Why are we hawking something that doesn’t exist yet? Well, the future is in our sights and its only a matter of time before the Video iPod is released. Some think we’re too optimistic – Darnell suggested in comments that he’d submit a video entry if we extended offer for the Video iPod if it comes out in 2006. We’d be happy to modify the rules to allow the winner to take the alternate prize or wait until (if) the Video iPod is released sometime in 2006. C4CC is about the future. The question is when will the future arrive where we can use all these neat gadgets and true broadband to help change our world.
Yet, there are a lot of reasons people don’t believe in the future. Look at the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina. Or the fact that the Apple Rokr phone pales in comparison to other hyped product launches from the company (or the rumored product we all hoped was going to be announced!).
But there are signs of hope all around us. Americans always seem to pull together during times of crisis to open their homes to displaced strangers, collect and send badly needed supplies or selling lemonade on a street corner and sending the money to a relief agency. Something that caught my eye (this being a technology oriented blog) was a story about Leonard Sprague from Gainsville, FL who figured out how to overlay post-hurricane photos from NOAA over Google Earth in order to respond to a bulletin board user’s request for information about the condition of his home in Gulfport, Miss. With the post-hurricane picture and the house’s address put in to Google Earth, Sprague’s response to the bbs post:
“Actually, it looks like your house looks pretty good. Unfortunately, it doesn't look so good for some of your neighbors. Best of luck to you and your family.”
Word spread fast that you could survey the decimated areas using this method and Google, NOAA and NASA formalized the effort here.
This truly is an amazing intersection of technological creativeness and the American spirit of compassion for those in need. This is what people can dream up and do with dsl and cable technology today. What will the Leonard Spragues come up with when our nation has fiber deployed ubiquitously? When streaming two-way video is in your living room, not just in crisis command centers?
These are definitely things to be hopeful of. What are you hopeful of for the future of technology? Is it some way to avert or minimize a tragedy, help people who’ve lost their loved ones or their homes, or would it be to help improve the lives of people who have daily needs?
We want to see and hear your hopes – make a video about what you think the future of technology enhanced with true broadband can do.
Comments