I have just returned from Singapore where I was guest of the iDA for their Distinguished Infocomm Speaker programme.  Just before Christmas 2006, John Chambers, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cisco Systems a similar contributor to iDA's Distinguished Infocomm Speaker Series which is certainly an encouraging indication of the importance which iDA (the 'infocomm regulator' for this very prosperous city-state) attaches to the issue of open access infrastructure.  As my topic I explored the issue of Singapore becoming the world's leading "Information Entrepôt", what that might mean, why Singapore is uniquely positioned to achieve such a goal and how an OPLAN would be an essential foundation stone for achieving such a goal.  You can access the presentation slides here and I have written a more extensive note on the unique position of Singapore to become the global OPLAN exemplar here.  Suffice to say, the hospitality of my hosts was warm and generous and the interest and commitment to open access infrastructure, impressive.

While in Singapore, I had to pay a visit to one of the famed digital superstores, Sim Lim Square, opened in 1987 and promoting itself with the tagline, "it's all here at Sim Lim Square".  This multi-storey building with a central atrium is crammed full digital consumer electronics in over 500 retail outlets.  Impressive though this was, the range of items and the prices were not markedly different to what I could see in London or New York - suggesting that with the internet providing ever more transparency to this market, prices are becoming globally competitive.  No, what hangs in my memory of Sim Lim is the wide cross section of people who were shopping there as if it were their local food store.  Grannies and suited businessmen rubbed shoulders with geeks and housewives - all arming themselves with more and more smart gizmos, confirming (if ever I needed it) that with this ever growing amount of peripheral intelligent devices, open access infrastructure will not be far behind. 

I also paid a visit to the very shiny SingTel Hello! retail store operated by the incumbent (Singapore Telecoms) and saw the usual bewildering array of handsets and tariff offerings.  But one particular promotion caught my eye.  It was aimed exclusive at the 32,000 plus university students in Singapore ... 'free' on campus calls, anytime, anyone.   I cannot help thinking that it is a risky marketing strategy to give the most intelligent and discerning sector of your entire population a taste of freedom and openness, and then expect them to forget all about it once they graduate and start shelling out for a service based on the old vertically integrated business model.  Let's wait and see whether this comes back to bite SingTel.

Back in Europe now, I just wonder whether Singapore will really get its act together and show the world a thing or two about OPLAN strategy?  I hope so.  Meanwhile, on the other side of the world in the US I see that the lawyers are turning this way and that over open access Wi-Fi networks carrying illegal content.  The latest story relates to a man who has been found guilty of possessing child pornography despite arguing that his open wireless internet network meant the case against him could not be proved.  Earlier cases relating to illegally sharing copyrighted music files, went the other way.  It seems to me that the legal profession needs to bone up on some basics of digital technology and logic.  These cases are as absurd as trying to prosecute me for letting a burglar stand in the street outside my house and use the light streaming through my curtain-free living room window onto the street to read his AtoZ guide in order to find his way to the house he wants to plunder. 
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I am prompted to write as a result of a vigorous discussion that has been going on for some days on the topic of "Economic Sustainability of Community Wireless" on the forum of the World Summit on Free Information Infrastructure (WSFII).  It started as far as I was concerned by a posting a week ago from my good friend Vickram Crishna.  He wrote the following,
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