Urban Life and Data

Looking Toward the Future Prof. Susan Crawford

@scrawford Apr. 14, 2016

Big moment for U.S. cities • 1920-2010 • 2011 forward • Fourth era for cities

– Steam engine – Electrical grid/public transportation – Cars – Fiber/data

Four Different Wires • [DSL: “The New Dialup”] • Hybrid fiber-coaxial – cable plant, some portion of pipe

allocated to Internet access, high capacity downstream, cramped upstream

• FTTN – fiber to node, copper between neighborhood node and home, capacity dependent on distance to central office

• FTTH – glass/lasers, potentially unlimited capacity, easily symmetrical (up/down), future-proof, just upgrade electronics

No national path to US upgrade to fiber

1. Comcast, Charter, New Frontier, CenturyLink, and Windstream don’t face competition in their footprints: complete pricing/service-level power

2. Mobile wireless is complementary, not a substitute (data caps, low capacity)

– 85% of people with smartphone also have wire at home; 95% of wireless is a wire

– WiFi becoming much larger portion of wireless use than mobile

10

fiber

(1 of 4) Stroke victim rehabilitation

(2 of 4) Reducing isolation

(3 of 4) String quartets

(4 of 4) Daily terabytes of data

Why Fiber • Google’s self-driving car will produce a GB of data

every minute • SMEs, science, agriculture… • Cloud storage, data processing • Sensor data will be overwhelming • Need no delays, unending increase in capacity…

Dislocation, then job multiplier

(1 of 3) Public-private “sharing”

(2 of 3) Public-private “sharing”

(3 of 3) Public-private “sharing”

(1 of 2) Fully public uses

(2 of 2) Fully public uses

Privacy Protect anonymity Ensure secure storage Forensics/accountability Increase transparency

L=

Obstacles Perceived legal walls Legacy CIOs Talent Lack of imagination

Key Challenges