The first white spaces network will be deployed in Virginia with an experimental license. To the extent that this gives ISPs additional options, it is very good news.
Archive for October, 2009
White Spaces Network
Friday, October 23rd, 2009Minnesota’s Governor Says Recommendations Not Public
Friday, October 23rd, 2009The Stimulating Broadband blog does a great job investigating the legality (FOIA?) and implications of the decision of Tom Pawlenty (R) to withhold his recommendations regarding the stimulus from public view. I wonder what he’s afraid of.
Alaska’s Governor Chooses No Decision
Friday, October 23rd, 2009I am not too surprised that the governor of Alaska chose to not recommend any one stimulus application in his letter to the NTIA.
No politician — or federal agency — will find it easy to choose between providing service to remote towns, to native Americans, or to Alaska’s islands.
I found the island applications the most interesting. It’s a little-known fact that the Aleutian Islands are the one piece of the USA that was occupied during World War II (by the Japanese). The application to connect the Aleutians by fiber to the mainland would require over $250 million dollars.
North of the Aleutians, in very hostile waters known to any viewer of “Deadliest Catch”, is St. Paul Island, a small community for which one application requests about a million dollars for a satellite uplink and fiber connections to about 125 homes.
But Alaska may not be given even $251 million. Even if the stimulus were divided equally between states, and all of it were available for infrastructure, 1/50th of $7.2 billion would be $140 million. If the stimulus were divided out according to land area, Alaska would get a lot, but the stimulus is more likely to be divided out according to population — and votes.
The governor’s letter notes that there are over 150 communities in Alaska that cannot be reached by road. It’s true that Alaska may have more expensive needs than the rest of the nation … but I doubt the federal government will help. It would be nice if Alaska recinded the payout to Alaskans and used the money instead to build a broadband infrastructure, but that would be politically difficult.
So … the government has some difficult choices to make. I’m not surprised that Alaska’s politicians want to avoid blame for whatever decisions the federal government makes.
Book Recommendation: William Kamkwamba
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009The book’s not even written yet, and I’m still ready to recommend it. In addition to the sources Pedro cites, I would cite his appearance on The Daily Show, where I get more of my news than I probably should.
The Sad State of Broadband in Canada
Monday, October 19th, 2009Excellent post by Elliot Noss today on this topic. Noss runs Tucows, and he cares.
New ARRA Data Will Be Published Tomorrow
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009Data on which companies and agencies have received funds will be published on October 15th, according to an article on GovExec.com. The data will be published on the government’s recovery.gov site.
Meanwhile, this article updating the NTIA’s progress suggests that stimulus money should be allocated in November. I expect round 2 questions to start any day now.
Open Cape Shows What The Stimulus Should Be
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009The OpenCape project has applied for $32 million in funds, with an $8 million match, for a $40 million project to bring reliable service to Cape Cod in Massachusetts through a fiber-based middle mile project with microwave for backup and also for public safety.
Too many people assume that the place is wealthy and well-served, Art Gaylord, vice chairman of the project and director of information services at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, told me. “The Cape suffers from the impression that it’s the summer playground for the rich and that it’s full of tourists with money. The reality is that although those people do come out here, there’s also a year round population of about 250,000 (it rises to three or four times that in the summer).”
The project got its start about three years ago when a tree branch took out phone service on a large portion of the Cape, including 911 service, Gaylord said. The community already had concerns about the reliability and price of phone and internet service.
Why Aren’t More Fiber Landings Cracking Open the Fiber?
Monday, October 12th, 2009Why aren’t more cities with fiber landings trying to access the fiber that passes through their land? As far as I know, there’s only one city doing this, its application brought to my attention by the Stimulating Broadband blog. Here’s their article.
The fact is that on both coasts there are large cities and also small towns that sit next to the fattest pipes in the world but which have no access to them. The stimulus should help change that.
Bahamian Click Fraud Net Attacks Google
Thursday, October 8th, 2009(H/T Ryan Naraine)
A fascinating blog post from a fascinating outfit, Click Forensics.
“When an infected user clicks on one of these sponsored links, they always seem to end up on the correct destination domain (so clicking a sponsored link for Dell.com, for example, will always take an infected user to dell.com). However, due to the DNS poisoning, a click on a sponsored link will never go through Google’s own click-counting redirect. Google never sees, and therefore never charges for, that click. The advertiser gets a free click, instead of a paid one, and Google loses the revenue. The Bahama Botnet strikes again.”
Book Recommendation: The Blue Sweater
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009I had the opportunity to hear Jacqueline Novogratz speak about her new book The Blue Sweater. You can hear her speak at The Aspen Institute here in a program called “Murder, Philanthropy, Blue Sweater.”
The book is the story of the events that led her to found The Acumen Fund, a philanthropic venture that invests in change instead of making grants and donations. The idea is to require results.
What makes this book stand out is that it was really written by its author. Many such books are written in a generic voice that show the influence of an editor or ghost writer, but The Blue Sweater is written in the voice of Jacqueline Novogratz. It is not the voice of a professional writer (though she is an excellent speaker) but it conveys honesty and emotion.
Another element that makes this book stand out is its honest description of failure. Novogratz had to make several mistakes before she founded the Acumen Fund, and these are described in detail.
Finally, there is the Rwandan genocide. Unlike most accounts that focus on the victims or focus on the policies, Novogratz knew people on both sides — a few of them — and describes the situation with empathy and without easy answers. She even knew one woman who was a vital key to ensuring that the genocide happened and has been sentenced to life imprisonment.