between the world he is familiar with and that which he is not. Often this involves facing a "threshold guardian", an entity that works to keep all within the protective confines of the world but must be encountered in order to enter the new zone of experience. * 5. The Belly of the Whale The hero, rather than passing a threshold, passes into the new zone by means of rebirth. Appearing to have died by being swallowed or having their flesh scattered, the hero is transformed and becomes ready for the adventure ahead. Chapter II: Initiation * 1. The Road of Trials Once past the threshold, the hero encounters a dream landscape of ambiguous and fluid forms. The hero is challenged to survive a succession of obstacles and, in so doing, amplifies his consciousness. The hero is helped covertly by the supernatural helper or may discover a benign power supporting him in his passage. * 2. The Meeting with the Goddess The ultimate trial is often represented as a marriage between the hero and a queenlike, or mother-like figure. This represents the hero's mastery of life (represented by the feminine) as well as the totality of what can be known. When the hero is female, this becomes a male figure. * 3. Woman as the Temptress His awareness expanded, the hero may fixate on the disunity between truth and his subjective outlook, inherently tainted by the flesh. This is often represented with revulsion or rejection of a female figure. * 4. Atonement with the Father The hero reconciles the tyrant and merciful aspects of the father-like authority figure to understand himself as well as this figure. * 5. Apotheosis The hero's ego is disintegrated in a breakthrough expansion of consciousness. Quite frequently the hero's idea of reality is changed; the hero may find an ability to do new things or to see a larger point of view, allowing the hero to sacrifice himself. * 6. The Ultimate Boon The hero is now ready to obtain that which he has set out, an item or new awareness that, once he returns, will benefit the society that he has left.
* 1. Refusal of the Return Having found bliss and enlightenment in the other world, the hero may not want to return to the ordinary world to bestow the boon onto his fellow man. * 2. The Magic Flight When the boon's acquisition (or the hero's return to the world) comes against opposition, a chase or pursuit may ensue before the hero returns. * 3. Rescue from Without The hero may need to be rescued by forces from the ordinary world. This may be because the hero has refused to return or because he is successfully blocked from returning with the boon. The hero loses his ego. * 4. The Crossing of the Return Threshold The hero returns to the world of common day and must accept it as real. * 5. Master of the Two Worlds Because of the boon or due to his experience, the hero may now perceive both the divine and human worlds. * 6. Freedom to Live The hero bestows the boon to his fellow man. Posted on April 15, 2008 at 09:11 PM | Comments (0) Net Neutrality for Non-Science Majors(Nearly 33 million downloads of this video - how does that translate into Gold and Platinum status??) [Note: it's been a busy month for me, as I work to bring the San Marcos network from concept into reality. We're close to a solution and a vote, hopefully by the end of April. I filed this post away last Saturday, and only now got around to writing it up...patience, patience. ] For the casual reader, I think even the term "Net Neutrality" is enough to make the eyes roll and hasten them to turn the page. That topic combines the best of Public Policy, Technology, and Politics. Yeaaaaaaa! So I was intrigued when I read an article in the popular press the other day that actually put an interesting spin on the topic, made it readable for a change...In Beware the New New Thing, NY Times guest columnist Damian Kulash (lead singer for the group OK Go, an Internet music sensation - be sure to watch the video above), lays it out for the time-pressed technophobe in us all. If you haven't been following the debate on net neutrality, you're not alone. The details of the issue can lead into realms where only tech geeks and policy wonks dare to tread, but at root there's a pretty simple question: How much control should network operators be allowed to have over the information on their lines? Let me repeat that key phrase, because he nails the issue in paragraph 3: How much control should network operators be allowed to have over the information on their lines? He goes on to carry the discussion into "Common Carriage" laws - brave soul - and actually states the case pretty plainly that the continued success of the Internet depends upon its continued openness. Most people assume that the Internet is a democratic free-for-all by nature - that it could be no other way. But the openness of the Internet as we know it is a byproduct of the fact that the network was started on phone lines. The phone system is subject to "common carriage" laws, which require phone companies to treat all calls and customers equally. They can't offer tiered service in which higher-paying customers get their calls through faster or clearer, or calls originating on a competitor's network are blocked or slowed. These laws have been on the books for about as long as telephones have been ringing, and were meant to keep Bell from using its elephantine market share to squash everyone else. And because of common carriage, digital data running over the phone lines has essentially been off limits to the people who laid the lines. But in the last decade, the network providers have argued that since the Internet is no longer primarily run on phone lines, the laws of data equality no longer apply. They reason that they own the fiber optic and coaxial lines, so they should be able to do whatever they want with the information crossing them. Just as an aside, I spent nearly two years of my life nearly 15 years ago as a regulatory lobbyist for an electric company, forcing me to sit through interminable hearings at the Texas Public Utility Commission. I cannot forget the detailed discussions in rate cases around electric and telephone companies rights to recover the costs of their infrastructure through regulated rates...so it sticks in my craw when they talk about their "ownership" of these assets - no doubt, as the telephone companies transition to private status, they build more and more of their infrastructure on their own dime. But a considerable amount of the copper wires they currently leverage today to provide DSL were built under the auspices and protections of their status as regulated monopolies, where in a sense, we the public all owned the infrastructure - it was a common good. They managed over the ensuing years through a series of legislative and regulatory victories and deals they struck where they did not live up to their end, to transfer those assets over to the private side where they could use them to produce unregulated income ... So file that one away in the back of your mind as you keep reading. Under current law, they're right. They can block certain files or Web sites for their subscribers, or slow or obstruct certain applications. And they do, albeit pretty rarely. Network providers have censored anti-Bush comments from an online Pearl Jam concert, refused to allow a text-messaging program from the pro-choice group Naral (saying it was "unsavory"), blocked access to the Internet phone service (and direct competitor) Vonage and selectively throttled online traffic that was using the BitTorrent protocol. When the network operators pull these stunts, there is generally widespread outrage. But outright censorship and obstruction of access are only one part of the issue, and they represent the lesser threat, in the long run. What we should worry about more is not what's kept from us today, but what will be built (or not built) in the years to come. The essence of the argument to block traffic is that a privately-held resource is constrained and the owners "have to" block traffic in order to maintain service for all. They "have to" block traffic of a few abusers in order to protect the service levels of the rest of their customers. But this argument presupposes that they are managers of a scarce commodity, victims of fate, in a sense. They create the very conditions that constrain them, then argue for remedies that would further limit competition. Orwellian. In point of fact, the arguments made against Net Neutrality are ultimately based on the availability of a critical infrastructure. The current owners of the infrastructure are banking on maintaining their hegemony over the new network - the bigger, faster one, yet to be built, which will be even more profitable. And they need protection in the laws - they need their leveraged position to be set into concrete - for their plans to come to fruition. We hate when things are taken from us (so we rage at censorship), but we also love to get new things. And the providers are chomping at the bit to offer them to us: new high-bandwidth treats like super fast high-definition video and quick movie downloads. They can make it sound great: newer, bigger, faster, better! But the new fast lanes they propose will be theirs to control and exploit and sell access to, without the level playing field that common carriage built into today's network. They won't be blocking anything per se - we'll never know what we're not getting - they'll just be leapfrogging today's technology with a new, higher-bandwidth network where they get to be the gatekeepers and toll collectors. The superlative new video on offer will be available from (surprise, surprise) them, or companies who've paid them for the privilege of access to their customers. If this model sounds familiar, that's because it is. It's how cable TV operates. We can't allow a system of gatekeepers to get built into the network. The Internet shouldn't be harnessed for the profit of a few, rather than the good of the many; value should come from the quality of information, not the control of access to it. So, if you want the telecoms to be more like the cables, relax and let things happen. But it doesn't have to be that way. Other companies in other industries with a legacy of working in a competitive market readily see a similar situation in a dramatically different way. For some parallel examples: there are only two guitar companies who make most of the guitars sold in America, but they don't control what we play on those guitars. Whether we use a Mac or a PC doesn't govern what we can make with our computers. The telephone company doesn't get to decide what we discuss over our phone lines. It would be absurd to let the handful of companies who connect us to the Internet determine what we can do online. Congress needs to establish basic ground rules for an open Internet, just as common carriage laws did for the phone system. The Internet, for now, is the type of place where my band's homemade videos find a wider audience than the industry's million-dollar productions. A good idea is still more important than deep pockets. If network providers are allowed to build the next generation of the Net as a pay-to-play system, we will all pay the price. Kudos to Damian for making a complex issue plain. It's not an easy thing to do. Takes a creative mind, I guess, to cut through the bull to get to the heart of the matter. I guess last Saturday was a big day for the Internet at the NY Times (the mainstream guys were off for the weekend?), because there was yet another article on the Op Ed pages, this one about the potential to use the Internet for an unsavory practice - digging into your private lives. The Already Big Thing on the Internet: Spying on Users. This article underscores the argument for a robust, well-regulated Internet industry. We need the Internet, but we also need protection from its abuse. Having a variety of providers to go to would provide a market-based protection against those who would abuse the trust of their customers and take advantage of their privileged positions as network owners by digging into our private files. (See Warrantless Wiretapping). And, needless to say, from my perspective, metropolitan broadband addresses both these issues, infrastructure and security, because it provides more robust competition and an alternative means to build out critical information infrastructure. Posted on April 12, 2008 at 09:47 AM | Comments (0) Wi Fi Chips Ahoy
In browsing this recent report on the dramatic increase in Wi Fi chip production (see Five Years of Wi-Fi Chipsets: Five Times the Revenue, But Ten Times the Shipments, According to New ABI Research Data), my thoughts led me to three words that have related meanings: synergy, symbiosis, and system. Synergy Greek sunergia, cooperation, from sunergos, working together. Synergy happens when two events or people or trends combine to produce results that are far better than the sum. In other words, 1+1 does not necessarily equal 2, but 3, 4 or even 5...dramatic results ensue when forces come together to produce synergy. It's a good thing. Symbiosis from the Greek sumbiosis, companionship, from sumbioun, to live together, from sumbios, living together : sun-, syn- + bios, life. Symbiosis happens when two creatures find harmony in pursuing activities that are mutually beneficial. Think of bees and flowers. The bees get pollen to make honey and support their queen and their hive, and the flowers get an agent to help them reproduce with other flowers, given that as plants they are rooted to the ground. And humans get to enjoy the beauty of the colorful flowers, meant to attract the bees ... now that's not only symbiosis, its synergy (and it's beautiful). Nature, when it clicks, is unparalleled in its excellence and perfection. A system, from the Greek systema whole compounded of several parts, Systems are complex organizations of individual elements that when combined work together to accomplish some set of functions. Systems can vary widely in their complexity. These words share a common prefix - note that they all begin with the letters S and Y. What's up with that? As you can tell from their Greek roots, these words all talk about things coming together....we could go on and on with this analysis, but I think you get my drift. When you see these letters at the start of a word, look for things coming together and for results to ensue. What comes together with all these chips??? Networks, folks. See then this other report - let's bring them together here on this website... These aren't long articles, but summaries of newly released reports by research firm ABI. More on what these news items portend after the jump.
NEW YORK - In 2004, there were only 520 square miles of networked municipal Wi-Fi. However, ABI Research forecasts a nearly sixty-fold increase over the next several years, to more than 30,000 square miles. At present, the United States leads in municipal Wi-Fi deployments - but Canada, Japan, South Korea, and Western Europe are undergoing expansion of municipal Wi-Fi infrastructure and applications. Varying levels of maturity and acceptance exist within this market, spread across global regions and individual countries. The following is a snapshot of some major variations, according to recent analysis from ABI Research: -- North America: Leads in deployments; but in many cases, the region employs the wrong business plan of free consumer access and free infrastructure; consolidating incumbent service providers view municipal Wi-Fi as a competitive threat. -- Europe: Mobile-oriented rather than PC-oriented; incumbents initially resisted municipal Wi-Fi but now recognize in-building limitations and are incorporating it within service bundles for nomadic broadband Internet access, or as a way to compete out of region. -- Asia-Pacific: Status varies widely, but rapid uptake in advanced countries such as South Korea is resulting in innovative applications and the development of new end-user devices to leverage municipal Wi-Fi. -- Emerging Regions: Equipment costs remain prohibitive; there is interest in the technology, but compared with more basic services such as electricity, funding is a challenge; these regions are likely to be late adopters. ABI Research vice president and research director Stan Schatt believes that there are key financial benefits that should be included within the municipal Wi-Fi business case. "Wireless surveillance systems, for example, will provide financial returns by helping prevent possible terrorist attacks, decreasing overall crime, improving traffic flow, and even boosting tourism by creating stable communities," he explains. Once technology, business, and cost issues are resolved, nations will benefit from this simple and low-cost broadband Internet access technology, consequently broadening the range of the networked service. The key points I'd highlight after reading this are: Now for the news on Wi Fi CHIPS and DEVICES. NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--New market data released by ABI Research shows that about 440 million Wi-Fi chip sets will be shipped over the course of 2008. This represents a tenfold increase over the number shipped in 2003; but over the same five-year period, the revenues they produced have multiplied by only five. "The tenfold increase in Wi-Fi chipset shipments since 2003 paired with a fivefold increase in revenues in the same period clearly highlights the falling average selling prices (ASPs) that we have seen as this market further matures," says senior analyst Philip Solis. "Although ASPs got a small boost last year due to the introduction of higher-priced 802.11n chips, in general prices have fallen by about half, even though we're moving to more complex chip sets that increasingly use OFDM and MIMO technologies for 802.11n." In 2007, Broadcom was the leading Wi-Fi chipset vendor. The company even widened its market lead over its competitors as it gained market share in the laptop segment. The growth areas for this market in coming years will be found where Wi-Fi chips are embedded in more and more device types. Wi-Fi IC vendors should tailor their strategies accordingly. Consumer electronics (home theater equipment, gaming devices, portable media players), mobile handsets and computer peripherals will all see increased rates of Wi-Fi penetration. "While CE products will initially see more Wi-Fi inclusion," Solis continues, "we expect that by 2011 they will be overtaken by mobile handsets. Mobile Internet devices (MIDs) will become increasingly significant as well." So, to ask a rather obvious question, just where are all the chips and devices going to be connecting? On Wi Fi networks, that's where. Right now, most Wi Fi routers are a) in business environments, interconnected in local area networks or LANs; b) in residences, as extensions of broadband connections, to provide connectivity throughout the home; and c) in Hot Spots, which mimic the residential model, providing free or for-fee connectivity for public users in coffee shops, book stores, fast food restaurants, libraries, rest stops, airport lounges, the list goes on and on - really Hot Spots now can be found just about everywhere that a person might stop and rest for a moment. They are the modern equivalent of the pay phone. But these two trends, Wi Fi Chip and Device expansion and Wi Fi Metropolitan Mesh Network expansion come together in cities and provide the modern equivalent of the cell phone. They allow roaming in a wider region while staying connected. The value that the public puts on such connectivity is still immature, just as early cell phones were originally seen as a luxury good or an expensive business device. But we all know the storyline about how over time cell phones evolved, as did their cultural acceptance, and ultimately changed the way we live and stay connected with each other. In similar fashion, metropolitan broadband will ride that wave of more and more connectivity in our lives. The fact that Wi Fi chips are increasingly available, ever dropping in price and ever increasing in capacity and utility means that they will find their way into more and more devices, which will only raise the value of the networks that allow those devices to be put to use. These two trends feed each other - the more Wi Fi devices there are, the more Wi Fi networks are needed. The more Wi Fi networks that are available, the more places to use Wi Fi devices, and the more valuable the Wi Fi devices become. It's a virtuous cycle, currently inhibited by forces that prefer the status quo and discriminate against "junky" Wi Fi technology, and are threatened by the changes they portend. But the changes will come, regardless of the low opinions those in the know have of this "cheap, non-carrier-grade" technology, because its appeal is universal and irresistible. But it will take time, because this transition is a complex equation. Two factors compel this social trend and technology adoption movement: 1) ever cheaper and better Wi Fi chips and devices; and 2) successful deployments of metropolitan Wi Fi networks, which provide case studies and show the way for others - proof points of the value proposition, if you will. Stay tuned and have faith, because over time these emerging trends will lose their shock value and come to seem more and more normal. The simplicity of the unlicensed business model, and the low cost of the Wi Fi gear will complete the equation and drive adoption still further. Nature has a way of supporting things like Synergy, Symbiosis, and Systems that exist in harmony and provide constructive benefits, because these natural solutions outcompete less elegant solutions over time. That's the idea behind Natural Selection - the cost of living is expensive, and so a premium is put on efficiency, often at the expense of style. Ask the Platypus, an egg-laying, venomous, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed mammal, about efficiency and style. Who can argue that the platypus is no pretty sight to behold (unless maybe you are a newly-hatched baby platypus, that is). But the key thing to note is that its eccentric anomalies make it an efficient competitor in its niche and so it survives to reproduce... Man may be slow to learn from Nature, but in time, we usually get it and move ahead. I predict it will be the same with Wi Fi Systems. They'll find their niche in time and provide value where it makes sense. Along the way, they'll face resistance, which will fade as true value emerges. They may not live up to all the early expectations, but so what! Whoever said that Reality had to match the early Hype? Not me. Posted on April 02, 2008 at 08:22 AM | Comments (0) |
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