please post, someone, if there are petitions to sign to keep the corporate paws from blocking this.
or will it be seen as just like ham radio, with more bells 'n' whistles'?
the potential for human services, caring for elderly at home, and webcam medical visits (say aagh!) should be immense.
perhaps this appeal to compassion will serve to wedge the censorship door from closing.
perhaps if they succeed in drm-ing every new computer, then they would trust that hi-wi-fi wouldn't immediately bankrupt hollywood and the record companies; till then i'd be pleasantly surprised if there isn't very stiff opposition.
this roll-out could also serve to help revitalise rural communities, presently emptying out in the migrations to the cities, because of boredom and lack of economic opportunity. The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it. Chinese Proverb.
I am especially interested in your point about rural communities. My proposals have long been, in Finland, about hi-speed access in rural areas. One plan was to put a broadband hub in the local school/s with a nearby flexible office building connected for outworkers (people working from home).
The point of the office building with hot-desking (ie no assigned space) was to allow people to enjoy the social aspects of offices and common tech facilities such as videoconferencing. A 5 km drive to the center is better than an 80 km drive to town every day (in fuel terms)
To some extent these 1990's proposals have been made obsolete by tech advances. Nokia is soon announcing an extension of it's mobile office concept to include videoconferencing and document visibility and exchange - all tied in to the usual productivity tools of mobile access to group calendars, reminders, contact lists etc.
The mobile office concept is built on an intermediate layer of rational phone number sequences visible to customers, which, underneath, connect to any worker, wherever they are. So I can work from home and no customer will know. Of course it is possible to remotely interrogate the call/communication center and tell them when you are travelling, sick or in a meeting etc. (ie unavailable temporarily)
New slogan ;-) "Nokia - Connecting the Dots" You can't be me, I'm taken
