[LINK] How far the fibre?

[Marghanita da Cruz]

rchirgwin at ozemail.com.au wrote:
> Eric Scheid wrote:
>> On 2/7/07 11:16 AM, "Craig Sanders" <cas at taz.net.au> wrote:
>>
>>  
>>> if you asked the people living out there, they'd say they'd rather have
>>> a hospital or a doctor. even a nurse would be an improvement over the
>>> nothing they have now.
>>>     
>>
>> and not tele-medicine provided via fat broadband?
>>   
> Ok, I'll try to catch the ball and toss it back.
> 
> One thing we can do is separate the components, so to speak. I'm going 
> to put two statements which I think can be accepted by most people.
> 1) Satellite is a mature and stable point-to-point technology; but
> 2) Satellite is not great for interactive Internet applications.

I have been contemplating this second statement/assumption, prior to your 
posting. Can we be more specific. If I enter a search string in Google I don't 
get an instant response. If I click on a link on the results page I don't get an 
instant response and only after upgrading to Knoppix 5.1, can I now see DCITA 
webpages, such as <http://www.dcita.gov.au/indigenous_programs>


> 
> Well: satellite is already in use for telemedicine and tele-education. 
> So by saying "some places won't see fibre anytime soon" I am *not* 
> saying "no advanced applications". They exist and are used (and are 
> funded but not as well as they could be).
> 
> See:
> http://www.assoa.nt.edu.au/
> for a School of the Air example. Telemedicine seems very decentralised, 
> so I can't quickly find a directory of live apps.
> 
> My point is that while Internet delivery may improve these applications, 
> it is not indivisible from them. In the case of telemedicine, I would 
> argue that at least in diagnostic applications, the "best case" is a 
> high-capacity clear channel link, not an Internet service ... but that's 
> a digression.
> 
> What I'm getting at is that you get a better result if you define 
> requirements before you build the system. Boring and pragmatic and 
> visionless it may be, but saying "what are the requirements?" might 
> actually get somewhere for the far-distant outstations and aboriginal 
> communities in a reasonable timeframe.
> 
> RC
>> ;-)
>>
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-- 
Marghanita da Cruz
http://www.ramin.com.au
Phone: 0414 869202