Eric Cecil posted this email on the Cybertel mailling list this morning, and I thought that is was such an eloquent and perfect illustration of the need for and potential uses of broadband that it should be shared with everyone. Thanks Eric!
(Broadband) is about the freedom to be entirely independent of form of
business while having the same, if not more, capabilities than any
traditional form of business out there. While I would not have wished the
difficulties of my past year on anyone, the payoffs have been significant.
I owe all of them to the Internet. Here are a few practical examples of
how an unemployed father of 5 (all of them at home and under the age of 15)
has kept a roof over the family’s head, fed them, provided health care, and
otherwise roughly maintained standard of living during the worst economic
storm in a long time … all because of the Internet:
The nice thing about the commoditization of hardware and software is that
anyone can open a shop on their own. Having been raised in corporate law
firms and corporate law departments I continue to be amazed at how I can
service clients of every size – from international to local on my own. And
if I don’t have some capability, I can find it. Funny thing is that right
now were any larger firm to offer me a position, honestly, I wouldn’t take
it. I’d lose money. And not only would I not gain capability, I’d lose
that too. I have everything I need from accounting, to payroll, to taxes,
to bookkeeping, to legal research, document production (I can drop any
filing of any size into any state PUC, the FCC, or federal court overnight,
hand delivered, for about 5 cents per page delivered from my computer –
whether I’m in my office or rolling down the highway while my wife drives, I
can do this!). Moreover, I can set up a host of client specific tools and
apps that they need, and run those over an iPhone without an IT department.
I have all of the same legal research tools I had when in larger
organizations as well.
So yes, you are location-independent. But the deeper truth is that you are
more freely intERdependent – you can create needed relationships, provide
resources and otherwise address any client need more freely.
That, my friends, is the Internet revolution come full circle b/c if I can
get that done relative to the challenges and burdens I faced, truly, anyone
can do it. This is not to be feared. It is to be embraced b/c any nation
that strangles too much out of its infrastructure will lose more
capabilities than they even knew they possessed.
Erik Cecil