Archive for October, 2006

Today, Governor Schwarzenegger signed an Executve Order designed to promote the best use and expansion of broadband telecommunications throughout the state of California. From the press release the Governor says:

If we want to stay No. 1 in technology, we need action. In countries like Japan and South Korea, the people have access to great technologies at lower costs than anywhere in America. We can do that. Michigan has one of the largest wireless broadband networks in the country. We can do that. That’s why I’m signing an executive order to help make California a leader in the telecommunications revolution.

Here are some highlights from the document listed in the press release:

• Establishing a broadband task force to recommend additional steps the Governor can take to promote broadband access and usage.
• Designating one agency—Business, Transportation & Housing (BT&H)—as lead coordinator for implementing the state’s broadband policy, to help ensure cohesion, speed and efficiency.
• Directing BT&H to create a database linking private broadband companies with state transportation agencies, permitting companies to better coordinate fiber optic installation, leading to more consumer choice and efficient pricing.
• Establishing a pricing policy for private companies paying for “rights-of- way” access to state roads. Previously, charges to lay fiber varied widely—the order sets pricing based on actual costs incurred by the State.
• Calling for streamlined, expedited rights-of-way permitting procedures to accelerate broadband deployment.
• Directing BT&H to collect and analyze current broadband information so the state can accurately map existing resources.
• Directing the Department of General Services to make wireless Internet access available in State buildings and increase video streaming to deliver public meetings, training materials and other state resources online.
• Directing state agencies to enable Voiceover Internet Protocol technologies for business and government use, and include broadband conduit in their infrastructure planning.

In general, this all sound really good. It’s a vision. But it’s also got some action items in it with some pretty tight deadlines. Finally, there will be an entity to which we can address our regional concerns over telecommunications issues. All the more reason for us to get our own act together building our own regional and local telecom committees. These committees would then have a more powerful voice at the state level.

It’s interesting that this announcement comes the day after RTC and HSU hosted a teleconference with Joaquin Alvarado of Next Generation Internet (see blog post on Broadband Forum 2) at which these very issues were discussed. Unfortuantely, the event was rather sparsely attended. Why were there no County Supervisors at the event (or prospective supervisors)? Why was no one there from a single city council (there was one staff person from the City of Eureka)? Why were none of the multitude of economic development people there or members of the Headwaters Fund board? I know the publicity wasn’t all that great. But if they were really connected to the community they serve they would have known and should have been there.

Each year the Rural Telecommunications Congress has a conference that brings together rural community leaders in technolgoy and economic development along with industry and government leaders to discuss the future of broadband in rural areas of the U.S. The conference is in its final day. Unfortunately, we were not able to send anyone this year. However, Andrew Cohill (keynote speake at our own Tech Expo several years back) is attending (and speaking) and has posted a couple blog entries that should be of some interest.

He reports on an address (his link to EAST is broken, but mine is not) by the leaders of the EAST (Environmental and Spatial Technologies) program which is very active here in the local schools.

His second post is about a talk by Ken Pigg of the Universit of Missouri who “has been studying community use of technology for more than a decade.” I won’t resummarize the points here but they are highly relevant to the economic and technological development of our region. Everyone interested in these topics should take note.

PBS is showing Bill Moyer’s latest program focusing on the issue of Net Neutrality tonight. KEET will be airing it at at 10 PM. It’s clear from the material on the site and from Moyer’s general perspective, the program will be in favor of maintaining Net Neutrality and against the telco drive to charge tiered pricing for data prioritizing. Still, the hour long program should provide a great deal of information on the issues leading to a broader understanding. And the web site itslef offers a lot of content including several ‘classes’ that cover various topics on Net Neutrality, the digital divide, community wireless, and media consolidation and control.

Well worth checking out.

The big tech news this week was the public announcement that CalTrans was ending its policy of charging right of way fees for high speed fiber lines that run along its highways. This is, as the linked article states, a “180 degree shift” in policy.

This is big news because the previous policy would have charged fees not just for the initial construction, but an annual fee that would have made the cost of building an altrenate fiber route along any California highway cost prohibitive. I think having a second fiber connection to the backbone of the Internet is essential for the security and economic future of the region. Reliance on the single line, owned by AT&T leaves us vulnerable to failures and subject to higher cost due to lack of competition.

Several organizations have been laying the groundwork for this second fiber line and one of the most likely routes has been along the east-west highway 299 corridor. But building this alternate route is expensive and no business would take on the task without a logical business plan that would indicate recovery of costs and eventual profit over a reasonable time frame.

While the 299 corridor is a natural route for this fiber, we had been looking at the possibility of using the PG&E power line that also runs east-west as a conduit for the new fiber line. PG&E had indicated they would charge far less than what the state had been proposing. Now, it appears we have two good possible routes.

So this is great news, not only for our region, but for California as a whole. What the state will lose in right of way fees, I think will more than be made up for in the long run through tax revenue from economic growth that will be fueled by stable and lower cost fiber access.

So if you have read previous posts in this series, you know we’ve moved in to the Drupal realm and seem committed to the path. We have lots of modules installed and configured. Now, even while the site is live we are looking at refining what we have and further customizing the site.

Drupal has an amazing amount of flexibility. Understanding the core features and vocabulary can take some time but is well worth the effort. The Drupal Handbooks are a great resource.

Going beyond the basics can be even more daunting. This series of articles goes into even more detail on the same process we went through in deciding what open source software to use. Also, the articles go much further in providing technical details in to creating templates (how the site looks) and modifying modules.

Finally, while I think Drupal is an excellent solution for some situations I am not convinced it works for every project. While Drupal’s flexibility and extensibility are impressive, many organizations simply want an easy to use and easy to undertand system for maintaining content. And the specific requirements for some prjects do not easily fit in to the logic and structure that an all encompassing system like Drupal offers. Drupal and other systems force you to fit your concepts to their structure. The time needed to make that happen can be extensive. We have been facing that problem with another project we’ve been struggling with for quite a while.

To satisfy the needs of some clients, we have built our own CMS that we can deploy quickly and can be modified easily to accomodate specific needs. For some clients this is a much better solution. The interface is simple and straightforward. The tools are obvious and accessible.

For yet other projects, I have found Wordpress to be an ideal solution. It can be set up in 10 minutes. And, like Drupal, has a long list of add-ons that can be used to easily extend its capabilities.

My conclusion is that no single solution will work for all situations. And one of the problems with systems like Drupal is the attempt to be that single solution which means wading through pages and pages of documentation and modules to find just the right tools that meet a specific need. Sometimes simple is simply better.

The big news in the tech world today is confirmation of the rumour that was circulationg last week about Google buying video sharing site YouTube.

It seems like a natural fit, though it’s hard to imagine how they got the $1.65 billion valuation. That kind of math is above my calculator’s range.

Still, YouTube’s video and sharing chops are better than Google’s. And while the copyright issues could still derail the whole yellow brick road to video Oz, YouTube nearly simultaneously struck deals with a couple content providers So, you’ll still be able to lipsync to your favorite tunes and share that performance witht the world. And Google is already good at fighting off copyright infringement attacks.

So, what’s odd is a deal that looked like destiny was poo pooed by some pretty bright folks, including the usually reliable Ars Technica. Cnet’s Buzz Out Loud (link to audio file of Friday’s show) also didn’t think this was going to happen.

That’s why I seldom try to predict what I will have for breakfast tomorrow, let alone what will happen in the tech world.

Update: The latest TWIT (This Week in Tech) also thought the idea of a Google buyout of YouTube was ridiculous. I love TWIT so I am not trying to disparage their prescience. Only making a point predicting the future is, at best, a tricky proposition. BTW, TWIT’s recently redesigned site was built using Drupal (see the Open Source Web Development category)

Bear with me. I will get to why this is relevant to this blog in a moment. But first I want to explain why the new TV show Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip sucks.

I have watched 2.2 episodes of the new series. Last night, I tried to watch episode 3 but I had a cold and after taking some heavily narcotic over the counter drug, I couldn’t keep my eyes open. That’s OK. I had already pretty much established my perspective on the show. I am not a HUGE TV fan. I don’t have the time or the energy to watch a lot of TV. Although I try not to miss the Daily Show or the Colbert Report.

I have to say I can get hooked on some shows on network TV. I was a big fan of the The West Wing, especially the first couple years. So, I was really looking forward to this new show that’s being created by Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme the team that produced the best of the The West Wing. And it stars Bradley Whitford who played a big part in the old show. So I was primed. Eager to get drawn in to a new diversion.

But here’s the thing: It’s about a TV show. So, unlike The West Wing which had revolved around political and social issues like war, poverty, government corruption, etc., the people on this new show are stressing about whether or not the next episode of their COMEDY gets good reviews, ratings, and retains its advertisers. So, what’s at stake? Nothing, but their own hides. Who cares?

The show is full of talented people. The writers, directors and actors are all good. Though I have to say, the casting is a little too pretty.

But set aside comparison to The West Wing. What’s really working on TV? Shows about crime, shows about people in hospitals facing horrendous disease and death, shows about terrorists, survival. In other words shows where something we can relate to is at stake. Do we really care if comedian X gets enough good lines in a sketch or if detergent maker Y hangs in there as a sponsor of the show? Also, I am a little tired of the visual style where everything is dark, deeply shadowed. As if chiaroscuro will deepen the meaning of every seen.

So, how does this relate to technology? I just got to thinking, this show seems to be directed at a younger audience. One that thinks Saturday Night Live is hip (is there such a demographic anymore?). Maybe there is an audience out there for this show. But when I look at the overall TV panoply I wonder why there is not a single show about the Internet…one that has the Internet as a central theme.

So here is my proposal to Hollywood: Stop making movies and shows that only use the Internet as a foil, full of geeks and perverts (often the same person to these folks). Instead, why not create a story enmeshed in the networked culture, one that is subject to the pressures of ever excellerating change, one that touches all parts of the world, not just the insular world of entertainment in the United States. Wouldn’t that attract the young audience they say they are after? Where is that young audience? On the Internet, increasingly aware of the power of the network (the computer network, not the broadcasting network), increasingly excited by the ability to be the producers of content and not the passive recipients.

They probably don’t embrace the Internet out of fear. They are afraid of YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Web 2.0, the blogoshphere. The fear will make traditional entertainment increasingly irrelevant. Get on the bus, people!

Gov. Schwarzenegger signed the bill on Friday creating a single statewide franchise system for delivery of cable TV services. This means phone companies such as AT&T and Verizon will be entering the cable TV space, just as cable companies are beginning to offer phone service. Essentially all telecommunications companies are trying to capture the triple play market (offering phone, data and television).

I have seen little analysis about how this will affect communities who have been collecting franchise fees. I assume existing franchise agreements like the one recently negotiated with Suddenlink locally will remain in effect for its duration which runs through 2014.

One of the troubling aspects of the legislation is the lack of any requirement for telecom companies to provide service throughout a region. This means rural areas, less densely populated areas, poorer areas are likely to be overlooked by improved services.
The new law also puts more urgency behind the push for redundant or alternative fiber, one not owned by AT&T. Here in Humboldt County we are served by a single fiber connection to the rest of the Internet. That means all traffic (data, phone and any Internet protocol based TV or IPTV) would be travelling over AT&T’s single fiber. This not only mitigates any potential price breaks brought on by competition, but makes the possibility of tiered Internet services that much more likely.