While not a new
observation it's become more acute in recent weeks that at least on one
front in the Great Broadband Debates all parties seem to be in
agreement: we need more people using and relying upon broadband to a
greater degree.
It's the one issue that unites network, applications, content, and
public interest people, both ideologically (we've all drank the
broadband Kool-Aid) as well as from a business perspective (more users
= more potential customers).
In particular this has been a major point of emphasis among the
big-time network operators. I've now heard telcos and cablecos alike
strongly suggesting that we need to be pursuing policies that can help
stimulate understanding of and demand for broadband.
Yet while it obviously behooves any online purveyor of apps or
content to have a larger marketplace to sell into, I have yet to see
these overlapping interests turn into a working consensus over what
needs to be done to stimulate consumer demand.
Of course, I can see why some might be wary of supporting any
initiative that'll result in increasing subscription rates and
ultimately profits for multi-billion dollar network operators. Also,
there's the issue that apps guys want to talk about network deployment
and management, whereas these are topics that network operators would
rather just faded away.
But I think what might be really stalling a coordinated campaign to
increase demand for bandwidth is that I have yet to see a concise plan
or even any specific actions that can be done to improve this situation.
We've got studies showing that part of what's holding back people
who don't subscribe to broadband is cost, but even more significant is
that many people still don't have computers at home. On top of this,
most people without broadband don't see the value it holds; it's a
nice-to-have not a must-have service.
And taking this a step further, I'd argue that we've done a poor job
of educating even those who already have broadband about how they can
use it to improve their lives. The Internet may be this endless
sandbox, library without walls, communications nirvana, but it also
tends to be a medium that can only be fully exploited by those with the
know how and initiative to spend a lot of time finding and figuring out
how to use apps.
From a policy point of view it comes down the simple question of:
what can the government really do to spur demand for bandwidth?
One obvious answer is to continue making more of their services
available online, in particular in ways that add value to the old
paradigm in order to incentivize people to shift into the new.
For example, webcasting government meetings through a company like Granicus.
Today many of these meetings at all levels of government can be watched
on TV, but what's possible online is revolutionary: never missing a
meeting, watching at your convenience, easily search through agenda
items, look up related materials, and more.
But this alone won't be enough as there's a ton of training and
equipping that needs to be done in order to help all Americans
participate in this new age of communications.
In order to shift the paradigm in a big way we need big ideas and a
coordinated campaign uniting the abilities and interests of all parts
of the Internet value chain to stand together and help inspire our
country to embrace what a networked life can be.
Spurring demand for broadband and therefore apps and content is an
issue we can all agree on. So let's use this common ground to start
finding ways to work together on crafting effective federal policy to
accomplish these specific goals rather than wasting all of our time
bickering over issues we don't agree on.
This isn't to say we can ignore those issues we don't see eye-to-eye
on, but I'm hopeful that by working together we can find more common
ground that can lead to a more productive dialog and ultimately lead to
more effective legislation.