Could it happen here??
Save the Internet Blog » Blog Archive » A Tale of Two Cities
The Japanese enjoy broadband speeds that are up to 30 times faster than what’s available here at a far lower cost. This faster, cheaper, universal broadband access – according to an excellent article in today’s Washington Post – “is pushing open doors to Internet innovation that are likely to remain closed for years to come in much of the United States.”
Naw.
August 31st, 2007 at 10:45 pm
I’m curious to know what kind of curriculum and standards the Japanese hold their students to that creates these individuals who can create these super fast broadband speeds, among many other innovations. Are we not pushing our students enough? Should we take a lesson from Japanese teachers and adopt their methods? How do we make ourselves more efficient at what we do? Or do I have the wrong mindset on this one?
August 31st, 2007 at 10:58 pm
It’s not the students. It’s the infrastructure. The commercial marketplace in the US is too worried about protecting their own piece of the pie and the government is more concerned about keeping kids away from “harmful content.”
September 1st, 2007 at 4:47 pm
It seems a little sad that the US come up with this, but we have yet to use it. What is the government so worried about? Kids can access “harmful content” just as easily now as they could with this.
September 2nd, 2007 at 10:53 am
One of the comments made to the blog, stated that Japan may have this hi-speed internet but it is not as wide spread as the article presented. The comment stated that most of the elementary schools don’t even have computers let alone access to such internet. I am just wondering how accurate this is.
September 2nd, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Okay, I don’t know if installing broadband internet access to every home in the U.S.A. is as important as providing electricity to rural areas in the 1940s and 1950s, but it should be high priority, at least an orange level. Admittedly, I probably take electricity for granted and am only slightly inconvenienced when a storm causes us to lose power.
The article indicated that Japan has a goal of doubling the number of workers who work from home by 2010. Low-cost ultra-high-speed applications are making this possible. According to worldfactbook.cia, Japan’s population is 127, 433 million people living in an area of 374, 744 sq. km; the United States population is 301, 139, 947 living in an area of 9, 161, 923 sq. km. Ounce per ounce, these stats are pretty close with Japan being a little more crowded. It seems to me that if our government was interested in creating jobs that pay decent wages, it would look into the idea of increasing telecommuniting jobs. But, as lowell pointed out businesses in America are more concerned that one will make a dollar more than another.