update on Broadband Blindness

I had opportunity to enlist the help of a professional photographer (Dale Crandall Bear) to film the host sequences where I introduce the problem and talk about the key issues.

Working with another cameraman is incredibly rewarding, but it also requires a higher level of documentation and formalization of the film concept, flow, and scenes. That meant having to put together a complete storyboard and shot list for Dale, scouting locations for each shoot, and finally writing out my lines on cue cards.

We filmed and finished those sequences two days ago (Sunday), and now I am deep in the editing cave putting everything together. Thanks for your patience. Everything is moving along, albeit delayed. Attached are some photos of the storyboard and two of the shots.

More than 1/5 of the way toward reaching the $2K goal!

Thank you to all of our backers so far. We're more than 20% of the way toward meeting the $2K goal for Broadband Blindness. There are 31 days left to get in on this exciting project! Visit http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rosborn/broadband-blindness-documentary.

Broadband Blindness - New trailer, Now soliciting donations

We're trying to raise $2,000 by August 15 to fund this killer documentary. Check out the new, updated trailer. It's shorter, faster, and more to the point. You have to see this!

The deal is, if we can get $2K by August 15, Kickstarter will collect 5% and pay the rest to this project. If the $2K goal isn't met, all the donations are returned. Help make this movie!

UPDATE 7/9/11: A special THANK YOU to Aaron Hamlin for the first donation!


http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rosborn/broadband-blindness-documentary?ref=live

NY Times: Calif. Latinos Rank Low on Digital Divide

Hard to believe that in the heart of Silicon Valley, even, that there is a digital divide. According to an article by the Bay Citizen in today's New York Times, 1 in 5 adults don't use the internet and 30% lack home broadband access. For Latinos, 50% lack home broadband access.

Slate: FCC Needs More Fixes, Fewer Excuses

The FCC can get upset sometimes. Especially when it spends $350 million on a map that has wrong information in it and then gets called out for it.

In a recent follow up to his May 18 article in Slate, "Map to Nowhere," which said that the FCC's $350 million broadband map of the United States was basically useless because it relied on ISP-provided data rather than user data on true internet speeds, Sascha Meinrath of New America Foundation counters the FCC's criticism that Meinrath missed the point that this is the largest, most detailed broadband map ever created. Apparently, the FCC wants to have it both ways: the map includes maximum internet speeds as advertised by ISPs, by census block, but the FCC also has a disclaimer that says they have no responsibility for the accuracy of the information, which is probably wise because the data are mostly wrong.
This is one of the issues we will be exploring in the documentary, "Broadband Blindness."

Trailer for Broadband Blindness

Broadband Blindness (trailer v2) from Robert Osborn on Vimeo.

A 350 million dollar map

A recent article in Slate by Benjamin Lennett and Sascha Meinrath at the New America Foundation decry the $350 million in taxpayer money the FCC spent trying to map broadband access speeds across the US. They say, as you will find out by searching your address in their database (http://broadbandmap.gov/), the internet providers and speeds listed are "maximum advertised speeds," and bear little resemblance to what what you're really getting at home. It seems that there was more input from the providers themselves than from the users (if any at all).

The New America Foundation has partnered with the PlanetLab Consortium and Google to create a site, along with a number of diagnostic tools, called "Measurement Lab" (http://www.measurementlab.net/).

Apparently, Measurement Lab's tests have been run more than 500 million times. Unfortunately, their tools don't work on every computer. I have yet to be able to run any of them on a Mac.

Give it a try, and let me know if it works for you!

Happy Happy Happy with your internet service?

Are you happy with your internet service at home? If you are, tell us why. If you're not, tell us about it at speedy-or-slow@sactoast.com. We want to hear from you! Send us your story by Friday, May 20. We might include it in the upcoming "Bandwidth Blindness" episode

speedy-or-slow@sactoast.com