The adage “garbage in/garbage out” comes to mind thanks to a recent Viodi post. A popular social media site was the lucky recipient of this article (see the Korner for more details).
Thanks again to the Broadband Forum, my employer, for supporting this newsletter. The content, views, and opinions expressed herein are not those of the Broadband Forum.
In that context, the following link is Viodi’s encouragement for interested parties to submit a paper for the upcoming Town Hall Innovation Series. Having been to two of these events, the topics are thought-provoking and set the stage for discussions about the future of broadband.
What is a Smart Rural Community?
Nancy J. White is the right person to answer the question, “What is a Smart Rural Community?” As the General Manager of one of the first recipients of this award some ten years ago, White understands what it takes to receive this highly coveted designation. Fundamentally, it is about helping the community take advantage of the capabilities of the modern communications network.
One PON Is Key to Meeting the Needs of Rural Broadband
One PON (Passive Optical Network) that serves multiple services and multiple types of customers was a common theme of the Broadband Forum’s BASe OFC Conference panel, ‘Meeting Rural Broadband Needs with High Capacity PON‘.
PON Interoperability Is a Must-Have
The need for robust broadband may be even more critical to rural areas than urban locales. With the increasing interest in Open Access Networks, interoperability is crucial to allow the mixing and matching of OLTs and ONTs. These are a couple of takeaways from the Broadband Forum vBASe webinar, New Trends in PON Interoperability.
A Customer Focus Improves Sustainability & Cuts Waste
Over 20 tons of plastic and 50 tons of cardboard is the annual waste reduction Lumen expects to save by more efficiently packaging and shipping equipment to homes and operation centers while minimizing its carbon footprint. The journey to these savings started with the customer.
Some Chirps and Short Thoughts
- With a $2 per passenger mile goal, the 30-person eVTOL that Sora Aviation is developing is the equivalent of a flying bus moving people daily from the rural edge of a city to its urban core. Of course, that’s just one application of this vehicle that could be a great complement to autonomous vehicle ride-share services.
- A cautionary note from respected journalist and helicopter pilot, @Elan Head, “This interesting story from Washington state suggests that community acceptance will be a challenge not just for urban air taxis, but also small personal eVTOLs operating in rural areas.”
- Rest in Peace, Mike Pinder. His LinkedIn profile is a humble understatement of his talent & impact on the music world (founding member of the Moody Blues). His influence included the tech world with his work for Atari. There is much to say, but, for now, here is a Pinder quote, “We hang our memories on the shape of sound….Music of the right type formats our memory. It formats our memory for long-term storage.”
The Korner – “Who is the Artist, We Got to Agree“
This article documents my recent sojourn down the generative AI rabbit hole. Hopefully, there is a useful tidbit for the reader. If nothing else, it features some interesting (scary?) images that otherwise would have been relegated to the trash bin of generative AI discards.
Where is the line that separates generative AI as a creator versus being a tool for an artist? In a sense, it parallels the question captured in the title of this article posed by the great philosopher, John Lodge, some 50 years ago.
[The featured image in this post started as one of the discarded images from the above post. Unfortunately, WordPress suggested it was the wrong size for a featured image. So, another 30 minutes was invested by this author rediscovering how to expand an image in Adobe Photoshop. Note to self, start with the crop tool in the Tools Panel.]
