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Monthly Archives: November 2005
GM, Janesville and Where do We Go From here?
Tom Still offers commentary on why Janesville survived GM’s recent cutbacks. Unfortunately, as he notes in closing, the auto industry will continue to shed jobs. Peter DeLorenzo summarizes Detroit’s challenges here.
Falk vs. Lautenschalger Really All About Doyle vs. Green
Interesting and likely correct insight into why Kathleen Falk is running against Peg Lautenschlager (I’ve mentioned to Kathleen that I’d rather see her run against Herb Kohl!).
Feingold on Bush
I don’t often link or comment on national politics as there’s no shortage of such words online. Steve Inskeep talks with Senator Feingold on Bush’s recent speech. Defense and the National Interest has two useful articles on this subject:
- Forecasts for the American Expedition to Iraq, by Fabius Maximus
- It Ain’t Fair, by William S. Lind
Network Neutrality
There’s a consensus emerging among my friends Brough Turner, Bill St. Arnaud and Martin Geddes, that Network Neutrality by regulation is not practical. Each has their own reasons, but the conclusions converge inescapably with mine — given current industry structure, the incentives are all wrong. Vint Cerf’s fervent wish (hey, mine too, were it possible!) for a “lightweight, enforceable Network Neutrality rule” is a pipe dream. Any such rule I could think up would put today’s carriers in an untenable, self-competitive situation.
The Power of the Purse
Fara Warner is author of “the Power of the Purse.” She says companies have learned that there’s more to marketing to women than just adding pink.
Portland: Open Source Central?
Elizabeth Armstrong Moore. Consider the following:
- Companies like IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Intel have developed their own open-source labs here.
- Linus Torvalds, author of Linux, the first mainstream open-source operating system, moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to work at the Open Source Development Lab in Portland.
- In mid-October the city hosted the first Government Open Source Conference, a gathering for state and municipal technology managers interested in using open-source software in the public sector.
- Most recently, Oregon Gov. Theodore Kulongoski announced a $350,000 contribution from Google to develop open-source software, hardware, and curricula at Oregon State University, which boasts an Open Source Lab, and Portland State University. Portland’s standing as a hub for open-source development is not lost on the governor, who is eager to bring even more jobs and investment to what he calls a “burgeoning open technology cluster.”
Mayor Dave’s Schedule
Jason Joyce takes a humorous look at Mayor Dave’s weekly schedule.
One in Six Web Users Sell Online – Pew Internet
AP:
One in six U.S. Internet users have sold goods and services online and 2 percent do so on a given day, a new study found.
Sales are typically done through such online classifed ads sites as Craigslist or through an auction like eBay, the Pew Internet and American Life Project said Sunday.
Those who use the Internet more frequently, have high-speed broadband connections or have been online longer are more likely to be an online seller, the study found.
Online selling is also higher among men, the more affluent and the better educated.
More on Telco’s Entering the TV Business
Local incumbent telco SBC (now known as AT&T after the acquisition) is evidently not going to bring fiber to the home. Rather, they are planning to use the long since paid for by us copper to the home infrastructure to send TV to subscribers…. competing with the cable companies (Verizon is installing fiber to the home). This all seems to me to be ill-advised. Why not help all of their customers grow their own media. That’s where the market is going… Lorne Manly and Ken Belson have more:
“It’s awfully difficult to see how a late entrant operating at a dramatic cost disadvantage and employing a strategy of charging less for more has any shot at earning acceptable returns,” said Craig E. Moffett, a cable and satellite analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company.
Verizon’s decision to run fiber-optic cable all the way to customers’ homes is a calculated – and expensive – risk, and a counterpoint to AT&T’s television strategy. Verizon will spend an estimated $22 billion through 2010 burying high-capacity cables, according to Sanford C. Bernstein research. But that substantial investment gives Verizon the flexibility to add data-hungry high-definition programs, faster broadband speeds and other features that customers like Mr. Rodges are already enjoying. Though costly, these fiber connections are seen by Verizon as the only way to reliably leapfrog the competition. By the end of 2006, the company expects to make these fiber-based services available to six million homes in its territory, including Fairfax, Va., and Huntington Beach, Calif.
By contrast, AT&T is installing fiber cables only to within 3,000 feet of homes and using compression technology to make sure that television, phone and broadband signals can travel the rest of the way over older and narrower wire already in the ground. That will save billions of dollars in construction costs and help AT&T start selling television faster. Sanford C. Bernstein estimates that AT&T will spend more than $7 billion through 2010; the company has said that it will spend about $4 billion through 2008.