CoolTowns start with fiber optics, not freeways

In the industrial age, the basic infrastructure is a road network with cars. In the experience age (aka the CoolTown era), it’s a fiber optic network with people. The good news is the fiber is invisible, the people aren’t.

Case Western Reserve University’s fiber optic network is setting the bar with gigabit/second access, 1000 times faster than a typical home connection. What does this mean? Major job creation for economically-disadvantaged communities if they get focused, perhaps on a program like this.

How does this create jobs? Here’s one way to look at it: If every Silicon Valley worker’s internet access suddenly and permanently slowed to 1/1000th the speed, it’d be disastrous to its economy. Now just imagine it the other way around.

The beauty of fiber optic access (and its benefit of instant officing) is that it brings the romantic notion of a walkable community that much closer to reality, being that people may no longer need to commute by car as much, if at all. I don’t and I love it.

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neilkt