Google's Gig:Fast Fiber in Commerce, Education & Government

In its most recent announcement to make global headlines, Google is honing in on an "experiment" with mega-fast fiber networks in select U.S. communities (for more on Google's Decision click HERE). So, the owner of the most Dark Fiber on the planet is poised to push the U.S. into gig+ offerings to the residence, huh? I say, cool! Someone has to do it, why not Google? Bring on "Fast-Fi," combine it with VoIP, own my mailbox, and make me a mobile Android :).

At 1 gigabyte per second, the Fast-Fi networks will be up to 300 times faster than your cable or DSL network connection today. So, what does that kind of bandwidth to your house and computer mean, and what is the potential of Google's experiment in super-fast fiber networks for commercial, educational and governmental institutions if these networks become ubiquitous? Let me ponder a few potential applications and results of this level of bandwidth, with you allowing me some latitude for meandering thoughts and connections, and, hopefully, providing me with your own thoughts via feedback and comment at the end.

COMMERCIAL
U.S. homes receiving that kind of bandwidth, consistently and nationwide, could give new meaning to "home office." At 1 gig per second, you can run a global business from your den: staying connected to others via streaming, always-on live video conference feeds for meetings with partners and staff using enterprise class equipment from companies like Tandberg/Cisco, while simultaneously delivering virtual training and or webinar events for your organization via applications like GoToMeeting from Citrix (and, involving those folks you're looking at via video feed). This could happen in realtime, while you're also accessing your CRM and Financial software packages, likely now running in the "cloud." In fact, with that amount of available bandwidth, you'd be able to set up your own rack of servers in your linen closet and deliver Software-as-a-Service (i.e. Cloud-based) applications yourself. The aggregation of all of these services could even drive the concept of Personal Web Portal to new and unforeseen heights.

Geez. With the commoditization of computer and peripheral equipment, we could see the residential construction industry come back strong due to massive demands for "home office additions," not to mention the swell of opportunity for "home business" office products and electronics as people begin to see home offices as permanent locations, instead of sattelite or remote locations. This might be just what Google has in mind - restarting the engine on the struggling economy!

Of course, if the home office is newly defined as THE office for professionals who are not tied to hands-on labor (e.g., construction, farming or manufacturing production), look for these types of workers to begin slowly migrating to a) the cities and sub-burbs with these "Fast-Fi" networks, or, assuming ubiquitous market coverage of the Fast-Fi networks, b) to locations that are interest and attribute driven, instead of work required.

EDUCATIONAL
The proliferation and success of the online education industry - Phoenix University, Walden University, Argosy University, Cambridge University, Kaplan, as well as the traditional University's forays online and the Virtual High School programs that are gaining ground in over-populating counties - combined with the proliferation of eLearning tools and platforms, is the first wave of transformation of our outdated education delivery systems in the U.S.

Just as "home office" might be a term with new meaning, a ubiquitous Fast-Fi network could mean the next phase for educational model shift in the U.S. Our views on "education" and the "education institution" itself might change even more dramatically than the prophets of online learning have foreseen since the advent of and prognostication for Internet technologies for teaching and learning.

Take the current trend toward "home schooling," with over 1.5 million students estimated to learn at home today and the rise of numerous organizations representing and selling directly to this marketplace. Home schooling literally requires students learning curriculum at home and testing against local and state standards with all of the "other" traditional students at their local schools. With over 1.5 million home schooled learners, websites and other means of communication have provided for the creation (formal or informal) of local communities of home schoolers, usually identified by neighborhood. In these neighborhoods, not all homes may yet be fortunate enough to have computers; so, the home(s) with the computer(s) often become(s) the computer lab(s) where students in the neighborhood learn technology skills, surf the net for homework responsibilities, and where parents research and even purchase study aids, school curriculum and other related items.

Like the commercial potentials for Fast-Fi, then, gig-speed networks, cool video and other social apps, and the continued commoditization driving price reductions in personal and business computing equipment and software, creates the potential for Virtual Schools to be much more virtual - potentially, and finally, making the physical school building either much smaller (reserved for administration offices), or completely obsolete.

Removing the student and teachers from the classroom and pushing them online, means safety and security concerns go down (this being one of the issues resulting in parents deciding on the home schooling route). Virtual schooling also opens up the possibility for truly "global schools," where teachers are not only teaching from different states, but also from different countries - providing unique and cultural perspectives, and, as such, driving much more respect for global diversity and global economy.

However, such education at a distance also removes the physical and social interaction aspects of schooling that is so important to creating a well-rounded citizen (not to mention the development of friendships and social behaviors) which will need to be addressed in new ways.

What I like most about the possibilities of Fast-Fi for education, though, is the potential it implies for greater involvement of parents, who, working from home or not, will be much closer and available to their children during and around the educational experience. The ability to find new ways to include and interact with parents in the educational process means improved communication in the "golden triad" of student-teacher-parent and more immediate attention to (and steering of) student learning and or disabilities.

GOVERNMENT
The Federal government, and state and local governments, their agencies and their leaders are consistent candidates for the kinds of improved communications and automated processes that increased bandwidth and applications ready to take advantage of such fat pipe can bring to their operations. A Fast-Fi network that allows images, documents and video to flow at blinding speeds creates the ability for massive operational efficiencies (e.g., reduced travel, reduced physical storage requirements, increased service organization speeds and improved accuracy of data). It also means increased and immediate interaction with citizens and interest groups via voice, video and other web-based communications - making for a happier and more engaged populace due to the sense of belonging to and involvement with (not to mention improved "customer service" aspects of) a government whose organizations are processing work on-time and on-budget based on feedback from their communities.

Beyond the back-end processing benefits that Fast-Fi could hold for governmental organizations, the social networking aspects that proved so influential in President Barack Obama's race to the top would be greatly enhanced - for the benefit of the politician as well as for the benefit of the citizen and the application vendor of choice (e.g. Facebook or Twitter). How?

Imagine the power of immediately connecting via high-definition video/audio link when you are "friended" in facebook and that new friend in online and open to "chat." The social dimensions of Facebook just expanded.
Imagine creating an "ad hoc" Twitter Event for your Parks & Recreation initiative on the fly at a pub in a town by simply notifying all of your causes friends who are online to join you from the pub via your iPad broadcast, using a peripheral web cam, which you can stream right into the local TV station's broadcast booth. Wham! Instant SoapBox (not to mention a PR person's nightmare).

SUMMARY
So, is this a bit far-fetched? Maybe. But not too far, I think. Some of it is possible today, with work, and would be even easier with an ultra-high-speed fiber network. What did I miss? Well, I'm sure there are implications for mobile apps, voice, VoIP and other technologies I've haven't considered here.

Let me know what you think!
~LGP

Creative v. CFO: Differentiation in Lean Times

How do you invest to create digital differentiation for your company and brands in a time when that could mean spending more than you've budgeted? Well, besides leveraging existing digital marketing and advertising technologies and platforms - such as integrating social media and and building better reporting systems to divine analytics that help you spend smarter - you might also give serious thought to the investment you make in your creative people (outsource and internal).

In his recent iMedia Connection article, Sean X Cummings (Entrepreneurial leader of SXC Marketing), provides a very nice explanation as to why digital marketing (advertising in particular), of late, is now often so mediocre and even irrelevant (wish he'd just said "less SXC"). While he points out a number of strong causes for innovation mediocrity in the industry and at large, in one important moment, he notes:

Over the past decade, we have witnessed a fundamental shift in which agencies have started to be run by CFOs and account teams. If we want to start innovating in this industry again, we have to restore the creatives as the heads of agencies. Sure, many more agencies' financial structures will become completely screwed up -- they will not be as profitable, and in fact, many will fail as a result. But we will innovate.


Let's face it, measurement and analytics are here to stay; especially in a down economy. And, I haven't seen too many business teams capable of innovating anything without the comforting CYA that comes from large "team ideation" conclaves, where the finger pointing for a bad idea can't fall on just one individual when that wonderful work that took 2 days sequestered in a conference room with coffee, pastries and then liquor at the celebration dinner goes as stale as the donuts did after the first 8 hours.

Anyway, suffice it to say that now might not be the best time to simply push the CFOs and CYA orgs back to their closets and spreadsheets (Investors and clients and client's investors would likely have a mass coronary over such a dramatic shift in the corporate mantle).

However, I certainly agree with Sean's general thought process and opinion: especially, if it involves incremental approaches and projects that help us move toward the ideal vision by (as he says elsewhere in the same post) "(s)tart[ing] small...[and] (b)uild[ing] on small successes...."

I'd probably go even further than just giving the creative guys and gals more free reign in the direction of company resources. For example, I'd advocate for new accounting and incentive thresholds - innovative in themselves - that would give creative genius much greater freedom to spend, but also provide sliding scale incentives (and, perhaps, even  some penalties) based on profitability and performance results - ensuring that CFOs, Investors and Clients don't think the sky is falling and do have the ability to see a "check and balance" system at work. 

I'd also recommend we consider new implementations of budgets (or increases where monies already exist) for creative R&D in agencies and firms (perhaps, even shared, joint venture style with major clients), tying innovation of new technologies and approaches to an incentive plan, too. There's lots of precedent out there for this kind of behavior, just not enough innovation by risk-averse senior managers in making such activities more common, and thus, more comfortable.

In the end, it's a new work world in 2010 for many who are switching roles, or looking for new ones. In a time of economic downturns, fear pushes organizations into belt tightening mode, and gives the CFOs control of the notches. In the heady times of a cash surplus marketplace, the pendulum often swings in the other direction, giving executive steering controls to those with vision and innovation tendencies. 

For me, nothing good seems to come from either reactive pole. Usually the best agencies, marketers and firms have purposely or intuitively found stability and growth through maintaining harmony between those who create and those who administer. 

As far as the CYA teams and ideation by Socratic Method goes: I doubt we'll see them go away. However, educating team members in the true purpose of the Socratic Method is important. I think Socrates would agree that debate (or discussion, or ideation) by the caucus is the single best way to the truth (or best idea) of a matter, idea or question; but not that the matter, idea or question would be fully resolved or tested based on the debate. Instead, I believe he'd say that the result of debate provided another matter, idea or question to be tested and proved. In fact, it's funny how, in most of these meetings (as in many Focus Groups), one or two voices seem to always be stronger, or, interpreted slightly differently, smarter.

I've never heard a more apt description of the practice of marketing or advertising. Our ideas are usually built by consensus, but driven by one or 2 individuals with the best ideas. What's interesting is that I've been in these meetings for almost 20 years, as consultant and client, and have often heard the best ideas spring not from the marketer, but from the finance person, the ops guy, or the production leader. 

Harmony and a system of checks and balances, then, must also include the possibility for equal participation in the ideation process. In companies where I've been responsible for ideation, I've often used survey tools, and, more recently, social networks, to gather ideas from the largest possible invested audience, then trimmed  down the best of those ideas through discussion with a small team that all organization members agree are the best representatives of that org's interests. This quorum has been the most successful in-house tactic I've used, because I've taken its one or two best ideas (filtered from the many) to the outsource team and given them free-range to create within the limits of budget and approved concept direction. 

This formula, which combines CFO interests, creative innovation, and communal voice has been the best I've seen to clear mediocrity from view. In fact, work in these kinds of environments over the years is what inspired me to begin The Virtual Idea Blender blog you're reading.

As always, I'm interested in feedback. Let me know your thoughts!

-LGP