Lets just get to the meat of it ok. Then more after the jump —

Google is planning to launch an experiment that we hope will make Internet access better and faster for everyone. We plan to test ultra-high speed broadband networks in one or more trial locations across the country. Our networks will deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today over 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. We’ll offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people.

From now until March 26th, we’re asking interested municipalities to provide us with information about their communities through a Request for information (RFI), which we’ll use to determine where to build our network.

That’s from the website.

Now notice this is not some high speed to the head end sort of offer. They specifically say FTH. So they intend to go right to the curb. Their testing will test some 50-500k patrons. What is not clear, is that a single site or a mix of smaller sites.

Google goes on to say they will provide —

* Next generation apps: We want to see what developers and users can do with ultra high-speeds, whether it’s creating new bandwidth-intensive “killer apps” and services, or other uses we can’t yet imagine.

* New deployment techniques: We’ll test new ways to build fiber networks; to help inform, and support deployments elsewhere, we’ll share key lessons learned with the world.

* Openness and choice: We’ll operate an “open access” network, giving users the choice of multiple service providers. And consistent with our past advocacy, we’ll manage our network in an open, non-discriminatory, and transparent way.

What I find of particular interest is the commitment to an open transport layer. A place where anyone can play? ISP and Google? If true that would be a game changer in the data transport marketplace. Fact if true it would complete a vision that was the reason that this blog was created for — create an open backbone and permit service providers to battle it out in the marketplace of products and services.

We keep our fingers crossed.

Linky.

WalMart and BestBuy entered the used game market via supplier ePlay. Well ePlay ceased operations this week. So GameStop ends up being the only player in the field.

So what’s the problem? First I don’t think the market in used games was as large as people thought. My observation is most people keep their games and typically trade only when they switch console platforms offering the games as an inducement to buy the whole package. The other is presence. GameStop has mind share among the gamers so if you are going to do a trade do it with the store you frequent. Last game trade does not have the velocity of transactions that say a DVD movie does. You might watch a DVD you bought 2-3 times. If significant enough you might keep it. But most likely you will trade it within a month. A game on the other hand may take a month just to get thru all the levels. And those with online linkages will encourage holding onto that game even longer. It could be a good 6 months before someone considers trading it.

Chalk it up to a business paradigm that thought it was X but was not like X at all.

Linky.

We here at ThirdPipe have long held the conviction that paywalls for content on small value product really are wrong unless you are providing the service as part of a larger offering. A good example would be the Apple Store iTunes as a conjunction with the Nano MP3 player. Or the paywall is a convenience factor to an already high value information source. Say Dunn and Bradstreet where all you have to do is register if you already subscribe to the service.

But to view a paywall as a new income stream? Bonkers man. Ain’t gonna fly. NYT found that out two years ago. Now NewsDay has found out the same thing –

So, three months later, how many people have signed up to pay $5 a week, or $260 a year, to get unfettered access to newsday.com?

The answer: 35 people. As in fewer than three dozen. As in a decent-sized elementary-school class.

That astoundingly low figure was revealed in a newsroom-wide meeting last week by publisher Terry Jimenez when a reporter asked how many people had signed up for the site. Mr. Jimenez didn’t know the number off the top of his head, so he asked a deputy sitting near him. He replied 35.

Now to be fair one has to consider the context of that number. NewsDay also owns the local cable franchise as well. Plus anybody who subscribes for the pulp get the online subscription free as well. So a large swath of the potentials already have access for free. But what it does show is that a paywall is a barrier unless one is linking it to something larger. There is too much free content out there to justify paying for it. Fact one concept that none of the papers yet fathomed is that they are third person before the reader gets to it. Customers are cutting out the middleman and reading the press releases directly now, removing the filter and hence the need for the paper itself!

We have said this before. If a paper wants to make a go of digital news content they need to follow an old Telco prescription. Offer the handset for ‘free’ and pay for it and your talk time as a bundle. In the papers case, you offer the Kindle II for free bundled with a 2 year subscription to the paper at $9.95 a month. Then you make sure the digital daily is on the machine everyday. Don’t require the reader to futz with a download, it has to be a push.

Its a multimillion dollar idea offered free.

Linky.

Yawn? Surely you jest. Oh I know that multihead conferencing has been around. Most of it corporate using dedicated circuits and equipment. Or public services like WebEx. But what makes VuRoom is that is does not require a lot of specific gear. If your PC can run the latest version of Skype it can run VuRoom.

SUNNYVALE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–ViVu, Inc. (www.vivu.tv), an emerging leader in creating innovative and easy-to-use solutions for live video participation, today released VuRoom – a ViVu-powered plug-in for Skype, the popular software that enables the world’s conversations. VuRoom is built on the Skype platform to provide customers with instant multi-user video conferencing – an exciting new breakthrough previously unavailable to Skype users. Along with its presentation and desktop sharing functionalities, VuRoom is designed to help remote business users collaborate in real-time, while also saving valuable time and money.

“Having experienced the technology, I believe that ViVu is well positioned to deliver on the video collaboration needs of SMB and enterprise customers. In particular, I see strong potential for ViVu’s new Skype plug-in.”

“Our recent research studies predict a big year for global growth in the web conferencing market,” said Krithi Rao, an analyst in the Information & Communication Technologies Practice at Frost & Sullivan. “Now more than ever, enterprises are looking for cost-effective communication and collaboration solutions to help them succeed.”

Demo here.

Now why the tither Dog? The price. The problem with most of the other services is they run $30-40/month. That can run into some serious coin on a 10 person team every month. This is running $10/seat. A fourth the price. At that price point if using the software for the entire team replaced but one airline ticket a month it paid for itself and then some.

The fact that it is on Skype provides for a very ubiquitous platform. One could add external input sources as needed into the video conversations with little cost or set up charges. The real question is does it last in its current biz plan form. Skype with there latest release now provide P2P video on the three major OS platforms. That is probably 60% of all the Skype usage out there. Couple that with some geek will pull this off as a freebie somewhere as well. Time will tell.

But while it lasts VuRoom lowers the bar on multihead video.

Linky.

A New Zealand high school running entirely on open source software has slashed its server requirements by a factor of almost 50, despite a government deal mandating the use of Microsoft software in all schools.

Albany Senior High School in the northern suburbs of Auckland has been running an entirely open source infrastructure since it opened in 2009. The 230-pupil school was set up to follow open learning principles, offering large “learning commons” areas where multiple classes interact rather than conventional classrooms and setting aside one day each week for pupils to work on self-driven research projects.

Albany SHS’ unorthodox approach is also reflected in its IT infrastructure. Deputy principal Mark Osborne was determined to use open source software throughout the school, even though planning for that process began less than two months before the school opened.

Totally open. Further in the article, it is revealed that a student can bring in other foreign platforms like a Mac and use them on the network as well. A good thing for the school? Sounds like it. Little early to tell. The school only started in 2009. Give it a year or so and lets hope there is a follow up article.

Linky.

Kurzweil, is there anything this guy can’t do? His book the Singularity is Near has spawned a whole new way of thinking about the future. He is a prolific inventor past and present. So what’s he go an do? Well remedy the bland existence of eReaders that’s what! —

One of Blio’s major advantages over current e-book readers is that the software offers a full color experience. E Ink, which is the black-and-white display used currently in almost all e-readers, works best for text, and even then most e-books still look ugly, thanks to design limitations in the readers.

Blio actually lays out the “pages” as they would be seen on paper, with typography and illustrations copied across. It also supports video and animation. In some ways, it’s reminiscent of the interactive magazine applications (also meant for upcoming tablet devices) shown off by the likes of Time Warner, Popular Science publisher Bonnier and Wired’s parent company Conde Nast.

Add to that some nifty features such as text-to-speech and the ability to synchronize things (like bookmarks, highlights and the page you last read) across multiple devices, and it makes for an interesting e-reader.

“We can take a PDF and an audio book and merge the two to get a combination such that you can hear the audio book and see the words highlighted on the PDF at the same time,” says Peter Chapman, an executive at Kurzweil Technologies.

For publishers, says Kurzweil the advantage is that Blio preserves the original book’s format, including typsetting, layout, fonts and pagination.

Wired goes on to mention stiff competition, etc. My guess is maybe not. First this has the attributes that most any student or researcher keeps in the stachel — marker, highlighter, sticky notes, etc. Then it supports color. Of course that’s more a hardware restriction than anything. But still color will probably be what separates the have nots from the haves in the ebook market very quickly once power issues are corralled.

What’s not to like? Well format for one. Got too many right now. Many non-Amazon systems were starting to gravitate around the ePub format. This will delay that for awhile.

Now the hardware makers need to step up. The merge of tablet and eReader will continue. Somebody will come out with a 8.5×11 formatted screen and the rest will be history. Whoever does it will have the same impact that IBM did when they introduced their laptop line oh so many years ago.

Linky.

Well you better hang on to your wallet! AT&T is preparing to readjust its pricing and policies. Oh and it does not apply to just iPhone, but any smartphone data enabled device —

IPhone users who jam the airwaves by watching video on their devices will be put on tighter leashes, an AT&T Inc. executive said Wednesday.

The carrier has had trouble keeping up with wireless data usage, leading to dropped connections and long waits for users trying to run programs on their devices. AT&T is upgrading its network to cope, but its head of consumer services, Ralph de la Vega, told investors at a UBS conference in New York that it will also give high-bandwidth users incentives to “reduce or modify their usage.”

Well this sounds like the knee jerk reaction of a bunch of suits who did not listen to the network engineers. If you sell a device capable of doing full signal video on a 2″ screen, well damn don’t blame the customer wanting to use it. Especially if you and your partners feature such capabilities in your advertisements.

Now in a capitalist system, price adjusting is ‘the’ method for moderating demand. It will work for bandwidth too. So no faults there. But where I would draw the line is — if flows to the shareholders or the executive suite totally then shame. A significant portion of the bounty ought to go to upgrading the network to increase capacity. That is what the engineer in me says.

No data on changes, prices or when this all happens. But do keep this in mind there dear reader. When it happens you can then opt out without an ETF charge if you wish.

Linky.

All I can say is it can’t happen soon enough. I love books. The feel of the printed page, the ability to scribble along the edges. Even sometimes its cheapness buying second hand. But –

The sea change could happen sooner rather than later, beginning as early as the 2010-11 school year.

“This is one of the few times we can do things cheaper, faster and better all at the same time,” said the measures author, state Rep. Scott Hochberg, D-Houston.

The legislation is one of two bills passed this year that allow the Texas Education Agency to create its own repository of digital textbook content.

By switching to online content, schools could save money, customize materials to fit students needs and more easily integrate textbooks with video, software or other technology.

This month, the Texas Education Agency is taking the first step by calling for bids for online material from both traditional publishers and online content providers. Officials there expect to have the first open-source textbooks and other materials online for students next fall.

“We did have a publishers meeting last week, and spent three hours talking through the open-source and electronic textbook concepts with them,” said Anita Givens of the TEA instructional materials division.

The states move toward online content will affect other states too, since publishers tailor their products to conform to the needs of states with the most students.

But the price of a notebook you say!! Well yes if you buy the latest and greatest. But I can put you on a 10″ screen notebook today, new, for $199. Now it is not the fastest thing, but remember what it would be used for — mainly reading, taking notes, etc. That does not require massive compute power.

The State’s aim? More self reliance. Shared, self authored materials are possible with web & ebook technologies. Updates are quick. Teachers can pick the subcomponents they wish to emphasis for their classes. Oh and they can save money.

Linky.

Carla Schroder writes in Linux Today —

As much as we warn about privacy, security, and reliability problems in cloud computing, it’s coming and we can’t stop it. So do we join the cloud party? Heck no.

…

Well here we are on the threshold of this very thing, and now the geeks are complaining and warning against it. Why? Because we like to be perverse? Well maybe that is part of it. But for me the biggest problem is trust. I don’t trust many tech vendors because they haven’t given me any reasons to trust them, and plenty of reasons to not trust them. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over.

Why would I entrust them with my data when they do not respect my privacy or the privacy of my data? In the US personal privacy is not protected, and vendors who mangle and lose your personal or business data pay no penalty or recourse, other than bearing the brunt of your peeve. Marketers are all about privacy invasion, as much as they can get away with, and collecting, mining, and buying and selling us. Even worse, service providers roll over at the slightest “boo”, releasing customer records at toothless DMCA takedown requests, and caving in to law enforcement without even making them go through due process. Where are all those attack lawyers when they can do some good for a change?

Carla has a point, and many times I have the same sentiment. But we should not cloud the Cloud as a technology vs that of a business practice using the Cloud. If Skype or Google has an outage it is from this observers point of view little from technology loss as simple human error. Small consequence, but an important one overall.

Any company today has little excuse not to consider internalizing the Cloud. That is bring the Cloud in house. If you have a half dozen servers or more then the company can pull it off. Start with a simple virtualization effort sufficient to free up 2-3 servers. Then consider a Cloud service like Eucalyptus. (There are others as well.) Get those nodes working then port some of those virtualized services over to your own private Cloud.

Trust issues disappear. Or they should, otherwise you have personnel problems larger than your considerations of a Cloud provider. Your results on your level of Nines you require is limited by your pocketbook. Your ability to keep working is also limited to your local networking maintenance if you are in a single location.

But Clouds don’t stop at the company door. Dual core PC’s are generally the norm walking out the door even for individuals. We are almost on the cusp of that happening to the 4 core chips as the price curve continues to drop away on the Intel and AMD product lines. At that point a Cloud in a box is a reality for individuals as well. It won’t be quite as Nines capable as a couple of discrete machines due to single point of failure issues. But a micro Cloud would permit higher levels of service, SOA type backup/restore becomes possible, and harnessing 3-4 cpu’s to a single task is simpler.

So as always, there are means to the madness.

Linky.

As is give the Telco monopoly a run for their money in the voice only space. Today, Google officially announced that they acquired Gizmo5 the internet smart phone service for ~$30m. –

It’s a potent recipe — take Gizmo5’s open standards-based online calling system. Add to it the new ability to route calls on Google’s massive network of cheap fiber. Toss in Google Voice’s free phone number, which will ring your mobile phone, your home phone and your Gizmo5 client on your laptop.


Meanwhile you can use Gizmo5 to make ultracheap outgoing calls to domestic and international phone numbers, and free calls to Skype, Google Talk, Yahoo and AIM users. You could make and receive calls that bypass the per-minute billing on your smartphone.

Then layer on deluxe phone services like free SMS, voicemail transcription, customized call routing, free conference calls and voicemails sent as recordings to your e-mail account, and you have a phone service that competes with Skype, landlines and the internet telephone offerings from Vonage and cable companies.

That’s not just pie in-the-sky dreaming.

Google could pull it off. Combined with their existing Google Voice offering, a GV-Gizmo5 combo might give the Telcos the heebes. Like how about a serious integrated message stack? Its been implemented for years as a per supplier proprietary service. But till now, as an open available anywhere service? Just hasn’t happened. But Google has the tools/network/talent to pull it off. Oh and they have the customer base to go from nothing to the most dominant intgrated message stack on the planet.

Bank on it.

Linky.