Something tells me there's not a lot of equipment to buy. Nor does buying spectrum with which no one's been able to make a business since it was doled out in 96 seem to make a lot of sense.
I'm wondering, though, have you dealt with any of the 24/38 winners? Wispra? Norigen? Stream?
It's easy to beat up on MaxLink, but I'm curious to see how the new players are faring a year after winning their own licences. Some of them had some aggressive marketing plans.
The licences held by MaxLink for 28 GHz LMCS spectrum had a long and troubled history. First handed by Industry Canada to MaxLink, WIC Connexus and RegionalVision in 1996, the lack of a business case for wireless cable led to all the licences eventually being held by MaxLink, which ultimately intended to use it as "wireless fibre". The department was trying to kickstart LMCS services in Canada (LMDS to the Americans) in advance of equipment availability. The fight when WIC broke its Newbridge contract to buy from Cisco didn't help the industry's credibility in the country. The lack of proven technologies across the spectrum of FDMA and TDMA also didn't help, and breathless anticipation turned to cynicism at least a year ago. Put simply, the technology isn't mature in the SHF band to the point of being a viable replacement for fibre in a tele-dense country.
Look, while having an attractive package at an excellent price point, and proven technology in the MCS/MDS bands, has simply been unable to out-market the incumbent cablecos. Rather than concentrating on the cities, it should seek to become part of the government's broadband initiative in rural areas as its main proving ground.
Complete and total bullshit. To even mention video games in the same breath as western culture is an affront to intelligence. We have been, and remain, an individualistic, technology-centric, materially-driven society. The basic cultural values by which we can be identified haven't changed in thousands of years. Our culture can be mapped on a continuum, and fucking video games don't so much as register a speck. It's like telling people 15,000 years ago that the ability to paint with a mixture of solids in a fluid vehicle would never be surpassed as a cultural achievement. Video games fit into our culture -- they don't define it. The culture of gaming dovetails, and wouldn't be possible, without the basic tenets of exploration and competitiveness which have led to every generation's new discoveries since Christ was a cowboy in western civilization. I'm sure the book is an entertaining read, but to take gaming seriously as anything but a direct result of the greater values which mark us all is simply obtuse.
This is geek propaganda of the type that should be successful as brainless software engineers rush out to buy it in lieu of getting real educations.
It's not a question of controlling the web -- the commission was roundly praised for its decision not to regulate the industry. Remember, though, that it also ruled that some new media was broadcasting, and thus they have the authority to regulate. Anything resembling radio, TV or video falls under the Broadcast Act even if it's over the Internet. They've simply said they won't do it, granting it an unconditional exemption -- for the time being. There's nothing to say they can't reverse their position of forbearance, though it's unlikely they would ever do so.
The feds have also indicated that they consider some level of access a basic service. That might become even stronger a statement when Johnston's broadband task force reports next spring.
No one wants the government to begin regulating content, but the Internet is now considered a de facto basic, regulated tele-communications industry -- and ISP subscribers should be able to count on the same consumer protections afforded cable and telephone subscribers.
Rogers@Home (we're in Ottawa) has been yanking us around for a month now. We're campaign volunteers in the local elections, responsible for internal communications and communicating with the media. Having no email for days at a time has been a nightmare in doing that job. When my girlfriend got through to tech support after three days of calling, she was told our email outages have been her fault. We know, of course, that it's not.
As the CRTC removes itself further and further from the marketplace in the cities, the regulated telcos and cablecos are becoming increasingly bold and cavalier. The commission needs to mandate a clear refund policy for service interruptions -- it's well within their purview and there's historic precedent.
This thread is an excellent refutation of JonKatz's piece earlier this summer on the future success of "open source" web journalism. An experienced, professional journalist would never have asked questions with that argumentative a tone. An experienced, professional journalist would not have asked about theoretical outcomes to an unwritten report and expected an answer. An experienced, professional journalist would certainly never have expected anything insightful from an email interview. These questions were an interesting experiment, but the role of reporters who understand their craft as well as their beat will always be able to sell their product -- a community may understand the issue, but it is the beat reporters job to develop the relationships that lead to more candid discussions with figures of the day. There's no conspiracy here, just a poor choice of questions and unrealistic expectations about how forthcoming officials can be on the record.
If workers in the technology or other knowledge field are being exploited, I'd argue it's probably their own fault, and that a shift in priorities is in order. Tech and knowledge workers are, often, talented people who have applied their energy to a pursuit of the things we associate with work - money, promotions, a sense of importance. If they shifted their viewpoint a little, and looked outside of the paid workforce for satisfaction and a better quality of life, maybe they'd be less inclined to fall into the 80-hour work week for little reward trap. I've sifted through dozens and dozens of these posts and not once do I see any reference to volunteerism. If work is exploitive, cut down the employers' opportunity to do so. Refuse extra hours, refuse weekend work. Refuse to cave to a value system diametrically opposed to your own. Spend that time in pursuit of more meaningful work - even if it is unpaid. Your local community association - you know, the one which works with the city on zoning, safety, crime, street dances, etc. - would probably love your help designing their page. Your church needs help communicating with the congregation. Someone needs to write stories for the volunteer community paper on what to look for in a back-to-school computer and software. Don't even apply your programming and coding talents to your volunteer activities. Search for satisfaction in other ways. Deliver meals-on-wheels. Point being, once you've made enough to put a roof over your head, clothes on your kids' backs, pay for repairs to the mini-van and save for retirement, you're done! You can find satisfying work in the tech field that lets you make a living, and leaves you time for the truly important things in life, like helping others and giving in to your urge to be generous. Get off the ego trip, and realize that technology hasn't created the conditions for exploitation - greed has, and it always will.
Wow. In my editorials I often cite IRC as an alternate distribution method for warez and porn, a wake-up call to legislators who believe the Internet is controllable by legislation. De-centralization puts it just beyond arm's reach and even if they could target every server being used, it would be a futile exercise as a copycat protocols spring up.
That said, I've also sat in on some great chats between sufferers of Parkinsons disease living on different continents. Sometimes they chat about their disease, sometimes about fishing, and occasionally argue passionately about Ford vs. Chevy.
Alcoholics can find support in channels devoted to that purpose.
People living in central and western Canada can't see TV coverage of election results until their polls close. Hop on to a channel for maritimers and get real-time results -- a must for us political junkies, debating the results as they come in, of course
There's always a user in one of the technical channels willing to help a clueless computer user figure out why their browser won't display Quicktime content.
Amateur HTML users can get help with that damned tag that won't work, in real time.
Film reviews are unfiltered as people discuss their entertainment choices.
The IRC is a microcosm of the world -- though with better communication. I've chatted with people living in repressed countries who dare to talk openly in channel about conditions where they live. When IRC becomes easier to use, and more stable, it will be almost as important as email. Studying journalism in school, I've spent hours chatting with classmates in the wee hours as we worked on the school paper on deadline, DCC'ing draft pages back and forth. That's a powerful tool.
IRC has its downside, but to pooh-pooh it as exclusively the domain of the seediest 'netizens is knee-jerk reactionism. Kiddie porn is illegal, and there are legal recourses which exist today to punish those trading in it, no matter how they do so. It's not reason enough to advocate the shutdown of the world's electronic meeting place.
Re:"Rejected"? What would Turner say?
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Lawsuits Suck
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· Score: 2
That's Fredrick Jackson Turner whose "Frontier Thesis" continues to be debated today. There are dozens of historians who refute his thesis that the frontier shaped American democracy. When he first wrote, he was trying to find an alternative to the then-prevalent "germ theory" which said, in effect, that American institutions were transplanted English/Germanic knock-offs. He and his colleagues (including future president Woodrow Wilson) couldn't stomach that idea. American democracy was new and different, Turner reasoned, and the frontier was the main reason why.
If my thesis isn't entirely out in left field, it will be interesting to watch how Internet and geek values evolve in other countries. Part of the opposition to Turner's ideas stems from the development of other frontiers, including the Canadian and Australian, and the very different institutions which arose. The RCMP and railway settled the Canadian West, not pioneers as south of the 49th. Already in Canada we've seen the rise of a very different Internet culture. The CRTC has forborne the web from regulation, but they've reserved the right to do so in future. Two different countries, two different sets of institutions, same cyberspace. I see a lot of value in applying Turner's ideas to the evolution of the 'Net, but the frontier doesn't neccessarily have the same effect on all new societies.
"Rejected"? What would Turner say?
on
Lawsuits Suck
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· Score: 3
Ah, the futile plaintive cry of an individual fighting historic inevitability.
Fesh, I think you're right. The Internet should be thought of as physical space, as in a "place of our own". But, given that premise, you need to look at how physical space is populated. I don't know how often the point has been made, but once you get thinking along those lines you have to start contemplating Turner's thesis. Rather than a cause for despair for a lost techie Eden, I think Turner would make some interesting points about the values of the frontier/Internet informing popular values in the oh-so-messy analog world.
Let's say we accept a comparison between cyberspace and the frontier as Turner knew it when he wrote before the War. Yes, it begins as empty geography and its wildness inculcates values such as democracy, freedom of speech and even lawlessness. Pioneers rough out their existence, preferably growing a little more prosperous, a little fatter, on the unpopulated plains and farms by the new land's shore. Those who came first, however, are forced to move West as the next wave of settlers comes in to populate and build on the rudiments of society as built by the first pioneers. In our discussion, let's pretend "West" is a metaphor for an increasingly sophisticated technology which bars all but the most savvy from joining. That second wave of pioneers, however, learns from those who went before. They continue to have rudimentary dealings with the wave which went West. Their values are informed by the libertarian priorities of those who built the first institutions, and they pass those values on to the third wave of pioneers before they themselves go West in search of more space and freedom.
Those first institutions - rough houses, saloons, banks and law - are roughly analogous to the development of the Internet as you (single-handedly by the tone of your post) built. Simple connections between individual computers became more sophisticated with the development of bulletin-boards, browsers, IRC, Hotline and Napster. I'm not tech-savvy, and presume the truly "l33t" are trading kiddie porn far from the prying eyes of technologically stunted lawmen and lawwomen by using a protocol or platform most of us have never heard of - yet.
In Turner's thesis, America is a democratic nation which values liberty and the pursuit of, blah blah blah, because those who built its government were influenced by the values of the frontier (my apologies for the over-simplification, Australians and Canadians please note that I'm leaving an entire anti-Turner historiography out of my post for no reason other than brevity). Is the loss of the Internet as purely geek-inhabited space a cause for the gnashing of teeth you demonstrated in your post? Probably not. Values in the analog world are being changed by the ideas created west of the digital Appalacians. The world's media, its governments, and the most important financial and cultural institutions are online - populating the "civilized" portion left empty long ago by the geeks forced to move further west in a search for space. The non-digital world most of us inhabit today is changing quickly because the values of the Internet pioneer are changing institutions. Our politicians understand that peer-to-peer relationships, no matter who the peer is, will win elections. Our banks are quick-changing into responsive, collaborative institutions as they come to understand their physical presence is an anachronism in a world of purely imaginative money. The way the Internet has changed the analog world would please Turner, who would see developments as proof he was right in 1911. The physical frontier was declared closed by the Bureau of the Census in 1901, but the same forces Turner explored are at play one hundred years later in cyberspace.
No, geeks don't deserve any recognition for building the Internet, unless we count the geek-as-Jebediah Springfield monument in the digital town square a mark of gratitude for those who tilled the first pastures. The values which sprung up in unpopulated and wild cyberspace were predictable, as has been the subsequent development of the Army Of Lamers and the snake-oil salesmen selling us streaming video as a necessary complement to the 500-channel TV universe. The Internet's builders have played the same role as telephone repairmen 20 years ago and barrel-makers in the nineteenth century. They are technicians with no special claims to special values. The forces which shape frontier development are at the root of our Wild West perception of the Internet. Geeks have played the valuable role of railroad tie-layers on the first digital highways, but their behaviour and beliefs are no different from those which have existed in every generation of Westward-looking sons and daughters
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Something tells me there's not a lot of equipment to buy. Nor does buying spectrum with which no one's been able to make a business since it was doled out in 96 seem to make a lot of sense. I'm wondering, though, have you dealt with any of the 24/38 winners? Wispra? Norigen? Stream? It's easy to beat up on MaxLink, but I'm curious to see how the new players are faring a year after winning their own licences. Some of them had some aggressive marketing plans.
The licences held by MaxLink for 28 GHz LMCS spectrum had a long and troubled history. First handed by Industry Canada to MaxLink, WIC Connexus and RegionalVision in 1996, the lack of a business case for wireless cable led to all the licences eventually being held by MaxLink, which ultimately intended to use it as "wireless fibre". The department was trying to kickstart LMCS services in Canada (LMDS to the Americans) in advance of equipment availability. The fight when WIC broke its Newbridge contract to buy from Cisco didn't help the industry's credibility in the country. The lack of proven technologies across the spectrum of FDMA and TDMA also didn't help, and breathless anticipation turned to cynicism at least a year ago. Put simply, the technology isn't mature in the SHF band to the point of being a viable replacement for fibre in a tele-dense country. Look, while having an attractive package at an excellent price point, and proven technology in the MCS/MDS bands, has simply been unable to out-market the incumbent cablecos. Rather than concentrating on the cities, it should seek to become part of the government's broadband initiative in rural areas as its main proving ground.
Complete and total bullshit. To even mention video games in the same breath as western culture is an affront to intelligence. We have been, and remain, an individualistic, technology-centric, materially-driven society. The basic cultural values by which we can be identified haven't changed in thousands of years. Our culture can be mapped on a continuum, and fucking video games don't so much as register a speck. It's like telling people 15,000 years ago that the ability to paint with a mixture of solids in a fluid vehicle would never be surpassed as a cultural achievement. Video games fit into our culture -- they don't define it. The culture of gaming dovetails, and wouldn't be possible, without the basic tenets of exploration and competitiveness which have led to every generation's new discoveries since Christ was a cowboy in western civilization. I'm sure the book is an entertaining read, but to take gaming seriously as anything but a direct result of the greater values which mark us all is simply obtuse. This is geek propaganda of the type that should be successful as brainless software engineers rush out to buy it in lieu of getting real educations.
It's not a question of controlling the web -- the commission was roundly praised for its decision not to regulate the industry. Remember, though, that it also ruled that some new media was broadcasting, and thus they have the authority to regulate. Anything resembling radio, TV or video falls under the Broadcast Act even if it's over the Internet. They've simply said they won't do it, granting it an unconditional exemption -- for the time being. There's nothing to say they can't reverse their position of forbearance, though it's unlikely they would ever do so. The feds have also indicated that they consider some level of access a basic service. That might become even stronger a statement when Johnston's broadband task force reports next spring. No one wants the government to begin regulating content, but the Internet is now considered a de facto basic, regulated tele-communications industry -- and ISP subscribers should be able to count on the same consumer protections afforded cable and telephone subscribers.
Rogers@Home (we're in Ottawa) has been yanking us around for a month now. We're campaign volunteers in the local elections, responsible for internal communications and communicating with the media. Having no email for days at a time has been a nightmare in doing that job. When my girlfriend got through to tech support after three days of calling, she was told our email outages have been her fault. We know, of course, that it's not. As the CRTC removes itself further and further from the marketplace in the cities, the regulated telcos and cablecos are becoming increasingly bold and cavalier. The commission needs to mandate a clear refund policy for service interruptions -- it's well within their purview and there's historic precedent.
This thread is an excellent refutation of JonKatz's piece earlier this summer on the future success of "open source" web journalism. An experienced, professional journalist would never have asked questions with that argumentative a tone. An experienced, professional journalist would not have asked about theoretical outcomes to an unwritten report and expected an answer. An experienced, professional journalist would certainly never have expected anything insightful from an email interview. These questions were an interesting experiment, but the role of reporters who understand their craft as well as their beat will always be able to sell their product -- a community may understand the issue, but it is the beat reporters job to develop the relationships that lead to more candid discussions with figures of the day. There's no conspiracy here, just a poor choice of questions and unrealistic expectations about how forthcoming officials can be on the record.
If workers in the technology or other knowledge field are being exploited, I'd argue it's probably their own fault, and that a shift in priorities is in order. Tech and knowledge workers are, often, talented people who have applied their energy to a pursuit of the things we associate with work - money, promotions, a sense of importance. If they shifted their viewpoint a little, and looked outside of the paid workforce for satisfaction and a better quality of life, maybe they'd be less inclined to fall into the 80-hour work week for little reward trap. I've sifted through dozens and dozens of these posts and not once do I see any reference to volunteerism. If work is exploitive, cut down the employers' opportunity to do so. Refuse extra hours, refuse weekend work. Refuse to cave to a value system diametrically opposed to your own. Spend that time in pursuit of more meaningful work - even if it is unpaid. Your local community association - you know, the one which works with the city on zoning, safety, crime, street dances, etc. - would probably love your help designing their page. Your church needs help communicating with the congregation. Someone needs to write stories for the volunteer community paper on what to look for in a back-to-school computer and software. Don't even apply your programming and coding talents to your volunteer activities. Search for satisfaction in other ways. Deliver meals-on-wheels. Point being, once you've made enough to put a roof over your head, clothes on your kids' backs, pay for repairs to the mini-van and save for retirement, you're done! You can find satisfying work in the tech field that lets you make a living, and leaves you time for the truly important things in life, like helping others and giving in to your urge to be generous. Get off the ego trip, and realize that technology hasn't created the conditions for exploitation - greed has, and it always will.
Wow. In my editorials I often cite IRC as an alternate distribution method for warez and porn, a wake-up call to legislators who believe the Internet is controllable by legislation. De-centralization puts it just beyond arm's reach and even if they could target every server being used, it would be a futile exercise as a copycat protocols spring up. That said, I've also sat in on some great chats between sufferers of Parkinsons disease living on different continents. Sometimes they chat about their disease, sometimes about fishing, and occasionally argue passionately about Ford vs. Chevy. Alcoholics can find support in channels devoted to that purpose. People living in central and western Canada can't see TV coverage of election results until their polls close. Hop on to a channel for maritimers and get real-time results -- a must for us political junkies, debating the results as they come in, of course There's always a user in one of the technical channels willing to help a clueless computer user figure out why their browser won't display Quicktime content. Amateur HTML users can get help with that damned tag that won't work, in real time. Film reviews are unfiltered as people discuss their entertainment choices. The IRC is a microcosm of the world -- though with better communication. I've chatted with people living in repressed countries who dare to talk openly in channel about conditions where they live. When IRC becomes easier to use, and more stable, it will be almost as important as email. Studying journalism in school, I've spent hours chatting with classmates in the wee hours as we worked on the school paper on deadline, DCC'ing draft pages back and forth. That's a powerful tool. IRC has its downside, but to pooh-pooh it as exclusively the domain of the seediest 'netizens is knee-jerk reactionism. Kiddie porn is illegal, and there are legal recourses which exist today to punish those trading in it, no matter how they do so. It's not reason enough to advocate the shutdown of the world's electronic meeting place.
That's Fredrick Jackson Turner whose "Frontier Thesis" continues to be debated today. There are dozens of historians who refute his thesis that the frontier shaped American democracy. When he first wrote, he was trying to find an alternative to the then-prevalent "germ theory" which said, in effect, that American institutions were transplanted English/Germanic knock-offs. He and his colleagues (including future president Woodrow Wilson) couldn't stomach that idea. American democracy was new and different, Turner reasoned, and the frontier was the main reason why. If my thesis isn't entirely out in left field, it will be interesting to watch how Internet and geek values evolve in other countries. Part of the opposition to Turner's ideas stems from the development of other frontiers, including the Canadian and Australian, and the very different institutions which arose. The RCMP and railway settled the Canadian West, not pioneers as south of the 49th. Already in Canada we've seen the rise of a very different Internet culture. The CRTC has forborne the web from regulation, but they've reserved the right to do so in future. Two different countries, two different sets of institutions, same cyberspace. I see a lot of value in applying Turner's ideas to the evolution of the 'Net, but the frontier doesn't neccessarily have the same effect on all new societies.
Ah, the futile plaintive cry of an individual fighting historic inevitability. Fesh, I think you're right. The Internet should be thought of as physical space, as in a "place of our own". But, given that premise, you need to look at how physical space is populated. I don't know how often the point has been made, but once you get thinking along those lines you have to start contemplating Turner's thesis. Rather than a cause for despair for a lost techie Eden, I think Turner would make some interesting points about the values of the frontier/Internet informing popular values in the oh-so-messy analog world. Let's say we accept a comparison between cyberspace and the frontier as Turner knew it when he wrote before the War. Yes, it begins as empty geography and its wildness inculcates values such as democracy, freedom of speech and even lawlessness. Pioneers rough out their existence, preferably growing a little more prosperous, a little fatter, on the unpopulated plains and farms by the new land's shore. Those who came first, however, are forced to move West as the next wave of settlers comes in to populate and build on the rudiments of society as built by the first pioneers. In our discussion, let's pretend "West" is a metaphor for an increasingly sophisticated technology which bars all but the most savvy from joining. That second wave of pioneers, however, learns from those who went before. They continue to have rudimentary dealings with the wave which went West. Their values are informed by the libertarian priorities of those who built the first institutions, and they pass those values on to the third wave of pioneers before they themselves go West in search of more space and freedom. Those first institutions - rough houses, saloons, banks and law - are roughly analogous to the development of the Internet as you (single-handedly by the tone of your post) built. Simple connections between individual computers became more sophisticated with the development of bulletin-boards, browsers, IRC, Hotline and Napster. I'm not tech-savvy, and presume the truly "l33t" are trading kiddie porn far from the prying eyes of technologically stunted lawmen and lawwomen by using a protocol or platform most of us have never heard of - yet. In Turner's thesis, America is a democratic nation which values liberty and the pursuit of, blah blah blah, because those who built its government were influenced by the values of the frontier (my apologies for the over-simplification, Australians and Canadians please note that I'm leaving an entire anti-Turner historiography out of my post for no reason other than brevity). Is the loss of the Internet as purely geek-inhabited space a cause for the gnashing of teeth you demonstrated in your post? Probably not. Values in the analog world are being changed by the ideas created west of the digital Appalacians. The world's media, its governments, and the most important financial and cultural institutions are online - populating the "civilized" portion left empty long ago by the geeks forced to move further west in a search for space. The non-digital world most of us inhabit today is changing quickly because the values of the Internet pioneer are changing institutions. Our politicians understand that peer-to-peer relationships, no matter who the peer is, will win elections. Our banks are quick-changing into responsive, collaborative institutions as they come to understand their physical presence is an anachronism in a world of purely imaginative money. The way the Internet has changed the analog world would please Turner, who would see developments as proof he was right in 1911. The physical frontier was declared closed by the Bureau of the Census in 1901, but the same forces Turner explored are at play one hundred years later in cyberspace. No, geeks don't deserve any recognition for building the Internet, unless we count the geek-as-Jebediah Springfield monument in the digital town square a mark of gratitude for those who tilled the first pastures. The values which sprung up in unpopulated and wild cyberspace were predictable, as has been the subsequent development of the Army Of Lamers and the snake-oil salesmen selling us streaming video as a necessary complement to the 500-channel TV universe. The Internet's builders have played the same role as telephone repairmen 20 years ago and barrel-makers in the nineteenth century. They are technicians with no special claims to special values. The forces which shape frontier development are at the root of our Wild West perception of the Internet. Geeks have played the valuable role of railroad tie-layers on the first digital highways, but their behaviour and beliefs are no different from those which have existed in every generation of Westward-looking sons and daughters