A report from WebSiteOptimization.com shows that websites have ballooned in size over the past few years. Between 2003 and 2008 the average web page size has grown from 93.1 kilobytes to 312 kilobytes. For people with decent broadband connections 312 kilobytes is drop in the bucket, but for those with slow DSL or, god forbid, dial-up connections, 312 kilobytes will take an eternity to load.
The same site has another report showing that around 12 percent of web users are still hanging on to their dial-up connections.
If the average website takes around 45 seconds (312 kilobytes at dial-up speed) to load on a dial-up connection, is it actually possible to use the web?
Verizon and Comcast are rolling out the next generation of high-speed technology to limited markets. The new connections are going to deliver about 25 times the rate of the average broadband connections that are most widely available today. Verizon’s FiOS has been available to folks in a number of states for over a year now, and Comcast just showed up to the party; offering its new service in Minneapolis/St. Paul in the past few months.
Not in Chicago though – Boo.
While I’ve mentioned Comcast’s plans before, this Wired article has a good break-down of what the new lines will be capable of and where this is all headed.
The United States is still behind in the broadband game. Many other advanced nations have higher adoption, availability and speeds. Its great that the telecom companies are pushing things forward, but this was supposed to happen a while ago.
So what do kids do the on the Internet?
Warren Buckleitner, the editor of Children’s Technology Review magazine, studied children in 10 different households who had access to high-speed Internet. Buckleitner put video cameras in the homes and had parents record how the kids used the Internet. He found that the kids by and large visited the following sites the most:
All of these sites are associated with toys, televisions shows, video games or advertising. Most if it is over-commercialized entertainment with an apparent goal to supplement and support product brands. Buckleitner laments the lack of educational value in these web sites when compared to educational software. These popular websites do not have what he calls a high educational “quality per click” ratio.
What really struck me is one of his first comments: “I watched children as young as three use Google to look up sites (don’t tell them they can’t read!).”
How can you use Google if you can’t read? Their entire site is text-based with a few splashes of color. It reminded me of a few recent discussions I’ve had with educators, where the notion came up that email, instant message and the Internet are encouraging kids to read and write much more then they used to.
It’s an interesting idea and, hopefully, a positive trend. As long as kids are not spending all their time reading and writing about Barbie dolls. Although grown-ups do spend a lot of time reading and writing about their toys.
via TheLedger.com
The San Francisco Chronicle has an interesting op-ed up on their website about a Digital New Deal. With a recession and a lot of young people coming of age having used the Internet for most of their lives, the author, Helen De Michiel, argues that the government should start an online public works program. The program would put savvy young ‘millennials’ to work building a public commons, kind of a super-social networking site, commercial-free and open to all.
This sounds like an interesting idea, especially with an impending recession that some have said will much worse than what we’ve seen in a while.
There is a response to the article at PBS’s Mediashift Idea Lab that brings up the most important issues of a kind of Digital New Deal, stuff that was not addressed in first article: broadband penetration and willingness of people to participate.
I think the priority of a Digital New Deal should lie in doing something about these issues. Like the effort to provide electricity and telephone service to rural areas in the ’30s and ’40s, we need a serious push to wire rural areas and neglected parts of urban areas for Internet access. Connected Nation, Inc.,, and not-for-profit that promotes broadband adoption and computer literacy, released a report that said that increasing broadband availability would add an extra $134 billion to the economy every year. That’s economic stimulus.
I think once this is done, we can discuss the possibility starting an online digital public works project. There is much that could be done with the Internet to improve our society and government, but we can’t leave people behind because they can’t get or afford access to it.
Is the way to offset the cost of building wireless networks to provide Internet access through advertising? Los Angles-based FreeFi Networks has deployed a campus wide wireless network at Roxbury Community College in Boston. The company has partnered with Microsoft, a company called Front Porch which produces adware, and another company called Experience which provides a web-based recruiting platform.
This plan brings to mind NetZero from way back. Remember the boom days of the Internet when everything was free with an advertisement? That didn’t last with the collapse of the bubble. I haven’t seen the advertisements, but for a college, I would hope that they could provide Internet access to at least students and faculty without having to suffer through them. It’ll be interesting to see how this pans out.
The Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008, introduced in the House by Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Chip Pickering (R-Miss.) in the beginning of February might be in trouble. The goal of the legislation is to address Net Neutrality issues and broadband issues.
The law, if passed, would require the FCC to keep closer tabs on Internet service providers to insure that they are fair in the way they manage and charge for their services.
Predictably the telecom and wireless companies have lobbied against the bill, saying it’s unnecessary and would hurt them.
An article at IP Buisness magazine has a great look at where the bill is at and why its probably not going to happen this year despite broad support.
The Wall Street Journal has a good article up about next generation high-speed Internet services in the United States. Comcast recently started upgrading their infrastructure with a new version of cable internet technology called DOCSIS 3, which is now being offered to Minnesotians. The upgrade will let Comcast offer download speeds of 150Mbps, compared 5Mbps for basic service.
Today a speed increase of 3000 percent might seem like an overkill, but just like the move from dial-up to broadband made audio and video possible, these new super-fast connections will make a boatload of new services possible.
In the past few months high-speed Internet service providers have begun to offer faster plans that charge by the gigabyte. The plans give you a preset limit of how much data you can download every month, and if you go over, you get hit with fees.
There is one service provider in Oregon is offering these plans now. The customer gets a fast download speed of 16Mbps which is around 3 times the speed of most basic cable Internet connections. But if you download more that 50Gb of webpages, videos, music or etc., you get slapped with overage fees. New Internet services like YouTube and movie download services from iTunes or Netflix will consume these allowances pretty quick.
Time-Warner, one of the largest cable Internet providers, announced that they would trial these programs in Texas back in January.
Looks like we’ve come full circle from the dial-up days of monthly minute limits. I’m pretty sure customers didn’t like having to watch the clock before, and I’m sure they’ll really enjoy trying to figure out how much data they’ve used with these new plans.
via Gizmodo
The service provider in Oregon – BendBroadband
A few years ago, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair proclaimed that there would be “universal internet access for all who want it.” This goal was set for 2005. According to this recent article on Silicon.com, around 35 percent of homes in the UK do not have access to Internet, and the majority of homes are in the lowest income bracket.
U.S. President George Bush made a similar statement in 2004. Bush set the bar a little higher, promising universal broadband (high-speed) Internet access by 2007. But that hasn’t happened yet either.
The era of global communication is upon us, and the Internet is changing the way people work, find information about their world and talk to friends and family. But many people are left behind because they can’t afford a computer, have no Internet access where they live, or are just plain scared of taking the plunge for the first time.
In the United States, availability of high-speed internet is a big problem. It’s difficult to get a broadband connection in many places. Urban as well as rural areas of the country are lacking the infrastructure. Despite President Bush’s promise to improve access to broadband, about half of americans have broadband in the home. Part of the problem is the lack of data thats collected to monitor the progress of wiring the nation.
Cities across the United States, like Chicago, Philadelphia and Houston, have contemplated or implemented city-wide wireless Internet access as a way to address problems residents have getting or affording it on their own. Often these municipal wireless projects do not work out.
Other advanced nations typically have much better and much cheaper broadband access for their citizens. In Japan, consumers can get connections that are much faster than consumer connections in the United States. Less developed countries are a much different story. Lacking in communication infrastructure and the resources to build them, many residents of poorer countries have no way to get online. Experts are looking to mobile phones to pick up the slack and provide Internet access to people in developing nations.
Organizations like the not-for-profit One Laptop per Child (OLPC) are working on developing low-cost hardware and software for people – and in OLPC’s case, children – in the Third World. Other electronics companies like Intel and mobile phone giant Nokia are working on low cost computers and devices to get people online.
By far the biggest digital divide issue that has to be addressed is access to education. Many people lack the skills to use computers and the Internet, especially those without physical access to computers but also the elderly and many who are afraid or aprehensive of technology. Some money available to help communities provide computer education, but the demand for affordable training is greater than its availability. Training will just become more important as more employers look for computer skills in all of thier employees.