#Twicket shows what can be done

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Read more! The now globally infamous #Twicket Match in Wray, Lancashire today highlights just what can be done when rural areas have true broadband. The live streamed cricket match was a first on the Internet.....more details and full archive on twicket.info

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



Over 2700 people tuned in during the match from around the world to watch, and the online 'tickets' reached a staggering 1/2 a million(!) on Eventbrite.

The main problem with 21st century UK broadband from the telcos is that it is asymmetrical. This means that live streaming with multiple TV and video cameras, as well as the internet connectivity that was being used to tweet etc today is simply impossible in the vast majority of villages in the UK. This is why BBC and other outside broadcast teams have to rely on satellite for connectivity.

In fact, the opinions expressed on Twitter during and after the match were that there are only three such villages where such an event could take place - Ashby de la Launde in Lincolnshire, Great Asby and Wray / Wennington.

These three places have one thing in common - they are all home to community broadband networks that have been built because the telcos refuse to bring rural areas into the 21st century. Communities have worked together to bring FiWi (fibre-wireless) to their inhabitants.

What Twicket should graphically illustrate to everyone, whether they understand what true broadband is or not, is that when grassroots and communities get involved in delivering services that are required in rural areas, fantastic results can be achieved. (Including fully-clothed, 15 ft high, scarecrow streakers!). Additionally, a globule of imagination is all that is required to see how Twicket equivalents will benefit every community.

For instance, livestreams and archives of Parish Council meetings, church services, village events, remote education opportunities for undersubscribed classes (or for when the village hall is just too cold for yoga!), gigs, telehealth solutions, sharing village traditions across the world....in fact, you name it, once you can create and share content over a symmetrical connection, the world really is your lobster.

To all those involved, a huge round of applause for creating a trend, firing up imaginations, and showing up the telcos.

Thank you to.....

@JohnPopham for his incredible work in making this happen and never being stumped by problems, and @DAnSlee for inspiring him
@Cyberdoyle (plus Debs etc) and Lancaster Uni for constantly evolving the Wray and Wennington networks to show other communities what can be done when academia and community join forces
Aquila TV for livestreaming
CLA, (CLA Photos) NGU and Talk about Local for sponsorship
RadioYouthology for live radio commentary
Mike Rawlins for his aerial photos
@Twicketbrenda for introducing a whole new field of cricket commentary, ably assisted by @Simon_Magus
Breakdance Billy (aka Adam) for the tea time entertainment
Stephen Fry for his RT
The Guardian, Metro and Radio Lancashire for publicity.
Pimms
All the players, umpires and their yellow cards, tweeters, and everyone else involved.

THANK YOU!!

P.S. A #Twicket secret - there is ethernet strung with the bunting across Wray main street!

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OT: 10 Things I would pay £1 a month for

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Read more! Apparently, there's no money in content, nor broadband, nor supplying us pernickety customers. I beg to differ.....

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


Here's what I would expect from my dumb fat pipe as extra that I would pay, in total, £10 a month for.

Currently, I get all these things for free. But I started my own business at 8 years old. You have to be sustainable. So, make money...find the customers who actually value what you do and are willing to pay.

What would I pay for? Let's get this clear though...you as an ISP cannot re-invent the wheel as I won't buy it. I want the tools I like today, some of which I have been using for well over a decade now in one form or another. You, as my fat pipe supplier, won't see a bean from moi, but this should help you make the right strategic partnerships and form JVs...perhaps.


1) Delicious

Look, I know I saved/bookmarked it but where? I use at least 3 browsers on every computer I am on. I have 4 of my own computers plus access to untold others. I need my bookmarks, going back years, in the cloud. I've used Del.icio.us since it launched. I know what you have bookmarked of mine and I want to keep it where I can find it, please.

2) WebMail

Same as above, but access to emails.And if in a few years I have hammered this Gmail account and done 7GB, even deleting all the big files, then I'll pay you to guard my emails and let's hope the storage limit now I'm paying is waaaaaay bigger. (Oh look, $3 and I get 27GB for a year, nice!)

3) Twitter

Yep, it has its uses, without a doubt. I'll pay £1 a month as I have already earned plenty from it via my guest blogs. And then there is the value of the people I have met (social more than £££s).

4) Youtube, Flickr etc

For several reasons

a) late nights, working alone, can't face getting up to find music - pick one song, leave it to jukebox me
b) marketing for my clients, YT is the place to put videos/photo/audio without explaining how to spell vimeo, flickr etc
c) Personal - how easy can it be to upload a video/photo/podcast and send it to friends and family?

5) Data storage/back up etc

If only I was on a decent connection....I'd pay for someone to hold my data somewhere else, just in case for resilience/redundancy. Until we get broadband, I simply can't upload it but...I'm working on that broadband issue. (One day, people will understand this campaign has NOTHING to do with downloads). And when I say back up, I mean my mobile too as well as all my computers.

6) Remote Access

How many times is that file I need on the computer at home, or one of the sprogs' computers?

Yep, remote secure back up is worth a quid each month. I use it every time I'm travelling.

7) Facebook & Social Networks

OK, I admit it, I like the chance to vent to my friends, play utterly pointless games like Mousehunt, and check my kids are still alive. LinkedIn matters before meetings too - who is s/he?

8) Blogger / WordPress

I can't imagine now not having a Just Add Water type tool to create a website on the fly for my latest interest.

9) LiveStreaming

The place to point your mobile when you want to show an event you are at with others who can't be there. Be it Qik or Livestream or similar. I'd definitely pay £1 a month for this, even if I was agoraphobic.

10) I'm missing one! What would be your top "I'll pay a quid a month" app for basic internet usage?

We'll get onto business apps shortly, so chuck your ideas at me.

[Product placement is welcome on 5tth now it's legal in the UK - want to push your service? Get in touch]
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BT seeks to put FTTH investment on hold unless Ofcom play ball

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Read more! Yet another reason why the FTTH infrastructure in the UK needs new entrants. BT have threatened to delay investment in FTTC/H unless Ofcom permits it to further raise access prices for the existing copper infrastructure. These prices have already been raised recently between 4 and 11% but BT wants more.

There seems to be an outright failure in this country to understand the importance of FTTH, despite the likes of FTTH Council's Joeri van Bogaert trying to show exactly why FTTH is required across the whole of Europe. No incumbent should be allowed to "hold a gun to the head" of the regulator over the required next gen networks development, particularly with the history of how that copper infrastructure was originally funded, and what its future purpose should actually be. The first mile copper should be ripped out and flogged, not figure in anyone's plans for NGN, particularly as FTTC, which will continue to deliver less than we need broadband far into the future, it would seem, if BT has its way.

And we also have further lunacy from the UK Govt as well to look forward to in 2009. Proposals to spend £12bn (if typical of all other IT projects this Govt has undertaken, read at least 2 or more times that figure)on monitoring individual user's Internet access. This story seems to have been somewhat glossed over by the media pundits who normally comment on such invasions of privacy and wastage of money so far, although the Grauniad has commented now the figure has been announced. The blogosphere has plenty of indignation on the cost and implications eg Mike Butcher here, and a No 10 petition, although there will undoubtedly be more commentary once journos etc return to work next week.

The reality of that £12billion spend of public money on such a pointless system is that it is probably enough to do FTTH to the majority/all of the UK. (Forget the £26-9bn figure from the BSG which is a worst case scenario figure and focus on the more likely £12-16bn cost if FTTH is done sensibly using models of mutual ownership, reduced civils etc.) Which would you rather see our taxpayer's money spent on? Monitoring a few possibly dangerous individuals, (how have we got so hung up on terrorism at the expense of all else???), or giving everyone in the country the potential to innovate, compete in the global knowledge economy, and kickstart new businesses?

So, 2009 may once again be the year where FTTH fails to reach those who most need it because of idiotic decisions made by a Government who don't understand technology, and an incumbent fighting falling share value and rising competition. Oh yippee, hasn't 2009 started well?!
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