February 14, 2008 9:55 AM
The House of the Future Has No Broadband
Yesterday I came across a story about plans to rebuild The House of the Future at Disneyland.
The original House was built in 1967 and was intended as a showcase for space age technologies, but within a decade reality had caught up with fantasy and the House didn't seem quite so space age so it was shut down.
Today the spirit of the House is about to be reinvigorated as a collaborative project between the Walt Disney Co., Microsoft Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., LifeWare, and Taylor Morrison.
It will feature a host of smart home technologies like a touchpad countertop that can identify groceries, a closet that can help pick out outfits, and an internal network for sharing media within the house.
Hmmm....can anyone else see what's missing here?
Based on the description given in that Wired article, not one word is mentioned about having the home connected via big broadband to the Internet.
Call me flabbergasted, confused, disappointed, and charged up about changing that.
How can the supposed "House of the Future" be a house of the future without any mention of broadband?
I mean, sure new interfaces and consumer electronics will open up revolutionary possibilities, but none moreso than the Internet and very few of those new interfaces and devices won't have at least some interaction with the Internet.
What this house needs is a major corporate sponsor to step up and grab the reins of this opportunity to engage the American public with the message of why broadband is an essential component of our future.
What better place than Disneyland to spread the good word about broadband in a House of the Future setting?
Just think of the possibilities...literally everything in that house could be hooked up to the Internet. And it'd provide an opportunity to highlight some of the cutting edge applications made possible by big broadband.
To me showcasing broadband at the House of the Future is a no-brainer. Now it's time to see if I can find like-minded allies who are thinking the same way.