For a humorous account of why fiber optics for high-speed Internet is a lot like the fiber we eat as laxative, you’ll get not only laugh – but also a very digestible bit of information on why speed matters – in Geoff Daily’s “Apprising” blog.

The headline:

The Solution For Internet's Constipation? A Fiber-Rich Diet.

“For starters, the Internet is constipated. . .” writes Daily. “The reason you can't watch the higher quality video available online today at home is because you don't have enough bandwidth. I've tried watching the HD video on Hulu.com but it doesn't play smoothly despite my subscribing to the fastest residential broadband service available ten blocks from our nation's Capitol. There's not enough pipe to push all that data through.”

The issue is capacity. Think of fiber as the conduit to the kind of capacity that will not only allow more entertainment options, but also more life choices, such as taking classes online all the way to seeing a doctor via Internet. At the Knight Center for Digital Excellence, we’re always on the look out for good commentary to help explain this important public issue. Let us know when you run across more good explanations, such as we found in Geoff Daily’s blog.