apple juice

The Web We Lost – Anil Dash:

“This isn’t some standard polemic about ‘those stupid walled-garden networks are bad!’ I know that Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest and LinkedIn and the rest are great sites, and they give their users a lot of value. They’re amazing achievements, from a pure software perspective. But they’re based on a few assumptions that aren’t necessarily correct.”

Really good post from Anil Dash. Important reading if you want to understand a bit more about the ongoing skirmishes between Facebook / twitter / instagram / tumblr / etc.

We need to use the Internet itself as social media. Then you won’t have to worry about Facebook putting their finger on the scale.: “Last night I was watching football on one of the big networks. It was a boring game so my mind drifted. I noticed that when they show the name of someone speaking on camera they also show their Twitter handle. I wondered if their lawyers had reviewed this decision. Had they read Twitter’s user agreement? Had they advised their client on how one-sided it is? That made me wonder if Twitter does special deals with big media conglomerates? I wonder what they look like? I follow Twitter pretty closely and I have no idea.”

(Via Scripting News.)

This is what I was talking about a few posts ago where I mentioned that having a personal blog is the only way to own your own words on the internet. You can take your data somewhere else. You’re in control.

You’re not in control of the experience you get on twitter or Facebook, and Dave Winer is exactly right in highlighting this. It is a little weird the twitter handle has become the de facto method of connecting with someone you see on TV.

I don’t know if app.net is going to be any better, (probably not — it’s not “free”) or if we simply need some sort of distributed system abstracted from an individuals’ blog or twitter-like feed that one can view from the web.

I’ve blogged before about my internet options and linked to charts showing that Americans pay more money for less bandwidth than just about every other developed nation in the world.

Lawrence Lessig makes this point (among others) in this speech at WiscNet Future Technology Conference. The larger context of this speech is the corrupting influence of money in government, but I’ve started right about the section where he talks about broadband.

I think the solution in this case (at least for minneapolis) is to build out the network that was made for our municipal wifi. I want to subscribe on principle, but at 6Mbps, it is not exactly fast. However, if I could have fiber to my house, then we’d be talking!

Qwest finally got its act together in my neighborhood, and we’re enjoying some decent speeds. (12mbps) As nice as it is to have two options for broadband instead of one, we seriously lag our european counterparts when it comes to broadband access.

Not only that, but the Verizons, Comcasts and Qwests would have you believe that “we’re number one, U.S.A., U.S.A!”

That couldn’t be further from the truth.

Not only do we lag in broadband adoption, the speeds of “broadband” lag significantly, and we pay more for it.

Typically, the lowest price for broadband in the United States, not counting promotions and bundled deals, costs an average of $35 a month for a measly 1 megabit per second connection. Twice this speed is available in Denmark and Canada for lower prices; more strikingly, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Sweden have broadband available for under $20 a month. Additionally, the fastest speeds in the United States are comparatively slow. The common top speed available for residential services in the Unites States is 50 Mbps (and costs $145 a month), while several nations have speeds available that are up to four times faster, for less than $60 a month.

Our best chance is to support the idea net-neutrality and the National Broadband Plan. Of course this plan isn’t perfect, and it doesn’t go nearly far enough in ensuring that Americans will have the same types of access enjoyed by other nations, but it is a start.

Check out this slate article for more info: Denial of Service

From Study: Internet use won’t cause social isolation | Digital Media – CNET News:

I found this interesting (and true, in our case):

“Frequent Web users are more likely to communicate with neighbors in person than those who don’t use the Web as often, Pew found. In fact, 61 percent of respondents said that they talk to a neighbor at least once per month. The study also found that bloggers are 72 percent ‘more likely to belong to a local voluntary association’ than those who don’t blog.”

(Via Marginal Revolution.)

Great news for anyone in hale-page-diamond lake who ready to be done with comcast, and doesn’t find the city wi-fi to be a great option… qwest spent all week at the end of my block laying new fiber for their highest speed internet service.

Inexplicably, qwest has been limited to 1.5mbps in my neighborhood. They offer much higher speeds less than a mile away.

So supposedly, by fall, we’ll be able to get 20mbps service!

the free market is great, except when it’s not.

here’s a perfect example: municipal internet.

minneapolis is one of a few cities in the country that has rolled out a municipal wifi network. the price is decent, but the I’ve heard nothing good about the reliability. did you know, in stockholm, for example, that 100mbps internet is $11/month?

Yes, $11/month.

I pay ~$60/month for 12mbps down/2 up service from comcast. If I had a better option, I’d switch. The other options are:

Qwest, 1.5 down/.768 up is $40 (for those of us who don’t want their overpriced home phone service)

Or, I could pay $30/month for 6/1 service via the minneapolis wifi if I sign up for a 2-year contract.

So, why didn’t minneapolis focus on building a city-wide fiber optic network that could be resold to private companies?

Because private companies fight it tooth and nail. Americans pay more for their broadband than just about every other developed country. Think comcast, qwest or us internet want to compete with 100mbps service?

Nope.