http://rmf.vc/TEDx2016Video is a temporary link to the talk I gave at TEDx this month. I tried a different approach to explaining connectivity in 13 minutes. I’m open to questions and suggestions about how I can better explain it. This is the raw video – The TEDx people will be posting a more polished version for wider sharing when they finish the post-production work.
I plan to use some elements of the talk for my IGF presentation as I try to explain that the Internet is not something far away but rather something people create themselves and is as much for local connectivity as reaching distant places. The main challenge is to get past the telecommunications narrative that drives so much of today’s policies and metrics. For example the idea of accessing an Internet somewhere makes it seem like just another long distance company. In fact, in the US you used to both choosing your long distance carrier and your Internet provider in the same way. As I try to explain the Internet has little to do with traditional telecommunications except as just one more resource we can buy rather than running new wires. The key is to moot the business model and the very idea that bits are physical objects carried as precious cargo.
More later …
Bob Frankston
@BobFrankston