A highlight from this year’s summer vacation was a work moment caught on camera. Work on a vacation? Isn’t that a contradiction? After eight days in Manhattan, a detour to New Hampshire to film preview video segments for the Innovation Demonstrations was a relief. Plus, Lincoln Lavoie, Principal Engineer, Broadband Technologies and Technical Chair of the Broadband Forum, made the process so smooth that filming and rough edits of the Innovation Demonstrations preview videos were complete by the end of the day.
Thanks to the Broadband Forum, my employer, for supporting this newsletter. The content, views, and opinions expressed herein are not those of the Broadband Forum.
Looking back through the years, too many moments, like the one captured above, are now fleeting images trapped in the deep recesses of the brain that can’t be shared. Another moment from the visit to UNH-IOL that should have been captured on camera is with Lincoln and Jason Walls. It was great to catch up with them in their respective umwelts for lunch on the banks of the Piscataqua River in Portsmouth. Our conversation uncovered many gems, including one from Lincoln about the usefulness of Gems (see below for how Viodi uses them).
AI Should Free Us for More Face-to-Face Conversations #
Speaking of conversations with Jason, his Epik Melon podcast with Christopher LaPré has many thought-provoking points, including:
- If AI tools do more of the rote work (and more work becomes rote with the increasing power of AI), that could give more time for engineers and product managers to meet face-to-face to discuss the difficult and nuanced things that are important in developing industry standards.
- In a world of smart homes, IoT, and networks that connect them, differentiation should occur at the end-product level and not the communications layer. This is analogous to Dr. Kornhauser’s argument that the autonomous vehicle industry should not be competing on safety.
- Standardizing features, such as Wi-Fi sensing, and fusing different input,s could create context-aware homes. This means, for instance, that living room lights should not automatically turn on when someone comes in late at night if someone is sleeping on the couch.
- The Matter Service API could be the bridge Broadband Service Providers use to unify consumer electronics/industrial smart home/IOT networks to the broader Internet. In this interview (YouTube), Jason discusses the importance of this interface with Matthieu Anne, Home Network Architect for Orange and Broadband Forum co-Leader of the Data Model Project Stream.
- The Broadband Service Providers’ advantage, compared to consumer electronics and application providers, is that the home network is similar to a home’s physical plumbing network in that it is bespoke and unique. A “Do It Yourself” approach to maintaining and expanding these networks may work for some, but most people will rely on a trusted plumber/BSP to fix their issues and upgrade their network.
- Maybe instead of BSP (Broadband Service Provider), TSP (Trusted Service Provider) should be the aspirational moniker for BSPs, by having networks that non-intrusively monitor and provide context, helping remove friction from people’s daily lives.
Some Chirps and Short Thoughts
- Maybe it is not a good idea to remove too much friction, especially for kids who need to learn for themselves. @chl$ makes some great points in this X posting.
- Viodi’s use of Google’s Gemini Gem. Elaborating on the AI disclosure associated with certain posts, Viodi uses Google Gemini Gem to create article drafts based on inputs, typically video interviews. The Viodi Gem provides a consistent style (e.g., write in the style of Viodi, poor grammar and all) and translates the human-generated prompt into a draft. For instance, the prompt value-add for the article referenced in the Korner below was “the marketplace for public restrooms”. As an aside, this issue of the Viodi View is written by a human.
- The concern about guardrails for AI is an important discussion, currently raging in public forums. What isn’t so much part of the public discourse is the idea that AI can help provide guardrails for humans. For better or worse, AI sometimes keeps this author’s ideas from going out of bounds. Of course, as AI embeds itself more and more into the driving experience, it also offers the safety benefit of literally keeping the human-driven cars in their lanes.
- Join us for the BBF-organized BASe panel, Service Assurance in a Heterogeneous Network World, next Wednesday, September 30th at 1:00 PM in the Loft.
- The Innovation Demonstrations, referenced above, will take place in Vienna in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned for posts about them on the Broadband Forum’s LinkedIn channel.
- Finally, join the Broadband Forum for its Fall 2026 Meeting in Denver, sponsored by Incognito and hosted by Charter. It kicks off with a Town Hall on 6G as a Unifying Network Platform – Synergies, impacts on BBF work.
The Korner – High-Quality Public Restrooms – On Demand
“A marketplace of public restrooms.” That is what this interview with Floyd Freeman, co-founder of Flush Locks, could have been called. Freeman explains how being forced to purchase a beverage to use a restroom inspired the birth of his company. Thanks to connectivity, smart locks, low-cost transaction systems, and the ubiquity of smart phones/watches, Flush Locks developed a win-win approach. Their business model helps humans while providing a dedicated revenue stream to pay for the ongoing maintenance and operations of the public loo.
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