Concerned Citizens

Last night was a busy night on the technology front. After years of planning and public outreach the nation’s television airwaves went all digital. Hundreds of analog transmitters were turned off across the nation and thousands of TV sets went dark. As a result of this transition stations are able to save thousands of dollars in energy costs since the new transmitters use substantially less power. It also marks the beginning of a new model in mobile communication but more on that in a bit. Last night also was when Facebook allowed users to pick their own identity on the popular social media platform. I went with my social media ID of RBearSAT while others who were up at the magical moment got more recognizable names like their real name.

Regarding the digital transition this marks a time when technology was able to advance despite the procrastination of thousands of Americans. For most it was painless since they watch television through either cable or satellite sources. Those who did not heeded the warnings and got the set top antennas that allowed them to keep receiving the local signals. But some woke up this morning with no signal and possibly wondering what happened. I hate to be cruel but those deserved to have the lights turned out. They are the people that keep our nation from moving forward with innovation, feeling comfortable with old, antiquated things.

Technology innovation is a difficult road to follow. While it’s probably the easiest to create new and innovative solutions in it’s also the hardest to move forward once a solution becomes pervasive. Often maintaining backward compatibility can be expensive or hinder the advancement of new ideas. Both were the case for television. New advancements in quality and features could not be delivered over the old analog signals. Transmitting the analog signals required stations to maintain two different systems and often kept the station from exploring new broadcast approaches. It was time to transition.

What you may not have known is that the transition also ushered in a new area of mobile communication by freeing up radio spectrum. In anticipation of this transition the FCC auctioned off some of the soon to be unused spectrum to mobile carriers for use in the growing in area of mobile phone communication. Two years ago a lot of policy and speculation circled around the auction of the 700Mhz spectrum. Google got in the game and started working with the FCC to change the rules on mobile spectrum to allow any application running on any phone capable of supporting the spectrum, a big change in the mobile space. Prior to this change carriers controlled what ran on the spectrum including controlling the applications, stifling a lot of innovation.

AT&T and Verizon ended up becoming the eventually winners in the spectrum bidding wars and plan to launch their new LTE services on the new spectrum. That service will provide data networks that will rival home broadband in speed where coverage is available. Couple that with the ability to purchase new phones from someone other than your carrier along with applications other than what your carrier says you can have and you have a great innovation arena in the making. With the introduction of the iPhone and Android developers and network providers can start creating new applications that map to a mobile population. The possibilities become endless.

Enter social media and you have a new way for people to interact. Yea, I knew you were wondering how I was going to weave the two topics together. Facebook and Twitter are becoming the new inboxes for people on the Internet. They provide great ways for people to interact and stay aware of what’s going on in their social and interest circles. Last night Facebook opened up the great Name Grab at midnight EST and people across the globe are grabbing their special names. It’s a way to identify yourself in the popular social media environment without having to use some cryptic number sequence only nerds would love. I grabbed my Twitter and online ID while others grabbed their names or other IDs. At first I regretted getting RBearSAT but as online identity grows it’s much easier to tell people to use that across the board than telling them one thing for Facebook and another for Twitter.

I know, you want to know how the two connect. It’s actually pretty simple but you have to do a little future think. Facebook and Twitter are great social media platforms in that they don’t constrain you to their tools and websites. People can write their own tools using the Facebook and Twitter APIs and still gain the same experience under the covers. Ah, you’re starting to connect the dots. Writing apps that run on any smartphone on any carrier? Yea, now we’re getting somewhere. You can have your social network with you everywhere you go and check it and use it as easily as texting your friends. You become a more connected person with your social spaces. Google Wave will also help add to this mix and provide a protocol and platform to expand. Once again, APIs for people to make them better.

Some may think this is overload and akin to the days of chat and such. It’s not. Facebook and Twitter are not a place you live in to take advantage of. They allow you to check them at a point in time and catch up with the conversation up to that point. You don’t have to be on all the time to get the benefit. In fact I check them in the downtime during the day, the little one to two minute walks between meetings, the commercial breaks on TV (hmmm, maybe a new innovation for digital TV), and other dead moments during the day. Just those little tidbits get me more information than spending all day tracking down friends and issues.

So last night was really the turning point for America in many ways. It became a time when technology worlds started to converge even more than ever before. It’s a brave new world ahead and I only think we’ll benefit. But it will only happen when we leave the old technology behind and let some screens go dark.