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Fiber to the People: Lessig, IEEE & AFNs

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the what-do-we-want-bandwidth-when-do-we-want-it-now dept.

Codeine writes "Larry Lessig articulates some infrastructure observations based on work by the IEEE & Cornell AFN Institute regarding 'end-user-as owner' (EUO) advanced fibre networks."

8 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. Fiber to the people? by addikt10 · · Score: 5, Funny

    First thing I thought was Metamucil

  2. Shame on the IEEE by possible · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Lately they've been acting like racists and moral cowards. They proactively withdrew membership privileges and publishing rights for Iranian students and researchers. See also this article for an explanation.

    1. Re:Shame on the IEEE by bronaugh · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That's kind of shocking considering what the IEEE stands for. The points made on shameonieee.org are good points; they're going against their own regulations to cover their ass, in typical cowardly I'm-afraid-of-lawyers fashion.

      If you're so afraid of US law, why don't you relocate to, say, Germany or France or even Canada? If this is such a big issue, why don't you serve your members better by moving to the Free World...

      Reminds me of a line from an old song... "You are living in the free world, and in the free world you must stay"

      Dragging the nationality of their organization into the debate will not serve to promote their organization.

    2. Re:Shame on the IEEE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You don't get it. Often times, scientific and technical societies are one of the few ways that students in these countries can interact with the outside world. Students are usually in the vanguard of pro-democracy movements (as in China and in fact Iran too) and it's a *good* idea to keep communications open with them.

  3. Re:To that Stuntman guy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's especially annoying when you work in the industry, and know that the jobs for stuntmen, wardrobe, camera, carpentry, etc. are going away, not due to piracy, but because the producers are cutting costs and taking foreign incentives to shoot outside the US.

    If they're going to blame job loss on something, blame it on the execs (who would have shot for cheaper elsewhere anyways.) Illegal copies are just a red herring - if copies ate into the profits of good movies, how did Finding Nemo set new records for the box office?

    Personally, I think the industry should get a clue - if people are willing to spend an hour of computer time, and an hour of their own time, watching some crappy Kaaza version of a film that they weren't going to go to theatres to watch anyways, doesn't that point to a potential market for them to exploit? The next time a big movie comes out, USE Kaaza to sell a screener version of the movie, formatted for 4:3 at 320x480, for like $3.50 per download, starting the first Monday after the opening weekend. Consider any losses due to people seeing it as part of the marketing budget...

  4. Ah fiber. by psifishdot · · Score: 5, Funny

    Fiber keeps my downloads regular...

    --

    Long live Schrodinger's cat...
  5. Re:Makes a certain amount of sense by bussdriver · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My city does the roads, and lets the car makers compete on them.
    We don't have GM make the road than then insist you to only drive GM cars on it.

    Cities should do the networks like they do the roads. Usage taxes help maintain the 'information superhighway'. Let the free market build the cars, gas stations, AAA, onstar, etc..

    I do not need an ISP. I MUST pay them and I don't even like them. Our city would have saved more money in the long run doing it themselves than all that regulation waste. (including lawsuits, regulation boards, etc.)

    --
    Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
  6. Re:It can be done by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Siiiiigh...when are you people going to realize it's about POPULATION DENSITY? When you have 50 customers in one building- it's rather practical to run a T3 to them. If you have 5- no way.

    Case and point- when I worked in south boston, we had a 256kbit T1 installed because it was the only option- no cable, no DSL because the phone company apparently ripped out all the copper in the area. Mind you- this is a 5 minute walk from DOWNTOWN FINANCIAL CENTER in Boston. Not the boondocks.

    It's not about density - Boston (like most US cities) is already very dense. It's about poor planning and monopoly extortion. Why did the phone company rip out all the copper? Did they leave empty conduits behind?