And in essence it is. There is nothing stopping anyone from tuning into 89.3 or 88.1 FM and listening to the programming streaming over the airwaves. What people like Chris Anderson believe is that the cost of delivering digital or electronic content is close to zero. But if people perceive value in the product they will pay something for it. For example he might give away the electronic version of is book FREE but the hard copy version will cost $20+ if you want to feel it in your hands. Shareware often works the same way. The programmer will allow people to download and use software and if the user is satisfied can voluntarily make a donation. Similarly in the case of public radio, if you the listener enjoy the programing you hear and find value in the news and stories presented, you can make a pledge.

One big difference in the Hawaii Public Radio model as compared to other forms of digital media is the strong community aspect of the station. These 10 day marathons are an example of a real community, i.e. not one in cyberspace or a virtual world, coming together and showing support. Volunteers staff the phones, community members join radio staffers on the mics and listeners call in with their pledges. Food is always available from restaurant businesses that support the station. Restaurants definitely appreciate the concept of community. There is a real physical reason to rally together. If you are in driving distance of the station (738 Kaheka St. Honolulu), you should stop by during this 10 day pledge drive and experience the buzz. We have 5 more days to go and my sense is that the goal will be reached on Friday 10/23. Being there when that happens makes it all worth struggling for.

Ray Kakuda from Clearwire was on to give us an update on 4G Broadband Wireless service. Clearwire is rolling out WiMax in their key markets across the country. On Nov. 1st Honolulu will start to get commercial WiMax. Access speeds are reported to be comparable to cable modem and DSL rates,  multi-meg downloads and 1 meg upload. I will report back actual speeds once I get my hands on the actual service.

Here is the news lineup for 9/9/09 covered on this week’s Bytemarks Cafe:

1. Hawaii tax credit program cost state $1.29 billion through 2008
2. Expedition to extinct Papua New Guinea volcano unearths new species Here is a video of the giant rat talked about in the article. There was a YouTube video but that is evidently no longer available. This video is a photo sampling of the variety of new species found on the expedition.
3. Further study on irradiator ordered To follow the trail of produce like papaya from local farmer to out of state markets is very interesting and probably not fully appreciated. In order to sell produce to out of state markets, Hawaii needs to 1) eradicate all the fruit flies or 2)thoroughly clean the produce. Mike Kohn from Pa`ina Hawaii is proposing an irradiation solution. Check out his website for his perspective on irradiation. Also Kayla Rosenfeld of HPR produced this news piece on the project.
4. UH Mānoa oceanographers examine mercury levels of pelagic fish in Hawaii

Here is our song pick of the week:

• Google Docs – Office suite
• Zoho – Office suite
• Evernote – Notes
• Basecamp – Project Management
• Doodle – Scheduling
• Reqall – Notes
• WhenisGood – Scheduling
• Jott – Voice notetaking and transcription
• Tokbox – Video Conferencing (listener provided)
• Google Voice – Phone aggregation and transcription

And now the news: (*All news stories contributed to by Ryan Ozawa, co-host of Bytemarks Cafe)

• Tesoro Corporation has shipped its first barrels of crude oil from the Atlantic to the Pacific Basin on a reversed Panama pipeline, the company said last week. The 81-mile pipeline, owned by Petroterminal de Panama, or “PTP,” formerly flowed from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Reversal of the pipeline establishes a new conduit for crude oil transportation and will help Tesoro to deliver a broader range of crude oils produced in Africa, the Atlantic region of South America and the North Sea, through Panama.
• Researchers from the University of Hawaii were part of an international team that detonated 80 tons of explosives in an Israeli desert last week to test methods to detect seismic activity across long distances through atmospheric acoustics. The controlled, above-ground explosion in the Negev desert was equal to an earthquake of 3.0 on the Richter scale. The test was funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, and coordinated by the University of Hawaii and the Geophysical Institute of Israel.
• Hawaii Biotech, Inc., one of Hawaii’s largest biotechnology companies, announced last week that its one of its dengue vaccines has moved into a Phase 1 clinical study. The study is being conducted at Saint Louis University, and involves double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose-escalation tests on healthy subjects.
• Now that Mauna Kea has been chosen as the site for the Thirty-Meter Telescope, the search is on for the funding and other support needed to build and operate it. And last week, astronomers from China expressed interest in becoming partners. The telescope, which will become the world’s largest when completed in 2019, needs total financing of about $1 billion. Canada and Japan already signed up with the University of California and the California Institute of Technology, which conceived and leads the project.
• Finally, a quick update on a story we first brought to you in July. The Hawaii School Guide, at HawaiiSchoolGuide.com, officially launched yesterday. The website is the brainchild of local entrepreneur and parent Evan Leong. The Hawaii School Guide features a searchable database covering over 800 schools statewide, from over 300 public schools to preschools, private schools, and other education centers.

And now the news…

• The Washington D.C.-based Broadband Information Services Consortium has partnered with Hawaii to conduct broadband mapping under President Obama’s broadband stimulus package. They are also partnered with Oregon, as well as Guam and Samoa. The Consortium is a partnership between One Economy, the New America Foundation, and BroadMap, and its mission is to ensures that states have the most accurate, fully verified, and up-to-date information available in their broadband map, which is needed to compete for $4 billion in broadband grants and loans available through the stimulus bill. In Hawaii, BroadMap is working with the Dept of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA), the Pacific Disaster Center and local companies Referentia and Akimeka on the broadband mapping project, which is being coordinated by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
• While several companies and international coalitions are investing billions of dollars into laying new undersea cables to bolster broadband connectivity, an established player is working on upgrading its existing system. Last week, Southern Cross and Nortel successfully tested data transmissions of 40 gigabits per second over its nearly 5,000-mile long link between New Zealand and Hawaii, effectively quadrupling the capacity of the submarine cable.
• Google is becoming the world’s central clearinghouse for information, and its web interface supports over a hundred different languages. And now, thanks to the efforts of Keola Donaghy, an assistant professor at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, you can now use Google in Hawaiian. Donaghy, who teaches at the College of Hawaiian Language, volunteered over a hundred hours of his time to translate over 2,000 individual phrases and elements of Google’s interface into the Hawaiian language.
• The Kilo Moana is the flagship research vessel of the University of Hawaii’s School of Ocean & Earth Science & Technology. And this past weekend, U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye toured the ship, in his role as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. After meeting with school dean Brian Taylor and several of the scientists who’ve worked aboard the Kilo Moana, Sen. Inoye declared that “national interests are well served,” according to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

Given the state of the economy, I was concern the drive would take longer than the 10 day period. In the previous Oct 2008 drive it extended one day and I could see the stress in people’s faces and their voices. To my surprise, this drive ended one day early, on Thursday, 5/30. The drive started on Wed. 4/22. To me this showed how committed the community at large is to supporting HPR. The drive ended right around 4:30pm on Thursday during the popular All Things Considered show. As soon as the pledge came in that put us over the top, the drive ended. No more calls were taken, no more soliciting and back to normal programming. Whatever normal was at that point! The energy as very high and people were elated. It felt like running a race and finishing first. I put this 30 sec video together with some shots I took but it does not compare to the excitement in the air. There were lots of hugs, handshakes and champagne to go around. Again this was a great show of a community coming together and accomplishing a goal. It was a bonding event. It almost felt like it shouldn’t end. But it needed to so we could go back to regular programming. All in all, the pledge drive was all about community and the event itself is a community building one. Call me strange but I’m actually looking forward to the next one in October.

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