Where ARE the power users?

Inspired by a very good column by John C. Dvorak (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2325037,00.asp), I want to share my two cents on the matter.  While John raises a good point, I think that he doesn't go far enough.  John says that the decline of power users is attributable to the failure of connectivity.  I agree, but I think that that is only half of the problem. 

Connectivity in the form of Internet speed is his assertion, and he is correct.  The vast majority of us are still surfing along on the same speeds we have been for years.  What is worse is that we are probably paying the same amount as we were when we signed up!  The different types of providers are sitting on the tech to make MUCH higher speeds available yet they fail to do so.  Why?  If you assume that it is a matter of economics, you are at the very least partially right, but I think that is short-sighted on the ISP's end.  The company that provides widespread (true high speed) connection would be poised to take the lead as the premier ISP in the US.  We love our bandwidth, and more is always better.  

But wait...there is a problem with that.  I am a power user, so of course I love my bandwidth, but do the average people I know love it as much as me?  I think John is correct, they are rather apathetic.  The average person that I know uses the interenet to go to facebook, watch videos on Youtube, check thier email, and IM.  They are not using online backup, lifecasting, or renting movies.  I think that an unspoken issue is that if these ISP's provide all of this bandwidth, they are afraid of what will happen in the file-sharing sector.  They are under alot of pressure from those bastards at the RIAA and MPAA to clamp down on P2P traffic, and these speeds would be a nightmare for those special interest groups.  I suspect that their hand is in there somewhere...

I think that the other half of the problem, is an uninformed public by and large.  The average person is barely qualified to use thier computer.  You can't expect them to know what is available to them on the Internet.  Ask the average person (your mom, aunts & uncles, grandparents, etc.) if they know what Stickam, Skype, Mozy, or Twitter is.  I bet you that you will soon realize that the life of the power user is something far removed from that of the average user.  We do need to bring back the power users.  And it is our job to help the average user learn about the potential of the PC again. 

And in that spirit, I can say that the new site www.helpfromageek.com is up.  It is in "beta" form, and I don't have comments working yet (waiting on instacomment) or search working yet so bear with it.  I will be adding a few articles a week.  I have a handful started now, but I want to base everything on what people ask me at work.