What do "white spaces" mean for public media?

[Commentary] What do "white spaces" mean for public media? It will be awhile before we can extract that value—and lots of others will be extracting value along the way. White-space capable transmitters and mobile devices still need to be brought to market. "Last mile" connections need to be laid in order to connect potential providers to the Internet. Google, Intel and Motorola are all lining up to provide new equipment and services for this emerging market. But if things proceed as consumer advocates like Sascha Meinrath of the New America Foundation hope, many more Americans will have broadband access. "In essence, the FCC has begun the transition from command-and-control, single-user spectrum licensure to a more distributed system that holds the potential to eliminate the artificial scarcity that prevented widespread access to the public airwaves since 1927," writes Meinrath on his blog. And they won't just be consuming media—on open networks, they'll be producing it too. That means many more chances to create and distribute the sort of dynamic public media we've been examining here at CSM. In other words—not just WiFi on steroids, but cable access too.