Health IT and Web 2.0

http://tinyurl.com/aujsv6

The folks at Washington Technology have this interesting article on the marriage of health IT and Web 2.0. The Cleveland Clinic is doing a trial right now in partnership with Google and Microsoft.

My favorite quote: "The current health care model — calling for an appointment, waiting, driving to the facility, waiting some more — won’t survive the millennial generation, whose members are becoming consumers of health care." I think a lot of us feel the same.

US Leads? Huh?

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090223/1531523871.shtml

The folks at Tech Dirt did a great job of exposing the recent report that shows the US is #1 in broadband. My favorite quote is the title of the article --
"If You Stand On One Leg, Twist Yourself Around And Squint Into This Light... The US Is #1 In Broadband. Maybe."

Battle of the Wireless Allstars: LTE versus WIMAX

Whilst dusting off the crystal ball, I was intrigued by this article regarding the future mobile wireless vision -- LTE versus WIMAX.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/19/lte_announcements_at_wmc/

So, you ask, what does this have to do with broadband demand? Mobility through simple useful devices. Useful technology for the 98% of us who just-want-it-to-work-already.

View of the Stimulus from Network World

The folks at Network World have put together a high level commentary on the broadband stimulus bill. My favorite quote: "Succeed or fail, the bill is destined to represent one of the networkiest moments in American politics."

Check it out at
http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/lans/2009/021609lan2.html

Broadband Stimulus Info

http://www.publicknowledge.org/pdf/EJS_107_xml.pdf

The folks at Public Knowledge have graciously posted info on the broadband portion of the final stimulus bill. Note that it is a PDF.

VoIP and Your Broadband Selection

http://www.thevoipmag.com/2009/02/13/voip-and-your-broadband-selection/

A nice little discussion about how to think about utilizing your broadband connection with voice [VoIP] and how to choose the proper type of broadband.

Quote of the Day

Population density is like catnip to telecom providers.

Derek Kerton, Techdirt, http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090206/1351043678.shtml

The Rural Broadband Challenge: Use It

http://www.dailyyonder.com/rural-broadband-challenge-use-it/2009/02/06/1905

The folks at the Daily Yonder are keeping it real. Here's a another set of very powerful stories of the power and promise of rural broadband, written by a guy whose been doing this kind of work FOREVER. Remember the Big Sky Telegraph and the great work they did with dialup back in the late 80s?

FirstMile.US Broadband Bill of Rights

http://www.firstmile.us/rights/index.php

While some have argued that the title of this piece is weird [their logic is that broadband shouldn't be a right], it does give you a short primer the layers one might think about in an open network.

Open Networks. Pretty Please, with sugar on top.

http://www.budde.com.au/presentations/content/2009_Big_Think_-_OAP_-_Public_Copy.pdf

Go get this PDF. Read it. Realize that these principles of open networking create a new and improved broadband situation for all Americans, in a very very good way. Check out my previous post about Amsterdam to see how one area is actually deploying open networks.

We need to get loud about the value of open networks in the US. Now.

Consumption-based Broadband

http://gigaom.com/2009/02/04/welcome-to-consumption-based-broadband/

Interesting article on the neverending worry I have about capping broadband usage. Stacey includes some good comments that poke holes in provider rationale and a nice chart so you can see what a dismal mess we are wading into.

Amsterdam Phase Deux

http://www.fiberevolution.com/2009/02/amsterdam-phase-deux.html

An excellent model of FTTP that we should study carefully in the US. We should pay particular attention to the ownership of the fiber (public/private partnership) and the fact that the large communications company has embraced the open network model.

Broadband Bridge to Food, Water, Power

http://www.dailyyonder.com/billion-dollar-decisions-depend-rural-broadband/2009/02/04/1899

There was a recent article in the NYT talking about the broadband stimulus as the virtual bridge to nowhere. For those of us who actually work with rural areas and understand the depth of the dilemma in getting critical broadband services to residents and businesses, the article smacks of the elitism that one might expect from city dwellers (with a bit of help from companies who really really don't want to invest in rural America and are trying to twist the message through the media.)

The folks at the Daily Yonder did a nice article painting the other side of the picture. Rural America isn't nowhere: it is our food source; it is our water source; it is carbon-neutral power sources. We need to get over our prejudices and get serious about big broadband everywhere.

Stop the Cap

http://stopthecap.com/

Interesting site if you want to educate yourself on the potential affects of usage caps on your broadband connection. They will/do dampen demand for broadband services. I know this as my beloved spouse used our Verizon Wireless USB modem to watch a football game with DirecTV's broadband broadcast service. Didn't even last one quarter before he got to the 5 megabyte cap for the month. He was sad. I was sad. Caps make you sad.

YouTube Dwarfs Top Video Sites

http://www.websiteoptimization.com/bw/0808/

I must be in a video stat mood today. This compilation of stats at WebSiteOptimization.com is pretty interesting. Check it out if you, too, are feeling in a video stat mood today.

Approaching the Zettabyte Era

http://tinyurl.com/4wucvf

This is a pretty interesting paper by Cisco that is part of their"ongoing initiative to track and forecast the impact of visual networking applications." If you are curious to see how video uploads and downloads will potentially affect the Internet through 2012, take a look at this paper.

By the way, a Zettabyte is 1,000 exabytes. An exabyte is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes or 1,000,000,000 gigabytes. Let's just say it's lots of data. Lots.

One Laptop Per Child Open Source Hardware

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jan/29/nicholas-negroponte-olpc

According to the Guardian, the OLPC folks are creating the next version of the OLPC computer. "The first generation is a laptop that can be a book; the next generation will a book that can be a laptop," he [negroponte] says. "That's the switch." The price point is aimed at $75.

Sounds bit like the Intel Classroom computer. But, at $75, it might be a huge driver of broadband adoption here in the US.

Let's stay tuned.