ARTICLE: “Where Showing Skin Doesn’t Sell, a New Style Is a Hit,” by Marc Lacey, New York Times, 20 March 2006, p. A4.
TECHNOLOGY QUARTERLY: “Wi-Pie in the sky? Communications: Cities across America plan to build municipal Wi-Fi networks to widen access to broadband. Will they work? The Economist, 11 March 2006, p. 22.
ARTICLE: “Ring Up My Bill, Please: Mobile Payment Via Cellphone,” by Eric Dash and Ken Belson, New York Times, 21 March 2006, p. C1.
I know, I know. Everyone wants the Gap gone tomorrow or it’s just too damn hard to even contemplate. It’s gotta be some huge System Perturbation unleashed by the U.S. military to work, right? Followed by the occupation to end all occupations? White man’s burden and all that?
In reality, the victory is won, day in and day out, through millions of small victories, almost all of which will be driven far more by the private sector than by the public one.
Great stories, these three.
First, there’s Nike designing the next generation hijabs that allow Muslim women to participate in sports with as much freedom and comfort as possible while still maintaining the desired modesty.
That, my friends, is some cool connectivity--brilliant, in that British sort of meaning.
Then I read about American cities going all aggressive on setting up urban WiFi nets to jump start connectivity, hoping to rapidly connect up their own mini-Gaps-within-the-Core, and I think to myself, Wouldn’t you want that as part of your Development-in-a-Box package whenever you go into a place? Just crank up the WiFi and pass out those $100 laptops and connect everyone, the locals, the aid groups, the peacekeepers--everyone all at once right from the start. Wouldn’t that send a huge signal (pun intended) about what your military intervention was all about?
Just thinking, mind you …
Then I read the bit about fans at arenas buying their beers and brats with cell phones, and I’m wondering, Why wouldn’t the Development-in-a-Box process utilize cell phones like this? Why not have part of the DiB process be handing out cellphones like crazy to local inhabitants, providing all the hardware and software for free as well, and then using that system to provide secure salaries and payments and whatnot? There were so many practical problems with distributing and managing currency in Iraq, so why not marry the two forms of connectivity that people love: blabbing on cellphones and paying by credit? Wouldn’t that speed things up, offer more simplicity and security, and blow away the locals by connecting them to opportunity that anyone can appreciate?
Just thinking, mind you …