Reflection #5: The Auction

here's the progress we have found (when the rain)
A way to talk around the problem (when the children reign)
Building towered foresight (keep your conscience in the dark)
isn't anything at all (melt the statues in the park)
Buy the sky and sell the sky and bleed the sky and tell the sky

Don't fall on me

Well I could keep it above
But then it wouldn't be sky anymore
So if I send it to you you've got to promise to keep it whole

Buy the sky and sell the sky and lift your arms up to the sky
And ask the sky and ask the sky

rem 1986 from 'Life's Rich Pageant'

Related to REM -- they will be apparently living by their words and releasing their latest video as open.

As the 700-MHz band gets auctioned off by the FCC in the weeks ahead, these UHF channels 52-69 represent 'white space' that's being left behind by the broadcasters in order for them to make the transition to digital transmissions of their programming. The 700-MHz band has been described as 'beach front' property on the electromagnetic spectrum that carries all types of wireless communications - from television, to radio, to emergency communications, to telephone, to cell, to cable television transponder uploads and downloads, to military communications, and more. While the definition of 3G and 4G wireless services has yet to be fully defined, it is clear that there is much activity afoot in providing ubiquitous wireless broadband including WiMAX, LTE, and Qualcomm's proprietary UMB 4G standard.

For one, Qualcomm has agreed to start supporting a chipset that includes EVDO, LTE, and UMB -- allowing for many more devices to work on numerous types of cell or broadband wireless networks, including Google's Android 'open standard' that is intended to help catapult Google into the broadband mobile market. Google has even pledged to wager up to $4.7 billion in the current 700 MHz FCC auction. Meanwhile, Microsoft also has a mobile strategy that oddly enough puts Microsoft and Google in agreement that the spectrum space should be opened up, similar to Lessig's call for a device neutral, open wireless network -- where use is not determined by licensing, rather, by the efficiency of the device. This may lead to an advantage by Google as it cleans up on the disarray that is today the Microsoft hostile buyout attempt of Yahoo! -- where Microsoft's business model is to sell software licenses, and Yahoo!'s is to sell advertising based on the use of free software.

Can these two models co-exist and complement each other in a broadband wireless distribution model that is open and determined on the basis of device competitiveness?

Very likely the answer is yes. Clearly there are contradictions in place, beginning with the idea that the television broadcasters are moving on to 'better' spectrum space, and leaving behind 'prime real estate' for broadband wireless -- two-way broadband wireless. So what does this mean for the new space that these companies will be using, and by the way, receiving because these companies 'provide for the public interest and expediency.' This means that they are fulfilling a public good that warrants 'free' use of the spectrum space. So what kind of stellar services will these companies provide that surpass the open broadband networks that appear to be emerging? We shall see ...

And how can Microsoft and Yahoo!'s sales and advertising models complement each other? Perhaps if Yahoo! provided a Web front end complete with an e-commerce and advertising and portal and email solution, while Microsoft provided the identity management and the intellectual property or internal knowledge and data services. This same basic symmetry could exist on the broadband networks, where some are used for open, community-based communications and others, at the flip of a switch and authentication, could be for secure, private communications.
And isn't this precisely how we lead our lives -- one that is open, communal, and public; and another that is private, secure, and personal?

Google definitely has the upper hand in its current dominance in online advertising. However, it may be that the rapid changes coming will require a Microsoft identity management and security system that Google cannot provide -- but perhaps they can. Either way, it is likely that both public and private; open and proprietary systems and distribution networks will coexist for the long term.

Meanwhile, today, the issue of digital rights (DRM) and the easy sharing and moving of content across devices is being enabled by DoubleTwist which exposed the Apple DRM (rendering it harmless and impotent).

For a great tutorial on the DMCA and how to avoid copyright infringement, click here.