Statement of values
Dang, I forgot about our December-1st deadline on this stuff so I'm submitting these to the taskforce without the benefit of your input. But comment away, please. I can always amend them.
We Task Force members were asked to submit our values, so that we can smash them into a pile and hopefully arrive at some consensus as a group. Like I said, the deadline is a couple days ago, so I better push them along. Here's my draft:
Statement of Values
-- Put consumers in the driver's seat -- broadband that is ubiquitous, symmetrical, affordable
-- Provide open access -- acknowledge the natural-monopoly of the "last mile" and provide a single high-capacity connection that can be shared by multiple providers
-- Look forward, be proactive -- prepare for our future by anticipating needs
-- Be competitive -- acknowledge the economic development advantage (and the risk of being left behind if we don't act)
-- View broadband as essential infrastructure -- rather than leaving it to be deployed only when private investors believe they can make favorable returns
-- Stimulate demand -- "building it" isn't enough, addressing the Digital Divide through access to computers and information-skills needs to be included in the mix
How did I do??
December 4th, 2008 at 1:09 am
You need to drop the bellhead terminology of "last mile" and change the nomenclature for the user connection to the "first mile."
Last mile refers to the end tendril of a tree-structured distribution network fed and controlled from the central office. That describes the telephone switching network of the past, not the Internet. The Internet is a mesh network fed from and controlled by the end nodes. Each node is a symmetrical communications entity, both a publisher and consumer.
The sooner we stop thinking about the Internet as a switching network for distributing content from the center and stop using the "legacy" terminology, the sooner we will more easily visualize the new models of a uniform communications and information system and do what is needed to build them.
Acknowledge the natural monopoly of the first mile.
December 4th, 2008 at 1:35 am
Too many value statements; they get diluted.
Delete #3 and #6. Technology advancements enable new and creative applications. Applications create new social structures and behavior. Future needs cannot be foreseen. Demand is not created by plan, it happens because of new enablers.
Ubiquitous broadband access will in and of itself spur new applications. These applications will enable great social and economic change.
Transportation and communications are the highest things on the list of human needs and drives after sustenance, shelter and safety, and reproduction. Improvements in transportation technology (rail, automobiles, aircraft) have enabled huge social and economic change. Improvements in communication technology (wired and wireless telegraphy and telephony, video broadcasting, optical fiber) are doing likewise, and will do even more so in the future in ways we cannot yet imagine, let alone try to foresee or stimulate.
Notice that we expect our governments to provide and regulate our top needs and drives for our common benefit. Governments are heavily involved in the assurance of sustenance, shelter and safety, reproduction, and the provision of transportation systems. But not communication.
The only government involvement in communication has been to assure that providers don't step on each other and play fair. There is little or no government involvement in building or expanding communication. Time to change that.
The values should concentrate on broadband as an essential utility, ubiquitous, open and focused on the citizen-users. Public investment and participation is essential at the same level as historically has been done for transportation. Trying to anticipate needs and uses wasn't done in the past and will be futile in the future.