Connecting the Dots

EFF Pioneer Awards

Last night I attended the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Pioneer Awards. Just simply being at this event and absorbing the vibe was meaningful for me and I'll bring forth a perspective that may be atypical and worth putting into the conversation about EFF.

Nearly four years ago was the first time that I donated to EFF and began my support of this organization. Though I look like "a suit", a Republican and a mainstream sort of guy, I'm an independent, a closet liberal, enjoy some Libertarian leanings and am quite open to growing in my perspective as I learn -- especially legally and politically -- as we all push against the membrane of the future.

Five or so years ago I became more enlightened. I was stunned by the multiple, parallel, onrush of efforts by copyright holders, Congress, world intellectual capital bodies, governments globally as well as intelligence communities, to command, control and infiltrate all aspects of the Internet.  As I started to try getting my head wrapped around even a few of the issues, I realized that there was NO way that I could be competently informed about even ONE of these issues shaping our future....let alone dozens of them at a time!

Enter the EFF. I learned that here was an organization whose mission was to be that competent, informed entity who'd act to intervene, stop or shape the debate about the most important issues facing us in our digital future. With more and more of our relationships, commerce, free speech, entertainment -- you name it -- being created or delivered digitally, I (and you) could either pull the covers over our collective heads or get involved...and support those who've rolled up their sleeves, dug their hands in the muck and are in the fray.

So that's what I did.  Last night was great for a lot of reasons and validated (in spades) the vital importance of this organization and the people who've dedicated money, support and all or part of their lives to the mission.

Mobile Global Grid: When the World is At Your Fingertips

Like me, if you're paying any attention to the signs, trends and foundational elements upon which innovation in technology occurs, then you have to be seeing what I'm seeing...it's sooo close.  Do you see it?

Right there. Don't see it yet? OK then, let's push against the membrane of the future together for a minute.

If you look now you can just make out a mobile device, connected to a ubiquitous wireless network (that you can use even when you're miles from a major metro area, off the autobahn or Interstate highway system, or at some point in the future on the Serengeti plain in Africa) and is so simple to use that you're able to connect and re-connect to the global grid in an instant and have all the world's knowledge at your fingertips.

When you're in your car, at a restaurant, a dinner party, at a business meeting, at school...anything connected to the global grid you're authorized or able to grab is yours for the snagging from a device in your hand.

We're partially there now and more is coming.

Unless you've been living under a rock, Apple's eagerly anticipated iPhone is the closest concept yet to a just beyond the membrane of the future simple to use, multi-function device that will be useful for the masses to leverage our currently decent wireless network...and is one set to expand dramatically.

According to GigaOM today, there are distinct chunks of spectrum that hold the promise of mass geographical coverage and expanding the grid. An increasing number of mobile communications online applications are proliferating (e.g., this list at eConsultant). The World Wide Web Consortium's Mobile Initiative adds even more fuel to the fire of a mobile, global grid.

Couple that with the always-on, always-connected, culture of participation (see "Rise of the Participation Culture") and you have a brew from which all sorts of possibilities come forth!

Though I look like some geek when I do this, at least twice a week I'll be in a conversation and someone will say something like, "You know...that ocean...the one by (country here)....what's that called?"  I'll whip out my Treo, go to Google, enter a search string and, I swear to God, almost instantly I can find a reference to that country and there's an obvious link that contains the data where I can answer that question. It's a bit of a conversation stifler at the moment as I futz with the device, but I'm pretty good at glossing over my thumbing on the Treo, we carry on the conversation, and I circle back to the fact and insert it into our discussion. Works great.

Did this at a dinner party one evening awhile back when people were struggling with an artist and a song. No one knew, the conversation continued, and about two minutes later I mentioned the artist. "OH YEAH!" came the head-slap comments and we carried on. Trivial in the scheme of life I realize, but extend this to the DOZENS OF TIMES PER DAY that I look something up on Google, use Google Maps, find a phone number on Directory Assistance, send SMS messages, send a photo/blog post to one of my private client blogs, use Instant Messaging....all from applications that run on my Treo!

So how is this going to transform the world? In ways predictable but mostly ones that are not. Who knows what will be the killer application for the always connected world -- especially when better geotracking is in the mix?  What I do know is that some of it is already here...and if you push just hard enough on the membrane of the future you'll have a good indication of what's coming.

Off to New York City...

Start spreading the news, I’m leaving today
I want to be a part of it - New York, New York
These vagabond shoes, are longing to stray
Right through the very heart of it - New York, New York

I wanna wake up in a city, that doesn’t sleep
And find I’m king of the hill - top of the heap

These little town blues, are melting away
I’ll make a brand new start of it - in old New York
If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere
It’s up to you - New York, New York

New York, New York
I want to wake up in a city, that never sleeps
And find I’m a number one - top of the list, king of the hill
A number one

These little town blues, are melting away
I’m gonna make a brand new start of it - in old new york
And if I can make it there, I’m gonna make it anywhere

It up to you - New York, New York

New York

TSA and Secure Flight

In a post today from noted security expert Bruce Schneier, he examines the Transportation Security Administration's "Secure Flight". It's a pretty sobering read.

As I've expressed previously on this blog, I've been specifically steering clear of discussions of politics (e.g., geopolitics), macroeconomics, and other areas where I actually do connect some dots but those dots are in areas in which it seems prudent to be distant. It's pretty clear to me that a climate of fear is slowly rising in the U.S. and, one could argue, concern over our terrorism-related tactics domestically, treatment of those suspected of having intelligence as well as our foundation-lacking motives to take over and build a strategic position in Iraq has already manifested itself in to distrust globally.

I'm concerned that a continued raising of a climate of fear and accelerating profiling of the American citizenry will raise barriers to internet innovation (in my view an engine for the economy) right here at home as well as abroad. We've already seen moves by the government to ensure that the internet can be monitored globally with initiatives like Echelon and the highly controversial domestic Carnivore system. I believe that this increase in monitoring the internet has profound and troubling security, privacy and trust implications. These negatives could materially and negatively impact the U.S. use of internet-centric innovation by businesses and organizations which absolutely must compete on a world stage.

Every time I fly I'm struck by the illusion we all have that we're somehow safer and less prone to terrorist attack. Isn't it curious when you realize that all the Dept of Homeland Security color-coded alerts that occurred in the runup to the last election occurred at major holidays -- when the maximum number of travelers would be in our airports afraid of terrorism? Isn't it also interesting that -- since the election -- there haven't been any warnings of note? Does that mean our investment in the TSA has stopped air terrorism?

In a talk on IT Conversations with Mr. Schneier some time ago, he pointed out the obvious: that our overwhelming investment in airport/airline security is like padlocking the barn door after the horse has bolted and is long gone...and that terrorists would simply look for other targets minimally secured (and there have been numerous stories written and produced about the lack of security at other main targets). One example of this was the knee-jerk reaction by the transit authorities nationally after the London bombings. I worry about the Mall of America in my own backyard as well as other sensitive targets I'd rather not point out in public.

If what Mr. Schneier describes (TSA building a draconian extensible and scalable data warehouse for collecting information for "profiling" passengers) is true which I believe is the case, the implications of this far exceed the boundaries of protecting air travel, will raise the climate of fear amongst the US citizenry and add to the dim view many countries in the world now hold toward us.

Connecting the Dots for July 9, 2005

Today's show discusses Steve and family's trip to Japan during the July 4th week. A little bit of tech talk, impressions of the country, and areas of Tokyo -- with some tips for you if you're traveling out of the country and especially to Tokyo.

Download MP3 File

Our Trip to Japan

Haven't posted for a week since Michelle, the kids and I headed to Japan for a week's vacation (and a little time spent with Michelle doing some trend-spotting and the three of us helping her by taking photos).

If you'd care to peek at a brief blog I put together on our trip (and had password protected while we were out of the country so only family and friends could see it -- and so I wasn't screaming to the world we were out of the country though we had a housesitter) go to the "Our Trip to Japan" blog.

There are only 10 posts so you can start at the bottom and quickly work your way up. There are some fun pictures that will give you a flavor for Tokyo.

Hey...I thought the world was getting in sync?

In a couple of weeks I'll be on a 12 hour flight to Tokyo. My Powerbook gets less than three hours on a charge (my work-issued Thinkpad four and a half) so I checked with Northwest Airlines on seat power. None. Wifi? None. Guess I'd better buy another battery. My iPod also won't last very long so I may be forced to read my book without tunes.

Then I checked with my two mobile telephony providers (TMobile for personal and Cingular for work) to see if either Blackberry would have service. Voice? None for either since Japan is on an incompatible, 3G system. Email? Yes...but limited.

My Nikon D70 will work fine and batteries, Compact Flash cards and more will be generally available. Same for miniDV and my Sony camcorder batteries should I need any for these two devices. Discovered today, though, that Wifi in our hotel will be US$25 per day to connect to the 'net. So I poked around and TMobile hotspots in Starbucks there have a US$0.12 per minute surcharge. What?

So the world isn't in sync on standards and travel with all these tech devices isn't easy and seamless yet. But when my Dad and I took our trip to Germany in 1997 to see where my ancestors came from (his first international trip), he was absolutely amazed that we would be in Germany in 8 hours...and it took them one month to travel from Germany to Minnesota. On that trip the 'net was new and I was standing in phone booths with an acoustic coupler modem most nights since I was building a web site on the fly.

Oh poor Steve. No non-stop power for his laptop. A whole 12 hours to Tokyo. Semi-ubiquitous and fairly affordable connection to a worldwide network for pennies. I'll stop my whining now.

A "Dad and Son Adventure" to the Black Hills of South Dakota

A short 2 1/2 minute movie from our recent adventure to the Black Hills of South Dakota (see this post and this one).

Perspective goes to both the victor and the vanquished

"History is written by the victors," said Winston Churchill. Sad but true. Growing up playing cowboys and indians, watching TV and movie westerns, and being taught about the tragedy of Custer's Last Stand, gave me a perspective that has taken me decades to balance and learn about the perspective of the other side...the vanquished native American.

Today's experience at the Crazy Horse monument was interesting on many fronts: it's a grander, larger and more magnificent monument than Mt. Rushmore but is many, many decades away from completion. The native people I spoke with today clearly have the perspective that their leaders were as equally great as the men who founded and enhanced our nation.

In the bookstore at the monument were several books about yesterday's post regarding the massacre at Wounded Knee. All the titles were ones like, "The Massacre at Wounded Knee. Stories from native survivors" or "Wounded Knee: History from our Perspective." I picked them up and skimmed them all. It was much different than what I'd been taught as a kid and has provided me with a profound realization that "the battle" as it's been characterized truly was uncalled for and was genocide.

One other thing happened today that was pretty profound and added to my pondering about things that had occurred not all that long ago. It was my son and I driving through Custer State Park and detouring down "the Wildlife Loop". We saw wild turkey's, antelope, mountain goats and bison.

The bison! We were driving down the loop (which was right out of Dances with Wolves) when we came over a rise and there -- on each side of the road and *on* the road -- were 150 or so bison. Huge ones like the guy at the left as well as scraggly looking oldsters, females and what looked like yearlings. I shut off the engine, put the car in neutral, and we sloooowly glided to a stop right in the middle of the herd.

We sat there with the windows rolled down, took pictures, listened and looked. What magnificent creatures. Again, this experience was tinged by the sadness of the slaughter of tens of millions of these animals that once roamed the plains and these Black Hills freely. Now only a few hundred thousand remain.

Two cars and a couple on a loud Harley came over the rise back in the distance and stopped. My son asked a few minutes later, "Dad...are the bison passing gas?" Chuckling I said, "Nope. They're snorting and I think they're warning each other." Sure enough, the snorting grew louder and you could see the herd start to become visibly agitated as they milled about. The cars and motorcycle grew closer (I started my engine and slowly moved forward) and the herd began to shift and move off the road until we'd all passed by.

Curiously, the victors over the bison barely mention the 60 million number (of bison that once roamed North America) and the reasons behind this mass killing. Though I'm a fan of the old West and a bit of a history buff, I learned this approximation of the number of bison when I was about 35 years old -- nothing in school was said. Of course, bison can't write books or carve mountain monuments so their perspective isn't available.

Thinking about how it was...at Mt. Rushmore

When my son's spring break "Dad & Son Adventure" to Orlando's Universal Studios didn't work out (flights home were booked), I asked him where he wanted to go. "How about Hawaii Dad?" "Ahh...we've got three days pal."  To my surprise he asked, "OK. How about Mt. Rushmore? I've never seen it."

Neither had I. So here we are in surprisingly warm Rapid City, SD (76 degrees today).

We're staying in an old historic hotel downtown (with free wireless internet and a lot of character) and we just got done talking about our next two days here. We're going to the Mammoth Site, Custer State Park, Jewel Cave and a bunch of other attractions (oh yeah, and Mt. Rushmore).

We also talked about how it was before Mt. Rushmore, Rapid City and the interstate. 60 million bison roamed North America before they were killed for fun from the iron horse (train) as well as to remove the primary food source from the natives. The Sioux and other natives were living peacefully a couple of days horseback ride away from where we are right now (in Wounded Knee, SD). 

Not all was well in this part of the West. Seems the Sioux were performing a "ghost dance" to bring snow (and cover the white man) as well as protecting them from the calvary soldier's bullets. Settlers were quite afraid and called in the calvary. The result was a single shot during a sitdown that gave the soldiers justification for a horrific massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 and the last "official battle in the Indian wars".

Much has changed. Much stays the same.

Now a conference about the upcoming revolution in air travel...

Back on December 19th I posted "Get Ready for a Revolution in Air Travel" and I discover today -- reading Esther Dyson's site called "Release 1.0" -- that there is an offshoot of her famous PC Forum event called "Flight School."

In the description Esther opines: "...the premise (is) that the aerospace industry is about to undergo changes as dramatic as the transitions from mainframes to PCs and from the science/R&D/military Internet to today's vibrant, commercial, vulgar World Wide Web. And like Net entrepreneurs, those in the new world of flight will meet resistance from the old guard: Read legacy airlines for mainframes and discount carriers for the minis. Air taxis will be to the aviation old guard what PCs are to mainframes. And space tourism will appall the purists of old just as e-commerce annoys the scientists."

The early part of the last century found transportation dependent businesses locating near railroad track sidings so as to be able to receive materials and ship goods from one point to their point. Then the acceleration of the trucking industry enabled point-to-multipoint shipping and receiving -- for all but the largest and heaviest goods -- thus enabling these same types of businesses to locate anywhere. (Of course, it didn't hurt that midway through that century an interstate highway system achieved critical mass).

Just like the shift from trains to trucking or the ongoing struggle of the use of personal automobiles vs. relatively point-to-point mass transit, multipoint-to-multipoint air taxi's will clearly match pent-up-demand for flexible long distance travel and shipping with an dynamic infrastructure. As I said in my earlier blog post, air taxi's will function somewhat like a packet switching internet network vs. a point-to-point circuit switching network like the plain old telephone system...and we all know what's happening with THAT system as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) kills it!

Viva Las Vegas

I'll be at a major computer vendor partner show in Las Vegas for a few days and I was reflecting on my first experiences there and how much it has changed.

I started going to Las Vegas about 25 years ago for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and a variety of other venues (and occasionally for fun). Did my fair share to keep the lights on by leaving money behind, but that was in my foolish days (my Grandpa once told me, "Steve...gambling is a tax on the stupid").

Just like watching your kids grow up, it's pretty amazing how the passage of time, growth, death and rebirth is almost imperceptible as time marches by. Just thinking on the LV of 25 years ago vs. today is stunning.

When I began going there, LV was still in an afterglow of the time when the Rat Pack, Mafia and unseemly behavior was the norm instead of today's more family and couple orientation. CES was huge and occurred twice per year since there were tons of Ma & Pa retailers selling electronics, along with many local and regional chains. Now it's Best Buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart and Target so having two huge shows a year is overkill since there are fewer buyers. CES is now once a year and much smaller.

Comdex (the Computer Distribution Expo) was ENORMOUS with 130,000+ attendees at its peak and, at one point, filled something like 9 buildings. Due to problems in the industry and retail consolidation (Best Buy, Circuit City et al), Comdex was skipped in 2004 and may not be back.

Las Vegas has sure changed. On this page of photos, virtually none of these properties had been built 25 years ago. Yikes.

One constant though...Elvis is still there.

Get ready for a revolution in air travel

Sitting next to a guy last week as I flew back from California, I struck up a conversation with him and ended up talking about jet travel, small seats (and the increasing size of our aging posteriors) and I mentioned microjets. He perked up and we talked about something I've been aware of for some time: we're less than two years away from the beginnings of a revolution in jet air travel.

Over the next few years, a number of companies (list at bottom of page) will be shipping relatively inexpensive (~$1M-$2.5M) small 4-6 seat jets that can utilize approximately 3,400 small airports (out of over 5,000) that exist in the U.S.!

Imagine being able to sign up on the internet, tell the system where you want to go, and have a small jet pick you up at one of these small airports and drop you at another one close to your destination. No more long lines, parking hassles, or groping by some giddy TSA employee.

The promise is there but there's more work to do.