Virtual Cocktail Party

I’m quoted a couple of times in Newsweek’s article “How Fast Will Your Internet Be in 2020?”

Google’s initiative would offer a speed to everyone—one gigabit per second—that the FCC has otherwise targeted for hospitals, libraries, and other “core institutions.” It’s far beyond what most Internet users would ever need, but Google’s premise is that if it builds such a network, innovators will dream up applications simply not conceivable with today’s pipes. Bennett, of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, says even a 10th of that speed could support a futuristic video-conferencing session in which multiple participants interacted as holograms, their likenesses beamed from video projectors lining the room. “It’d be like having a virtual cocktail party,” he says.

I think I said that 1 Gigabit would enable holographic conferencing, as I don’t think 100 Mbps would be quite fast enough. These things never go quite according to plan, I talked to the guy for an hour over two calls. Anyhow, they spelled my name right.