Future Economy Council Meeting #12 (3/8/2010)

Today, March 8, 2010, I attended a meeting of the Future Economy Council that discussed the Google effort on a multi-faceted level.

A few new notes
I asked if they (Google) want to facilitate laying the wire, but they don't want to manage the wire? Paul Baird (Consultant) stated that they are building a utility and will operate the utility. How long until they turn it over to anyone else is anyone's guess. I asked if was open ended, are there no timetables or capacity? Kim Hudson (consultant) stated that they may choose one community or they may choose five. They are very non-committal about how quick this will turn around and what their long term plans are. They are interested in how they might be able to utilize Google Apps by implementing this network. I asked if there had been any one-on-one communications with Google? Kim stated no and Google has specified that they don't want any personal contact. There are around 2,000 communities applying for this implementation.

Shane Pitman asked about what Google's interaction will be with local internet providers. Houston stated that was the point, to end the chokehold, drive up competition and drive down the price. Shane asked about the management of the wire and Paul stated that Google has not stated that they would hand off the management, that is just the assumption. This is a digital utility, like a road. This will not be a public-private partnership. Google will choose where it will be built, they aren't looking for any incentives or help. They will choose it for their own purposes.

Installations to the home will be contracted. As far as the connection between Hickory and Lenoir, Google will lay their own cable or lease the space from someone else. Duke Net and Century Link are alternatives to leasing. Parameters are 50,000 to 500,000 population and they want a broad spectrum of socio-economic demographics. This could be Google's development effort for the next 100 years. The RFI (Request For Information will include Right of Way issues. This is another Experimental Lab for Google. This will highlight Caldwell and Catawba Counties, between the 321 corridor linking Hickory and Lenoir. It will be Google's choice how and where to lay the fiber along that area. Telephone poles are owned by Duke Energy and they lease space on the poles.

Thoughts
Google needs to know that this community is in the process of creating a new kind of social leadership structure that supports continuous innovation and understands the importance of a systemic community transformation initiative. This Broadband initiative would not be about satisfying individual needs. It would be a building block utilized to progress local society culturally, as well as technologically.

It might be silly for us to think about what Google wants out of all of this and some statements were made that it is irrelevant, but in the end we as humans are curious by nature and for us to come full circle and feel comfortable about this idea and its issues, we have to be able to wrap our minds around the process. We have to at least think we know what someone else is thinking, even if we truly don't have a clue.

Rick Smyre talked about the Semantic Web and the ability to have artificial intelligence that utilize voice synthesis. These are going to be concepts that come to fruition in the next 5 years. We don't need to look at the structures in place today. We need to look at the existing week signals in our area, because these signals will come to fruition in the next 5 years. We need to identify what is emerging. This is one of the reasons why the United States has fallen back.

Houston stated that if we get this, we don't have to worry about branding, because businesses will be banging on our door. Jay Adams stated that that is very important to brand this area as a place where innovation can occur. He then talked about the idea of utilizing the existing rail line for this broad band corridor that lies between Hickory and Lenoir. You have 5 communities and vacant buildings that can be utilized.

Here are some terms and ideas discussed and generated by the group, its mentors, and associates:
1) Augmented Realities
2) Smart Houses (Home Automation) and the Smart Grid
3) 21st Century healthcare involving monitoring, diagnoses, and treatment via nanotechnology
4) Support for home-based businesses
5) High-Def and 3-D Entertainment
6) Enables Home-Based Individualized Education in a Virtual Classroom
7) Enhanced Mobile Technologies by integrating them with the Cloud and the Smart Grid.
8) Enables 21st Century Mobile Governance and Direct Consensus Democracy

Steve Ivester asked if he were doing product development for companies in Beijing or Sweden, and sending digital drawings, does this provide part of the solution or all of the solution? Houston Harris stated that potentially the choke-hold would be on the other end and that's a good thing. Mick Berry stated it's not about the bottleneck. It's not about technical analysis. It is about thinking big. What do you think you can do if you have this kind of Broadband Capacity and you need to articulate that.

I mentioned about the fact that we don't have an affordable (State supported) medical University on this side of the state. We could utilize this capacity to send 3-D images back and forth to Chapel Hill or East Carolina. It could be used for virtual classrooms. Steve Ivester interjected about remotely directed 3-D surgery. Amy Powell talked about a Doctor in California who has 6 other doctors who travel and he instructs them remotely.

We next talked about information systems, smart traffic systems, security issues, 3-D, and virtual reality.

Harry Hipps asked how Google is going to assess this once this is in place, if we are picked? Is Google's interest technical? He further stated, "I am sure that they would like to see good economic development, but I can't see this as there basic motivation."

Houston Harris stated that it is about ideas. They are a creative center and he believes they feel they have tapped out their own ideas and now they want fresh ideas to come in from the public and Google can worry about managing the company. It was stated that this is "Crowdsourcing."

I asked how many of these Gig networks are in the United States and Worldwide? Houston stated there may be a few metro-nets and Terry Bledsoe stated that there may be a few in Europe. That led me to ask if this would make us an incubator? Which led everyone to answer a resounding yes. If we are an incubator, then this starts out a process of spreading the web. Shane Pitman stated that we shouldn't be so naive that they aren't monitoring the data. They are looking not to improve the infrastructure. They are looking to improve their own products and services. Kim Hudson stated that 99% of their revenue is from advertising.

Terry reeled us back in by stating that we aren't here to figure out Google. We need innovative ideas to submit to attract Google here. Leave the marketing to the consultants.

Shane Pitman talked about Bloom Grocery and their use of RFID chips on the groceries and customer based scanning - Supermarket Tech & Ease. Jay Adams talked about the possibilities of a Grocery Store along the Rail Corridor that doesn't have a parking lot, because a home based scanner can be used to scan the groceries you run out of during the week. The information is stored in a database and the products can be picked and delivered to you at a depot on the rail line near where you live and where it will be available for you to pick up. People will be willing to rely on barcodes for inventory of household products.

Jay talked about the rail corridor and how it is densely populated and it connects Hickory and Lenoir, and it does have Google on it. MDI is about distribution and Logistics, so we can at least discuss the feasibility of the idea. Steve Ivester concurred that is a reason we can move the peg forward.

Houston talked about how a restaurant, such as Backstreets, can utilize a service such as this to keep inventory and I added that this could also be coordinated with your cash register. This would automatically coordinate the order between the restaurant and a purveyor, such as IFH. John Bates stated that Walmart has been doing that for 15 years - EDI. The question is can this be taken down to a micro scale? The consensus was that we could.

Kim stated that she would like to show the augmented use of Google applications from people in this area. She wants people to become fans of Facebook. They want people to please plop ideas onto the site and they utilize these for the official "Request For Information" that will be submitted in a couple of weeks. We are encouraged to think about ways to advertise on Google.

Steve Ivester stated that he believes that we have existing manufacturers that can help us succeed in innovation of 21st Century healthcare involving monitoring, diagnoses, and treatment via nanotechnology. He cited Moose Industries and various world-class doctors we have in the area.

I took the conversation in a bit of a different direction by talking about Real-Time Manufacturing and the capability to coordinate it with the Manufacturing Solutions Center at CVCC. Why can't we have people throughout the United States sending those Micro ideas in here and letting Dan St. Louis and the people down there help develop those products.

Steve Ivester stated that he doesn't have any trouble listing a dozen industries of the future where we already have weak signals in place. We are an area of innovation, but we have been knocked down by textiles and furniture. The seeds are there for more innovation.

Jay Adams suggested we do a scavenger hunt to search for areas of innovation and come back to discuss true areas of innovation and we can grow it from there. Houston talked about the branding piece. The start-up, incubator, growth area is where we need to focus, because our biggest companies have left the area. We can rebuild the area with smaller companies that will grow.

A message from Catawba County's Information Director Terry Bledsoe (The Chairman of the Catawba County Future Economy Council): It's Simply "Magic"

Below are links to the history of this movement according to the Hickory Hound:
BROAD BAND!!!
City of Hickory - Thinking Big with a Gig
I have a Dream - A 21st Century Hickory
Woogle - How You can Help Us Get Google Ultra High Speed Broadband
3,040 Facebook Fans of the Woogle Initiative - Team Woogle meets with FEC
3/9/2010 - Woogle Town Hall meeting tonight done. Onto Lenoir Thursday night
Google - Come make History in Hickory!!!
Hickory's Diaspora - Bring Home the Scattered Seeds
Team Woogle's Final Push - Before Hickory City Council - 3/23/2010
Google Request for Information website - Help spread the word
Please don't forget about the Woogle initiative