Just back from a trip to South Asia. Even after all these years, connectivity *still* isn’t easy. On this trip it hit me like a ton of bricks: The distance between the “have-internets” and the “have-not-internets” seems even wider than before. Back in the 90s, when I would travel overseas, I expected no more than dial-up… because that’s what we all had back home. Now that we’re spoiled with wireless at every Panera (and most McDonalds), let alone most hotels, … when we arrive in a rural location in South Asia and find out there isn’t even a phone in the room, … well let’s just say… we come face to face with the reality that many citizens around the globe have yet to send their first email. (Hard to believe? It’s true.) So I borrowed one of those cell phone modems. It worked just fine for the day we were in that town, but when I pulled it out and moved to the next city, I found that the installation program for the wireless modem had wiped out my laptop’s ability to use simple wireless. Somehow it must have messed with the firewall program or drivers or who knows. Still to this day I can’t get my VPN working again. Seems like after all this time, it should be easier by now. In the meantime, I’m sobered.

So what do *you* think we can do to make things easier? Are these issues only solved at national levels? Will anybody ever start something like the once-famed Teledesic? That was a brainchild of Bill Gates and Craig McCaw. It was supposed to provide low-earth-orbit (“LEO”) Satellites so wrist-watch internet would be affordable, quick, and easy. Alas, somewhere along the line they lost heart. (Just go to your favorite search engine and look for “teledesic Craig McCaw”. No need to try teledesic.com. It no longer even brings up their legacy pages. :-( So how do *you* think we can provide always-on internet for the world? What’s the best strategy? Just click the word “Comment” following this item on the web. Would somebody please help us out here? :-)

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