Gary Allison's Leadership Blog

A bit over a week ago, I had the privilege of attending this congress in Austin.  Security was very tight – APD on horseback, Harley, and on foot. It was an exciting event from Austin – attendees from over 84 countries meeting to discuss topic from economic development to trends in muni wi-fi.

 

It was however Paul Otellinis’ keynote that reached me perhaps the most.  He gave clear evidence that the digital divide is real and that it correlates with income level.  Over 1 billion people on earth make less than $1K per year.  4.7B make between 1K and 25K.  The remaining 800K make > $25K a year.  Accessibility to PC technology is pervasive at the top of this pyramid, and non existent at the bottom.  (Likely the authors of freakonmics could tear this apart).

 

Point is there are a few companies like intel that are investing Billions of dollars in working to bridge this divide.  It is a key mission of the team at Simdesk as well.  These initiatives aim at bringing access to technology, and therefore access to information and education to billions of people around the planet.  Through education comes opportunity and economic development.  This is certainly an exciting effort to be a part of.

 The larger question on my mind: could this really grow over time to bridge the strife between people all over the world?  Could the connectivity that the next generation of the internet will bring serve to bring us to a point of being one global civilization in 100 years?  I think back to Dan Simmons’ Hyperion, an amazing work of fiction in 1989 foretold the internet in a way that few can foresee even today – an existence where anyone can “jack in” wirelessly and access information on any topic.  With the advent now of muni wi-fi and wimax projects, the writings now are almost prophetic.