Tom Friedman started his op-ed piece in today's New York Times by
suggesting that he'd run for office on a one-issue platform: He'd
promise to make America's cell phone service as good as Ghana's.
Friedman points out that our technological infrastructure is
actually falling behind the rest of the world—in addition to
frustrating cell phone coverage, our broadband connectivity has fallen
to 16th in the world. As he points out in his book, The World is Flat, the
advantages we've grown up enjoying in the US are evaporating, and these
technological deficiencies will have a direct result on our wealth and
productivity.
Ask he asks in the article, do we depend on private companies to
provide better connectivity for us, or is it not in their interest to
make access easier and more ubiquitous?
A month ago I opened my laptop in a coffee shop in a 150 year old
building in Jerusalem and was immediately connected to the Internet,
for free, because the center of town has been set up for wireless
access. The only place that has happened to me in the US is the Roanoke
Airport – not exactly the center of our universe.
[The Tom Peters Weblog]