Estonian Li-Fi

The Reference Frame: Estonian Li-Fi: Tens of GB per second using light bulbs Velmenni, an Estonian startup , has tested the visible light-based replacement for Wi-Fi in the re...

Article by Lubos is an extension of information contained herein this blog regarding Lifi. See:  Harald Haas

Li-Fi (Light Fidelity) is a bidirectional, high speed and fully networked wireless communication technology similar to Wi-Fi. Coined by Prof. Harald Haas,^[1] Li-Fi is a subset of optical wireless communications (OWC) and can be a complement to RF communication (Wi-Fi or Cellular network), or a replacement in contexts of data broadcasting. It is so far measured to be about 100 times faster than Wi-Fi, reaching speeds of 224 gigabits per second.^[2]

It is wireless and uses visible light communication or infra-red and near ultraviolet (instead of radio frequency waves) spectrum, part of optical wireless communications technology, which carries much more information, and has been proposed as a solution to the RF-bandwidth limitations.^[3] A complete solution includes an industry led standardization process.

White Space Sensor Development

 To manage the White Spaces is a way to improve process performance of an organization(internet). White Space (management)

 The idea has always been to operate within certain frequencies in order to develop the communications needed for rural development. Sometimes,  in context of management we see where governments needed to manage these frequencies in order to be able to auction off facets of those frequencies. This is to ensure companies are safe from other developers who may damages their operations,  as well as give companies what they paid for.

 On September 23, 2010 the FCC released a Memorandum Opinion and Order that determined the final rules for the use of white space for unlicensed wireless devices.^[18] The new rules removed mandatory sensing requirements which greatly facilitates the use of the spectrum with geolocation based channel allocation. The final rules adopt a proposal from the White Spaces Coalition^[19] for very strict emission rules that prevent the direct use of IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) in a single channel effectively making the new spectrum unusable for Wi-Fi technologies... See: FCC decision

So of course such developments need to consider the techniques used for sensors so as to be able to operate between all these frequencies.This then require services as a means to providing broadband capabilities via White Space spectrum.

White space in telecommunications refers to unused frequencies in the radio waves portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The latest information of Google attempts at developing communication development in Africa is of course a long road to White Space communication.

White spaces are unused channels in the broadcast TV spectrum. They offer the potential to improve Internet connectivity where they are most needed - in the developing world. Today we’re announcing the launch of a trial with ten schools in the Cape Town area, which will receive wireless broadband over a white space network.

White space has the advantage that low frequency signals can travel longer distances. The technology is well suited to provide low cost connectivity to rural communities with poor telecommunications infrastructure, and for expanding coverage of wireless broadband in densely populated urban areas. See:
Announcing a new TV White Spaces trial in South Africa

There has been some developments in terms of management with the rules and regulations with regard to that White Space development within the US, UK and Canada. This has more to do with regulations about controlling the impingement of frequencies on existing companies already using frequency white space. To ensure that any use of that White Space does not cause any disruptions with require certifications of a sort,  to demonstrate that this is such the case.

See:

•  Wireless Access Providers’ Association of South Africa 
• The Cape Town TV White Spaces Trial

I am exploring some ideas here on community development. This is so as to developed further communication formats.  These broadcast systems,  need to meet the demands of rural country deployments frequencies between tower locations,  as well as,  development of those community based broadcast system.

 While I have watch the proceeds of government working with major internet company to develop this process.  I am less then happy with the outcome of Tax dollars that have been spent to progress this development in rural country living not only Provincially, but Federally as well. IN a Federal sense there has been no accountability with this progress and money granted.

While watching Google history here, and latest development in Africa it seems it has gone far away from its home base to develop the framework. I sometimes wonder then if the community in the framework of governments is some how caused such a innovative process as a the result of that development in Africa? Of course that is speculation on my part and any success on this front pushes forward the desires of what communication can reach the far ends of the earth and bring global communication to the nourishment of every individual on this planet.

See Also:

• Consultation on a Policy and Technical Framework for the Use of Non-Broadcasting Applications in theTelevision Broadcasting Bands Below 698 MHz
•  TV White Space Devices ...and beyond!

BroadBand Technology

Broadband research is a McGill area of expertise. Meet researchers such as David Plant, Tho Le-Ngoc, and Mark Coates who are on the cutting edge of machine to machine communication, high-speed internet technologies, and wireless communications.

BroadBand Portals of the OECD

Tim Berners-Lee, Director of the World Wide Web Consortium and inventor of the World Wide Web, talks about the challenges ahead and why an open Internet is key to its continuing success

***

The OECD broadband portal provides access to a range of broadband-related statistics gathered by the OECD. Policy makers must examine a range of indicators which reflect the status of individual broadband markets in the OECD. The OECD has indentified five main categories which are important for assessing broadband markets.OECD Broadband Portal

See Also:Ask the Wrong Questions and . . . : the CRTC’s Review of Wireless Competition

Neural Connections?

Wiki Growth Over Time 

This is a project conducted by ChrisDavis and IgorNikolic to visualize the growth of wiki.tudelft.nl since its beginning in late 2004. Since then, it has grown to over 10,000 pages, and is now part of the officially supported ICT infrastructure of Delft University of Technology. This wiki is meant to be a free-form repository of information where people contribute content that helps with their research. This often takes the form of pages documenting articles that people have read, "how to" pages, and records of conferences and meetings.Project Motivation

This is a visualization of the evolution of wiki.tudelft.nl from the very beginning, 5 years ago. Each node is a page, links are connections between pages. Graph is laid out using a force-directed algorithm, where the edges (links between pages) pull the nodes (pages) together, and the nodes (pages) repel each other. This means that the more tightly connected nodes will be closer together than weakly connected ones, which are pushed to the outside. The entire thing is created using Prefuse (http://prefuse.org/), wiki is using the TWiki engine (http://twiki.org). The soundtrack is from DJ Cary's Eastern Grooves compilation from Magnatune.com. More info about this can be found at http://wiki.tudelft.nl/bin/view/Main/WikiGrowthOverTime

Licensed under Creative Commons http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

See:Browse Movies Upload
Evolution of a wiki

 ***

Partial map of the Internet based on the January 15, 2005 data found on opte.org. Each line is drawn between two nodes, representing two IP addresses. The length of the lines are indicative of the delay between those two nodes. This graph represents less than 30% of the Class C networks reachable by the data collection program in early 2005. Lines are color-coded according to their corresponding RFC 1918 allocation as follows:

• Dark blue: net, ca, us
• Green: com, org
• Red: mil, gov, edu
• Yellow: jp, cn, tw, au, de
• Magenta: uk, it, pl, fr
• Gold: br, kr, nl
• White: unknown

See:

• Mapping the Internet Brain and Consciousness

   

CERN brings hardware into the open

It good to see great minds think alike?:)

The Open Hardware Repository was inspired by the success of open-source software. (Image courtesy CERN.)

Hardware and software go hand in hand – one doesn’t work without the other. Despite being so closely linked, the two industries operate very differently. For the most part, hardware is produced in isolation and product designs are concealed by manufacturers, while software is created in a largely open and collaborative environment, available for anyone to use.

Javier Serrano, a hardware designer for accelerator systems at CERN, set out to change that. Three years ago, his software design colleagues were developing device drivers – the interface between a piece of hardware and software applications – with the Linux open-source operating system. Serrano noticed that they enjoyed being part of a community where they had access to high-quality products and could seek help whenever they needed it. CERN brings hardware into the open

See Also: My Hat's Off too: Open Hardware Movement

Take Note: Make sure you check out the labels to learn some history.


Kernel (Mar 09 2006 Wikipedia)

In computer science the kernel is the core of an operating system. It is a piece of software responsible for providing secure access to the machine's hardware and to various processes (computer programs in a state of execution).

It's good to see where such thoughts originated at Cern with regard to this subject. This issue is one which I had proposed sometime ago in terms of broad band development as a non profit in order to establish some competition to what has become monopolistic control over the internet in Canada.  It is with the full compliance of the CRTC which supposedly is to represent some fairness to the internet and consumers, which it does not.

Linux (Mar 09 2006 Wikipedia)

Linux is a computer operating system and its kernel. It is one of the most prominent examples of free software and of open-source development; unlike proprietary operating systems such as Windows, all of its underlying source code is available to the public for anyone to freely use, modify, improve, and redistribute.

I was able to detect product(Bell, Shaw, Telus,) development around internet usage according to UBB, while there were still methods that these companies were "fully aware of"  back tens years ago that allowed such easy connections in terms of wireless internet?

The Cathedral and the Bizarre by Jeff Lewis(through use of Wayback Machine)

The problem there is that the 'capitalist trench' problem is just as real in OpenSource as it is in commerical product: once a group buys into a specific solution, the cost of changing grows with time. That's true even if the software is 'free' because the maintenance costs and time to convert to another solution are not

Update:New link supplied

These thoughts for me go back to the ideas around Netscape and Microsoft when Microsoft was trying to be the based software on computers placed into the market.

Broadband in a Full Democracy

White space in telecommunications refers to unused frequencies in the radio waves portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.

National and international bodies assign differing frequencies for specific uses, and in some cases license the rights to these. This frequency allocation process creates a bandplan which in some cases for technical reasons assigns white space between used bands to avoid interference. In this case, while the frequencies are unused they have been specifically assigned for a purpose.

As well as this technical assignment, there is also unused spectrum which has either never been used, or is becoming free as a result of technical changes. In particular, the planned switchover to digital television may free up large areas between 54MHz and 698MHz. Various proposals including those from the White Spaces Coalition suggest using this bandwidth to provide broadband Internet access. However, these efforts may impact wireless microphones and other technologies that have historically relied on these frequencies.

***

Wireless spectrum: FAQs by By Peter Nowak CBC News May 26, 2008 | 3:13 PM ET 

  What is spectrum?

Spectrum is a catch-all term for the radio airwaves that many wireless gizmos use to communicate information. Radios use spectrum, as do the rabbit-ear antennas on older television sets. The CBC, for example, is broadcast free to many parts of Canada using a part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Cellphones, of course, also use it.

Spectrum is divided into different frequencies and measured in units called hertz.

Why is it being sold?

Spectrum is a public resource that is managed by the government through Industry Canada. The government extracts big revenue from selling spectrum licences to cellphone companies, because those licences are limited while demand is high. Canada's cellphone industry made $12.7 billion in 2006, 95 per cent of which went to the big three providers, Rogers Communications Inc., Bell Canada Inc. and Telus Corp. Other telecommunications providers would like to offer cellphone services but can't, because they don't have a spectrum licence.

The licences are for 10 years and can be renewed by owners within two years of their expiration. The auction is expected to earn the government at least $1 billion, but likely a good deal more.

Who currently holds spectrum licences for cellphone services in Canada?

The nation's big three cellphone providers — Rogers Communications, Bell Canada and Telus — all hold licences. A number of smaller regional companies, including Winnipeg-based Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. and Regina-based SaskTel, also have licences and offer cellphone services.Auction of radio airwaves will influence Canada's prosperity

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The White Spaces Coalition

The White Spaces Coalition consists of eight large technology companies that plan to deliver high speed broadband internet access beginning in February 2009 to United States consumers via existing 'white space' in unused television frequencies between 54-698 MHz (TV Channels 2-51). The coalition expects speeds of 10 Mbyte/s and above, and 50 to 100 Mbyte/s for white space short-range networking.[1] The group includes Microsoft, Google, Dell, HP, Intel, Philips, Earthlink, and Samsung Electro-Mechanics.

Digital Future Survey:You Should Look

Digital Future Survey: The Parties Respond

***

To whom it may concern:

The early Internet was so accidental, it also was free and open in this sense. The Internet has become as important as anything man has ever created. But those freedoms are being chipped away. Please, I beg you, open your senses to the will of the people to keep the Internet as free as possible. Local ISP's should provide connection to the Internet but then it should be treated as though you own those wires and can choose what to do with them when and how you want to, as long as you don't destruct them. I don't want to feel that whichever content supplier had the best government connections or paid the most money determined what I can watch and for how much. This is the monopolistic approach and not representative of a truly free market in the case of today's Internet.Steve Wozniak to the FCC: Keep the Internet Free

See Also: We Cannot Apply Constraints to Communication?

We Cannot Apply Constraints to Communication?

Is the public winners in decisions that "add more cost" to what should be access to "freedoms of information?"

The Cathedral and the Bizarre by Jeff Lewis

The problem there is that the 'capitalist trench' problem is just as real in OpenSource as it is in commerical product: once a group buys into a specific solution, the cost of changing grows with time. That's true even if the software is 'free' because the maintenance costs and time to convert to another solution are not (link now dead)

This entry is in my view, one of a correlating experience about what was once "Netscape and Microsoft and the platforms"  from which one could assume to operate their computers.
 



This was the battle between Microsoft and Netscape now under the title of the "Cathedral and the Bizarre,"  by Eric Raymond, now in book form. It wasn't so sometime ago as shown above when I read of this history under a Macopinion.com link.

***

Steve Wozniak talks about the open Internet and net neutrality at the FCC

I was also taught that space, and the moon, were free and open. Nobody owned them. No country owned them. I loved this concept of the purest things in the universe being unowned.Steve Wozniak

Steve Wozniak - Steve Wozniak is a computer engineer who co-founded Apple Computer, Inc. with Steve Jobs. He created the Apple I and Apple II series computers in the mid-1970s. After earning the National Medal of Technology in 1985, Wozniak left Apple to work on various business and philanthropic ventures.

To whom it may concern:

The early Internet was so accidental, it also was free and open in this sense. The Internet has become as important as anything man has ever created. But those freedoms are being chipped away. Please, I beg you, open your senses to the will of the people to keep the Internet as free as possible. Local ISP's should provide connection to the Internet but then it should be treated as though you own those wires and can choose what to do with them when and how you want to, as long as you don't destruct them. I don't want to feel that whichever content supplier had the best government connections or paid the most money determined what I can watch and for how much. This is the monopolistic approach and not representative of a truly free market in the case of today's Internet.Steve Wozniak to the FCC: Keep the Internet Free

***

An Open letter Concerning a Not-So-Open Internet

LETTER START

As I turn on my computer to begin this letter, I log into Windows and receive a notification that an update is available for Java. Something I’ve seen a hundred times before and never really given much thought to. But this time something else crosses my mind; how big is the update? How much data will be downloaded to my computer? I read each of the prompts that come up on my screen, a little more closely than previously, looking for some indication of file size, but I see nothing. I go ahead with the update, but not without some concern. The issue? Something as simple as a software update on my computer may actually end up costing me money.

The new Usage Based Billing systems coming into place with the big Internet Providers in Canada will mean a lot more restriction and monitoring of the things we do every day. Products we have already paid for, services we have already subscribed to (along with their monthly or annual bills) will now be subject to overage fees, adding more cost onto what we already pay. Where we could once pay a single monthly bill for our internet, we will now be paying not only the bill, but also the extra fees for having used more data than the Internet Service Providers think we should be using.

I have a few internet connected devices in my home aside from just a computer. Most Canadians would agree that a household with a single computer used simply for checking email and doing online banking is no longer the norm in our society. When most people hear talk of “large downloads” and Internet Providers cracking down on “excessive users”, to most this brings up thoughts of people using file sharing, or peer-to-peer programs to share music and movies across the internet. But with the prevalence of so many internet connected devices found in almost every home, and with legitimate online video and music streaming services being introduced, “large downloads” is something that now applies to everyone, whether they fully realize it or not.

I have an Xbox360. I use it to watch videos, play online multiplayer games with friends, download game demos, and to purchase and download full games through Microsoft’s Xbox Live service. As my monthly bandwidth allotment from my Internet Provider disappears, I will simply stop using it. I have already paid for my Xbox, the use of the online service through my Xbox Live Gold account, the games themselves, and for my internet access. With Usage Based Billing I will be expected to pay yet again if I don’t monitor my usage closely enough.
I should not be paying more for services that I already pay for.

This does not only apply to people with Xbox 360’s, but also to anyone with a Sony Playstation or a Nintendo Wii in their home. It would be safe to assume that the majority of people in this country that have an internet connection have at least one of these gaming devices in their home. Even if it’s in your son’s or daughter’s room and you never actually use it yourself, it’s the same as any other computer connected to your home network. We paid for them, in some cases we pay extra for the fuller online experience, and now we will be expected to pay yet again, each month, due to these new bandwidth restrictions. Higher monthly bills will result in people placing more restrictions on usage, watching their bandwidth meter, making sure they’ll be able to afford their internet bill for the month.

I don’t use it myself, but I know there are a number of people that purchase music, movies and television shows through Apple’s iTunes. Having paid for your videos, perhaps in High Definition format, downloading them, and then being charged again at the end of the month due to the size of the videos themselves, is completely unfair.
I subscribe to Netflix. I have been using it on both my home computers and my Xbox. Although now with the new changes coming into effect, when I find a movie on Netflix I want to watch, I’ll be checking to see how much more, on top of the fee I have already paid to Netflix, the movie might end up costing me. Again, paying more for services that I already pay for.

I use an online backup service called Crashplan. All of my computer files are backed up daily to their secure servers, leaving me the peace of mind that if our home was broken into or anything was destroyed in a fire, all of my files and programs would be safe. Already paying an annual fee for the service, I may well have to give up this peace of mind in order to keep my internet bill at an affordable level.
As an addition to this full online backup service, I also use a service called Dropbox. This enables me to keep certain files in sync across all of my computers, as well as my Smartphone. A very handy and reliable service, but also one that uses data over my home internet connection. Again, I pay an annual fee for this service, but may end up being charged even more on top of that as a result of the new Usage Based Billing.

I use Last.fm. This is an online radio service that customizes radio stations for me based on my listening habits. I sometime have it playing for most of the day as I do things around the house, but this will have to stop, as I can’t risk the constant data stream pushing my internet bill up and up.

I have friends that use VoIP services; Voice over IP (internet telephone, as opposed to the normal telephones most are familiar with). These services, such as Vonage and Skype, eliminate the need for an extra telephone bill in their homes, and provide long distance savings. But with the overage fees charged by the Internet Providers, they will no longer be the money saving services they were meant to be.

In addition to the PC’s, laptops, and the Xbox I have in my house, I also have a Smartphone. I recently made the switch to an Android based phone, but this will also apply to anyone who has an iPhone, Blackberry, or any other internet enabled phone that can connect to a Wi-Fi network. When at home I keep my phone connected to my home Wi-Fi. Anyone who has a Smartphone knows that these devices transmit a fair amount of data; keeping email, calendar and contacts in sync, various Apps that update in the background at set intervals, downloading new Apps, and, as with most Smartphone’s today, the majority are more than capable of streaming video from YouTube and a number of other online services. With the new Usage Based Billing, my phone is one more device connected to my network when at home, using up the limited bandwidth, and eventually costing me even more by the end of the month.

There are also certain things that are harder to control in our online world when it comes to data consumption; Windows Update is a perfect example. These are the fixes issued by Microsoft for their Windows Operating System that, in most people’s cases, download and install automatically in the background. The only User intervention required is after the updates are finished installing, you get that familiar prompt that your system needs to be restarted. And so the questions: how much data was downloaded during this process? If you were already very close to your monthly bandwidth allowance, did this push you over? Did these updates actually end up costing you more money? The last time I installed my copy of Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook), I remember a number of updates being required through Windows Update, and they were not small in size. Having already purchased the software, I don’t believe I should be charged again for installing the necessary upgrades.

As careful as you might be in regards to the data being transferred in your household, making sure the next bill to come in is within the affordable range, things like background updates for your Operating System, as well as any Anti-Virus and Spyware programs you may be using (on each of the PC’s in your home, mind you), and other updates for any of the software installed on your computer, will also be added to your total data consumption. I’ll admit, these software updates, each on their own, are usually not very large, and so it would be easy to dismiss them. But when added together with the web surfing, online banking and shopping, emailing, Youtubing, Facebooking, video/audio streaming, online gaming (on PC or console), and all the other random data transfer that we have never really had to think too much about in the past, this adds up. And the higher the data consumption climbs, the higher the bill will be at the end of the month.

I certainly don’t like the idea, nor do I think it’s fair, that at the end of any given month, I might find myself very close to the bandwidth allotment given to me, and having to decide if uploading that new video to Facebook is worth an extra dollar or two on my internet bill, or having to weigh the cost of emailing the photos I took at Christmas to my family. Why should my Internet Provider get to cash in on things that are supposed to be free? I already pay for my internet access, as I always have, but now that will not be enough. In order to keep my bill at a reasonable level I will be expected to monitor the usage of every internet connected device in my home (including friends that might stop by with their laptop, netbook or Smartphone), and in some cases will be forced to eliminate certain things and cancel certain services altogether.
It is not too late to change this. As with this letter, there are ways of making sure people are informed about this issue and how, in the end, it will affect their daily lives. The companies and service providers, like the ones I mentioned above, should also be made aware, that if things continue down this road they will in fact be losing customers, as a lot of us will simply not be able to afford their services due to the extra fees being charged by our Internet Providers.

Our society is evolving. Online services and connected devices have become an integral part of our daily lives, for both work and pleasure. The cost of these devices and services is something we weigh at the time of purchase, but now there will be an additional factor to consider; how much more will I have to pay each month to my Internet Provider in order to use them?
If you're looking for a way to make this issue known, and to show your support, sign the Stop The Meter petition and encourage your contacts/customers to do the same.

Sign here:
http://StopTheMeter.ca

If you are a part of an organization please endorse and otherwise support the Stop The Media campaign. You can reach OpenMedia.ca, the organization running the campaign, by emailing: contact@openmedia.ca

D. Scott

This letter composed with Google Documents. Online. Using bandwidth.

Free Access to the Universal Library?

“The World Digital Library will make available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from cultures around the world, including manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, archi­tectural drawings, and other significant cultural materials. The objectives of the World Digital Library are to promote international and inter-cultural understanding and awareness, provide resources to educators, expand non-English and non-Western content on the Internet, and to contribute to scholarly research.”

See: World Digital Library. Project information here.

I think it's more wishful thinking on my part that people are able to gain access to the internet freely, and be allowed access to this Library.

UNESCO, Library of Congress and partners launch World Digital Library

The WDL was developed by a team at the Library of Congress. Technical assistance was provided by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina of Alexandria, Egypt. Institutions contributing content and expertise to the WDL include national libraries and cultural and educational institutions in Brazil, Egypt, China, France, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, Qatar, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia, Sweden, Uganda, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Examples of treasures that will be featured on the WDL include oracle bones and steles contributed by the National Library of China; Arabic scientific manuscripts from the National Library and Archives of Egypt; early photographs of Latin America from the National Library of Brazil; the Hyakumanto darani, a publication from the year 764 from the National Diet Library of Japan; the famous 13th century “Devil’s Bible” from the National Library of Sweden; and works of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish calligraphy from the collections of the Library of Congress.

One of UNESCO’s main mandates is to promote the free flow of all forms of knowledge in education, science, culture and communication. The Organization therefore supports initiatives to improve and increase content on the Internet. To this end, it collaborates with a range of partners on the creation of digital and other repositories.

Video

While PIRSA has been most kind in allowing archive demonstrations of Seminars to which I have been greatly appreciative. As a general public enthusiast for Science and where it's going to date, it was important that I also see the development to date in relation to those closely associated with You Tube EDU programming that has been established.



See:Youtube EDU Also, see parameters changes with regard to adjusting Youtube Screening.

Thanks to Open Reflections for the wonderful information that supplied resource info.

Events → Richard M. Stallman Speeches

Richard Matthew Stallman (born March 16, 1953), often abbreviated "rms",[2] is an American software freedom activist, hacker,[3] and software developer. In September 1983, he launched the GNU Project[4] to create a free Unix-like operating system, and has been the project's lead architect and organizer. With the launch of the GNU Project, he started the free software movement and, in October 1985, set up the Free Software Foundation.

Stallman pioneered the concept of copyleft and is the main author of several copyleft licenses including the GNU General Public License, the most widely used free software license.[5] Since the mid-1990s, Stallman has spent most of his time advocating for free software, as well as campaigning against both software patents and what he sees as excessive extension of copyright laws. Stallman has also developed a number of pieces of widely used software, including the original Emacs, the GNU Compiler Collection, and the GNU Debugger. He co-founded the League for Programming Freedom in 1989.

***

January 24th - Montreal - Omni-Mont Royal Hotel

January 26th - Montreal - 1450 Boulevard de Maisonneuve (room number and time to be confirmed)

January 27th - Halifax - Dalhousie University

January 29th - Waterloo - University of Waterloo

The Free Software Movement

Waterloo, Canada. University of Waterloo. Hagey Hall Theatre of the Humanities, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West. Richard Stallman will speak about the Free Software Movement, which campaigns for freedom so that computer users can cooperate to control their own computing activities. The Free Software Movement developed the GNU operating system, often erroneously referred to as Linux, specifically to establish these freedoms. This talk will be accessible to all audience and the public is encouraged to attend. Admission is free.

February 2nd - Toronto - To be announced

February 3rd - Calgary - University of Calgary

February 6th - Vancouver - George F. Curtis Law Building

February 7th - Vancouver - UBC

Watch this page for further details @ Free Software Foundation

An Open Letter

Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 1:12 PM

Dear Richard Stallman,

I was made aware recently of your lecturing circuit and see that you will be in and around University of Waterloo. Have you heard of the PI Institute?

I am no body and I operate under a pseudonym of Plato running a blog called, "Dialogos of Eide (http://eskesthai.blogspot.com/2008/10/white-space.html.)" As you know and I suspect you might be in agreement, ideas are cheap, but can become profound after giving an effort to it's actualization.

I was draw to the idea of community, and to this end, this letter is about that.

IN that blog entry, my concern was about what remains of the world society and how many are actually connected to the internet.. ONly 20% of the world population

I write this now for consideration and then ask, you if there is such a thing as to design the hardware under "this idea of yours" to advance the internet as a free access, instead of the piggy back that we can do from libraries and such. That we can extent this service beyond the place of business and help society connect in that whitespace. I am not advocating breaking any such laws but to make available this service that will unite the greater global community spirit in those areas where the spectrum will allow such connections.

I am then advocating "the design to capture those signals in the whitespace" that has be an open territory for for the White Space Coalition. To this end, might we see where such a search feature as google might help toward that end knowing it's market increase can be reached as well in that development and reach of the Internet?

Sincerely,

Plato

If you feel there is potential in what I say in that letter, then write also to Richard Stallman (rms@gnu.org)and get your own "auto generated email."

Perhaps you might be at the lecture, in and around Waterloo, on the dates above? Is this worth the effort to connect communities without exploiting the Whitespace for profited orientated ends? Think about it and maybe you can come up with some method here. You can get in touch with me( platohagel@gmail.com) using my gmail account.

Larry Page in Support of White Space?

The United States 700 MHz FCC wireless spectrum auction was started by the FCC on January 24, 2008 for the rights to operate the 700 MHz frequency band in the United States. The details of process were the subject of debate between several telecommunications companies, including Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and startup Frontline Wireless, as well as the Internet company Google. Much of the debate swirled around the "open access" requirements set down by the Second Report and Order released by the FCC determining the process and rules for the auction. All bidding must be commenced by January 28 by law. The auction was named Auction 73.[1]

It is one of these things that has been going on for a while now without the public really being aware. While the idea is sound in terms of "opening this technology with new possibilities," you should be fundamentally aware that this resource is a public one, and has been sold in auction by a Canadian government to encourage rural connections? It raised 12 Billion dollars.

How does this help your pocket book? It doesn't. It provides for more possibilities for the White space Coalition to advertise their wares.

A vote for broadband in the "white spaces"Posted by Larry Page, Co-Founder and President of Products

All eyes are on the presidential election today, but another important vote just took place at the Federal Communications Commission. By a vote of 5-0, the FCC formally agreed to open up the "white spaces" spectrum -- the unused airwaves between broadcast TV channels -- for wireless broadband service for the public. This is a clear victory for Internet users and anyone who wants good wireless communications.

The FCC has been looking at this issue carefully for the last six years. Google has worked hard on this matter with other tech companies and public interest groups because we think that this spectrum will help put better and faster Internet connections in the hands of the public. We also look forward to working with the FCC to finalize the method used to compute power levels of empty channels adjacent to TV channels (we have a number of public filings before the commission in this area and it is a vital issue in urban areas).

I've always thought that there are a lot of really incredible things that engineers and entrepreneurs can do with this spectrum. We will soon have "Wi-Fi on steroids," since these spectrum signals have much longer range than today's Wi-Fi technology and broadband access can be spread using fewer base stations resulting in better coverage at lower cost. And it is wonderful that the FCC has adopted the same successful unlicensed model used for Wi-Fi, which has resulted in a projected 1 billion Wi-Fi chips being produced this year. Now that the FCC has set the rules, I'm sure that we'll see similar growth in products to take advantage of this spectrum.

As an engineer, I was also really gratified to see that the FCC decided to put science over politics. For years the broadcasting lobby and others have tried to spread fear and confusion about this technology, rather than allow the FCC's engineers to simply do their work.

Finally, I want to applaud and thank FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, the other commissioners, and the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology for their leadership in advancing this important issue. And, thanks to the more than 20,000 of you who took a stand on this issue through our Free the Airwaves campaign, the FCC heard a clear message from consumers: these airwaves can bring wireless Internet to everyone everywhere.

This was the battle between Microsoft and Netscape under the title of the Cathedral and the Bizarre by Eric Raymond now in book form. It wasn't so sometime ago when I read of this history under a Macopinion.com link.

I think as a citizen of this country it would be a progressive move in face of the FCC in the United States decision, that the White Space that will connect communities should be a free one in terms of the internet. No where does Larry Page reveal this, and no where does Microsoft who is coming on board, reveal this as well?

So here's the idea.

Open source is a software application. What I am proposing is a "open source hardware application" that allows you to connect to the internet for free. If you can access it, then why should you pay for it? Did you ever pay for the signal when you were using your Rabbit ears? Charged for the utility of the phones in your home that are cord free?

I would like any comments here to this idea opened up for discussion while you become informed as to what has happened while we were sleeping. Testing procedures used to verify "no interference" then become the model for integrating and developing the connection to the airwaves for future free internet.

White Space

While existing companies control access to the internet it is with some contention that I see people regardless of the portal created through to internet access should have "free access" to this. Currently Governments hold the rights to auction so anything that is derived or sold by the government rightfully belongs to the people.

White space in telecommunications refers to unused frequencies in the radio waves portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.

National and international bodies assign differing frequencies for specific uses, and in some cases license the rights to these. This frequency allocation process creates a bandplan which in some cases for technical reasons assigns white space between used bands to avoid interference. In this case, while the frequencies are unused they have been specifically assigned for a purpose.

As well as this technical assignment, there is also unused spectrum which has either never been used, or is becoming free as a result of technical changes. In particular, the planned switchover to digital television may free up large areas between 54MHz and 698MHz. Various proposals including those from the White Spaces Coalition suggest using this bandwidth to provide broadband Internet access. However, these efforts may impact wireless microphones and other technologies that have historically relied on these frequencies.

It is with some insight then that if this is currently free then such attempts to build new devices to access this without using current patented technologies would then be invited under the auspice of a open source and competitive standard to allow such an expression by the peope?

The White Spaces Coalition

The White Spaces Coalition consists of eight large technology companies that plan to deliver high speed broadband internet access beginning in February 2009 to United States consumers via existing 'white space' in unused television frequencies between 54-698 MHz (TV Channels 2-51). The coalition expects speeds of 10 Mbyte/s and above, and 50 to 100 Mbyte/s for white space short-range networking.[1] The group includes Microsoft, Google, Dell, HP, Intel, Philips, Earthlink, and Samsung Electro-Mechanics.

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