Transcending Technology – Michael J. Russell

In addition to new, original analysis and commentary, Michael J. Russell’s TranscendingTech.com (formerly Planetrussell.net) blog is pleased to continue publishing AFCEA/KGS NightWatch in 2011.

North Korea: For the record. Authorities have begun a purge of corrupt senior officials, reportedly on the orders of the heir apparent, Kim Jung-un, according to defector sources. The crimes under investigation are allowing people to flee the country and smuggling. Comment: This is one of the ways a new team makes room for its own people. In the first years of his tenure, Kim Jong-il supported near-non-stop purges of party and military officials who were opposed to the dynastic succession idea in a communist state. He survived several assassination attempts and a mutiny by an army corps in 1994 and 1995. The ensuing repression was harsh and long lasting. The new heir-apparent’s advisors are taking no chances with opposition.

Friends in Asia, Europe and Oceania have been telling me for years they’re positively dumbfounded by how North American businesses and consumers are willing to put up with the oligopolistic tyranny of wireless carriers, their inconsistent service, overburdened data networks, locked handsets, dubious charges and a litany of other grievances, especially in the U.S.

After all, in many parts of the world, you choose your handset and your carrier…in whichever mix-and-match combination strikes your fancy.

Well, the OpenBTS technology discussed in this MIT TechReview piece is a harbinger of things to come already here, along with the decentralization and democratization of almost every other meaningful digital technology, so now there may be some intriguing alternatives.

Consider the possibilities represented by cheap, sustainable, easily-deployable wireless networks for community resilience/resiliency, emergency preparedness and disaster recovery, much less the opportunities for leapfrogging failed, obsolete (or non-existent) infrastructure in the developing world.

—Mike Russell