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It's the Applications, Stupid!

"It's the economy, stupid," was a phrase in American politics widely used during Bill Clinton's successful 1992 presidential campaign against George H.W. Bush. For a time, Bush was considered unbeatable because of foreign policy developments such as the end of the Cold War and the Persian Gulf War. The phrase, coined by Clinton campaign strategist James Carville, refers to the notion that Clinton was a better choice because Bush had not adequately addressed the economy, which had recently undergone a recession.

In order to keep the campaign on message, Carville hung a sign in Bill Clinton's Little Rock campaign headquarters with the following three points[citation needed]:

1. Change vs. more of the same
2. The economy, stupid
3. Don't forget health care.
Wikipedia


Miralus Healthcare gets it. HeadOn is a great example of a key market strategy - repeat it enough, and it sinks in ... or it makes you and everyone who watches the ad go crazy! They may hate your ad, but they won't forget your message.

Here's the sign I'd like to see hung on the wall of every marketing department in any company involved with the Metropolitan Broadband Industry:

1. Change v. more of the same
2. The applications, stupid
3. Don't forget public safety

In it's first iteration, this industry got caught up in selling the network, when in fact it's the applications that the city government folks want. So, if that's what they want, I say give them applications. I recommend that the discussion shift to the Digital Transition that all city departments must go through, of which the wireless broadband network is merely the enabler.

In this analysis, we put the cart before the horse by building a Field of Dreams. "Build it, and they will come." Imagine if we had been focused on the game of baseball (Digital Transition), with its attendant baseball gloves, bats & balls (wireless applications and end use devices), and forming teams and a league (business and change processes). Get the league started, and the fields will be built as a matter of course, because if you want to play baseball, you need somewhere to play the game. You need a baseball diamond (wireless broadband network).

We've had baseball as our "national sport" for over 100 years, it's in people's genes...so, perhaps, a baseball diamond in a corn field could be imagined to be so attractive as to be a good business plan. But broadband is far, far newer. it is not yet embedded in the nation's psyche. It will be, but not yet. We should not assume that people will value broadband as baseball fans do baseball. But people everywhere have a job to do, and they understand doing it better for less inputs - efficiency is a broadly understood and appreciated concept. Wireless applications are all about efficiency, doing more for less. People get that, where they don't yet get the concept of ubiquitous broadband.

In the early days of electricity, people may not have fully understood the future transformation of society that electricity would bring, but they came to the lights like moths to a flame. Attendees flocked to the World's Columbian Exposition held in 1893 (aka the Chicago World's Fair). Drawn by the bright lights, farmers formed long lines to marvel at the brightness. The inner Court of Honor area, which came to be called The White City, was painted in white and illuminated by streetlights powered by the new alternating current of Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse, who had beat out Thomas Edison's General Electric bid. To the tenement dwellers and farmers attending at night, it must have seemed as if heaven had come down to earth!

I highly recommend two books by Erik Larson - the first describes the background drama behind the Columbian Exposition and the changes and tensions at the Fin de Siecle: The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America. If you haven't read Larson, he does a great job at tying together history with the drama of the time. See also the story of the invention of wireless, as told in Thunderstruck, where the reader gets two stories in one: as Marconi's slow progress in unlocking the mysteries of wireless radio unfold, so do the sordid facts behind the murder of the century. A thoroughly enjoyable read for me, and revealing for all I learned about wireless radio's origins.

But, back to the Wikipedia article on the World's Columbian Exposition, which showcased the marvels that would transform the twentieth century, principally the new electricity technology and electric light, it's most compelling application.

Electricity at the fair

The International Exposition was held in a building which for the first time was devoted to electrical exhibits. General Electric Company (backed by Edison and J.P. Morgan) had proposed to power the electric exhibits with direct current at the cost of one million dollars. However, Westinghouse, armed with Tesla's alternating current system, proposed to illuminate the Columbian Exposition in Chicago for half that price, and Westinghouse won the bid.

It was a historical moment and the beginning of a revolution, as Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse introduced the public to electrical power by providing alternating current to illuminate the Exposition.

All the exhibits were from commercial enterprises. Thomas Edison, Brush, Western Electric, and Westinghouse had exhibits, and the general public observed firsthand the qualities and abilities of alternating current power.

Tesla's high-frequency high-voltage lighting produced more efficient light with quantitatively less heat. A two-phase induction motor was driven by current from the main generators to power the system. Edison tried to prevent the use of his light bulbs in Tesla's works. Westinghouse's proposal was chosen over the less efficient direct-current system to power the fair. General Electric banned the use of Edison's lamps in Westinghouse's plan, in retaliation for losing the bid. Westinghouse's company quickly designed a double-stopper lightbulb (sidestepping Edison's patents) and was able to light the fair.

The Westinghouse Company displayed several polyphase systems. The exhibits included a switchboard, polyphase generators, step-up transformers, transmission line, step-down transformers, commercial size induction motors and synchronous motors, and rotary direct current converters (including an operational railway motor). The working scaled system allowed the public a view of a system of polyphase power which could be transmitted over long distances, and be utilized, including the supply of direct current. Meters and other auxiliary devices were also present.

Tesla displayed his phosphorescent lighting, powered without wires by high-frequency fields. Tesla displayed the first practical phosphorescent lamps (a precursor to fluorescent lamps). Tesla's lighting inventions exposed to high-frequency currents would bring the gases to incandescence. Tesla also displayed the first neon lights. His innovations in this type of light emission were not regularly patented.

Also among the exhibits was Tesla's demonstration, most notably the "Egg of Columbus". This device explains the principles of the rotating magnetic field and his induction motor. The Egg of Columbus consisted of a polyphase field coil underneath a plate with a copper egg positioned over the top. When the sequence of coils were energized, the magnetic field arrangement inductively created a rotation on the egg and made it stand up on end (appearing to resist gravity). On August 25, Elisha Gray introduced Tesla for a delivery of a lecture on mechanical and electrical oscillators. Tesla explained his work for efficiently increasing the work at high frequency of reciprocation. As Electrical Congress members listened, Tesla delineated mechanisms which could produce oscillations of constant periods irrespective of the pressure applied and irrespective of frictional losses and loads. He continued to explain the working mean of the production of constant period electric currents (not resorting to spark gaps or breaks), and how to produce these with mechanisms which are reliable.

The successful demonstration of alternating current lighting at the Exposition dispelled doubts about the usefulness of the polyphase alternating current system developed by Westinghouse and Tesla.

UPDATE: Two hours after publishing this item, this is what I hear on NPR, as I drove my kids to school ... I kid you not ... check out the podcast ...

Hunt for World's Fair Artifacts Turns Up Junk

Archaeologists are digging in a Chicago park that was the scene of the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. Experts want to find traces of that grand exposition, attended by millions. So far they've mainly found 20th century beer cans. Morning Edition, May 19, 2008

Posted on May 19, 2008 at 05:36 AM

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