Mbps means nowt

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Read more! If you don't already know, the EU contingent (apart from Benoit who paid for the cloud to move!) missed Fiberfete in Louisiana. However, what FF showed was the world has moved on. And the EU contingent were there in spirit to absorb the knowledge.

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

The Gigabit Society was just one of the talks that should have left UK politicians rewriting their manifestos.

Sadly, none of them seemed to be tuned in....out on the road campaigning, where of course all connectivity is minimal. Trouble is, this is the stuff they need to know. But they can't connect...so, for them, it still doesn't exist. Ho Hum.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, RDAs (Regional Development Agencies) are under siege from utility companies trying to get smart metering funding, FTTN=Fibre To The Nobody, ISPA took BT out at the knees for BET's roll out (that'll be a wholesale NO) and the electioneers failed to use Twitter, social media etc to engage with the people.

If you don't know where the links are for those stories, I strongly suggest you try Google. (It's a search engine.) Meanwhile, Google are digging up their own parking lot to avoid planning issues to discover innovative methods of laying fibre. Go every single private company and community who can find a route round bureaucracy to JFDI so we finally get FTTH (Home) or FTTB (Business).

This country is now in the top ahem 30 - woot, not - and unless we stymie the incumbents and ignorant ministers etc, there we will stay.

My favourite, favourite bit of the last two days has to be Lafayette's Truth Squads. Having spent a blissfully happy week there a mere two months ago, I think this blog may now become a Truth Squad Evangelist. Incumbents - put out your press releases.....we will respond.
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University connects surrounding community to a Gig

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Read more! Fantastic. Great Britain take note. This is co-operation, vision and collaboration at its very best. We could easily be doing the same here in the UK...

Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio has come up with a plan to be deeply envious of. Realising that the neighbours to the university campus are in a fairly dire plight, not just with internet connectivity, but socially and economically too, they are rolling out an ambitious university research project to connect 25,000 residents to 1000Mbps fibre.

An unprecedented collaboration of university researchers, technologists, public sector institutional partners in the region, and vendors will bring neighbors around the University the same quality Internet connectivity that students, faculty, and staff enjoy on the campus. The University Circle Innovation Zone beta block will be a research project conducted by the University in cooperation with more than 40 institutional partners, technology vendors, and community organizations. Eventually, the University Circle Innovation Zone seeks to connect more than 25,000 residents..

The project is intended to have specific metrics and objectives in order to deliver key evidence about the impact that technology and the solutions it permits have on the surrounding community.

A smart connected community is a portfolio of endeavors to leverage broadband technologies to affect positive change in the lives of neighbors and in the communities where we live, work, and play. The University Circle Innovation Zone gigabit to the home research project is being supported by unprecedented co-investments by the research community, start up ventures in Cleveland and around the region, and major underwriting support by an “A” group of technology vendors, partners, and thought leaders who, along with Case Western Reserve University, believe in the efficacy of testing and analyzing the impact that broadband can have on real challenges and priorities of the community.

These guys have really got it!!! Don't sit around in conferences and meeting rooms talking about the problems and possible solutions. Don't keep everything to yourself - co-operate and collaborate. And most importantly - JFDI.

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