[gu-l] (01/28/03) Origin of Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) Technology
Takeshi Utsumi
utsumi@columbia.edu
Tue, 28 Jan 2003 19:43:39 -0500
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<<January 28, 2003>>
Archived distributions can be retrieved by clicking "Correspondence" in our
home page at <http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/>.
For those after 2/27/01, see or bookmark:
<http://www.friends-partners.org/pipermail/gu-l/> and click on "Date,"
For example. The most recent archives are the bottom line.
Mr. David R. Hughes, Sr.
Principal Investigator
NSF Mongolian Wireless Project
Old Colorado City Communications
Colorado Spring, CO 80904
719 636 2040
dave@oldcolo.com
Information about the NSF wireless projects are at:
http://wireless.oldcolo.com
The Mongolian web site is at http://www.magic.mn
Kimberly K. Obbink, Ed.D.
Director
Burns Telecommunications Center and Extended Studies
128 EPS Building,
Montana State University
Bozeman, MT 59717-3860
USA
Tel: +1-406-994 6550
Fax: +1-406-994 7856
kobbink@montana.edu
http://btc.montana.edu
Dear David:
(1) My heartfelt congratulations to your splendid works appeared in the
recent CNN.COM web site =8B see ATTACHMENT I below. You are well deserved fo=
r
this publicity.
I enjoyed reading this with great interest. BTW, I found that you are abou=
t
the same age as mine =8B pls take care of yourself well!!
Dear E-Colleagues:
(2) David is one of the pioneers of the spread spectrum wireless Internet
(now called =B3Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity)=B2) technology, and is a member of our
list more than a decade.
Pls enjoy reading the article =8B if you visit the CNN.COM web site indicated
in the article, you can see Dave=B9s beautiful cowboy outfit.
(3) You may also enjoy reading Dave=B9s another very interesting article:
> David R. Huges and Dewayne Hendricks, =B3Spread Spectrum Radio,=B2 SCIENTIFIC
> AMERICAN, April 1998, Pages 94-96.
>=20
> You can read it (about 2 Mbytes file) at;
> http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/Tampere_Conference/Global_Broadban=
d_Int
> ernet/SS-Radio%252FDavid%20Hughes/SS-Radio%20images/SS-Radio.html
It mentioned how the broadband wireless spread spectrum technology was
invented by an actress, Hedy Lamarr, in Vienna, Austria, in 1941, who fled
Nazi regime to London and then to Hollywood to have become a famous actress
=8B she passed away a few years ago.
Her invention took almost 60 years to have become wide use, as even now
taking over the future of G3 cellular phone (for which telecom carriers
spent billions, billions to get their frequency allocations) -- you may kno=
w
the proliferation of the so-called =B3hot spots=B2 networks of the wireless bas=
e
stations around many cities of the US through which you can access broadban=
d
Internet free of charge. In a sense, we can say that she is the origin of
worldwide social revolution!!
Those who attended our Tampere workshop in August, 1999:
(4) You may recall our very successful videoconferencing between the
University of Tampere and Montana State University (MSU) via terrestrial
broadband Internet
This demonstration was made against the warning that there were routers of
more than a dozen different makers in the so-called =B3Open Internet=B2 between
the two locations. MSU=B9s video was projected onto a large screen clearly.
As you may recall, we asked our colleagues at the MSU to wave their arms an=
d
hands, and we got almost High Definition TV (HDTV) quality audio/video
without any latency of audio nor jiggling of movement.
> Incidentally, one of those MSU colleagues was Jacqueline Bean, a niece of
> Actress, Hedy Lamarr.
>=20
> Dear Kim:
> Pls convey my best personal regards to Jacqueline when you meet her next =
time
> =8B I understand that she has left your office =8B in which building I did th=
e
> coal liquefaction experiment for my M.S. Degree in Chemical Engineering i=
n
> 1955 to =8C57.
The software we used was NetMeeting which is available free of charge from
the web site of Microsoft. Camera was a small one costing less than $100.
This demonstration indicated that, if we have broadband Internet, high
quality videoconferencing can be made to replace expensive satellite
videoconferencing and also to provide more interactivity than that.
Affordability and interactivity are essential components of e-learning,
e-healthcare/telemedicine. We now then need to provide accessibility of th=
e
broadband Internet in those fields to rural/remote areas of developing
countries through our Global University System (GUS) projects.
Best, Tak
ATTACHMENT I=20
<<January 26, 2003>>
Excerpt from;
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/01/26/wireless.cowboy.ap/index.html
=A0=20
At 74, Internet cowboy spreads wireless
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (AP) --Dave Hughes certainly doesn't look the
part of a technology trailblazer. The burly, 74-year-old retired Army
colonel could stuff a scrawny computer geek in his Stetson.
But Hughes has made a second career out of extending Internet-era benefits
to overlooked people and places. And the man known as "The Cursor Cowboy"
isn't about to ride off into the sunset just yet.
After a decorated military career that included combat in Korea and Vietnam=
,
Hughes began exploring the Internet in the 1970s, when it was known to
little more than a gaggle of scientists. Logging in from a neighborhood bar=
,
Hughes spun countless tales about the Old West, becoming one of the first
online celebrities.
Ignoring convention
In the 1980s, when many were using personal computers for such basics as
word processing, Hughes showed neighbors in Colorado Springs and teachers i=
n
one room Western schoolhouses the power of electronic bulletin boards.
A decade later, he was merrily ignoring the conventional wisdom that high
speed Internet access for out-of-the-way places was cost-prohibitive and
technologically arduous.
Armed largely with grants from the National Science Foundation, Hughes set
up wireless connections in small towns, an Indian reservation; the Wisconsi=
n
woods, the Mongolian steppes and Puerto Rican jungles. His pioneering in
"packet radio" put Hughes far ahead of the current explosion in the wireles=
s
Internet.
"Col. Dave Hughes, USA, Ret., is the only character who has popped up in th=
e
plot every time I've investigated the roots of a technology revolution,"
futurist author Howard Rheingold wrote in "Smart Mobs," his 2002 book about
the sociology of constant Internet connectivity.
Mainstream catches up
Hughes' ideas about wireless are now mainstream.
Witness the boom in the networking standard called WiFi, the government's
overhaul of airwave regulation and the growing number of "fixed wireless"
services that beam data at broadband speeds directly to subscribers.
"This is the beginning of a global revolution in communications, and I'm
tickled pink!" Hughes bellows in an interview.
With a long white goatee and stout body, Hughes resembles Orson Welles in
his later days, though his wardrobe is gentleman rancher: cardigans,
collared shirts, turquoise-studded bolo tie, black cowboy boots. He never
goes anywhere without wedging a Stetson on his head.
These days, Hughes is helping Sherpas in Nepal set up wireless Internet
connections, including one for a cybercafe at the Mount Everest base camp.
Soon climbers will check e-mail at 18,000 feet before trying to reach the
top of the world.
Arguing for changes
He's trying to crack another puzzle for the National Science Foundation: ho=
w
scientists can wirelessly get real-time data from the bodies of hibernating
Arctic ground squirrels, whose temperatures miraculously drop below
freezing.
He's also forcefully arguing for changes in federal regulations so wireless
technologies can flourish in rural areas.
And all the while, he and his daughter, Rebecca Clark, are running a small
Internet service provider in Colorado Springs.
"All I want to do is connect up all 6 billion brains on the planet," Hughes
explains in the compact office in his modest home here, as classical music
plays in the next room.
Hughes' wife, Patsy, brings him a cup of coffee, but he talks so much he
never touches it.
"Don't Americans always say if we can improve communications among peoples,
we can clear up misunderstandings? Why don't we do a 100 percent test of
that thesis?"
Standing out of the crowd
Hughes has always stood out. He sometimes taught English classes at West
Point with a parakeet perched on his shoulder, to show that a combat hero
could have a soft side.
While chief of staff at Fort Carson in Colorado in the late 1960s, Hughes
felt the Army's strict rules failed to inspire restless young men in the
turbulent era.
So he let troops paint tanks in psychedelic colors, drive them in road
rallies and bring wives and girlfriends along as navigators. He stocked bas=
e
hangouts with beer and go-go girls, encouraged black troops to stage
Guerrilla Theater and brought in such diverse political speakers as Cesar
Chavez and William F. Buckley.
After retiring from the military in 1973, Hughes launched Enjoy Colorado, a
service that sold customized information about the state. It didn't work
out, but Hughes realized that such a project needed the organizing power of
a computer.
To learn, he got a Radio Shack PC. It was 1977. With a 300-baud modem
(roughly 1,900 times slower than most dial-ups today) Hughes began explorin=
g
early online bulletin boards.
Soon after, Hughes fought city officials' plans to raze parts of Old
Colorado City, the historic commercial stretch in his neighborhood. He led =
a
revitalization centered around attracting small local businesses, no big
chains.
Attracting a crowd
He had no idea what he was doing, so he asked for advice from people on the
Source, an online bulletin board. No one answered.
So Hughes decided to attract a crowd. He filled the Source with old yarns
about the West, earning him the Cursor Cowboy nickname, and again asked for
help with the historic district.
Sure enough, a few strangers out there told him how tax laws, government
grants and other urban planning maneuvers had saved old parts of Chicago an=
d
San Diego.
The old warrior's online life took off.
"Someone once said to me, 'cultivate your own garden,"' Hughes says. "I
said, I'm going to use a microprocessor as a hoe and a modem as a
wheelbarrow."
Doing it right
In the early 1980s, he taught an online college course. He set up bulletin
boards aimed at encouraging civic participation in Colorado Springs and
information sharing among rural teachers.
In 1983, Hughes spread the word online that a pending zoning rule in
Colorado Springs would prevent some people from working at home in new jobs
made possible by Internet-connected computers. After 175 people showed up a=
t
a previously obscure city meeting to protest, the rule was changed.
"What he loves is when somebody tells him something can't be done. He up an=
d
does it himself," says Frank Odasz, who worked on the schoolhouse bulletin
board project and now mentors rural towns on how to use the Internet for
community development.
Don Mitchell, who managed Hughes' National Science Foundation research,
points out that every time Hughes goes someplace to experiment with wireles=
s
connectivity, he trains the locals how to use it too.
"He's a Johnny Appleseed of telecommunications," Mitchell says.
Taking on the big dogs
Take Hughes' endeavor to spread wireless broadband through rural Wales, his
ancestral homeland. Hughes went there last year at the request of community
groups that believe extending broadband beyond the region's cities will
stimulate the economy and preserve Welsh culture.
In classic Hughes form, he tweaked British Telecom by claiming the dominant
carrier had plenty of fiber-optic cable lying dormant in Wales. He also
offered solutions: combining WiFi radios, satellite service and existing
university networks to spread Internet access throughout Wales.
He unfurled his ideas in 18 speeches one week, and stunned local technician=
s
by working past 4 a.m. with his son David Jr., said Elen Rhys, director of
an involved Welsh educational group.
Hughes also insisted that Welsh groups design community-specific Web portal=
s
that could offer alternatives to Yahoo and AOL -- and draw traffic from
Welsh descendants elsewhere.
"There's a lot happening here that would not have happened if not for Dave
coming over," Rhys says. "He's a military man who says, 'I know where my
hill is, and I'm going to take it,' and he didn't really care who got in th=
e
way."
Missed opportunity?
That gusto sometimes misses its mark.
In the mid-1990s, Hughes tested wireless access in Colorado's largely poor
and remote San Luis Valley. The technology worked, but only a few schools
and nonprofits took up Hughes' ideas for a community bulletin board, said
Noel Dunne, who directed a social services group and worked with Hughes.
Dunne believes many people in the traditionally insular valley were
suspicious of the outsider -- and often didn't understand the technologies
he touted.
"They missed an opportunity by not embracing him, his knowledge and his
eccentricity," Dunne said.
Hughes' technology passion has limits. He realizes that many previously
unconnected people use the Internet for pornography and other trifles,
ignoring civic endeavors. And he predicts many people in the ever-more
connected future will suffer from information overload.
But he's not counting on being one of them.
Beyond the grave
When he dies, Hughes wants his coffin equipped with a laptop computer,
wireless Internet access and a solar panel that would grab light from above
ground.
Special software in the laptop would study his past writings and incorporat=
e
new information into what the living Hughes knew and thought -- and then
take over the task of being him.
Even after he's gone, computer screens in far-off places would blink a
message from his silicon continuation: "Hi, this is Dave Hughes. Wanna
chat?"
All he asks is that someone clear fallen leaves off the coffin's solar pane=
l
from time to time.
"You'll be dealing with me 'til the end of time," he says, "or until the su=
n
blinks out."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
**********************************************************************
* Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D., P.E., Chairman, GLOSAS/USA *
* (GLObal Systems Analysis and Simulation Association in the U.S.A.) *
* Laureate of Lord Perry Award for Excellence in Distance Education *
* President Emeritus and V.P. for Technology and Coordination of *
* =A0=A0Global University System (GUS) *
* 43-23 Colden Street, Flushing, NY 11355-3998, U.S.A. *
* Tel: 718-939-0928; Email: utsumi@columbia.edu *
* http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/ *
* Tax Exempt ID: 11-2999676 *
**********************************************************************
--B_3126627821_1942552
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Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>(01/28/03) Origin of Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) Technology</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<FONT FACE=3D"Verdana"><<January 28, 2003>><BR>
Archived distributions can be retrieved by clicking "Correspondence&qu=
ot; in our home page at <<FONT COLOR=3D"#0000FF"><U>http://www.friends-part=
ners.org/GLOSAS/</U></FONT>>.<BR>
For those after 2/27/01, see or bookmark:<BR>
<<FONT COLOR=3D"#0000FF"><U>http://www.friends-partners.org/pipermail/gu-l=
/</U></FONT>> and click on "Date," <BR>
For example. The most recent archives are the bottom line.<BR>
<BR>
Mr. David R. Hughes, Sr.<BR>
Principal Investigator<BR>
NSF Mongolian Wireless Project<BR>
Old Colorado City Communications<BR>
Colorado Spring, CO 80904<BR>
719 636 2040<BR>
dave@oldcolo.com<BR>
Information about the NSF wireless projects are at:<BR>
http://wireless.oldcolo.com<BR>
The Mongolian web site is at http://www.magic.mn<BR>
<BR>
Kimberly K. Obbink, Ed.D.<BR>
Director<BR>
Burns Telecommunications Center and Extended Studies<BR>
128 EPS Building,<BR>
Montana State University<BR>
Bozeman, MT 59717-3860<BR>
USA<BR>
Tel: +1-406-994 6550<BR>
Fax: +1-406-994 7856<BR>
kobbink@montana.edu<BR>
http://btc.montana.edu<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<B><U>Dear David:<BR>
</U></B><BR>
(1) My heartfelt congratulations to your splendid works appeared in the rec=
ent CNN.COM web site — see <B><U>ATTACHMENT I</U></B> below. You=
are well deserved for this publicity.<BR>
<BR>
I enjoyed reading this with great interest. BTW, I found that you are=
about the same age as mine — pls take care of yourself well!!<BR>
<BR>
<B><U>Dear E-Colleagues:<BR>
</U></B><BR>
(2) David is one of the pioneers of the spread spectrum wireless Internet (=
now called “Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity)”) technology, and is a mem=
ber of our list more than a decade.<BR>
<BR>
Pls enjoy reading the article — if you visit the CNN.COM web site ind=
icated in the article, you can see Dave’s beautiful cowboy outfit.<BR>
<BR>
(3) You may also enjoy reading Dave’s another very interesting articl=
e:<BR>
<BR>
</FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE=3D"Verdana">David R. Huges and Dewayne Hendrick=
s, “Spread Spectrum Radio,” SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, April 1998, Pag=
es 94-96.<BR>
<BR>
You can read it (about 2 Mbytes file) at;<BR>
http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/Tampere_Conference/Global_Broadband_=
Internet/SS-Radio%252FDavid%20Hughes/SS-Radio%20images/SS-Radio.html<BR>
</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE=3D"Verdana"><BR>
It mentioned how the broadband wireless spread spectrum technology was inve=
nted by an actress, Hedy Lamarr, in Vienna, Austria, in 1941, who fled Nazi =
regime to London and then to Hollywood to have become a famous actress ̵=
2; she passed away a few years ago.<BR>
<BR>
Her invention took almost 60 years to have become wide use, as even now tak=
ing over the future of G3 cellular phone (for which telecom carriers spent b=
illions, billions to get their frequency allocations) -- you may know the pr=
oliferation of the so-called “hot spots” networks of the wireles=
s base stations around many cities of the US through which you can access br=
oadband Internet free of charge. In a sense, we can say that she is th=
e origin of worldwide social revolution!!<BR>
<BR>
<B><U>Those who attended our Tampere workshop in August, 1999:<BR>
</U></B><BR>
(4) You may recall our very successful videoconferencing between the Univer=
sity of Tampere and Montana State University (MSU) via terrestrial broadband=
Internet<BR>
<BR>
This demonstration was made against the warning that there were routers of =
more than a dozen different makers in the so-called “Open InternetR=
21; between the two locations. MSU’s video was projected onto a =
large screen clearly. As you may recall, we asked our colleagues at th=
e MSU to wave their arms and hands, and we got almost High Definition TV (HD=
TV) quality audio/video without any latency of audio nor jiggling of movemen=
t.<BR>
<BR>
</FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE=3D"Verdana">Incidentally, one of those MSU coll=
eagues was Jacqueline Bean, a niece of Actress, Hedy Lamarr.<BR>
<BR>
<B><U>Dear Kim:<BR>
</U></B></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE=3D"Verdana"><BR>
</FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE=3D"Verdana">Pls convey my best personal regards=
to Jacqueline when you meet her next time — I understand that she has=
left your office — in which building I did the coal liquefaction expe=
riment for my M.S. Degree in Chemical Engineering in 1955 to ‘57.<BR>
</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE=3D"Verdana"><BR>
The software we used was NetMeeting which is available free of charge from =
the web site of Microsoft. Camera was a small one costing less than $1=
00.<BR>
<BR>
This demonstration indicated that, if we have broadband Internet, high qual=
ity videoconferencing can be made to replace expensive satellite videoconfer=
encing and also to provide more interactivity than that. Affordability=
and interactivity are essential components of e-learning, e-healthcare/tele=
medicine. We now then need to provide accessibility of the broadband I=
nternet in those fields to rural/remote areas of developing countries throug=
h our Global University System (GUS) projects.<BR>
<BR>
Best, Tak<BR>
<HR ALIGN=3DCENTER SIZE=3D"3" WIDTH=3D"95%"></FONT>
<P ALIGN=3DCENTER>
<FONT FACE=3D"Verdana"><B><U>ATTACHMENT I=20
</U></B></FONT>
<P>
<FONT FACE=3D"Verdana"><BR>
<<January 26, 2003>><BR>
Excerpt from;<BR>
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/01/26/wireless.cowboy.ap/index.html<B=
R>
<BR>
=A0=20
</FONT>
<P ALIGN=3DCENTER>
<FONT FACE=3D"Verdana"><B><U>At 74, Internet cowboy spreads wireless=20
</U></B></FONT>
<P>
<FONT FACE=3D"Verdana"><BR>
<BR>
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (AP) --Dave Hughes certainly doesn't look the pa=
rt of a technology trailblazer. The burly, 74-year-old retired Army colonel =
could stuff a scrawny computer geek in his Stetson.<BR>
<BR>
But Hughes has made a second career out of extending Internet-era benefits =
to overlooked people and places. And the man known as "The Cursor Cowbo=
y" isn't about to ride off into the sunset just yet.<BR>
<BR>
After a decorated military career that included combat in Korea and Vietnam=
, Hughes began exploring the Internet in the 1970s, when it was known to lit=
tle more than a gaggle of scientists. Logging in from a neighborhood bar, Hu=
ghes spun countless tales about the Old West, becoming one of the first onli=
ne celebrities.<BR>
<BR>
Ignoring convention<BR>
<BR>
In the 1980s, when many were using personal computers for such basics as wo=
rd processing, Hughes showed neighbors in Colorado Springs and teachers in o=
ne room Western schoolhouses the power of electronic bulletin boards.<BR>
<BR>
A decade later, he was merrily ignoring the conventional wisdom that high s=
peed Internet access for out-of-the-way places was cost-prohibitive and tech=
nologically arduous.<BR>
<BR>
Armed largely with grants from the National Science Foundation, Hughes set =
up wireless connections in small towns, an Indian reservation; the Wisconsin=
woods, the Mongolian steppes and Puerto Rican jungles. His pioneering in &q=
uot;packet radio" put Hughes far ahead of the current explosion in the =
wireless Internet.<BR>
<BR>
"Col. Dave Hughes, USA, Ret., is the only character who has popped up =
in the plot every time I've investigated the roots of a technology revolutio=
n," futurist author Howard Rheingold wrote in "Smart Mobs," h=
is 2002 book about the sociology of constant Internet connectivity.<BR>
<BR>
Mainstream catches up<BR>
<BR>
Hughes' ideas about wireless are now mainstream.<BR>
<BR>
Witness the boom in the networking standard called WiFi, the government's o=
verhaul of airwave regulation and the growing number of "fixed wireless=
" services that beam data at broadband speeds directly to subscribers.<=
BR>
<BR>
"This is the beginning of a global revolution in communications, and I=
'm tickled pink!" Hughes bellows in an interview.<BR>
<BR>
With a long white goatee and stout body, Hughes resembles Orson Welles in h=
is later days, though his wardrobe is gentleman rancher: cardigans, collared=
shirts, turquoise-studded bolo tie, black cowboy boots. He never goes anywh=
ere without wedging a Stetson on his head.<BR>
<BR>
These days, Hughes is helping Sherpas in Nepal set up wireless Internet con=
nections, including one for a cybercafe at the Mount Everest base camp. Soon=
climbers will check e-mail at 18,000 feet before trying to reach the top of=
the world.<BR>
<BR>
Arguing for changes<BR>
<BR>
He's trying to crack another puzzle for the National Science Foundation: ho=
w scientists can wirelessly get real-time data from the bodies of hibernatin=
g Arctic ground squirrels, whose temperatures miraculously drop below freezi=
ng.<BR>
<BR>
He's also forcefully arguing for changes in federal regulations so wireless=
technologies can flourish in rural areas.<BR>
<BR>
And all the while, he and his daughter, Rebecca Clark, are running a small =
Internet service provider in Colorado Springs.<BR>
<BR>
"All I want to do is connect up all 6 billion brains on the planet,&qu=
ot; Hughes explains in the compact office in his modest home here, as classi=
cal music plays in the next room.<BR>
<BR>
Hughes' wife, Patsy, brings him a cup of coffee, but he talks so much he ne=
ver touches it.<BR>
<BR>
"Don't Americans always say if we can improve communications among peo=
ples, we can clear up misunderstandings? Why don't we do a 100 percent test =
of that thesis?"<BR>
<BR>
Standing out of the crowd<BR>
<BR>
Hughes has always stood out. He sometimes taught English classes at West Po=
int with a parakeet perched on his shoulder, to show that a combat hero coul=
d have a soft side.<BR>
<BR>
While chief of staff at Fort Carson in Colorado in the late 1960s, Hughes f=
elt the Army's strict rules failed to inspire restless young men in the turb=
ulent era.<BR>
<BR>
So he let troops paint tanks in psychedelic colors, drive them in road rall=
ies and bring wives and girlfriends along as navigators. He stocked base han=
gouts with beer and go-go girls, encouraged black troops to stage Guerrilla =
Theater and brought in such diverse political speakers as Cesar Chavez and W=
illiam F. Buckley.<BR>
<BR>
After retiring from the military in 1973, Hughes launched Enjoy Colorado, a=
service that sold customized information about the state. It didn't work ou=
t, but Hughes realized that such a project needed the organizing power of a =
computer.<BR>
<BR>
To learn, he got a Radio Shack PC. It was 1977. With a 300-baud modem (roug=
hly 1,900 times slower than most dial-ups today) Hughes began exploring earl=
y online bulletin boards.<BR>
<BR>
Soon after, Hughes fought city officials' plans to raze parts of Old Colora=
do City, the historic commercial stretch in his neighborhood. He led a revit=
alization centered around attracting small local businesses, no big chains.<=
BR>
<BR>
Attracting a crowd<BR>
<BR>
He had no idea what he was doing, so he asked for advice from people on the=
Source, an online bulletin board. No one answered.<BR>
<BR>
So Hughes decided to attract a crowd. He filled the Source with old yarns a=
bout the West, earning him the Cursor Cowboy nickname, and again asked for h=
elp with the historic district.<BR>
<BR>
Sure enough, a few strangers out there told him how tax laws, government gr=
ants and other urban planning maneuvers had saved old parts of Chicago and S=
an Diego.<BR>
<BR>
The old warrior's online life took off.<BR>
<BR>
"Someone once said to me, 'cultivate your own garden,"' Hughes sa=
ys. "I said, I'm going to use a microprocessor as a hoe and a modem as =
a wheelbarrow."<BR>
<BR>
Doing it right<BR>
<BR>
In the early 1980s, he taught an online college course. He set up bulletin =
boards aimed at encouraging civic participation in Colorado Springs and info=
rmation sharing among rural teachers.<BR>
<BR>
In 1983, Hughes spread the word online that a pending zoning rule in Colora=
do Springs would prevent some people from working at home in new jobs made p=
ossible by Internet-connected computers. After 175 people showed up at a pre=
viously obscure city meeting to protest, the rule was changed.<BR>
<BR>
"What he loves is when somebody tells him something can't be done. He =
up and does it himself," says Frank Odasz, who worked on the schoolhous=
e bulletin board project and now mentors rural towns on how to use the Inter=
net for community development.<BR>
<BR>
Don Mitchell, who managed Hughes' National Science Foundation research, poi=
nts out that every time Hughes goes someplace to experiment with wireless co=
nnectivity, he trains the locals how to use it too.<BR>
<BR>
"He's a Johnny Appleseed of telecommunications," Mitchell says.<B=
R>
<BR>
Taking on the big dogs<BR>
<BR>
Take Hughes' endeavor to spread wireless broadband through rural Wales, his=
ancestral homeland. Hughes went there last year at the request of community=
groups that believe extending broadband beyond the region's cities will sti=
mulate the economy and preserve Welsh culture.<BR>
<BR>
In classic Hughes form, he tweaked British Telecom by claiming the dominant=
carrier had plenty of fiber-optic cable lying dormant in Wales. He also off=
ered solutions: combining WiFi radios, satellite service and existing univer=
sity networks to spread Internet access throughout Wales.<BR>
<BR>
He unfurled his ideas in 18 speeches one week, and stunned local technician=
s by working past 4 a.m. with his son David Jr., said Elen Rhys, director of=
an involved Welsh educational group.<BR>
<BR>
Hughes also insisted that Welsh groups design community-specific Web portal=
s that could offer alternatives to Yahoo and AOL -- and draw traffic from We=
lsh descendants elsewhere.<BR>
<BR>
"There's a lot happening here that would not have happened if not for =
Dave coming over," Rhys says. "He's a military man who says, 'I kn=
ow where my hill is, and I'm going to take it,' and he didn't really care wh=
o got in the way."<BR>
<BR>
Missed opportunity?<BR>
<BR>
That gusto sometimes misses its mark.<BR>
<BR>
In the mid-1990s, Hughes tested wireless access in Colorado's largely poor =
and remote San Luis Valley. The technology worked, but only a few schools an=
d nonprofits took up Hughes' ideas for a community bulletin board, said Noel=
Dunne, who directed a social services group and worked with Hughes.<BR>
<BR>
Dunne believes many people in the traditionally insular valley were suspici=
ous of the outsider -- and often didn't understand the technologies he toute=
d.<BR>
<BR>
"They missed an opportunity by not embracing him, his knowledge and hi=
s eccentricity," Dunne said.<BR>
<BR>
Hughes' technology passion has limits. He realizes that many previously unc=
onnected people use the Internet for pornography and other trifles, ignoring=
civic endeavors. And he predicts many people in the ever-more connected fut=
ure will suffer from information overload.<BR>
<BR>
But he's not counting on being one of them.<BR>
<BR>
Beyond the grave<BR>
<BR>
When he dies, Hughes wants his coffin equipped with a laptop computer, wire=
less Internet access and a solar panel that would grab light from above grou=
nd.<BR>
<BR>
Special software in the laptop would study his past writings and incorporat=
e new information into what the living Hughes knew and thought -- and then t=
ake over the task of being him.<BR>
<BR>
Even after he's gone, computer screens in far-off places would blink a mess=
age from his silicon continuation: "Hi, this is Dave Hughes. Wanna chat=
?"<BR>
<BR>
All he asks is that someone clear fallen leaves off the coffin's solar pane=
l from time to time.<BR>
<BR>
"You'll be dealing with me 'til the end of time," he says, "=
or until the sun blinks out."<BR>
------------------------------------------------------------------------<BR=
>
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may=
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<BR>
<BR>
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* (GLObal Systems Analysis and Simulation Association in the U.S.A.) *<BR>
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<BR>
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* =A0=A0Global University System (GUS) &nbs=
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* 43-23 Colden Street, Flushing, NY 11355-3998, U.S.A. &n=
bsp; *<BR>
* Tel: 718-939-0928; Email: utsumi@columbia.edu &nb=
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