[Davisgig] one key step. Was Re: A question

[Clark Dodsworth]

Thanks, Larry and Rob, for your thinking and work regarding a city-owned layer 1 & 2 plan.

I listened to presentations by the consulting firm brought in by the city several months ago. It’s viable. 

The most important thing (from our perspective) is for the technical community to continuously "be at the table.”

We need to maintain real presence at the various meetings of City staff, consultants, community interest groups, Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Davis, etc., contributing as needed, and to keep the discussants aware of two things: 

(1) The benefits, described from an access point of view; the business opportunities that can happen if A is available, and B is built on top of A, etc.  This is partly a technically-informed, solidly-grounded vision, and partly a road map, begun by the consultants, BUT translated by the local technical authorities (very much involving davisgig) into terms that relate directly to the Davis community as a whole.

(2) The technical issues of each step in the decision process, with estimates of their cost in cash, time, and the necessary collaboration, communication, and compromise….so that none are overlooked, to emerge later as higher costs.

All best for the holidays,

-Clark

Clark Dodsworth
 Osage Associates
  clark at dodsworth.com
  @clarkdodsworth
  www.dodsworth.com
  +1 530.262.7800 m.
  +1 530.757.6300 o.

On Dec 20, 2014, at 6:57 PM, Larry Dieterich <ls at whitewavedigital.com> wrote:

> On Dec 19, 2014, at 9:48 PM, rob <rob at omsoft.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi
>> 
>> So thanks for the feedback about having 2 documents, and having some themes to reference in the content inside of them.
>> 
>> The getting a person on the council to by strongly excited about doing this is good, and that is a requirement to get them on board, as well as the city manager. To do that requires some organization and time.
>> 
>> At this point, before we get involved in doing that.
>> 
>> My specific question
>> 
>> Do you think the operating structure outline in the document I attached is realistic and achievable, specifically, the whole wholesale city-owned layer 1 and 2 ( physical and transport) and have retail ISPs come in to sell the gigabit speeds.  Does it make business sense, do you think it would work?
>> 
>> From my point of view, it definitely can at a hardware and network engineering layer.
>> I also know how to make the phone company part happen, on the regulatory level with the PUC,  how it works, and how to get it done. That gives us access to the conduit and the poles and stuff.
>> The financial aspect, the management aspect, other possible liability issues are areas that need more study from better minds\.
>> 
>> 
>> If this is a realistic scenario, I'd suggest we also try a strategic planning session to work out some more of a road map, and get some more engineer input from campus. After all, they handle a rather large almost munifiber network themselves.
>> 
>> Burlington Vermont did this and they had issues that I'd like to avoid.
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burlington_Telecom
>> http://www.burlingtontelecom.net/Home
>> 
>> IT is now more commercial, but it started as a non profit CLEC, that had city school district and college people, so its history is something to be investigated.
>> 
>> Thanks
>> RAN
>> _______________________________________________
>> Davisgig mailing list
>> Davisgig at list.omsoft.com
>> http://list.omsoft.com/mailman/listinfo/davisgig
> 
> I looked at the document and I confess to not having insight into the financial and business ends of the equation here. I’d defer to the experience of other projects as to the workability of the funding and business arrangements.
> 
> I think the political appeal has to come from the attractiveness of the product, both in terms of the utility (as in usefulness) and the cost to the city and the consumers.
> 
> I found a recent (10/14) Pew research paper about gigabit public networks. It is attached.
> 
> I think one of the things that needs to happen is for us to reach out to some learned members of our community to ask them to engage here. I feel that we need some more brainpower and experience. I am Bcc: ing some folks as a way of inviting them to join this discussion.
> 
> I think that everybody in our community would like to see-
> A - faster public network
> B - spending our Internet money with entities we like
> 
> Larry
> 
> <PIP_KillerAppsinGigabitAge_100914.pdf>

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