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This seems insane. Why not digitally deliver any e-book in a plain text instead of this pr stunt?
This is in the county, Montgomery, where Virgina Tech is based. They have a very large UAV program there. So much so that they applied for a campus-wide FAA exemption. I think it's cool if a bit useless. But if you have a hammer, everything else is a nail. Books have been delivered electronically for decades. Electronically flying a physical book doesn't look to be our future.
From this perspective, the fact that some people got together to try this isn't a surprise, it's certainly not idiocy, and being creative with existing skills and resources during a pandemic is far from a bad idea. More data and cred for drone folks, more cred and energy leverage for library folks, and more books and learning experiences for readers and learners.
This is in the county, Montgomery, where Virgina Tech is based. They have a very large UAV program there. So much so that they applied for a campus-wide FAA exemption. I think it's cool if a bit useless. But if you have a hammer, everything else is a nail. Books have been delivered electronically for decades. Electronically flying a physical book doesn't look to be our future.
I can’t help but think a car would have been a better delivery mechanism but then Google wouldn’t get much press from it. Doing “good things” just for better optics really leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
It's good that cows are not flying...
Wait, Russians did that already https://youtu.be/QvRiXIfRsCw?t=28
This seems insane. Why not digitally deliver any e-book in a plain text instead of this pr stunt?
What's insane about an alignment of incentives? Drone resources were available. Physical books were going unused, while electronic copies are not exactly free. Those involved get a pat on the back via publicity. Readers get to read more. Learners get to experience a new phenomenon.
What?
This is in the county, Montgomery, where Virgina Tech is based. They have a very large UAV program there. So much so that they applied for a campus-wide FAA exemption. I think it's cool if a bit useless. But if you have a hammer, everything else is a nail. Books have been delivered electronically for decades. Electronically flying a physical book doesn't look to be our future.
This is in the county, Montgomery, where Virgina Tech is based. They have a very large UAV program there. So much so that they applied for a campus-wide FAA exemption. I think it's cool if a bit useless. But if you have a hammer, everything else is a nail. Books have been delivered electronically for decades. Electronically flying a physical book doesn't look to be our future.
Thanks for noting this! I am from (real) SW Virginia. While this looks great as a headline--because everyone knows of SW Virginia's impoverished situation due to coal economy dependencies--Montgomery is definitely NOT the poorest county in SW VA. That's on the border of barely qualifying as "SW VA" in my opinion. I'd rather see this impact in the coalfield counties of Buchanan, Wise, Dickenson, Russell, Lee, Tazewell…
This is immensely true of Appalachia in general (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_and_economic_stratifica...). Having done quite a number of roadtrips up and down I-81, the amount of destitution I've seen has never failed to break my heart. Nothing's ever changed for these people, and the foundational building blocks (infrastructure, education, etc) that they'd need in order to really climb out of poverty have been consistently delayed or disregarded.
Luck plays more of a factor here than in many other parts of the United States at escaping this loop, so programs like this are heartwarming to see in that they aim to give back as part of a broader goal to advance the state of tech.
Drone infrastructure and 5G are probably the two easiest shortcuts to get much of Appalachia equipped with much of what they need to catch up.