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Thursday 8 July 2010

Why grassroots matters

I would not normally do this, but the last few years have put me in touch with people for whom I have the deepest respect. I have met people who are literally the salt of the earth. I have been very, very lucky. I have also met their antithesis - seeking career boons, pensions, fast cars, money, with no care for the end game, or those it will affect.

I'm not sure I understand all of the truth and heart behind what is being done to make Broadband Britain happen, despite all the years I have been involved, but this poem and Panchatantra help.

I know, sadly, that there are many out there who pretend to be behind the 'cause' but I think this might be the test to prove their value to the UK Endgame.

This blog post can be read at http://5tth.blogspot.com

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream–and not make dreams your master,
If you can think–and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings–nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And–which is more–you’ll be a Man, my son!

–Rudyard Kipling

2 comments:

Cybersavvy UK said...

Thanks for the emails.

Yes, the book is out of print, exactly as this document is http://larrydownes.com/albert-gallatin-and-the-first-national-broadband-plan/ It doesn't mean you can't find it to read it though!

The purpose of the post I thought was obvious. When trying to deliver a next generation access network for Britain, ask yourself the motives of those you are dealing with.

And in light of today's PRs (all hail the publicity machine of corporates)

If BT can only come up with an iWade type solution, ask yourself why they are trying to cream off the public funds for that?

I think BT should be asked very publicly their motives for proposing FTTC into the final third. TODAY.

There may well be a post on Iwade in the very near future as I personally am furious that there doesn't exist a single public protector of funds that prevents such idiocies happening.

Who advised that Parish Council that this was the right way forward? And who will STOP any further daylight """robbery""" of the public purse to sponsor a public company to do this in light of all that we can see being done elsewhere and the fact that FTTH and FiWi (neither of which have a single strand of copper in them) are already in existence in thousands and thousands of miles of successful next gen network???

Somerset said...

I suspect that the council thinking was that as 3 out of the 4 cabinets were going FTTC it made sense to get the 4th done in the same way.

Otherwise they would have to spend time and money investigating various options. And they may not have the skill to do a technical evaluation themselves.

Presumably any other option may also have required the users to change ISP and email addresses etc.

Like it or not FTTC is a simple solution that gives people a significant speed increase.