Proud to be British?? The Positive Reasons

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Right now, we have major infrastructure projects happening in mere DAYS in the North, whilst Timms and Richards spout complete tosh in the South (next post!!). I'm not being latitudist but....

If you haven't yet heard about Workington North Rail Station, you need to catch up! This is a suitably major infrastructure project which will have been conceived and implemented in under a week by Network Rail.

Scuse the very poor pun, but this news stops you in your tracks.

"Anything for the weekend?" "Yes please, we'd like a two platform station, with footbridge, waiting room, parking and lights. Oh yes, and trains." "No problem," says NR, and JFDI!

Get on. All power to their elbow.

Meanwhile, many are just setting to and clearing out their homes, wrecked businesses, schools, communities, and making sure life goes on. If you haven't donated, please do so to the Cumbria Community Foundation. The amazing sense of community up here is reinforced by many in the emergency services and volunteers - underpaid and unpaid - who are doing such a sterling job.

I live in Cumbria, and it'd be great if you could help out people, including some of my friends in Cockermouth, many of whom have lost EVERYTHING. The CCF fund currently stands at over £350,000 and the first cheques are already being given out.

However, first estimates are that it will take between £50-100million to repair the damage from these floods. And it isn't over yet. I am watching the river outside my house break its banks as I write, and the Appleby webcam shows that we may all be in for yet more flooding at this end of Cumbria too.

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The first COTS Meeting

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Read more! Whilst it makes sense to attempt to establish standards for the eNdGAme, does it makes sense to start like this...?

[UPDATE: an attendee's thoughts]

Imagine the scenario....60 people in a room, many more unable to attend through geographic or time issues, a smidgen of wi-fi so that at least 2 people can use their Macs and iphones to tweet or liveblog out, so others can respond, no major industry players, no audio let alone webcam to allow remote attendance....

That was today's first COTS (Commercial, Operational and Technical Standards) meeting, called by the Broadband Stakeholder Group.

IMHO, it doesn't bode well. But I truly hope I am wrong.

1) Why host a meeting where there is no opportunity to use the technology under discussion? We know from past experience eg 2003, Simmons and Simmons, ABC1 conference, that you can find venues with 400+ capacity in central London with decent broadband for all. We had approx 100 x more people communicating from within that event to the outside world way back when than there were today....

2) Why no major players? They are all BSG members.. [Oops, I am mistaken, Andy from Sky was there....]

3) Why no 'scribe' from BSG to keep us all up to date in real time? We ended up dependent on Brian who was speaking on a panel and obviously struggling to multitask (who can blame him?), and mark. Thanks to both but they were there to represent important views, not scribe.

4) How does COTS fit in with INCA? Who knows...it was not made clear to remote attendees at all, even those who had spoken to the organisers and delegates, but reading how the INCA empire was destroyed, I have to admit to being a bit worried at the modern day parallels....

We know we need to try to avoid a patchwork of broadband solutions. When Antony Walker stood up (was it only this time last year?) at the BSG conference and said we were better waiting and learning from other's mistakes to do FTTH etc, I didn't think he meant that those of us in rural communities in the UK needed to learn from those in the capital..... I sincerely hope he didn't.

But, I have to admit to struggling to comprehend this project, its purpose, how it will engage all stakeholders, how long it will take, and whether it is in tandem with or opposition to INCA, community action that is ongoing and succeeding in connecting communities, the incumbents etc.

I hope I can persuade Peter Shearman, prior to the proposed COTS meeting out of London, (date to be announced shortly) to be interviewed here to explain to others exactly what is proposed, the timescale, and what has been learnt from this first meeting.

If you have questions for (and about) COTS, BSG, Peter, Antony et al, please post to the comments section, or if you wish to remain anonymous, send to l dot annison at gmail dot com and I will, as always, respect your wishes.

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