From ars technica: Two-thirds of Americans without broadband don’t want it:

But when we look at the overall reasons why Americans don’t have broadband, availability isn’t the biggest barrier. Neither is price. Those two, combined, only account for one-third of Americans without broadband. Two-thirds simply don’t want it.

…The bigger issue is a lack of perceived value. 19 percent of dial-up users, for example, say that “nothing” would get them to upgrade, not even lower prices. Of the 25 percent of Americans that don’t regularly use the Internet at all (Hi, Mom!), a third said that they were “not interested in going online,” almost ten percent thought it was too “difficult,” and seven percent simply don’t “have time.”

Two-thirds. Of all Americans. That’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 million people.

Think about that, next time you’re reading your blogroll and believing there’s no life outside of Facebook. Think about that, next time your mom or uncle says something hopelessly ignorant about the Internet. You think they’re behind the times? Perhaps. But they’re not alone.

If you’re reading this blog, I’m guessing you’re a Web convert. You wouldn’t have gotten here if you were just a drive-by connector. And so, like me, you perhaps have a hard time conceiving of life without a computer; like me, you may chafe with frustration if your access is cut off even briefly; like me, you may wonder how you got by without, and what could those people who don’t want broadband possibly be thinking?

Do you know what that makes us? Converts. Evangelists. Kool-Aid drinkers. We realize — or at least, we think we realize — that our lives are vastly better thanks to our connectivity. And we think everyone else’s lives will be better, if only they’d wake up to the possibility of what’s out there.

Ars also points out (thank goodness, or we might as well all give up and go home) that “(t)hose who have broadband tend to want more of it”, and that’s certainly been my experience. Living in a country that’s even more accessibility-challenged than the U.S., I have noticed that the ones who don’t complain about the broadband here (or the ones who complain about the people who complain about broadband) are the ones who haven’t experienced the joy of unrestricted bandwidth.

So what is our societal obligation? What is the best thing to do for a city, a state, a nation, an economy?

To me, tummy full of Kool-Aid, the answer is simple: if you build it, they will come.

Full connectivity will soon be table stakes in a flat world. Full connectivity is the best hope we’ve ever had of offering a level playing field in terms of education and trade. Full connectivity is what will allow small, remote countries to compete on a global scale.

If people don’t want to take advantage of it, you can’t make them. But if you’re not even giving them the opportunity, then they don’t stand a chance.

What do you think?

Times are tough (as if you didn’t know)

• Google Makes More Cuts; Keyword Prices Decline
• Microsoft Blows Q2, Firing 5,000
• Intel to cut up to 6,000 jobs in factory shakeup

Let’s face it. There’s a lot of gloomy news out there at present. The auto industry stinks. The financial sector is even worse. And don’t even get me started on global turmoil or the environment.

So it’s understandable that some people are feeling a little, shall we say… pessimistic these days. It’s understandable that we ask each other how well we’re bearing up under the recession, or whether we’ve been hit hard by these tough economic times. It’s understandable that we tighten our belts and cut our costs and batten down the hatches and prepare to ride out the storm.

And it’s prudent to consider the global context in your actions — in fact, it would be foolish not to. So what’s this post about?

Look at the trail, not at the obstacle

I do a fair bit of mountain biking, and there’s one rule for being a successful mountain biker: look at the trail, not at the obstacle. I learned that lesson the hard way early on, when my cousin and I took the ski lift to the top of Winter Park and headed down on our Cannondales. About halfway down, the trail we were on jogged around a tree. Being pretty novice and pretty nervous, I looked at that tree and thought, “Gee, I hope I don’t hit it.”

Actually, it was more like a giant blinking neon billboard of a thought: “GEE, I REALLY DON’T WANT TO HIT THAT TREE! THAT ONE, RIGHT THERE! THE ONE I’M LOOKING AT! I’D BETTER DO EVERYTHING I CAN TO NOT HIT THAT TREE RIGHT TH–”

The thought was interrupted, of course, by me diving headfirst into the tree and crumpling to the ground. Thank Heaven for helmets.

There’s no gory ending to this story — I got up and got back on the bike, a little shaken but otherwise unhurt — and I’ve repeated the mistake on my mountain bike more than once. As soon as I notice myself focusing on the obstacle, though, I’ve learned to switch my attention: “Okay, so I don’t want to hit the tree. Where do I want to go?”

Choose your focus

I don’t ignore obstacles when I ride; like the many challenges facing our world, it would be foolish to pretend they don’t exist. But I know that if I want my rides to be successful, my attention has to be firmly and proactively anchored to the path I want to take, rather than to the one I want to avoid.

I started this piece with some pretty grim headlines from major corporations. But there are positive headlines out there as well, also from major corporations: headlines like Google beats estimates despite profit slide or Apple’s Impressive Quarterly Numbers. In his Belated Predictions for 2009, Dave Morgan at the Online Spin says:

…3) At least two new digital companies will launch this year that will eventually have an impact on the market at the scale of eBay, Amazon and perhaps even Google. (Yes, even a Google — maybe.) Tough times are great times to start revolutionary companies.

…6) TV will prosper. Not only will better and cheaper TVs, and more video gaming, help drive more viewing, but users playing Internet content on TV, with more people staying home in the evening, will give a big, big boost to television usage.

7) Optimism will rule. Times will be tough, but a new president, continued adoption of powerful and exciting new technologies, and a willingness to push forward for new solutions will win in the end. We will emerge better and won’t give up. es are great times to start revolutionary companies.

So now I’m going to put it out to you: what do you think we should be focusing on these days? What does your forward planning look like, and how are those monthly strategy sessions going?

There’s a new Thai restaurant down the corner from my office. It’s truly lovely — beautiful handmade tables and fabulous oversized wicker chairs like giant thrones. It’s got yummy food. And it’s got personality. The first time I went there they weren’t fully up and running yet, and their furnishings were still en route from Thailand. The owner — who is just about the most earnest person I’ve ever met — used his iPhone to show me pictures of everything in the container.

I want them to succeed, I truly do. But based on my wholly unscientific analysis, Christchurch has the highest rate of Thai restaurants per capita of anywhere in the world, including Thailand itself. I think we’ve got three Thai restaurants for every man, woman and child. I simply cannot understand how someone would look at this market and say to himself, “What they need here is another Thai restaurant.”

This particular restaurant is three doors down (literally) from another Thai restaurant I’ve been frequenting, which also has great food and great service. So here’s my problem:

I want to see both restaurants succeed.

But my meager Thai food expenditure is unlikely to keep any restaurant in business, and will have even less impact if I divide it among two businesses, so I’m torn.

There are plenty of parallels between this scenario and, for example, the question of whether the U.S. auto industry should be bailed out or whether companies who send jobs offshore are evil. Basically, they boil down to a Darwinian question: what is our responsibility as consumers?

Should we give our local businesses our business to support our local community? What if we can get it faster, cheaper, better elsewhere?

What about newspapers? Yes, we all lament the decline of the newspaper industry, but how many of you subscribe to the paper version just to show your support? Why would you, when you can get it faster, cheaper, better online?

What about jobs? What is our responsibility as employers? Imagine you’re in a competitive market where everyone else is going offshore. Your choice is to contribute to your community by providing a few local jobs (and a lot of overseas ones), or to go out of business and offer no jobs at all, because you can’t compete otherwise. What do you do?

These are important questions, especially if we want to be conscious consumers in a flat world.

Like my Search Insider colleague Gord Hotchkiss, I am a bit of a Darwinist, but perhaps unlike him I believe Darwinism must be tempered.

Take, for example, the consumption of chicken. Any of you watch Jamie Oliver’s Fowl Dinners? He took the stance that everyone currently buys cheap chicken because they’re not aware of what has to happen in order for the chicken to be that cheap.

I believe that companies have to be outstanding in order to earn our business. At the same time, I believe we as consumers need to apply — to a reasonable extent — that ‘Jamie Oliver treatment’ to the stuff we consume. What has to happen in order for us to consume this stuff? What is our tradeoff? What kind of society are we creating?

In other words, we need to consider Darwinism at the societal level, not just at the individual level.

If I get all my news via Internet, I have to accept that I’m contributing to the demise of the newspaper industry. By the way, I do accept this — in this era of unrepentant environmentalism, I can’t stomach a dead tree wrapped in non-biodegradable plastic being delivered to my door every morning. But it’s a conscious decision.

If I buy all my books via Amazon, I have to accept that local bookshops may go out of business. Yes, I know I’m not keeping either the bookshops or the aforementioned Thai restaurants afloat singlehandedly, but that’s the nature of a community: we all do our bit. And this one’s a bit harder for me. I love Amazon, and I love local bookshops. So I spend money at both, which is great for Amazon but probably not so great for the locals, who need all of my book-purchasing budget if they want to have a prayer at surviving.

Is it your responsibility to buy American made cars, just so that millions of Americans can keep their jobs? What if the cars are rubbish? What if you work at an auto company and need to feed your family?

In an interconnected world, what is our consumer responsibility? I welcome your thoughts.

Okay, I know I’m two weeks late. But it’s taken me a while to ramp back up, and I’m finally ready to put my blogging hat back on. It’s good to be back in touch!

So first things first: how did you spend your holidays? Please feel free to share in the comments. I went to Argentina — my old stomping grounds — and spent a magical time with family and old friends. I also managed to make a few quite special new friends. Read more about it in my Search Insider column.

Second things second: has anything changed? I don’t mean since three weeks ago; I mean in the existence of humanity. Please bear with me for a moment while I explain.

A post I wrote back in November, called Stupidity versus shortcuts: how being lazy is a good thing, has provoked what I think is an interesting conversation about progress.

If we no longer have to work as hard to figure something out, is that progress? Or is it only progress if we use that newly freed-up time to tackle some as-yet-unsolved problem? Is it laziness to always want to make things easier, or is it a desire for progress? Or both?

Just to keep you from being bored, I’ll throw a new possibility into the mix: we progress because we hate being bored. As far as I can tell, humans find repetition boring, which is why so few of us are willing to put in the mind-numbing effort to become Olympic athletes or professional pianists. Just imagine poor Phelps, staring at the bottom of a pool for 8 hours a day, every day of the year. And you thought you had it bad in your cubicle.

Generally, if we repeat a task often enough, we begin to look for a better way; that’s just how we’re programmed. What’s more, we’ll probably find a better way: a faster, cheaper, more efficient way. But what has changed?

Every now and then I wonder what my life would look like to an alien, or watched with the years condensed to minutes via stop-motion video. I’m generally dismayed to remember that I sit at my desk, move papers from one side to the other, look at the monitor, and type at the keyboard. You’d be hard-pressed to find an alien impressed by this behavior.

Perhaps we call what we do ‘progress’ in order to feel good about it, but really it doesn’t much matter whether it’s progress, laziness, fear of boredom, or evolutionary imperative. At the end of the day, we’ll be doing the same thing: seeking stimulation and avoiding pain, seeking meaning and avoiding indifference.

I know this was a bit of a ramble… What are your thoughts?