Ideas from Mark Stout

As kids head back to school, some are at a major disadvantage before they even enter the classroom.  Kids on the far side of the digital divide live in homes unable to afford $45 a month for broadband. Now, Comcast is offering $10 a month internet to children eligible for the National Free Lunch program. That, and other free tools to help bridge the Digital Divide is the topic of this week's Family Tech column .

The next version of Chrome will be able to execute C++ and other code directly inside of the browser. If I understand this correctly, this basically makes the browser real close to an operating system, and makes web only devices like the Chromebook even more functional. One criticism of the the all-web-apps approach taken by the Chromebook is there are certain apps that do lend themselves to being a web app.  Video editing is one, it takes way too much processing power, and you can not have the editing on a server, and then the display downstream via the web.  Latency would be an issue; the video would be slow and jumpy. By being able to execute code inside the browser, a browser only PC can do serious apps, like video editing. This is going to lead to a new generation of web apps. This article by TechCrunch says this is a long time coming, and refers to a talk in 2010 when Google first mentioned this. In reality, this is what Microsoft feared ...

There seems to be more and more every day that can only be done online.  Finding out what your kid is doing at school, emailing your boss, emailing your kids teacher, finding a better job, finding work at all, and so much more. Thankfully libraries offer free internet access to those that do not have access to the net otherwise.  However, that time is limited and for someone in a bad place in life, finding the time maybe while working two jobs to take a bus or two to the library to get online for an hour is daunting. In exchange for approval of the acquisition of NBC by Comcast, Comcast agreed to make broadband available for $10 a month to low income families. Comcast has a website now explaining the program .  If a family has even one child in the free lunch program, they are entitled to inexpensive internet. Some are saying those of us all ready overpaying for broadband are subsidizing this program.  True.  But, our costs wouldn't go down if ...

At the same time we bought the Samsung Instinct smart phones from Sprint, we also picked up one of their femtocells , The Airave . A femtocell is basically a personal cell site. It is a box that looks like a wi-fi access point. It plugs into your broadband. To your phone, it appears to be a cell tower. Without it, we get a single bar in the house, with it from three to five bars depending on where in the house you are. It makes the phones useful in the house, since our street is a dead zone. otherwise. The Airave cost $99 to buy, and then $5 a month. Our previous provider, Verizon is rumored to have their own femtocell about to come out for $249 and no monthly fee. They have been lauded for the no monthly fee, but personally I feel comfortable with Sprint's five dollars a month. OK, sure after 30 months I'll be paying more for the Airwave. On the other hand, Sprint has all those $5 checks coming in each month to motivate them to keep up their end of the infrastructure. ...

The editorial concludes :  'Restoring America to its role as the world’s Internet leader could be an important part of Mr. Obama’s presidential legacy." It also has this pithy quote :  “This is the Eisenhower Interstate highway moment for the Internet,” argues Ben Scott, policy director of the media reform group Free Press.   I couldn't agree more.

The always good Gigaom today suggests three reasons government should meddle in broadband : Education Access, Medical Care Improvements and Telecommuting. I've always thought the best things Congress ever did involved infrastructure. Transcontinental Railroad Land Grant Colleges Rural Electrification Program Interstate Highways And you could argue the Space Program of the 60's helped trigger the technology boom that started in the 70's and continues today. I consider a national aggressive broadband program that puts the goods of the citizenry ahead of the telecommunications company to be worth doing.

President-elect Obama has apparently pledged to appoint a National CIO. Considering the impact technology is having on our society, this is a wonderful idea, and overdue. A website has even been created to allow you to vote on what you believe are the most critical technology issues this CIO should address. I happen to agree with, and voted for, the current #1 choice : Ensure the internet is accessible and network neutral. The cable and phone companies have a unique opportunity. They get to engineer their own demise. Both sell broadband to their customers. For my cable company, it means they have doubled the revenue they get from me each month. And DSL customers are providing more money to their phone companies. These companies love this. Each is using the increased broadband coming into your home to try and put the other out of business. Cable companies are selling phones using VoIP , and my phone company is wiring their customers with FIOS (fiber) as fast as they can and then...