We have made good progress today although remaining at #38. The Scouts kindly agreed to help the campaign – and we are looking for other groups to help raise our score. The official village website also announced the campaign with a new poster that you can find at the top of the site.
If you have not voted, please do so at: http://www.racetoinfinity.bt.com
Most of the country ground really struggled with the snow – and Goudhurst was no exception. I was fortunate enough to be able to work from home on a project. I spent most of the afternoon on Skype – a fantastic tool which allows you to make free telephone calls AND see the other person – even at the other end of the world!
Although probably possible on a mobile phone, an inter-continental video conferencing call would be extortionate. Skype offer such a service for free! It comes “bundled” with a broadband connection and delivers tremendous benefits to both young and old. Grandparents can speak to their grandchildren across continents. Loved ones can keep in touch in a much more intimate fashion. And business can be conducted without struggling to commute or take aeroplanes to meetings in foreign cities.
15 years ago, this type of communication was very expensive, inaccessible to most and normally took hours to set up. It is now free, accessible to all and is instantaneous to set up once both users have a Skype account.
The trouble was, on a day like today, with everyone using the internet, the service was a bit jittery. But Skype still worked pretty well on the 2Mbps I get out in Bedgebury and I managed to complete my project.
In the next few years we will see Skype being built into most television sets so that you can talk to anyone in the world using your television – for free. Decent quality broadband (better than we have now) is going to become increasingly needed as we use the internet for more and more video (YouTube, iPlayer, YouView, Skype etc.)
If you have not voted yet, please do so on the link at the top of this message. If you have voted, please let your neighbours and friends know about this campaign and ask them to sign-up. Every vote counts!!