DISH Network wants everyone in rural America to have internet access. That’s why they launched dishNET last fall. Now they’re going a little further by bundling DISH tv & entertainment with dishNET. They’re also reaching out to rural Americans and various organizations to find ways to capitalize on the economic and educational opportunities that internet access provides. I found them …
E-marketplace Connecting Farmers
A new website recently launched, www.Sproutrade.com, is a U.S.-based niche e-marketplace to connect farmers, growers and agriculture companies in a similar way as they might through broad e-commerce platforms, such as Amazon. Essentially, it is a way for farmers, growers and agriculture companies to market their products directly to consumers and other companies, via an online platform. One of the …
Precision Ag is Cloud Mobile
Cloud management of data for precision ag applications and more is just a natural part of the continuing technology revolution and it is now here thanks to AgIntegrated which is launching their Onsite service very soon. To learn more about Onsite and AgIntegrated I spoke with Mike Santostefano, Director of Marketing and Business Development. Mike says that during the last …
Ag in the Cloud
You are hearing a lot about working in the cloud these days. Why not the agribusiness industry? Onsite, fueled by AgIntegrated, has an answer to the question. Onsite provides the connections you need to handle 21st century farming. As a consumer of an increasing amount of agricultural information and technologies, you experience the headaches involved in managing separate systems. Onsite …
Few Ag Names on Dot Domain List
There’s no dots for agriculture, corn, or cows on the list of nearly 2000 new generic top-level domain (or gTLD) name applications announced yesterday by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). There’s .beer but not .beef, there’s .porn but not .pork, there’s .soy but not .soybean. There is .farm on the list, by one of several companies …
President Exec Order To Speed Up Broadband Dev
Today President Obama will sign a new executive order to make broadband construction cheaper and easier according to the White House. This would mean more people in more places can join the AgWired community! The Executive Order (EO) will require the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Interior, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs as well as the US Postal Service to offer …
Rural Broadband Opportunities
You could look at this map and see lots of black areas that show there is no local broadband coverage and think negatively. Or you could see these areas as opportunities like the FCC does. This is an interactive map released last week showing areas with “potential” for broadband support via a program as described in their release. I agree …
Gov’t. Agencies Say LightSquared System Can’t Work With GPS
Things are looking bleak for the proposed LightSquared LTE network according to a story in PC World. A key federal agency involved in testing the proposed LightSquared LTE network has concluded that there is no practical way to solve interference between that network and GPS, possibly dealing a crippling blow to the startup carrier’s hopes for a terrestrial mobile network. …
Lightsquared Solution To GPS Concerns Not Well Received By Industry
Yesterday Lightsquared announced a “solution” to concerns over interference with GPS systems from it’s proposed wireless broadband network. LightSquared™, a wholesale carrier building a nationwide wireless broadband network that will create consumer choice and industry innovation, has signed an agreement with Javad GNSS Inc. to develop a system that will eliminate related interference issues for high-precision GPS devices. The Javad …
New USDA-NASS Farm Computer Usage/Ownership Report
It’s time to analyze some new data about farm computer use and ownership. USDA’s National Agricultural Statistic Service has released a new report, “Farm Computer Usage and Ownership, August 2011.” Here’s the opening summary. It’s interesting to see that dialup access has dropped in half since the last report in 2009. Also note how high the percentages get as you …