High capacity Internet style technology can build stronger, more liveable communities, but there’s a cost – the constant search for more electrical power to drive it. Speaking at the City of Whittlesea’s Electronic Service Delivery conference in February, US expert, Mike Bookey, told delegates they will also have to struggle against the conservatism of companies with a vested interest in the status quo.
“What you need is not the Internet in its current form, nor is it your existing telephone company’s hardware,” Mike Bookey said. “Your community will need its own optical fibre cable network and its own local content and hosting centre – a very local, very high capacity version of the ‘net’.
“The down side is the need to find enough power, as you spread this technology from a few neighbourhoods to an entire nation.”
Mike Bookey, one of the pioneers of computer networking since the late 1960s, has already shown his ideas work, at the newly developed community of Issaquah Highlands, Washington State, in the United States.
Originally asked to give the developer a marketing edge over neighbouring developments, which had their own golf courses, Mike Bookey’s brief was to make Issaquah a completely wired community, with digital amenities instead of physical amenities.
The result is a virtual town centre, streets pre cabled with high capacity optical fibre and every home equipped with network connections in every room, the way 20th Century homes have electrical outlets.
“This has more to do with a change in culture than the introduction of new technologies,” Mike Bookey explained.
He recommends that Local Governments encourage the construction and operation of public computer networks to serve as the digital road system for all residences and businesses.
“Local public computer networks should extend fibre cable to every home and business in the community and be open to all service providers, public agencies, schools, and businesses,” he said. “The local public computer networks will enable children to connect to their local schools from home to study and to do their homework.
“The local public data network’s digital road system can replace the need for asphalt to transport adults to their workplace – why waste two hours a day transporting the executive’s body when all the company needs is the knowledge in his or her head.
“Local public data networks complement rather than compete with the Internet. The Internet operates at a global scale, not a community scale.
“It is not practicable to use Internet search engines to find local services and organisations. In the 21st century, local public data networks using fibre cable will be as important to a community as asphalt freeways, highways, arterials, and residential streets were to the 20th century.”
Whittlesea Shares the Vision
Through its Electronic Service Delivery conference, the City of Whittlesea, in Melbourne’s North, is looking closely at the Issaquah experience.
The City has new suburbs under construction, and the provision of conduit for future optical fibre cable networks will soon be a requirement in new subdivisions. City of Whittlesea CEO, Graeme Brennan, said Electronic Service Delivery is already vital for all levels of government.
“As well as planning for business and the community to make use of this technology, we have an imperative to harness it in our day to day activities,” Graeme Brennan said. “This is a world where people are used to ATMs, Internet shopping, paying by credit card over the phone and 24 hour, 7 days a week service – it’s fast and convenient, and governments must be part of it.”
The City of Whittlesea’s web site is a 24 hours by 7 days a week service window with a growing list of features, and the City’s use of satellite navigation and mobile computing in fire prevention has won national awards for innovation.
* Mike Bookey is the CEO of Vialight, based in Seattle, Washington. A pioneer of the Internet and large scale networks, he has designed Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) systems for major banks, and the electronic authorisation system used by credit card giant Visa.
