Greg Galitzine's VoIP Authority Blog

  I’m sitting in the lobby lounge of the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara, eagerly awaiting the start of Communications Developer Conference. The show kicksoff tomorrow with the Avaya Developer Day Innovation Forum   Avaya is looking for hardware and software application developers, systems integrators, service providers and end customers to partner with them through the Avaya DeveloperConnection Program.   Attendance to the Avaya Developer Day Innovation Forum is free, so just visit the site for more information, including a complete agenda, or simply come by the Hyatt Regency and register onsite. The Avaya program runs Monday May 14 from 12:00 - 6:00pm.   And be sure to check out the rest of the Communications Developer conference details. I look forward to seeing you at the show this week!    

U.S. Senator John D. Rockefeller IV has introduced a resolution calling for the creation of a National Broadband Policy with the goal of becoming a “100 Megabit Nation” by 2015.   Rockefeller believes that, “A national broadband policy is critical to the future of our country,” and, “would provide a tremendous social and economic benefit,” to all Americans.   He cited popular video and social networking sites such as YouTube and MySpace and how they have become such integral parts of society.   Rockefeller stressed that those popular sites are just scratching the surface when it comes to the transformational power of broadband.   “Expanded connectivity,” he said, “would allow doctors to diagnose remotely medical conditions, music students to study with an instructor hundreds of miles away, and scientists to monitor ocean floor vents from their offices on shore.   “As we all recognize,” he continued, “creating next generation broadband networks is crucial to our international competitiveness.”   Rockefeller proposed a roadmap towards establishing a set of goals. “The first step in going somewhere is to know where you are going, and the same is true in public policy. By the end of 2007, we should establish a national goal and pass a series of policy actions designed to achieve our national goal.

I am an Omnivore.   And, apparently I am among a group of technology users that make up just 8% of the American public.   No wonder my friends look at me funny when I want to Google everything, mashup more than my potatoes, and take a perverse pride in having blogged some obscure technology related news before they heard about (usually weeks later) on the Evening news. (I believe that Walter Cronkite and/or Katie Couric have something to do with that source of information.)   The Pew Internet and American Life Project have released the results of a survey entitled A Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users.   The survey was designed to classify Americans into different groups of technology users so as to determine which groups were most inclined to take advantage of information technology as might be presented under the umbrella of Web 2.0.   The report authors position Web 2.0 as:   “…the ability of people to use a range of information and communication technology as a platform to express themselves online and participate in the commons of cyberspace.”     The report breaks down respondents into several major “subspecies,” including Elite Tech Users (31% of adult population); Middle of the Road Tech Users (21%); and those classified as Few Tech Assets (49%).   Perhaps most surprising to me was the fact that nearly half of the adult population does not seem to be in the throes of the technology that pervades our every day life. Even among the “Few Tech Assets,” fully 26% classify themselves as “indifferent” or “off the net” altogether.