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For those who may not remember, here's alink to a story on a community based fiber project in Palo Alto .

the folks living and working in the rarefied atmosphere of Palo Alto (CA) have been working at it for a few years. They also have a city run Utilities dept. and relevant experience. The trial has been very successful (i remember $90 for a fibre drop to the home) with a limited number of customers and now they are pushing for a bond-like measure to build and operate a city wide fiber access utility. As expected, the incumbent network operators (SBC in this case) is out spreading FUD at most city council meetings and with the decision makers. I hope it succeeds so we can move to a model where the road-builders are city/govt regulated and I can have my choice of service providers on the city owned/operated fiber network. Some discussions that I attended bogged down because the proposals defined fiber-to-the-home as a requirement and wasn't exactly friendly to other means of last-100ft access including wide-band wireless, ultra-wide band wireless, or copper operating at >10Mbps.

Oh, funny. Just a bit of info: Provo, Utah started a similar system a while ago. Right now I'm on a FTTH (Fiber to the Home) connection here at my apartment. $15 per month for my 3MBs connection and no filtering. You can read more at pafiber.net with a letter explaining how things have come along from the city's Telecommunications Manager. In actuallity, Utah may very well be ahead of the curve when it comes to technology in many ways. Think Utah and things like this, this and this should come to mind.

Oh, funny. Just a bit of info: Provo, Utah started a similar system a while ago. Right now I'm on a FTTH (Fiber to the Home) connection here at my apartment. $15 per month for my 3MBs connection and no filtering. You can read more at pafiber.net with a letter explaining how things have come along from the city's Telecommunications Manager. In actuallity, Utah may very well be ahead of the curve when it comes to technology in many ways. Think Utah and things like this, this and this should come to mind.

This quickly wanders OFF-TOPIC and then drives the highway metaphor into a ditch, but that is because the topic at hand (moronic metaphors) does influence said OFF topic; which is in fact, in a ditch anyway. So mod this thing sKiz0phr3niK (if it ever gets read at all) because I don't know where such a tautological polemic belongs, but the fact that that is precisely what this entry is, helps me to believe that it belongs with the rest of its ilk(see brief excerpt) somewhere on /.. So if your socio-technological imagination rides around in a vintage four-wheel drive vehicle , it's time to get out and lock the wheel hubs for this rocky off-road rant, or if you're used to existential off-roading PKD-style, then take off the seat belt and enjoy banging your head against the roof with every ill-advised turn, ahead.

I'm glad that this issue of broken highway metaphors is finally helping some people realize the flaccidy ... er, fallacy of the driving metaphor to desribe the Internet; although my skeptical side wagers that many of the people now saying the highway metaphor is retarded for access are the same people who defended the metaphor with regards to transit (bandwidth). My point is, let's link this line of thinking back to the Ethernet First Mile bandwidth issue, because the two are not unrelated.

Capacity, capability, culpability, and community are all interdependent with respect to building the rest of the Internet. Contrary to popular mass delusion, as of the end of 2003, the Internet is less than 50% built. It will not be complete until there is free and unfettered Ethernet Everywhere.

As the current stupid "driver license" idea clearly reveals with respect to access, so transit (bandwidth) is not like a highway, either. The Internet doesn't take you somewhere, that was a FICTION work, but many still seem mindfscked into believing that, at least on a subconscious level. (Also mindfsked was the hype about the movie, apparently.)

The Internet is communication, not transportation. The Information Superhighway is perhaps one of the most malevolent memes unleashed on the world since "the most bewitching and insidious work of literature ever written," namely, Brave New World (and I even voted for the True President, Al Gore!). The highway metaphor is the underlying lie that is giving government the idea that it should own our communication infrastructure! Ummm ... didn't we just topple the evil Soviet Empire for doing things like running all state-controlled communications channels? For all his own misplaced highwayisms, our True President Gore did NOT envision a government owned and controlled Internet; but don't tell that to local government control freaks. If a municipality suggested that it own all of the phone, radio, and TV transmission facilities, can you imagine the uproar? But somehow it's a daydream for government to build and own the communications medium that transcends the Old Comms Trinity.

I propose that we get our analogies consistent and make a concerted effort to destroy this Highway to Hell internet metaphor. I'm amazed on a daily basis at the lengths supposedly smart people will go to defe

Some urban communities do have fibre properly run around them, and properly run, e.g. Stockholm, Sweden.

However, others are completely hosed, e.g. Palo Alto, California. The fibre's been there for ages, and they're still not using it properly.

The trouble is that telephone companies hate competition, and any attempt to actually compete with them will result in them throwing whatever roadblocks they can into the way.

The problem is that you don't live in Silicon Valley, more specfically Palo Alto. Of course, then affording a home is another problem.

I swear, Palo Alto is the only place in the world where a million dollars gets you a pink, two bedroom house in a flood zone....