Or how homo digitalis is different from the homo connectus.

I recently moved to a farm, in the mountain, far from the next post office. Cable companies don't find it economically attractive, and since the house already had a phone line, ADSL was my last hope. First trials tells me that whatever ADSL I will have, I will never be able to have a good connection.

Currently I'm connected through a UMTS connection, with an average of 500 Kbps speed download, which is fine for reading emails, follow my RSS subscriptions and even make some web browsing, but hard to watch YouTube videos and totally impossible to watch Joost.

I work in a very well connected environment: 3 different cables from 3 different companies enter our premises, in a total of 48 Mbps. During work time, Miro keeps track of my daily shows, and download them, in the background, while I'm running through the day job.

The lesson?

Being digital is different from being always connected. Mankind will evolve to a society where everyone is always connected. That will allow for a constant access to information, peer reviews and collaborative decision making, in real time. Technology will allow for new ways of social interaction, and experiences like My Football Club will expand to other fields of our society. Can someone imagine how politics will be in 20 years? Can someone imagine collaborative politics?

But we are not there yet: technology will need to deliver large bandwidth, everywhere, and the near future is not bright: WiMAX is still a promise, and the first optical fiber networks are being rolled out now, and ready in 5 years. So, Joost will have an handicap to Miro for at least 5 years. In this world of fast economy, the question that arises is, can they afford it?