[1st-mile-nm] Local forums to implement high-speed networks (broadband); proposal open for votes

Tom Johnson tom at jtjohnson.com
Sun May 24 15:52:40 PDT 2009 

FYI -- From O'Reilly Radar:

Local forums to implement high-speed networks (broadband); proposal open for
votes<http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/oreilly/radar/atom/%7E3/QE9EPjWk178/local-forums-to-implement-high.html>

Posted: 24 May 2009 05:12 AM PDT

I've posted a proposal titled

Local forums to implement high-speed networks
(broadband)<http://ideascale.com/r/2932-4049>
to a forum on open government put up by the White House.
I ask this blog's readers to tell other people who might be
interested, and vote up the proposal if you like it.

The
Open Government Dialog site <http://opengov.ideascale.com/>
where this proposal appears is part of the White House's
implementation of the Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government
that Obama signed on his first day in office. Hundreds of ideas have
already been posted. Many are very specific and some look quite
worthy, but I think mine stands out for the reasons listed in my
justification:

First, one of the Administration's major goals is to bring high-speed
networking to every resident of the country.

Second, this goal is fundamental to the other goals in the Memorandum
on Transparency and Open Government. Members of the public need
continuous access to the Internet and the ability to handle video and
sophisticated graphical displays in order to make full use of the
resources provided in open government efforts.

 The *local* community aspect is also crucial, for reasons I
list in my justification.

Many readers will note that the people who need my proposal the most
the ones who have the most trouble participating in the forums--people
who can't afford computers, who have access only to intermittent
dial-up Internet access, etc. I deal with this ironic problem in the
proposal in several ways (public terminals, face-to-face meetings,
partnering with newspapers and television).

Because the formatting came out a mess, I'm reprinting the proposal
below.
------------------------------
Local forums to implement high-speed networks (broadband)

Municipalities and regions undertaking projects in high-speed
networking be encouraged to create online forums that:

   -

   Post regional maps showing the demographic features, geographical
   features, patterns of network use, and technological facilities
   relevant to the project
   -

   Accept proposals, provide comment and rating systems, and run polls
   -

   Provide public terminals and low-bandwidth versions of data, so that
   people who are currently on the disadvantaged side of the digital
   divide can offer input to help cross that divide
   -

   Are supplemented by face-to-face gatherings
   -

   Collaborate with newspapers and with television and radio news
   programs to publicize proposals, meetings, and opportunities for
   public comment
   -

   Create visitor accounts, perhaps with validation procedures for
   determining local residence, and allow visitors to identify their
   expertise and credentials
   -

   Provide tools for mapping proposed facilities and for calculating the
   reach, bandwidth, and costs of proposed facilities
   -

   Provide data about ongoing deployments in standardized, open formats
   on maps and in downloadable form

 The federal-level initiative can support these efforts by:

   -

   Mandating the types of information that participating municipalities
   and companies should provide, such as the capabilities of current
   facilities, statistics on current usage, demographic information such
   as income and connectivity on a neighborhood basis, and detailed
   implementation plans with measurable milestones
   -

   Funding the development of software tools, such as programs that can
   estimate the quality of wireless coverage for different terrains, or
   the time period required to recoup the costs of building out networks
   -

   Providing formats and quality standards for the data provided
   -

   Publicizing successful initiatives, the tools they used, and their
   best practices

Why Is This Idea Important

High-speed digital networking (also known as "broadband") should
concern open government advocates in two ways.

First, one of the Administration's major goals is to bring high-speed
networking to every resident of the country.

Second, this goal is fundamental to the other goals in the Memorandum
on Transparency and Open Government. Members of the public need
continuous access to the Internet and the ability to handle video and
sophisticated graphical displays in order to make full use of the
resources provided in open government efforts.
 Why do I stress the local nature of these forums?

All networking is (on one level) local. Given the limited resources
available for any network deployment, and the trade-offs that must be
made during plans, decision-makers need to take into account local
demographics, geography, topology, social and economic priorities, and
existing facilities. Here are just a few examples the many local
issues typically considered:

   -

   Which neighborhoods are already relatively well-served or poorly
   served
   -

   Where it's cost-effective to string fiber, versus serving a
   neighborhood through a high-bandwidth wireless solution
   -

   Whether there are existing facilities and lines that could be
   repurposed or upgraded for high-speed networking
   -

   How many public funds to invest and which private firms to contract
   with to provide infrastructure or Internet service
   -

   Whether a non-essential service, such as wireless for spots where
   tourists or businesspeople congregate, could generate enough new jobs
   or revenue to be worth an investment
   -

   What public and private partners and sources of investment are
   available
   -

   Whether people in potential new markets have the desire and education
   to use new network services, and how to create the conditions under
   which the populations would use the services

 Innumerable issues like these require local knowledge and judgment.
That is why many innovative and successful initiatives to provide
digital networks have been launched by local governments or local
private service providers.

Local collaboration to promote network penetration can also build
bonds that support local communities in other ways. The global reach
of the Internet has long been stressed, but the role of digital
networks in connecting people within geographical communities and
improving their way of life may be even more important and is
beginning to be recognized.

Although complex, the issues are no more complex than many other
issues being considered for implementation of the open government
directive. With proper organization and support, community members
could make these decisions and monitor their implementation.

Local community forums also attract participants more easily than
geographically distributed "communities of interest." People are
likely to respond to the invitations of friends and neighbors, and to
be more loyal to the forums when they know the participants
personally. So local forums are good ways to initiate the general
public to the notion of transparent and participatory governance.
A note on current federal broadband initiatives

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) includes a Broadband
Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), operated through the NTIA,
that creates a 4.7-billion-dollar program to promote broadband,
particularly for unserved areas and populations.

The implementation does not involve any of the innovative aspects of
the open government directive, such as collaborative online forums and
data exposed through open formats and APIs. Like other programs in
ARRA, the focus on providing a fast economic stimulus led to a
schedule that does not accommodate time to set up and accept comments
in this manner. A public comment period was held from March 12 to
April 13, 2009, and proposals must be submitted by September 2009.

The FCC adopted the goal of expanding broadband access many years ago,
and cites this goal in many opinions concerning competition. The FCC
also continues to offer funds for broadband under the Universal
Service Fund (USF), which was expanded by the 1996 Telecommunications Act to
include Internet access. The USF does not involve public online forums
or open data access.

The FCC also plans to publish a national broadband plan by February
2010. Because the funds from BTOP will probably be disbursed by then,
this plan could be a locus for the kinds of forums describes in this
proposal.

*Quick disclaimer*: broadband adoption is hard to measure--it
depends on such fuzz factors as the minimum speed defined as
"broadband," the difference between potential and usual speeds, and
uncertainties about actual availability versus official penetration
rates--but recent estimates suggest that half of the United States
population has always-on, high-speed network access. Although this
reflects a substantial increase in recent years, it still leaves the
US behind many other developed nations. Further improvements will
require more intensive planning and careful resource allocation, as we
try to extend adoption to populations with fewer resources or
geographical challenges.

Summary of benefits

   -

   When the public can evaluate the options available to their community
   and the trade-offs required, they can reach agreement on a digital
   networking policy that reflects the values of many constituents and
   communities.
   -

   Tools for measuring the impacts of different proposals can help
   everyone in the community agree on what trade-offs exist, and provide
   a factual basis for decision-making.
   -

   Technically trained members of the community can use the measurement
   and visualization tools on the forum to educate those who are less
   technically sophisticated and ensure that everyone has the opportunity
   to make valid and appropriate input.
   -

   Progress in implementation can be followed by the public, who can
   demand accountability in spending and results.
   -

   Collaboration in building local networks can lead to continued
   collaboration in using those networks to improve economic,
   educational, and policy initiatives in the communities. They can also
   give visitors the skills and interests to join larger, national
   efforts in fulfillment of the Memorandum on Transparency and Open
   Government,
   -

   Standardization and information sharing between communities can help
   later communities reach successful conclusions more quickly and with
   less wasted effort.
   -

   Finally, the public participation fostered by local forums can educate
   the public about telecommunications issues that have a national or
   even international scope, such as expanding major access points,
   fostering technological innovation, and changing national policies and
   laws.


<http://feeds2.feedburner.com/%7Eff/oreilly/radar/atom?a=QE9EPjWk178:-CGeCsh_RPw:V_sGLiPBpWU>
<http://feeds2.feedburner.com/%7Eff/oreilly/radar/atom?a=QE9EPjWk178:-CGeCsh_RPw:yIl2AUoC8zA>
<http://feeds2.feedburner.com/%7Eff/oreilly/radar/atom?a=QE9EPjWk178:-CGeCsh_RPw:JEwB19i1-c4>
<http://feeds2.feedburner.com/%7Eff/oreilly/radar/atom?a=QE9EPjWk178:-CGeCsh_RPw:7Q72WNTAKBA>

Welcoming Eric Ries to the Radar
Team<http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/oreilly/radar/atom/%7E3/Rx3q21V833Y/welcoming-eric-ries-to-the-rad.html>

Posted: 23 May 2009 09:17 AM PDT

The Radar blog is a community of
thinkers<http://radar.oreilly.com/about/radar-team.html>organized
around the O’Reilly mission to change the world by spreading the
knowledge of innovators. Some of the folks with posting privileges on Radar
are O'Reilly employees: Brady Forrest organizes the
ETech<http://conferences.oreilly.com/etech>,
Where 2.0 <http://conferences.oreilly.com/where> and Web 2.0
Expo<http://web2expo.com/>events, Mike Loukides, Andy Oram, Brett
McLaughlin, and Mike Hendrickson are
editors of many of the books you know and love, Ben Lorica does data
analysis in our research group <http://radar.oreilly.com/research/>, Andrew
Savikas heads up our digital publishing efforts <http://toc.oreilly.com/>,
Dale Dougherty is the publisher of Make: <http://www.makezine.com/>, Sara
Winge runs the Radar group and organizes our annual Foo Camp.


Others work part-time with us, such as our open source maven Alison Randal,
who co-chairs the Open Source Convention<http://conferences.oreilly.com/oscon>,
and “Master of Disaster” Jesse Robbins, who co-chairs the
Velocity<http://conferences.oreilly.com/velocity>conference on large
scale web operations. Some are alumni such as Nat
Torkington and Marc Hedlund, who have gone on to other jobs but remain very
much part of the O'Reilly family.


But others are interesting people we have met along the journey like Artur
Bergman, Jim Stogdill, and Nick Bilton. These are people who've stimulated
our thinking and helped us reflect on areas we want to learn about. In each
case the goal is the same - talk about "Stuff That Matters"
<http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/01/work-on-stuff-that-matters-fir.html> and
generate meaningful conversation. With that in mind, I wanted to welcome
Eric Ries to the Radar community.


I met Eric a few months ago, and immediately realized that he was someone I
could learn a lot from, and whose ideas I wanted to spread as widely as
possible.
Eric has been championing the concept of The Lean Startup; a methodology
that helps startups learn and adapt faster than the competition. Startups
get lean through a mixture of agile development, leveraged product
development and implementing direct, tight customer feedback loops. The
result is a new type of company - one that uses operational excellence to
drive down costs and accelerate learning.


Eric’s methodology has been honed by running successful startups (and
learning from running unsuccessful ones) along with experience gathered
through consulting, mentoring, and advising entrepreneurs. The Lean Startup
is deeply prescriptive and practical; it is a vision for a new way to start,
build and grow your company—starting on day one.


One of the things that excites me about the Lean Startup is that it doesn’t
just apply to the traditional “two guys in a garage.” The questions that I
have seen technology startups face time and again are increasingly relevant
to institutions of all kinds: Who exactly is my customer? What exactly do
they want? How do I deliver my product quickly and effectively at lower
cost? Lessons learned in the crucible of entrepreneurship are applicable to
enterprise and to government as both struggle to do more with less, to grow
to reach new markets, and to innovate.

You will find Eric here occasionally on Radar as well as on his
blog<http://startuplessonslearned.blogspot.com/>.
Additionally, Eric has partnered with O’Reilly to produce a series of upcoming
workshops <http://training.oreilly.com/theleanstartup/> intended to help
people master the concepts of The Lean Startup.

-- 
==========================================
J. T. Johnson
Institute for Analytic Journalism -- Santa Fe, NM USA
www.analyticjournalism.com
505.577.6482(c)                                    505.473.9646(h)
http://www.jtjohnson.com                 tom at jtjohnson.com

"Quantitative and Digital Skills of International
Journalism and Communications Educators"
http://journosurvey.notlong.com
==========================================
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www2.dcn.org/pipermail/1st-mile-nm/attachments/20090524/5aa64b51/attachment.html>

More information about the 1st-mile-nm mailing list