Adrian Wooster Manch Euro
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Friday 26 June 2009
"England is a very odd place" says Adrian Wooster from Community Broadband Network
So we discover that there is a certain urban advantage in England, which theoretically should benefit the majority of us (because ~60% of us live in densely populated areas). Us urban dwellers have a fighting chance of commercial development of next generation broadband (read: fibre). But - oh alas! BT owns an exclusive network of ducts in the ground in these urban areas, and there remains space within those ducts to accommodate fibre optic cables, so why would anyone want to take the risk and borrow a shedload of money to start digging up streets when BT could then (finally) decide to make a move? A bit anti-competitive, methinks.
Saturday 20 June 2009
"The internet is as vital as water and gas" (Gordon Brown, 2009)
In a guest pen piece for the Times, The Prime Minister spoke in favour of rolling out "superfast broadband" because it "must benefit us all, business and consumers alike, in every part of the country". Who would disagree with that? Everyone sings from the same hymn sheet when it comes to the benefits of broadband access.
It is now, as the PM puts it, "as vital as water and gas".
Being an aspiring academic, I must problematise this argument. I would say that the internet is not as vital as water and gas, not just yet anyway, but it WILL BE as vital because services (such as seen in the field of e-health) are migrating to the online environment. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Not in the too distant future, it is bad for your health, wealth and wellbeing not to have broadband at home. Your local services have all but closed, so if you can't do it online you probably face a considerable trek to wherever those services are discharged in a place-bound (old) fashion. There already are services which are delivered online only (not in the public sector though).
You won't know what's going on in your family or circle of friends unless you are part of their online social networks where they post their holiday pictures and their children's first utterings. Your employer, which could be a local authority even, might have forced to you work from home because your former work space is required for hot desking and you can only use it 2.5 days a week. Your colleagues have all opted for individualised patterns of work so you rarely see them for a catch-up, unless you chat to them online of course.
When did I become an internet pessimist? This is an inopportune time for me to adopt such dystopian views - having just upgraded my mobile phone to Nokia N96 which equips me with both 3G and wifi connectivity in the pocket (or handbag, more like).
That having said, I don't have gas or electricity in my handbag but water I do carry with me regularly.
It is now, as the PM puts it, "as vital as water and gas".
Being an aspiring academic, I must problematise this argument. I would say that the internet is not as vital as water and gas, not just yet anyway, but it WILL BE as vital because services (such as seen in the field of e-health) are migrating to the online environment. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Not in the too distant future, it is bad for your health, wealth and wellbeing not to have broadband at home. Your local services have all but closed, so if you can't do it online you probably face a considerable trek to wherever those services are discharged in a place-bound (old) fashion. There already are services which are delivered online only (not in the public sector though).
You won't know what's going on in your family or circle of friends unless you are part of their online social networks where they post their holiday pictures and their children's first utterings. Your employer, which could be a local authority even, might have forced to you work from home because your former work space is required for hot desking and you can only use it 2.5 days a week. Your colleagues have all opted for individualised patterns of work so you rarely see them for a catch-up, unless you chat to them online of course.
When did I become an internet pessimist? This is an inopportune time for me to adopt such dystopian views - having just upgraded my mobile phone to Nokia N96 which equips me with both 3G and wifi connectivity in the pocket (or handbag, more like).
That having said, I don't have gas or electricity in my handbag but water I do carry with me regularly.
Friday 5 June 2009
About the current crisis in government
Well I'm not sure actually that it is a crisis, as crises by definition should be sudden, unforeseen with some kind of immediate and severe impact on things in the short term. Take the economic crisis for example. Banks went under. People lost jobs. It was tangible. It was a crisis. People didn't see it coming. It was a shock to the system, like a decent crisis should be.
But the current crisis in government? That has been ongoing since the undemocratic appointment of Mr Brown as PM, following the long overdue departure of Mr Blair. There has been speculation and calls for the PM's beheading ever since, to the point of it becoming a bit boring. The Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee has been urging Labour to have a leadership contest for longer than I care to remember, and some sacrificial lambs in government have jumped ship along the way, crying out loud their disquiet about Mr Brown's leadership in their 15 seconds of coverage in the main news, soon forgotten about.
So now some more senior people have jumped ship (e.g. Smith, Blears, Purnell, Hutton). But the rebels have not been joined by the "presidential guards" as pointed out in the Guardian today. A revolt now is not a real threat to Mr Brown's premiership. By contrast, the next election will be. Polly, you have ask yourself, who in their right mind would want to take the Labour Party to the next general election? Gordon Brown, obviously, and the senior types are going to let him. Why would they want to be the leader for a few months only to lose the imminent election and get blamed for the defeat? Oh no, they're going to allow Mr Brown take the full hit. Alan Johnson, Toynbee's favourite leader-in-waiting, has emerged as the new Home Secretary in the current reshuffle.
My main problem is that it looks like we're going to have to live with a popular conservative administration for a while anyway, and that's not cricket.
But the current crisis in government? That has been ongoing since the undemocratic appointment of Mr Brown as PM, following the long overdue departure of Mr Blair. There has been speculation and calls for the PM's beheading ever since, to the point of it becoming a bit boring. The Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee has been urging Labour to have a leadership contest for longer than I care to remember, and some sacrificial lambs in government have jumped ship along the way, crying out loud their disquiet about Mr Brown's leadership in their 15 seconds of coverage in the main news, soon forgotten about.
So now some more senior people have jumped ship (e.g. Smith, Blears, Purnell, Hutton). But the rebels have not been joined by the "presidential guards" as pointed out in the Guardian today. A revolt now is not a real threat to Mr Brown's premiership. By contrast, the next election will be. Polly, you have ask yourself, who in their right mind would want to take the Labour Party to the next general election? Gordon Brown, obviously, and the senior types are going to let him. Why would they want to be the leader for a few months only to lose the imminent election and get blamed for the defeat? Oh no, they're going to allow Mr Brown take the full hit. Alan Johnson, Toynbee's favourite leader-in-waiting, has emerged as the new Home Secretary in the current reshuffle.
My main problem is that it looks like we're going to have to live with a popular conservative administration for a while anyway, and that's not cricket.
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