[Community_studios] community wireless networks and Open Studios

Tom Poe tompoe at studioforrecording.org
Thu Nov 10 01:01:46 EST 2005


MULTIMEDIA CENTERS IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD
By Tom Poe
November 9, 2005

The nice thing about cable tv, is their marketing department.  For those 
who have cable, they can choose from literally hundreds of channels, 
offering everything from woodcrafting to gardening, from cooking to 
personal hygiene, from tips to new parents to kitchen and house design. 
  Having tested the market, they have concluded such shows are watched 
by lots of people.  Well, that said, the bad thing about cable tv, is 
their shows!  Ask anyone who has watched them, and they'll most likely 
volunteer they could do as well, or better than the folks on the shows.

In some communities, the cable franchise agreement requires the company 
to provide multimedia centers for the residents.  These centers offer 
residents the opportunity to make such shows, and air them on the local 
cable tv channels.  But, what about our community?  We don't have such a 
facility.  Do we need one?  Do we need several?  Would we use them, if 
we had them?  This article gives some information that just might 
provide the answers to those questions and more.  Go ahead, read on.

WHAT IS A MULTIMEDIA CENTER?

It's a computer.  Well, not too many months ago, it was an expensive 
setup, and an impossible dream.  Today, suddenly, technology has 
exploded, and everything that was required just a matter of months ago, 
now sits on a computer.  In other words, in order to create CDs, or 
DVDs, or tv or radio shows, or even full-featured films, one simply 
needs a computer sitting on your kitchen table.  Can you believe it?

I have a donated computer sitting on my kitchen table.  It's a low-end 
PIII desktop computer.  I got some CDs with an Open Source operating 
system, installed freely available software from Stanford University's 
Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, and this donated, 
cheap computer now enables me to make high quality CDs.  The cost is 
something less than $4.00, so far.  If the cost is that low, you can bet 
it will be just a matter of time, before every neighborhood in every 
community will have one or more for local residents to use, free of charge.

BROADBAND ACCESS

I think it's important to make some comments about what the tv companies 
are doing:

“In just the past few months some of the biggest TV names have announced 
new broadband channels, from MTV Networks to Comedy Central () to ABC 
News. If you thought the 400 cable channels focusing on everything from 
golf to anime were already cutting niches thin, broadband TV is going a 
step further.” - From Business Week, November 8, 2005.

They're simply making video clips (tv shows) which people can download 
and watch.  That's it!  Something you and I can do on a computer sitting 
on the kitchen table.  Now, you have to realize that the telcos, the 
cable industry, the broadcasters do not want you to know that.  It's a 
secret.  Imagine the havoc created when the entire country realizes they 
don't need large corporations to control what they watch, or listen to.

Let's compromise, though.  Let's let them continue to provide whatever 
they provide, and let's imagine a community where broadband is provided 
in an affordable way.  With the computer, we can put up video clips that 
are the equal of what they put up, and even better, our video clips let 
us see what's happening locally.  We let (we're generous folks) the 
Charles City Press use one of the computers to produce video clips of 
the news for us to view, as well as a copy of the paper to hold and 
read.  We let HyVee get into the game, and produce video clips we can 
watch on what specials are offered, how the deli works, tours of the 
store, interviews with the flower department, customer service 
department, whatever.  We're able to watch church services throughout 
the week.  All we do, is use the broadband connection to access the 
sites, and download the shows.  Are you looking for a pet?  Paws will 
make it possible for you to view the pets, call them, and have them 
delivered to your door, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  There's no limit 
to the possibilities.

One especially nice thing about broadband, is the ability of our city 
government to provide services that are now being made available in a 
somewhat clunky fashion.  For example, city meetings will be “live”, as 
well as recorded.  A broadband network provides a reassuring sense of 
security for the community, regardless of what natural disaster might 
occur.  The New Orleans hurricane tragedy might have come out 
differently, because, with a broadband community network, communications 
for fire and police and hospital personnel would have been back up and 
running within a couple of hours.

VALUE-ADDED TECHNOLOGY:

When combined, the multimedia centers in every neighborhood, along with 
a broadband wireless community network, offers us the best available 
technology for our community, and, in an affordable fashion.  Is this a 
replacement for our present telecommunications and cable industry 
alternative?  Doesn't have to be.  Coexisting alternatives are simply 
another way of saying, creativity and innovation.  Our country was 
founded on the principle that creativity and innovation will drive 
progress.  Competition is increased, when you and I have the ability to 
do the same thing that broadcasters, film makers, record labels, and 
newspapers do.  Did I mention that with some additional investment, our 
local theatre can offer our “home-grown” productions right in the 
theatre, from outdoor events to documentaries to children's recitals? 
Imagine the possibilities for additional revenues, if our local arts 
organizations begin to make their performances and events available for 
the theatre.  Not to mention, all of the works created by us, are 
potentially of interest to people all over the world.  How many copies 
of a tour of Mooney's art exhibit might be sold to schools around the 
world, if our local library had one of these computers?

COMMUNITY-BASED WIRELESS NETWORKS:

The telcos, cable industry and content producers are consolidating to 
the point we now have what, maybe five radio station owners in this 
country?  Regardless of where one lives, their request to air their 
radio show must get permission from one of those five owners.  Now, stay 
with me on this, we have only a handful of cable operators to choose 
from in this country.  In my community, I have one telco providing phone 
service, and one cable company providing service.  If I don't like the 
service, I can . . .

Technology enables a community to create a wireless network, one that 
will provide access to the Internet at a fraction of what the phone or 
cable company offers.  The cost of putting a community wireless network 
in place is peanuts.  But, that's not the point, actually.  Wireless 
networks offer something else.  They offer a community a communications 
infrastructure that utilizes the airwaves that are owned by you and I. 
The phone companies and cable companies have a duopoly playing out, one 
that relies on continued control of the airwaves that belong to you and 
I.  The government gives control of those airwaves to the duopoly in 
return for discharging responsibility to act in the interest of the 
public (that's you and I).  Today, the interest of the public is best 
served, if the technology advances are made available to you and I.

We are rapidly approaching the day, when we can speak to our computers, 
and throw away the keyboard.  We'll use microphones.  Our voices will 
control the computer.  We'll be making high quality recordings and 
broadcast quality videos whenever we use our computers, whether for 
composing an intimate conversation with our relatives and friends over 
the Internet, or a tv show, or a radio show, or a dictated letter we 
print out and place in the post office to mail to someone.  Using the 
airwaves that we own, we can send voice, text, images, music, art, 
literature, science, data across the Internet to anywhere in the world. 
  Without access to the Internet, there will be many who will be left 
behind.  Those of us on limited incomes will be discriminated against, 
our children whose families can't afford access to the Internet, will 
become the “uneducated ones” of the future.

When asked, the telcos and cable industry answers that they are 
providing for rural and low-income folks.  They say it costs too much, 
and that it's a long-term project to make access to the Internet 
available to everyone.  This begs the question, then, as to why they 
don't use the technology available, along with our airwaves they're 
using, and build community wireless networks.  The cost is negligible. 
You won't get an answer from them.  I'll leave you with a question: Why 
don't we build a community wireless network, today?
-- 
Open Studios, Charles City, Iowa, USA
www.ibiblio.org/studioforrecording/
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