News Intel plans Digital Communities

[The_Pope]

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2005/08...l_communities/

[MiNiMaL_FuSS]

the futures bright.

But the only niggle is where will the money to setup and maintain such networks come from if they go national? Tax hikes? i for one would be willing to put in the extra couple of quid to my taxes for such things.

[Master Ninja]

That's it, I'm moving to Taipei.

I think incorporating this stuff into emergency services is a stroke of genius, ambulance drivers being able to pull up road maps that include traffic problems could literally save lives. I don't think it's fair to hold back development of this stuff due to a fear of privacy, since (a) he's right, wireless networks can be as secure as wired, and are getting better daily, and (b) most people don't have anything to hide anyways. With an e-mail address and search engine, I've not only located people's real names, addresses and phone numbers, but where they go to school, where their parents work, and even their girlfriend's personal information. And that's all from publicly available info.

Edit: Oh, and I'd be totally willing to pay extra taxes in exchange for government-provided wireless. It's no different from me paying an ISP for internet access now, except I get it everywhere.

[Da Dego]

Yeah, the teleconference was quite exciting news. Of course, every Mayor wanted to put their own political spin on how wonderful it was, but it was neat to hear all the ideas.

Personally, I'm a privacy buff, so I'd like to see a little more restriction in availability of some of this. It's kind of like having an implanted government ID, but with a lot more functionality. However, I must say that the benefits so outweigh the possible privacy concerns, that I'd like to see a work-around made...and if I had to unbalance the scales a bit for a compromise, this is an area that I would lean towards big government for. This functionality is terrific, and the way that it removes all the cross-radio traffic (and in Taipei even some of the REAL traffic) is amazing.

Lots of possibilities. I just hope that they don't get as many malicious uses as well, because most people (including me) would be very willing to trade up to this, and it would be a shame to sacrifice so much unnecessarily.

[Cheap Mod Wannabe]

I was trying to convince my family to move to United Arab Emirat's.... BAHHH now I will have to start over with Taipei...

[Firehed]

I definately see this concept becoming a big first step towards getting the 21st century to what our pre-2k expections were, so to speak. Sure, no flying cars, but nobody can deny that the internet has probably been the most useful thing with computers (and then some) since... umm... the computer. Structured access to it everywhere, unlike the odd chance of locking onto a wardriven signal for a few minutes using a slow unstable connection (not to mention illegal).

Yes, I have huge privacy concerns about this. I'm a complete conspiracy theorist when it comes to the government and and probably a bit too concerned about Big Brother being a lot truer than most would like to believe. But free and presumably fast internet everywhere with all those lovely bonuses like the surgeons not breaking out the latex gloves (well, if I were allergic to latex, but you get the idea) definately seem to outweigh the issues in my pessimistic mind.

[Vigfus]

I'm not much of a conpiracy-theorist... Still need my privacy though. I would love for the ambulance drivers to get updated traffic reports directly, but the medical files should stay put. What with the riscs of it being intercepted and all, there is no code so good it can't be broken...
In Sweden we (atlest me) are used to high privacy. I.e. If i go to the hospital, not unconschous ofcourse, they have to ask me if they can let ANYONE know i'm there...

Edit: Reading the post a second time i realise the hospital thing might not be the best example, can't be arsed to type up another though...