John Hennessy III,
P.E.
BAY AREA COUNCIL ECONOMIC INSTITUTE Executive Summary Recent advances in energy and communications technologies have outpaced anything the human race has seen since either the invention of the telegraph or the discovery of alternating current. Many of these advances have enabled technologies that were once the realm of science fiction—driverless cars, implanted medical devices, and […]
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Rural Sheridan Elementary School had an extremely slow internet connection which inhibited learning. So they collaborated with Placer County to do something about it and – what a difference some megs make! Watch the video for the amazing results!
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Regulating the internet in the same manner as other public utilities is necessary to ensure the survival and practicality of online learning. Any throttling, or the creation of a ‘fast lane,’ marginalizes all content produced by those who can’t afford to buy into the fast lane, i.e. schools.
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Mobile connectivity—even with all the new, multi-media capabilities being added to it—is still basically about simple, direct communication. Healthcare in the U.S. is marrying technology, professional philosophy, and government programs to reach the same basic goal of improved communication. Because of this, healthcare infrastructure need not rely exclusively on the spread on high-speed access to ensure quality care access.
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This month an opinion piece came out on the Forbes website proposing that telemedicine’s day has come. The piece, written by venture capitalist Skip Fleshman, basically predicts that 2015 will be the year that remote interactions between medical professionals and patients become not just possible, but practical. “I spend a lot of time crisscrossing the country chatting with leading healthcare providers and insurers about their technology needs,” he writes. “By far the area they are most interested in is telemedicine.”…The people who stand the most to gain from Telemedicine are, unfortunately, the ones least likely to have the infrastructure needed for it. The CDC issued a report two years ago highlighting the various disparities in healthcare access by population groups in the U.S. In no surprise the report revealed that when viewed as groups, a number of factors reduced the availability of healthcare access.
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UNITED STATES CENSUS BUREAU
As part of the 2008 Broadband Data Improvement Act, the U.S. Census Bureau began asking about computer and Internet use in the 2013 American Community Survey (ACS). Federal agencies use these statistics to measure and monitor the nationwide development of broadband networks and to allocate resources intended to increase access to broadband technologies, particularly among groups with traditionally low levels of access. State and local governments can use these statistics for similar purposes. Understanding how people in specific cities and towns use computers and the Internet will help businesses and nonprofits better serve their communities as well.
GREENPEACE
While shifting businesses to an online model can create significant gains in energy efficiency, the energy appetite of the internet continues to outstrip those gains thanks to its dramatic growth. Critically, the internet’s growing energy footprint has thus far been mostly concentrated in places where energy is the dirtiest…But there is good news to report: since our last report, How Clean is Your Cloud? (April 2012),3 leading data center operators have taken key steps toward building a green internet, particularly those companies that have committed to build a 100% renewably powered platform. These commitments are having a profound impact in the real world, shifting investment from legacy coal, gas and nuclear power plants to renewable energy technologies, and disrupting the status quo among major electric utilities.
CISCO SYSTEMS
Last year’s mobile data traffic was nearly 18 times the size of the entire global Internet in 2000. One exabyte of traffic traversed the global Internet in 2000, and in 2013 mobile networks carried nearly 18 exabytes of traffic.
WASHINGTON STATE BROADBAND OFFICE
For the broadband ecosystem of Washington State, 2013 was a year of getting up to speed. Most of the major infrastructure projects funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act were completed during the year. The largest of these projects was construction of more than 1,300 miles of “middle mile” fiber optic cable.
VERMONT OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
Vermont faces significant challenges in improving our state’s aging infrastructure. About one-quarter of Vermont’s state highway bridges are over 70 years old, and the state spent $463 million on infrastructure in FY11, including roadways (32%), Interstate and State bridges (21%). Tropical Storm Irene devastated infrastructure in many parts of the state, damaging over 500 miles of roads and destroying dozens of bridges. With the help of our federal partners, almost all of that damage has been repaired and strengthened to withstand future weather challenges.
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