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The Telecom Digest for February 20, 2013
Volume 32 : Issue 45 : "text" Format
====== 31 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
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Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
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Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2013 02:59:53 -0500
From: T <kd1s.nospam@cox.nospam.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Susan Crawford -- why USA 'Net access is slow, costly, unfair
Message-ID: <MPG.2b8cfb07b85d0fcc989da8@news.eternal-september.org>
In article <kftk86$1o9o$1@leila.iecc.com>, johnl@iecc.com says...
>
> >Even if public libraries didn't have Internet access on site, and even
> >if a quick-serve restaurant was the only place such access were
> >available in a given neighborhood, I resist the parochial notion that
> >children need access to the Internet to benefit from a public-school
> >education.
>
> In my daughter's high school, the stuff that in our day was handed out
> on blurry and highly aromatic dittos or mimeograph is now on the
> school's web site, and most of the teachers also put their homework
> assignments there so kids don't have the excuse of having scribbled
> them down wrong, and can also keep up if they're home for a day or two
> with a cold.
>
> I think those are reasonable uses, unrelated to cribbing papers from
> Wikipedia rather than the World Book.
>
> R's,
> John
When I did college the second time around the web was pretty prevalent.
I discovered that the majority of my classes put up all the PowerPoint
presentations and you could in fact not attend class and still pass the
exams.
I've got two servers to use for Squid/DG - maybe I'll use another and
throw an Intranet web server utilizing Plone. We could seek content
advice from the teachers in the district.
Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2013 02:58:01 -0500
From: T <kd1s.nospam@cox.nospam.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Susan Crawford -- why USA 'Net access is slow, costly, unfair
Message-ID: <MPG.2b8cfa92db0a57ef989da7@news.eternal-september.org>
In article <20130218054222.GA9723@telecom.csail.mit.edu>,
bill@horneQRM.net says...
>
> On Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 11:37:15PM -0500, T wrote:
> > In article <20130218035821.GA20216@telecom.csail.mit.edu>,
> > bill@horneQRM.net says...
> > > Ms. Crawford's book worries me, and I think it should concern other
> > > Internauts as well. The interview linked above contains what I feel
> > > are unwarranted and unproductive assumptions about the role of the
> > > Internet in education, and I'm not comfortable letting them pass
> > > without mention.
> >
> > I'm currently working with my city councilor to utilize HUD funding to
> > build a free public Wifi network in my political district.
> >
> > It's a tough slog - and we're doing it right - private non-profit
> > corporation and all.
>
> I applaud your efforts: I hope that, someday, all citizens will have
> access to the Internet as a public service.
Thank you!
> I will, however, add a caution: assuring citizens access to the
> Internet does not assure them of access to the educational materials
> their children need.
Well - two elements of the plan will help to prevent porn surfing. Plan
to run SquidProxy to save on bandwidth for commonly held items, backed
up by DansGuardian a content filter.
The plan as it exists will only allow port 80 and SSL.
> Perhaps an analogy will help: as a citizen of the U.S., I expect to
> enjoy access to my nation's libraries. I think I am entitled to choose
> for myself what literature I read, and to explore works from a wide
> range of political views, from all available religious tracts, and
> from a large assortment of engineering and other technical works. I
> insist on this right because I feel that it is the only way to make
> sure that I and other citizens are well informed and able to make
> responsible choices about our nation, our schools, and our lives.
I see the net as supplemental, not as mainstream education though there
are channel producers like Kahn Academy that seem to want to move that
way.
> However, I understand and accept restrictions that are designed to
> preserve historic works, to keep sensitive materials out of reach of
> those children whom exhibet only a prurient interest, and to assure
> fairness in distributing scarce resources. There are the necessary and
> commonly-agreed-upon tasks assigned to librarians.
See above - DansGuardian will assist with that.
> Then Internet doesn't have a librarian. There is no watchful eye to
> steer children away from lewd or lascivious works which are only
> appropriate for adults, and there is no public - or even professional
> - debate over which materials will be made available, or to whom. I
> think Ms. Crawford has missed a key issue in her book, and it is that
> children need access, not to the Internet, but rather to the
> publications that their parents and teachers have agreed are most
> likely to provide them with a good education. The two are not the
> same.
Part of the plan is to have enough signal strength to hit the street
facing rooms in about 50% of the homes in the district. Should be fairly
easy to get there - most of it is wood beam construction. None of that
metal stud with copper mesh RF cage construction.
Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2013 07:13:05 -0800 (PST)
From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Susan Crawford -- why USA 'Net access is slow, costly, unfair
Message-ID: <25a606e9-b763-412b-96f7-4fcd5d0344c2@e11g2000vbv.googlegroups.com>
On Feb 18, 12:45 pm, Bill Horne <b...@horneQRM.net> wrote:
> Internet companies may need children, but children do not, ipso facto,
> need the Internet.
Along those lines, here is the book review from the Phila Inqr:
"In his 2010 book, The Master Switch, Tim Wu told the history of
American communications - wire, broadcast, mobile - as a 150-year
cycle of ingenious new tools, whose quick popularity is exploited by
empire-building monopolists, until the government regulates (or
stagnates) prices and markets. The cycle repeats, according to a new
book from Susan Crawford. She tells today's chapter of that story in
broad, clear terms that leave no doubt where she finds the current
competition-killing, profit-maximizing monopolists: in Philadelphia,
at the Comcast Center, and in Washington, where canny lobbyists for
Comcast and other big companies, armed with cash and smooth P.R.
arguments, relentlessly extend their profitable privileges, trampling
would-be advocates of the public interest."
For full review please see:
http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/191322031.html
[Comcast also provides telephone service.]
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