A recently released report from Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) has intriguing data about internet use by Japanese broadband users. Look at this table:

The phrases "France Telecom" and "a telco that really gets it" are seldom found in close proximity. So this interview of Norman Lewis, the Director of Technology Research for France Telecom by O'Reilly's Bruce Stewart is worth noting.

The regulator's visible hand is clearly giving France Telecom plenty of incentives to 'get it' quickly, through brutal unbundling rules: FT's competitors can get access to local loops for 10euros/month. This largely explains the current explosion of French broadband.

The broader question is whether that model can sustain network investment in the long run, which, in the US, is what is pushing carriers to try for new revenue models.

I just ran into a set of nice summaries of emerging wireless technologies from Ofcom, the UK telecom regulator. They give straightforward descriptions of technologies like mesh networks and polite protocols, with added notes on why policy makers would care and what aspects they are particularly interested in.

The just-released Windows Live Local has stunning aerial pictures. Look at the Annenberg Center from above. These angled aerial shots are much more understandable than the usual 'straight down' satellite pictures. Must be the shadows and perspective that give a sense of volume and make things easier to recognize.

One of the interesting developments discussed at last week's IDATE conference is the recent rise of cheap broadband in France (current penetration is about 30%). For example, for 30 euros per month, free.fr offers 20Mb/s internet access (ADSL 2+), unlimited VoIP calls within France, and 75 channels of digital television (including the obvious suspects, plus some eclectic offerings such as Russia's RTR-Planeta and Al Jazeera Children's Channel). An additional 125 digital channels can be had for an extra fee. This also makes video on demand viable. One interesting example is vodeo.tv which distributes about 8000 francophone documentaries for a fee roughly equivalent to what you'll pay to watch "Desperate Housewives" on your iPod.

Shahram, Julian, Anne and I just submitted a grant proposal to USC's Urban Initiative to explore microlocal urban media in South Los Angeles. To illustrate, I wrote a microlocal story about this spot.

That page includes an ICBM geotag. How would I go about displaying it on a googlemap?

With “A Journey to a Thousand Maps Begins With an Open Code