Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Confessions of an Internet Infrastructure Geek

When Nick Carter ask me to blog occasionally for Accel-Networks, I was thrilled! I'm a proponent of ubiquitous Internet access and it's ability to bring about change in the world-- just look at the difference it's made in Iran! Blogging for a company that provides fixed wireless broadband would give me an excuse to keep up with the public policy issues surrounding connectivity.

I read through some of Nick's posts and I particularly liked the blog describing Internet access as vital services on par with water and gas. I also enjoyed Nick's blog about countries leapfrogging over our hard-wired infrastructure and why wireless is the better option for the broadband stimulus monies. I agree with most of Nick's blogs, but it dawned on me that my blogging style would be vastly different than his - I border on the evangelical about ubiquitous connectivity. I've been referred to as a "Social Media Architect," a "Viral Marketing Guru" and a "Twitter Ninja" but I consider myself to be an Internet Infrastructure Geek. Isaac Asimov once said, "I don't fear computers, I fear the lack of them" and I fear the lack of connectivity for those devices.

As a twitter ninja it's been fascinating to follow the election debacle in Iran on twitter and other social media platforms. The ability to communicate globally from the grassroots level is making it difficult for Iran's repressive regime to dictate the flow of information. As I watched this six minute video chronicling the protests on YouTube, I noticed a recurring image => cell phones.

Out of the dozen or so cell phone images in the video only 1 person was using it as a telephone, all others were using it as a video-camera or a text messaging device and it was apparent that all the images were taken with, you guessed it, a cell phone. Communication hardware - e.g. cell-phones and computers - that connect to the global Internet infrastructure are evolutionary game changers, and according to Dr. Thomas Ho (Professor of Emerging Technologies at Purdue University) there are currently 3 BILLION devices out there.

I hope readers of this blog will be patient with me as I learn more about Accel-Networks, the connectivity options they provide, and their layer two security options. I welcome comments which encourage healthy debate on public policy issues surrounding connectivity and its potential to change the world. So thanks, Nick, for the opportunity to don my infrastructure geek hat once again.

Amy Stark, Founder and CLO for Stark ReAlity, Inc.

Labels: "Internet infrastructure", Internet "fixed wireless broadband"