Three Great Articles - Broadband, Education, and Entertainment

Some lighter fare today leading into the holiday weekend: the top three articles I've read in the last 24 hours.

News from Vermont - Continuing consternation over the Fairpoint acquisition of Verizon's lines in that state, and concern about Fairpoint's ability to follow through on its promises of an upgraded fiber infrastructure.

Also an unfortunate tale of contracts getting in the way of deploying fiber. What I wouldn't give to free the deployment of fiber from the burden of regulation and litigation!

What I found most interesting about this article was its concluding reference to our nation's fragile economy and the need to bolster Vermont's broadband infrastructure if they are to prepare themselves for any potential economic storms. Whoever wrote this is obviously someone who gets it!

10 Places to Get a Free Business Education Online - Click here to find a tremendous list of links to programs that enable online learning.

What I love most about this list is that it doesn't include so-so content from questionable sources; many of these feature materials from real courses at real universities as well as legitimate publishing operations.

One of the bigger challenges with the adoption of online resources is the question of the credibility of anything you find online. But now that this content is often coming from trusted sources, it can mean a huge step forward in making online education matter.

- An extended column that explores what Google may be up to with regards to their plans to attempt to bridge the gap between their Internet efforts and the TV.

While somewhat lengthy, this piece touches on a lot of good points, important issues, and notable opportunities of the Internet to TV space, so I highly encourage anyone who's interested in this area to take a moment and check it out.

I still have some reservations about what's possible in terms of bringing the Internet to the TV, but much of that has to do with the limitations of the user interface more than anything else.

The standard remote control is an amazingly basic device that severely limits the usability of more interactive applications on the TV, and we've yet to reach the point where most consumers are willing to have a keyboard and mouse in their living room.

For this reason I believe it's worth keeping an eye on a company like Hillcrest Labs, who've invented a remote control that is aware of its position in 3D space.