World's biggest rural wireless network in India!: "Kerala one of the
southern states in India has launched wireless broadband connectivity
to rural areas where land lines or cellular phones are not available.
The Kerala State IT Mission Department has setup 550 internet kiosks
covering 3500 square kilometers of land.
The services ...
Vasanth Dharmaraj?s Blogs - World?s biggest rural wireless network in India! [my blog on dot net, java, eclipse, linux, formula one, xbox gaming? ]
Grok Headline matches for Vasanth Dharmaraj?s Blogs - World?s biggest rural wireless network in India! [my blog on dot net, java, eclipse, linux, formula one, xbox gaming? ]
World Class Professional Surfing, Wireless Phones and Java Gaming Converge at Boost Mobile Pro of Surf
Phoenix to Temporarily Get Biggest Network in the World
Phoenix to Temporarily Get Biggest Network in the World11/12/2003 01:10 PM SciNet, a volunteer group, will build a massive network to support
the SuperComputing Conference in Phoenix next week: Volunteers will
build the network in a week then tear it down in two days. It sounds
massive--the network will support 150 aggregate gigabits per second
and will use more than $16 million in donated gear. Apparently that
amount of bandwidth is more than some countries, including Germany,
have available in total. As for the Wi-Fi component, the volunteers
will deploy 67 access points to distribute the bandwidth around the
conference....
IBM tightening Eclipse, Java, Linux links
IBM tightening Eclipse, Java, Linux links08/18/2004 08:56 PM IBM on Thursday will announce the release of a free tools bundle for
Eclipse to make it easier to deploy Java applications on Linux.
Webl0gs, Inc., World’s Largest Blog Publisher, Announces Three New Blogs on Satellite Radio (droxy.com), Flash (flashinsider.com), and SAS (sas.webl0gsinc.com).
OSCON day three: A new, network world for open source, a Java compromise, and convincing the
boss
OSCON day three: A new, network world for open source, a Java compromise, and convincing the
boss07/29/2004 06:45 AM As open source programmers and entrepreneurs think about what it means
to be open source on 100,000 computers, and move deeper into the
business world and infrastructure, OSCON organizer Tim O'Reilly warns
that data and networking, not hardware or standards, are the lock-in
liabilities.
Plan to Connect Rural India to the Internet06/17/2005 03:54 PM An international consortium is planning to establish thousands of
rural Internet centers in India to bring services to isolated
villages.
Formula 1 racer's secret: 1,000 horsepower and a Linux cluster
Formula 1 racer's secret: 1,000 horsepower and a Linux cluster11/18/2003 04:50 AM Aerodynamics are as important to modern Formula 1 race cars as they
are to jet fighters. That's why the BMW Williams F1 team turn to a
Linux cluster when they need to get a bit more out of their 3-litre,
1,000-horsepower, 1,320-lb. FW25 car.
Java, day #2: Eclipse12/17/2002 09:54 PM I spent a fair amount of time today reading about and playing with
IBM's Eclipse. My reasons for investigating Eclipse are twofold: (1)
I'd like to see if it is compelling enough as an IDE to make me switch
from...
Regular readers know that my
mantra for entrepreneurial success is Fill an
Unmet Need. A couple of readers have suggested that this might
also
be the formula for blogging
success.
I got some confirmation that this might be true from reading the
results of an exhaustiv
e
survey of 17,000 readers of 50 top political blogs conducted by
WebAds. Key findings for this unique
category of readers:
Their reason for reading these blogs is to get news they
can't find in mainstream media (80%), get better perspective on the
news (78%), get news faster (66%), and get more honest coverage of the
news (60%)
Politically they tilt somewhat liberal-libertarian
(only
22% Republican), and their favourite blogs in order are Atrios,
DailyKos, Talking Point Memo, Drudge Report and Washington
Monthly Political Animal (formerly CalPundit). They don't tend to read other political
blogs or blogs on other subjects (the median number of blogs read
daily
is 6, and most read one of the above top 5 more than once a day). They
spend a median 90 minutes a day reading blogs.
Demographically they're 79% male, affluent (median
family
income $80,000), close to middle-aged (median age 37) and
disproportionately techies or students.
They're heavy readers
of other print news and analysis
media (22% read The New
Yorker,
more than any other magazine) but rarely catch TV or radio news. Only
one in five has their own blog.
What are we to conclude from this data? Here's my take:
This group is not representative of all blog readers
(for a
start, the respondents don't appear to read the enormously popular
tech
blogs). In general, there is no such
thing as an 'average' blog reader. Blog readership consists of
perhaps millions of very discrete and different segments, all reading different blogs for different
reasons.
Most women blog readers (who according to other
surveys
make up close to half of all blog readers) are reading very different
stuff from most male blog readers. Since the two most popular
'categories' of blogs, according to Technorati, are political and
technical blogs, that also suggests that women read a much broader
variety of blogs than men
do.
These immensely popular political blogs are filling an
unmet need for detailed news and analysis with a liberal slant --
precisely the need that The New
Yorker, their favourite magazine, also fills.. For
conservatives, that need is largely met by the preponderance of
low-brow right-wing talk radio shows (which also have an
overwhelmingly
male audience).
For the 80% who don't have their own blog, these
blogs'
comments threads also fill another unmet need -- an outlet for
expression of readers' personal views on matters that are important to
them. The equivalent of dialling in to talk radio.
If you use Shirky's
Power Law, you can compute that these 50 political blogs, almost
all of which are among the 250 most popular blogs overall, attract
about 10% of all blog reader
hits -- about three million hits per day. But there are an estimated
100 million blog readers worldwide, who between them read 30 million
blog posts in a given day, only half of which is directed to the top
250 blogs. And there are a lot more non-blog
readers out there Googling to find something that meets their unmet
needs.
So if you're one of those bloggers (or prospective bloggers) who
defines 'success' as a lot of readers, how do you go about finding out
what current (and prospective) blog readers' needs are? I suggest you
can do this the same way you identify unmet business needs: by doing focused research and getting creative. Here's where to
look for unmet needs (this is exactly the advice I gave budding and
struggling entrepreneurs looking for unmet consumer needs, except I've
changed the word 'business' to 'blog' and 'buy' to 'read'):
Changes:
Look at changes and trends in society. What issues are hot,
and what do people need to know about them, that they're not getting
from the mainstream media? How are people's attitudes changing? How
are
their reading
behaviours changing? What do people care about that the mainstream
media aren't talking about? For example, if people think the news has
too many facts and not enough answers, too much cold, objective
information and not enough candid admission of fear and doubt, can you
attract an audience by writing
something deeply personal and heartfelt about it?
Complaints:
What are people complaining about, when they talk about the media and
about other blogs? Every complaint reflects an unmet need, and an
opportunity for a new blog. For example, if people think the news is
too serious, can you attract an audience by writing something humorous
about it?
Problems:
What problems are people facing? What's keeping people awake at night?
What information or reassurance could you offer that would let them
sleep better?
Empty
Niches: What small "niches of information, inspiration or
entertainment need" exist that are not satisfied by the media? What do
some people think there's never enough information about? For example,
can your blog fill readers' unmet passion for information about
the arts, or about
language,
or good photography?
Information
Gaps: What are the gaps in the 'information spectrum'? Are
there
personal insights or first-hand accounts you could provide, because of
your unique position, experience, knowledge or physical location that
would help fill those gaps? For example, do you have a unique perspective about your
community
that gives meaning to the barrage of meaningless facts you read in the
news?
Drilling
Down and Following Up: Likewise, is there a new information
service that you could 'attach' to an existing media outlet or blog?
The media and the most popular journalists, writers and bloggers never
have enough time or resources to do follow-up stories, in-depth
research, surveys or interviews about things they have written about,
and when someone else fills that need they are usually more than
willing to link to it, sending a horde of new readers your way.
Discontinuities:
Business guru Peter Drucker identifies seven areas of innovation
opportunity resulting from what he calls discontinuities, all of which can
be used to identify prospective
issues that have not yet been covered in the news, that many people
would probably like to read about:
Unexpected or 'what if' occurrences (if
Kerry wins
in November, what should we do first?)
Perception/reality incongruities (when we realize
that
greenhouse gases will bring about massive climate and environmental
change in our lifetimes, how will this affect our lives?)
Weaknesses or needs in political and social and
educational processes and systems (some believe the electoral college
is an anachronism -- should it just be disbanded?; Is there a better
way to measure well-being than GDP?)
Industry and market changes (what will $160/barrel
oil
mean to us all?)
Demographic changes (with a huge number of people
retiring in the next 10-20 years, what will we do with our time?)
Peoples' attitude and priority changes (is the
trend to
'cocooning' unhealthy -- is it narrowing our perspective of the world
and our ability to see other points of view?)
New scientific and business knowledge (how will RFID devices change the way we
live, shop, work, and protect our privacy?)
Basic
Human Needs: Look at basic, overarching human needs: Health,
safety, education, time,
decent quality of life, meaning, recreation. How are our experiences of
these things currently unsatisfactory, why is that, and how might they be improved?
Personal
Insights: What lessons from history, or your own personal
history, or the history of people you know, can you relate that would
increase understanding of the meaning of all the news we're bombarded
with? For example, do you know of Palestinians or people from Darfur
or
Rwanda whose personal stories
you can tell to explain what's really going on there and why it's
happening?
Exploiting
Blogs' Advantages over Traditional Media: Consider the
advantages of blogs -- comments threads that allow feedback; intimacy;
speed-to-market; independence from shareholders and advertisers --
that
you can exploit. The newspapers and magazines carry recipes, for
example, but a blog would allow you to actually converse about how the recipes
turned out.
Helping
People Out: What ways can you help
people, by drawing on and writing about areas where you have
particular
expertise, experience, insight or talent?
How do you discover these unmet needs? By talking to people who spend
some time online, asking them questions and listening. By reading
voraciously. When you find them, make sure they're needs you can fill:
If you discover that people want to know what life in North Korea is
really like, there's no point trying to satisfy that need unless you
at
least know people who've lived there. And you might sometimes discover
that the reason for an information void is that the information people
are seeking simply doesn't exist.
And here's a reminder about what, from my own previous research and
experience,
blog readers want to see more of (each of which implies unmet
needs):
original research, surveys etc.
original,
well-crafted fiction
great finds: resources, blogs, essays,
artistic works
news not found anywhere else
category
killers: aggregators that capture the best of many
blogs/feeds, so they need not be read individually
fun stuff: quizzes, self-evaluations, other
interactive
content
How important is it that you have a single theme to your blog,
something that will keep readers coming back, and not annoy them with
stuff they don't expect to find on your blog and don't want to read
about? As the owner of the world's most themeless blog (I'm always at
a
loss when people ask me what 'category' or 'type' of blog How to Save
the World is), I would suggest it is somewhat important, but
not
important enough to let it get in the way of your muse. Readers will
tell you (by their declining numbers, or lack of comments, or by
e-mail) when you're no longer filling a need. Most blog tools allow
you
to establish different categories for different blog posts, or even
maintain completely separate blogs with no cross-posting, if your
subjects have completely different audiences.
But what if you don't care
how many readers you have? I would suggest that, in that case,
blogging
fills an unmet internal need
for you personally. Whether that's the ability to think out loud and
clarify your own thoughts, or to keep in touch with a small circle of
friends you can't meet face-to-face as often as you'd like, or to
practice your writing skills, or to organize and document your
personal
filing cabinet or your 'personal memory' before information and ideas
are lost or misplaced, these are important personal needs (for some of
us, anyway) that blogging fills. But you might just find, as I did,
that in the process of filling those personal needs, you also fill the
unmet needs of others, and your audience becomes surprisingly large.
And then, like me, you'll begin to feel a responsibility to continue
to
fill that unmet need for your readers. That's when you know you're
hooked on blogging.
And if you quit blogging, as most bloggers do, I'll bet it's because
either you, or your readers, have found something else that meets
your,
or their, unmet needs better.
Photo from Agence
France Presse via the excellent Glob
al Policy Forum, a reminder that for many of us, there are unmet
needs more urgent than information, inspiration and entertainment.
BT Drives Rural Broadband with Wireless12/17/2003 02:28 PM British Telecom is testing long-haul wireless for broadband in more
rural areas: BT has committed to making broadband available everywhere
it serves by 2006, but ADSL won't cut it in all markets....
New Java Widgets For Eclipse
New Java Widgets For Eclipse01/19/2004 03:08 PM A new plug-in gives Java tool programmers at the IBM-led consortium a
user interface for Web application development, but leaves NetBeans
out.
where earlier in the day there used to be the biggest Toys R Us in the world, in its place is now a store that sells the nastiest sex toys in the world.
Rural Broadband Wireless with Public Utility Districts
Rural Broadband Wireless with Public Utility Districts01/24/2004 11:26 AM Washington State wireless broadband provider partners with rural PUDs
to offer service: It's a natural match to let the PUDs further serve
their farflung constituents, while providing the WISP with a much
lower infrastructure cost, which in turn allows them to build a
profitable footprint much more readily. Maverick Wireless, founded by
a former T-Mobile data manager, is starting in rural Washington State,
with plans to expand to the sparsely populated Eastern Oregon. He
plans 20 networks by year's end through these PUD partnerships. The
utility districts install what sounds like the tower (and electrical
power) for the wireless stations. In the case described, the utility
already has a fiber-optic loop for backhaul. Maverick handles customer
issues, like customer premises installation and billing, and splits
the revenue with the PUD. Although the article says the system uses
Wi-Fi, I would guess it's a proprietary unlicensed system of the sort
that will eventually migrate to WiMax. The article makes an implicit
connection worth noting explicitly: they point out that the 1 Mbps
speed that Maverick will offer is faster than most average cable modem
and DSL speeds. Two items here: first, they should have noted that DSL
and usually cable modems are totally unavailable in rural areas. Even
in Seattle proper, if you go a certain distance outside the city (just
a few miles, really), you're stuck at 128 Kbps iDSL (an ISDN-like
version of DSL). If you don't have a cable line to your house already,
it can cost thousands to get one brought in. A colleague of mine
recently moved to the suburb/exurb boundary. When looking for a house,
he and his wife did a lot of data surveying since he needs to move
large files around for his freelance work. One good-looking house was
scratched when DSL possibilities were low to non-existent for the
central office serving the area, and installing cable would have cost
$5,000 or more. And this is about 20 minutes from downtown Seattle by
highway....
Eclipse to buzz BEA's Java Beehive06/24/2004 12:54 PM Open-source foundation will create a project for Beehive, which
BEA-founded to accelerate Java development.
Xbox Store Seen Opening New Gaming Revenue Streams
Video game review: 'Riddick' redefines Xbox gaming
Video game review: 'Riddick' redefines Xbox gaming06/22/2004 08:18 PM Newshub.com - Tue Jun 22, 06:46 pm GMT Grok Description matches for Vasanth Dharmaraj?s Blogs - World?s biggest rural wireless network in India! [my blog on dot net, java, eclipse, linux, formula one, xbox gaming? ] GrokA matches for Vasanth Dharmaraj?s Blogs - World?s biggest rural wireless network in India! [my blog on dot net, java, eclipse, linux, formula one, xbox gaming? ]
Vasanth Dharmaraj?s Blogs - World?s biggest rural wireless network in India! [my blog on dot net, java, eclipse, linux, formula one, xbox gaming? ]
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