David Isenberg’s posted the text of “Broadband without Internet ain’t worth squat,” a speech he gave to the Broadband Properties Summit this week, arguing that the most salient characteristic of the Internet is that it allows anyone to deploy any app or service, and that we lost that when we concentrate on making it “broadband” or what-have-you.
This talk is a 30,000-foot view of why our work is important.
I’m going to argue that the Internet is the main value
creator here – not our ability to digitize everything, not
high speed networking, not massive storage – the Internet.
With this perspective, maybe you’ll you go back to work with
a slight attitude adjustment, and maybe one or two concrete
things to do.In the big picture, We’re building interconnectedness. We’re
connecting every person on this planet with every other
person. We’re creating new ways to share experience. We’re
building new ways for buyers to find sellers, for
manufacturers to find raw materials, for innovators to rub up
against new ideas. We’re creating a new means to distribute
our small planet’s limited resources.Let’s take a step back from the ducts and splices and boxes
and protocols. Let’s go on an armchair voyage in the opposite
direction — to a strange land . . . to right here, right
now, but without the Internet.
Broadband without Internet ain’t worth squat