Odds + Ends

A hodgepodge of thoughts + links to share on yet another brutally hot and humid Washington, D.C. day…

Last month, Katie Fallet posted a piece about an application we designed + developed for the FCC that fosters communication between American Indian Tribes + government agencies: the Tower Construction Notification System (TCNS).  Yesterday afternoon, I learned the real origins of the system: it was conceived as an online chat room.  Yes, in the pre-blog days, the FCC had a forward-looking plan to provide an online destination for Tribes to share thoughts and ideas with the agency.  When security concerns arose, so too did TCNS as an alternative, more secure, means to increase communication with Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian Organizations (NHOs)…

…If you’re a regular follower of #Concomitantly, you probably recall a series of spectrum-related posts I added from London and Brussels a few weeks ago.  Since landing in D.C., I’ve been reminded that EU members aren’t the only ones looking at spectrum allocation as a means to spur economic recovery.  Case-in-point: the White House recently laid out plans to dramatically increase the amount of federal and commercial spectrum available for smart phones and wireless Internet.  Freeing up 500 MHz of spectrum like the White House directed last week?  Our Operations Research team on assignment at the FCC is already on it.  In fact, we’re building a model of the spectrum used by television stations to identify spectrum availability; as of now, approximately 120 MHz has been ID’d…

…Was it really less six months ago that we were digging out of “snow-maggedon III?”  Terrible, really, to slog ones way to work on the metro here in D.C. without even a hint of a breeze.  Even more so when our subway system doesn’t seem to run on any real/predictable schedule.  I wonder if we can help optimize our travel experience; after all, most operations research involve the construction of a mathematical model to describe important relationships.  In this case, I think keeping passengers cool — and not waiting on steamy platforms — meets the criteria, don’t you?


Posted on Wednesday, July 7th, 2010 at 11:30 am and is filed under Business Process Modernization, News, spectrum management.

By: Computech

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