From rob at omsoft.com Thu Jan 1 11:19:46 2015 From: rob at omsoft.com (rob) Date: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 11:19:46 -0800 Subject: [Davisgig] A Brief Hiatus Message-ID: Hi Sorry all, I have been on a vacation, I have approved a couple of posts from over the holiday, and look forward to continuing this discussion, when I return in some days time. Thanks RAN From rob at omsoft.com Fri Jan 2 22:32:14 2015 From: rob at omsoft.com (rob) Date: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 22:32:14 -0800 Subject: [Davisgig] DavisGig Recapitulation for new list members Message-ID: <2d219b4b2b59120ecb5527bda0acdf86@dcn.org> Hi Davisites After returning from a much needed 2 week break from the e-world, its good to see input from sources, I have great respect for, and am relieved to hear from. It also looks like a new wave of folks has joined the list, so I wanted to recapitulate the story on the genesis for this. While pondering a response to the City Request for Expression of Interest on Gigabit fiber, I wrote up a model on how a city owned fiber network would work, and could operate. In my business presently, I've been pondering on this issue for some years, and I'm thinking now the timing is getting right for deploying this. For instance, End user fiber CPE (customer premise equipment) can be had now for about $100 and it works well. Here is the URL for the document: http://list.omsoft.com/pipermail/davisgig/attachments/20141217/2c9577f8/attachment-0001.pdf So initially, I am soliciting feedback on this, as a general plan, and how it can be refined, or improved. New list members, over the next days take a moment and read it up. Let me know what I'm missing. Really appreciate everyone's response so far. I've reached out to some of you over 2014 about making this happen in our town, and am really needing and looking to you all to help us realize this for our community. My time is really stretched between work and family as everyone's is. And so, onward. Does anyone have good suggestions aside from a private wiki type site where we can track people's input? That way we have it easily at hand as we are refining a plan for the city to consider, and we can use it to build the content for our public facing website that is presenting the importance of this project to our neighbors. I can try and have a dokuwiki here in some days, we can use privately, and I'll apply for a simple site from DCN for the public facing site. From flcli at ucdavis.edu Mon Jan 5 11:45:45 2015 From: flcli at ucdavis.edu (Fei Li) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2015 19:45:45 +0000 Subject: [Davisgig] DavisGig website In-Reply-To: <2d219b4b2b59120ecb5527bda0acdf86@dcn.org> References: <2d219b4b2b59120ecb5527bda0acdf86@dcn.org> Message-ID: <1420487145102.94404@UCDAVIS.EDU> Hey Guys, I'm gonna have a bit of free time in the upcoming months. I'm a web dev for the University right now, so I wouldn't mind working on the DavisGig website. We should certainly use it to garner public support, but have it also be informative for local government, etc. I'm wondering if we should have a separate area of the site with logistical/financial/etc specifics? We *could* model it after the site that The Cannery (http://livecannerydavis.com/) is using to generate hype. Maybe not the same design, but similar in content? We could provide more info and fewer platitudes, though. Anyway, I'd be glad to work with you guys to figure out what'll go on the site and how interactive it will be. Thanks. From szsherm at yahoo.com Mon Jan 5 15:25:23 2015 From: szsherm at yahoo.com (Shneor Sherman) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2015 15:25:23 -0800 Subject: [Davisgig] Rob's Proposal Message-ID: <1420500323.17278.YahooMailBasic@web161705.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> I've read Rob's proposal. My concern is the cost and how it will be repaid. Incidentally, I noticed that there is no rough example of repayment for homeowners. That's a necessity, as the document is incomplete without it. Rob's document does not demonstrate any benefits to gigabyte fiber to the home beyond those available now. For example, I can stream content quite comfortably right now at 5 or 6 mbps. What will gigabyte internet provide beyond that? Whatever that may be, it needs to be addressed. What will I be able to do that I previously could not? The issue of homeowner cost is of supreme importance, since it is homeowners who will have to vote on this. So the cost and benefits need to be specifically spelled out. Given the rising cost of water in Davis, there has to be benefit to fiber that will be very valuable to households, or voters will simply reject any increased cost for living in Davis. Just talking about gigabyte internet to the home is a loser politically. I am wondering if digging for fiber could be combined with, for example, burying power lines and splitting the cost with PG&E. Just a few preliminary thoughts. Shneor Shermann From flcli at ucdavis.edu Mon Jan 5 19:53:41 2015 From: flcli at ucdavis.edu (Fei Li) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2015 03:53:41 +0000 Subject: [Davisgig] Rob's Proposal In-Reply-To: <1420500323.17278.YahooMailBasic@web161705.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> References: <1420500323.17278.YahooMailBasic@web161705.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <16A1AAEC-F13B-4405-B737-9BA98CE86992@ucdavis.edu> One option is to see if we can get service providers to provide something like Sling TV: http://www.cnet.com/news/dish-launches-20-sling-tv-streaming-video-service-with-channel-lineup-that-includes-espn-disney/ Millenials (like me) are unlikely to purchase traditional cable TV subscriptions unless bundled for cheaper with internet, such as Comcast's model. The ability to stream HD television content 24/7 would require a reasonably fast connection as well as unmetered internet, which no ISP currently provides at the basic consumer level. We're not only provding speed, we're providing legitimately unlimited data. But we need to figure out to a way to make the speed aspect attractive as well. ;) > On Jan 5, 2015, at 3:26 PM, Shneor Sherman wrote: > > I've read Rob's proposal. My concern is the cost and how it will be repaid. Incidentally, I noticed that there is no rough example of repayment for homeowners. That's a necessity, as the document is incomplete without it. > > Rob's document does not demonstrate any benefits to gigabyte fiber to the home beyond those available now. For example, I can stream content quite comfortably right now at 5 or 6 mbps. What will gigabyte internet provide beyond that? Whatever that may be, it needs to be addressed. What will I be able to do that I previously could not? > > The issue of homeowner cost is of supreme importance, since it is homeowners who will have to vote on this. So the cost and benefits need to be specifically spelled out. Given the rising cost of water in Davis, there has to be benefit to fiber that will be very valuable to households, or voters will simply reject any increased cost for living in Davis. Just talking about gigabyte internet to the home is a loser politically. > > I am wondering if digging for fiber could be combined with, for example, burying power lines and splitting the cost with PG&E. > > Just a few preliminary thoughts. > > Shneor Shermann > _______________________________________________ > Davisgig mailing list > Davisgig at list.omsoft.com > http://list.omsoft.com/mailman/listinfo/davisgig From davisgig at dabrado.net Tue Jan 6 00:05:38 2015 From: davisgig at dabrado.net (Braden Pellett) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2015 00:05:38 -0800 Subject: [Davisgig] Rob's Proposal In-Reply-To: <16A1AAEC-F13B-4405-B737-9BA98CE86992@ucdavis.edu> References: <1420500323.17278.YahooMailBasic@web161705.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> <16A1AAEC-F13B-4405-B737-9BA98CE86992@ucdavis.edu> Message-ID: <20150106080538.GA16042@enso> I also feel that fiber's *upload* bandwidth being big and equal to the download bandwidth is a very attractive feature. To me, it is rather empowering that I could (theoretically anyway) serve up as much data as I consume. I feel like it possibly opens up doors to new ways to interact with the internet. For example, it seems that one of the big draws of the internet has been its fragmentation of the media landscape, such that we can now all be little content providers. And that was with our upload bandwidth being only a fraction of the download. What might happen when they are equal? Anyway, just another thought that might be fun to play with. Thanks, Braden On Tue, Jan 06, 2015 at 03:53:41AM +0000, Fei Li wrote: > One option is to see if we can get service providers to provide something like Sling TV: http://www.cnet.com/news/dish-launches-20-sling-tv-streaming-video-service-with-channel-lineup-that-includes-espn-disney/ > > Millenials (like me) are unlikely to purchase traditional cable TV subscriptions unless bundled for cheaper with internet, such as Comcast's model. The ability to stream HD television content 24/7 would require a reasonably fast connection as well as unmetered internet, which no ISP currently provides at the basic consumer level. We're not only provding speed, we're providing legitimately unlimited data. > > But we need to figure out to a way to make the speed aspect attractive as well. ;) > > > > > On Jan 5, 2015, at 3:26 PM, Shneor Sherman wrote: > > > > I've read Rob's proposal. My concern is the cost and how it will be repaid. Incidentally, I noticed that there is no rough example of repayment for homeowners. That's a necessity, as the document is incomplete without it. > > > > Rob's document does not demonstrate any benefits to gigabyte fiber to the home beyond those available now. For example, I can stream content quite comfortably right now at 5 or 6 mbps. What will gigabyte internet provide beyond that? Whatever that may be, it needs to be addressed. What will I be able to do that I previously could not? > > > > The issue of homeowner cost is of supreme importance, since it is homeowners who will have to vote on this. So the cost and benefits need to be specifically spelled out. Given the rising cost of water in Davis, there has to be benefit to fiber that will be very valuable to households, or voters will simply reject any increased cost for living in Davis. Just talking about gigabyte internet to the home is a loser politically. > > > > I am wondering if digging for fiber could be combined with, for example, burying power lines and splitting the cost with PG&E. > > > > Just a few preliminary thoughts. > > > > Shneor Shermann From bill at broadley.org Tue Jan 6 03:04:30 2015 From: bill at broadley.org (Bill Broadley) Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 03:04:30 -0800 Subject: [Davisgig] proposal feedback. Message-ID: <54ABC13E.20404@broadley.org> "This is a marketing play for the city, and University, as much as a great and fast new network. Having the new network will bring more medium and larger business and attract and retain graduating talent and business to the community." Considering a fair number of voters in Davis are home owners I'd mention the study that shows fast internet helps increase home prices. Something like this study that mentions "Consulting found that fiber optic internet adds roughly $5,250 to the value of a $300,000 home. " ref [1] http://www.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/news/archives/2014/07/InternetSpeed.aspx ref [2] http://motherboard.vice.com/read/gigabit-internet-connections-make-property-values-rise "We have to convince city council its a good idea. Then, I'm sure some sort of ballot measure will ensue or not, that will pass because this idea is so Davis-y and there is a lot of enthusiasm for it among the populace." City council controls the ballot? Would this be consider a city wide/local initiative? Looks like we would need to file it, pay $200, and get signatures from 10% of the registered voters? I'm guessing that getting 10% would require something popular, a fair number of volunteers at tables in front of grocery stores and the like, and probably funds for mass mailing registered voters. I seem to recall seeing some city or county service price list that allowed entities to email all voters. I found a dated reference explaining California local initiatives: http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/report/R_904TGR.pdf Can city council allocate non-trivial funds without passing a local initiative? "We have to convince city council its a good idea. Then, I'm sure some sort of ballot measure will ensue or not, that will pass because this idea is so Davis-y and there is a lot of enthusiasm for it among the populace." Given the economic diversity, worries about how reliable a new service would be, and widely varying internet costs from omsoft, dsl, uverse, comcast, and related I'd be surprised if we could get >= 85% buyin before rolling out in a "fiberhood". Seems like 50% would be more likely. Doesn't seem sensible to try to make things overly profitable before rollout. I don't see why a community network shouldn't work well enough for the adoption rates over time shouldn't increase. I'd be very careful to mention anything that might imply phone service. Google backed off on this very quickly because of 911 related bureaucracy and onerous regulations. Acting as a middle man for VOIP certainly makes sense. I'd also be very careful about mentioning anything to AT&T and Comcast, apparently they employ various underhanded tactics to sabotage community network projects at all scales.... even when they don't provide access to that area. I've heard of them paying experts to raise all kinds of FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) and have said experts take their findings to the local city council. Other advantages to a community network I'd mention: 1) promote consumer choice and increased value through lower prices and increased competition 2) Allow users to pay for what they want, HBO announced services for cord cutters and cinemax is following suite. Consumer satisfaction with Comcast is extremely low, to a large degree this is because of a lack of competition. Further restricted by comcast/AT&T data usage caps. 3) Improved privacy and freedom of choice. Verizon and other large ISPs have been caught altering traffic to enable tracking of users. 4) Support of network neutrality, to benefit consumers. AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast have been heavily lobbying the FCC to kill network neutrality. 5) increased or unlimited bandwidth caps would help netflix and other video/audio streaming services compete with typically inferior or more expensive services from AT&T or Comcast 6) improved service/support from local organizations catered to the local needs. 7) increased local spending improves the local (city, county, and state) economy (both directly from profits and indirectly through supporting more local companies. Less money going to comcast/AT&T with support staff often in random 3rd world countries the better. 8) more opportunities for improving connectivity for low income folks. Google fiber allows a one time cost of $200 (one time or in 12 payments) for 7 years of connectivity at a few mbit. Changes to end user agreements could allow network sharing and improved connectivity in public areas via wifi. Network sharing is against the end user policies of Comcast and AT&T AFAIK. 9) Include improved connectivity for schools and libraries. Ideally enough to support numerous video streams for things like kahn academy, MIT courses, Stanford courses, and the numerous online coursing becoming rather popular. 10) not sure how common this is, but netflix has a program to send a caching proxy to help significantly reduce upstream bandwidth needs for free. It comes in the form of a 4U freebsd box with 45 large disks, and 2 10gbit connections. I believe they allow community level networks in their program (you don't have to be a huge provider). 11) Bandwidth and IPv6 support for future users of IoT (Internet of Things) and expected related services to help improve home automation, home security, remote learning applications, smart meters, load shedding during peak power consumption, easier to monitor alternative energy services, etc. No idea if PG&E would participate in city wide network. Seems like solar installations are certainly getting quite common. 12) improved coverage for t-mobile today with wifi calling and AT&T and verizon (who announced wifi calling) over the next year or two. The helps improve cell phone connectivity which improves safety without adding towers. Doubly so inside energy efficient buildings which often have metallic coated windows which block cell signals quite efficiently. 13) I've read about various emergency notification systems, not aware of any at the city/community level though. UCD has one that's email, voice, and SMS based. Nextdoor.com has some official representation from the police department and city I believe. Not sure if a community network could help improve emergency notifications for things like local fires, storms, local flooding, road closures, power outages, train accidents, ongoing criminal activity, etc. Wow, sorry for the rant, hopefully there's some worthwhile bits... From flcli at ucdavis.edu Tue Jan 6 10:47:02 2015 From: flcli at ucdavis.edu (Fei Li) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2015 18:47:02 +0000 Subject: [Davisgig] Rob's Proposal In-Reply-To: <1420529266.35290.YahooMailBasic@web161704.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> References: <16A1AAEC-F13B-4405-B737-9BA98CE86992@ucdavis.edu>, <1420529266.35290.YahooMailBasic@web161704.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <1420569995404.92232@UCDAVIS.EDU> I think Bill brought up a good point in the other thread: "Consulting found that fiber optic internet adds roughly $5,250 to the value of a $300,000 home." Additionally: "British study found that people in London are willing to pay 8 percent above market prices for homes and apartments that have high speed internet." If the past has been any indicator, maintaining home values is something Davis homeowners fight fiercely for. Increasing home values would be an even more attractive prospect. Homeowners that intend to rent their homes out could advertise this. So could apartment complexes. We also don't have to provide only a single tier of gigabit. If 100 mbps is all you want, then you can subscribe to that level of service for cheaper than you would for 1 gbps. Yes, we do need to think of attractive reasons for why anyone would *need* 1 gbps down. But we also can't ignore everything else that *municipal fiber* comes with. ________________________________________ From: Shneor Sherman Sent: Monday, January 5, 2015 11:27 PM To: Fei Li Subject: Re: [Davisgig] Rob's Proposal I can currently stream HD 24/7 if I were so inclined. I also have sling included with my satellite subscription, and it's nice to be able to stream that when I travel. But much as I like the idea of gigabyte to the home, while quad density HDTVs are available, no one is providing the service and no one will until enough homes have these currently very expensive models. I understand your position as a millenial, but you are a tiny minority of Davis homeowners. It's homeowners who are the majority in Davis, and until you can spell out advangates of gigabyte internet, no one will pay much attention. So what's the killer app or apps that will make it worthwhile? Also, what good is it if I can't afford the services? Rob's document talks about 100 mbps to the home - that's one-tenth of the proposed capacity. Who needs the rest? Again, what is this going to do for me? Unlimited data sounds nice, but what does that mean in practice? I can see, for example, that medically frail homebound individuals might benefit from transmission of huge amounts of medical data, but 10 mbps should easily manage that (if I trust the connection). Sorry to be so pragmatic, hopefully someone out there has more ideas. Shneor Sherman -------------------------------------------- On Mon, 1/5/15, Fei Li wrote: Subject: Re: [Davisgig] Rob's Proposal To: "Shneor Sherman" Cc: "davisgig at list.omsoft.com" Date: Monday, January 5, 2015, 7:53 PM One option is to see if we can get service providers to provide something like Sling TV: http://www.cnet.com/news/dish-launches-20-sling-tv-streaming-video-service-with-channel-lineup-that-includes-espn-disney/ Millenials (like me) are unlikely to purchase traditional cable TV subscriptions unless bundled for cheaper with internet, such as Comcast's model. The ability to stream HD television content 24/7 would require a reasonably fast connection as well as unmetered internet, which no ISP currently provides at the basic consumer level. We're not only provding speed, we're providing legitimately unlimited data. But we need to figure out to a way to make the speed aspect attractive as well. ;) > On Jan 5, 2015, at 3:26 PM, Shneor Sherman wrote: > > I've read Rob's proposal. My concern is the cost and how it will be repaid. Incidentally, I noticed that there is no rough example of repayment for homeowners. That's a necessity, as the document is incomplete without it. > > Rob's document does not demonstrate any benefits to gigabyte fiber to the home beyond those available now. For example, I can stream content quite comfortably right now at 5 or 6 mbps. What will gigabyte internet provide beyond that? Whatever that may be, it needs to be addressed. What will I be able to do that I previously could not? > > The issue of homeowner cost is of supreme importance, since it is homeowners who will have to vote on this. So the cost and benefits need to be specifically spelled out. Given the rising cost of water in Davis, there has to be benefit to fiber that will be very valuable to households, or voters will simply reject any increased cost for living in Davis. Just talking about gigabyte internet to the home is a loser politically. > > I am wondering if digging for fiber could be combined with, for example, burying power lines and splitting the cost with PG&E. > > Just a few preliminary thoughts. > > Shneor Shermann > _______________________________________________ > Davisgig mailing list > Davisgig at list.omsoft.com > http://list.omsoft.com/mailman/listinfo/davisgig From szsherm at yahoo.com Tue Jan 6 10:49:57 2015 From: szsherm at yahoo.com (Shneor Sherman) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2015 10:49:57 -0800 Subject: [Davisgig] Bill Broadley's Comments Message-ID: <1420570197.29765.YahooMailBasic@web161706.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> Bill, I appreciate your response. However, it does not address the question: Where is the direct benefit to homeowners? An extra $5000 value to a half-million dollar home is inconsequential. How many homeowners want to be content providers or maintain a website on their own? I suspect very few. If we are talking about schools and libraries, it's far cheaper to provide lines only to those entities. I'm pretty sure that this will require an initiative, though the City Council could act on its own. To get votes, voters will have to see direct benefits. What might those be? Shneor Sherman From bill at broadley.org Tue Jan 6 19:29:20 2015 From: bill at broadley.org (Bill Broadley) Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 19:29:20 -0800 Subject: [Davisgig] Bill Broadley's Comments In-Reply-To: <1420570197.29765.YahooMailBasic@web161706.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> References: <1420570197.29765.YahooMailBasic@web161706.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <54ACA810.4090202@broadley.org> On 01/06/2015 10:49 AM, Shneor Sherman wrote: > Bill, I appreciate your response. However, it does not address the question: > Where is the direct benefit to homeowners? An extra $5000 value to a > half-million dollar home is inconsequential. Well it was than $5,200 for a $300k house. The thought of adding $5k or more (the majority of Davis homes are worth more than $300k) to the value of ones home is a great incentive for registered voters to sign a petition or vote for the initiative. For the City of Davis that means more tax revenue per home, and more demand for Davis homes (assuming surrounding cities don't get GigE networking). > How many homeowners want to be > content providers or maintain a website on their own? Approximately zero. People who are in the Google fiber cities are quite enthusiastic about the service. The vast majority of the stories I've heard as just the normal fast internet is great type. Netflix streams at high quality, youtube videos start instantly, Amazon prime works great, ability to stream video while not impacting phone calls or video conferences etc. Also the freedom to buy the channels they want instead of expensive bundles and the freedom from the pain of: * buying/maintaining/replacing DVR/VCRs * watching whatever they want, whenever they want, even switching between devices * ability to watch a season of a favorite show as quickly as they want to. > I suspect very few. If > we are talking about schools and libraries, it's far cheaper to provide lines > only to those entities. Certainly, I was just mentioning that hugely improved network infrastructure could lead to improvements in educational opportunities at Davis Schools and Libraries. Not that these improvements would justify the costs all by themselves. Generally the higher end users would get very fast network connections (Google does GigE for $70 or so), the most cost conscious would get cheaper/slower connections (Google does 5 mbit for 7 years for $200), and those without paying anything might get better cell coverage (via shared wifi) or be able to use a wifi device in more areas than they do now. > I'm pretty sure that this will require an initiative, though the City Council > could act on its own. To get votes, voters will have to see direct benefits. > What might those be? 1) not dealing with hated companies like comcast (typically #1 or #2 hated) 2) not being restricted by bandwidth caps (comcast is 250GB last I checked) 3) improved network performance Households with multiple people using laptops, TVs, and phones are pretty common. I run up against my comcast 250GB cap despite having a pretty low end TV (720P, not 1080p let alone 4K) and not having a particularly TV centric household. We also do minimal music streaming. So a typical household with a few kids/parents around who like tv and/or music: * 3 hours a day of music from pandora/spotify = 6.5GB * 1 hour a day of news/talk shows on standard definition TV = 30.4 GB * 1.5 hours a day of Movie on a nicer HD tv = 136 GB * 2 hours a week of Ultra HD/4k = 50 GB So that adds up to 220GB which is pretty close to the 250GB cap. A bit of web surfing, youtube, email (especially large attachments) could easily consume the rest. Especially since audio/video streams are getting more data intensive over time. The above might sound like more than you'd expect, but keep in mind that might be spread over several users. Even appliances these days can use a fair amount of bandwidth. My stereo for instance (a fairly standard Denon receiver) consumers a fair amount of data for firmware updates periodically. Spending a day hiking and taking pictures can take a fair amount of bandwidth to upload photos. Things like movies or games can easily be over 1GB, and cloud based usage that's today means that the same movie might be downloaded more than once just to allow time shifting for 2 users to watch at different times. So sure 250GB is plenty for a single person under common use cases, but add some roommates/kids, video hangouts with grandparents, some phone calls or VOIP over wifi, and you can easily exceed 250GB. I'm a very technical user with a wide variety of uses for my home internet connection, but my 10 year old daughter uses a roku (easy to use streaming widget for audio/video) and tablet that results in consuming WAY more data than I do. My point being that even Joe Average Davis resident with roommates or kids could easily consumer more than comcast's data cap. From rob at omsoft.com Tue Jan 6 20:39:54 2015 From: rob at omsoft.com (Robert Nickerson) Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 20:39:54 -0800 Subject: [Davisgig] Bill Broadley's Comments In-Reply-To: <54ACA810.4090202@broadley.org> References: <1420570197.29765.YahooMailBasic@web161706.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> <54ACA810.4090202@broadley.org> Message-ID: <54ACB89A.8060406@omsoft.com> Hi This is very eloquent, and I'd say pretty damn accurate and succinct argument that could be morphed into a letter and put on the website. I have more to add about costs as well when I can at some point in the not too distant future. RAN On 1/6/2015 7:29 PM, Bill Broadley wrote: > On 01/06/2015 10:49 AM, Shneor Sherman wrote: >> Bill, I appreciate your response. However, it does not address the question: >> Where is the direct benefit to homeowners? An extra $5000 value to a >> half-million dollar home is inconsequential. > > Well it was than $5,200 for a $300k house. The thought of adding $5k or more > (the majority of Davis homes are worth more than $300k) to the value of ones > home is a great incentive for registered voters to sign a petition or vote for > the initiative. > > For the City of Davis that means more tax revenue per home, and more demand for > Davis homes (assuming surrounding cities don't get GigE networking). > >> How many homeowners want to be >> content providers or maintain a website on their own? > > Approximately zero. People who are in the Google fiber cities are quite > enthusiastic about the service. The vast majority of the stories I've heard as > just the normal fast internet is great type. Netflix streams at high quality, > youtube videos start instantly, Amazon prime works great, ability to stream > video while not impacting phone calls or video conferences etc. > > Also the freedom to buy the channels they want instead of expensive bundles and > the freedom from the pain of: > * buying/maintaining/replacing DVR/VCRs > * watching whatever they want, whenever they want, even switching between > devices > * ability to watch a season of a favorite show as quickly as they want to. > >> I suspect very few. If >> we are talking about schools and libraries, it's far cheaper to provide lines >> only to those entities. > > Certainly, I was just mentioning that hugely improved network infrastructure > could lead to improvements in educational opportunities at Davis Schools and > Libraries. Not that these improvements would justify the costs all by themselves. > > Generally the higher end users would get very fast network connections (Google > does GigE for $70 or so), the most cost conscious would get cheaper/slower > connections (Google does 5 mbit for 7 years for $200), and those without paying > anything might get better cell coverage (via shared wifi) or be able to use a > wifi device in more areas than they do now. > >> I'm pretty sure that this will require an initiative, though the City Council >> could act on its own. To get votes, voters will have to see direct benefits. >> What might those be? > > 1) not dealing with hated companies like comcast (typically #1 or #2 hated) > 2) not being restricted by bandwidth caps (comcast is 250GB last I checked) > 3) improved network performance > > Households with multiple people using laptops, TVs, and phones are pretty > common. I run up against my comcast 250GB cap despite having a pretty low end > TV (720P, not 1080p let alone 4K) and not having a particularly TV centric > household. We also do minimal music streaming. > > So a typical household with a few kids/parents around who like tv and/or music: > * 3 hours a day of music from pandora/spotify = 6.5GB > * 1 hour a day of news/talk shows on standard definition TV = 30.4 GB > * 1.5 hours a day of Movie on a nicer HD tv = 136 GB > * 2 hours a week of Ultra HD/4k = 50 GB > > So that adds up to 220GB which is pretty close to the 250GB cap. A bit of web > surfing, youtube, email (especially large attachments) could easily consume the > rest. Especially since audio/video streams are getting more data intensive over > time. > > The above might sound like more than you'd expect, but keep in mind that might > be spread over several users. Even appliances these days can use a fair amount > of bandwidth. My stereo for instance (a fairly standard Denon receiver) > consumers a fair amount of data for firmware updates periodically. Spending a > day hiking and taking pictures can take a fair amount of bandwidth to upload > photos. Things like movies or games can easily be over 1GB, and cloud based > usage that's today means that the same movie might be downloaded more than once > just to allow time shifting for 2 users to watch at different times. > > So sure 250GB is plenty for a single person under common use cases, but add some > roommates/kids, video hangouts with grandparents, some phone calls or VOIP over > wifi, and you can easily exceed 250GB. I'm a very technical user with a wide > variety of uses for my home internet connection, but my 10 year old daughter > uses a roku (easy to use streaming widget for audio/video) and tablet that > results in consuming WAY more data than I do. My point being that even Joe > Average Davis resident with roommates or kids could easily consumer more than > comcast's data cap. > > > _______________________________________________ > Davisgig mailing list > Davisgig at list.omsoft.com > http://list.omsoft.com/mailman/listinfo/davisgig > -- Rob Nickerson CEO Om Networks UCD Class of 96 C: 530-848-3865 If we have helped you in a positive way, please give us a good recommendation at daviswiki.org , and/or yelp.com . Please like us on Facebook . and put us in your circle at Google+ From dawalter at dcn.org Tue Jan 6 21:32:44 2015 From: dawalter at dcn.org (Douglas A. Walter) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2015 21:32:44 -0800 Subject: [Davisgig] Bill Broadley's Comments In-Reply-To: <54ACB89A.8060406@omsoft.com> References: <1420570197.29765.YahooMailBasic@web161706.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> <54ACA810.4090202@broadley.org> <54ACB89A.8060406@omsoft.com> Message-ID: <13CE0841-897E-46E1-9C2B-3D9052E6361F@dcn.org> Hi folks. My contribution (right now, and over time) is going to be small, and more about messages than about technical subjects. I think Bill does make some good arguments, but I'm surprised he/we haven't gone a little further into the subject of "Google fiber cities." I believe a giant corporation did this in a few places as a test bed, and because they anticipated that they couldn't anticipate some of the uses. There are quite a number of Davis residents who, in their day jobs, use giant data sets and high-bandwidth equipment on campus. It's very easy for me to imagine researchers with sufficient bandwidth writing applications so that they can queue up and remotely process samples (or whatever their kind of research derives data from), and then analyze the data at home using the same data sets. And my point is not so much that these people will immediately see what they can do and want to pay for it. Rather, it is that some (many?) will see that there's a huge potential in this kind of connection, beyond their current immediate work tasks, plus "the Internet of things," where major home appliances are updating their firmware, etc. etc. I do appreciate that there have to be some practical and near-term benefits. Now that we've started to describe those, the potential for growth and longer-term benefits has me even more interested. On Jan 6, 2015, at 8:39 PM, Robert Nickerson wrote: > Hi > > This is very eloquent, and I'd say pretty damn accurate and succinct argument that could be morphed into a letter and put on the website. > > I have more to add about costs as well when I can at some point in the not too distant future. > > RAN > > > On 1/6/2015 7:29 PM, Bill Broadley wrote: >> On 01/06/2015 10:49 AM, Shneor Sherman wrote: >>> Bill, I appreciate your response. However, it does not address the question: >>> Where is the direct benefit to homeowners? An extra $5000 value to a >>> half-million dollar home is inconsequential. >> >> Well it was than $5,200 for a $300k house. The thought of adding $5k or more >> (the majority of Davis homes are worth more than $300k) to the value of ones >> home is a great incentive for registered voters to sign a petition or vote for >> the initiative. >> >> For the City of Davis that means more tax revenue per home, and more demand for >> Davis homes (assuming surrounding cities don't get GigE networking). >> >>> How many homeowners want to be >>> content providers or maintain a website on their own? >> >> Approximately zero. People who are in the Google fiber cities are quite >> enthusiastic about the service. The vast majority of the stories I've heard as >> just the normal fast internet is great type. Netflix streams at high quality, >> youtube videos start instantly, Amazon prime works great, ability to stream >> video while not impacting phone calls or video conferences etc. >> >> Also the freedom to buy the channels they want instead of expensive bundles and >> the freedom from the pain of: >> * buying/maintaining/replacing DVR/VCRs >> * watching whatever they want, whenever they want, even switching between >> devices >> * ability to watch a season of a favorite show as quickly as they want to. >> >>> I suspect very few. If >>> we are talking about schools and libraries, it's far cheaper to provide lines >>> only to those entities. >> >> Certainly, I was just mentioning that hugely improved network infrastructure >> could lead to improvements in educational opportunities at Davis Schools and >> Libraries. Not that these improvements would justify the costs all by themselves. >> >> Generally the higher end users would get very fast network connections (Google >> does GigE for $70 or so), the most cost conscious would get cheaper/slower >> connections (Google does 5 mbit for 7 years for $200), and those without paying >> anything might get better cell coverage (via shared wifi) or be able to use a >> wifi device in more areas than they do now. >> >>> I'm pretty sure that this will require an initiative, though the City Council >>> could act on its own. To get votes, voters will have to see direct benefits. >>> What might those be? >> >> 1) not dealing with hated companies like comcast (typically #1 or #2 hated) >> 2) not being restricted by bandwidth caps (comcast is 250GB last I checked) >> 3) improved network performance >> >> Households with multiple people using laptops, TVs, and phones are pretty >> common. I run up against my comcast 250GB cap despite having a pretty low end >> TV (720P, not 1080p let alone 4K) and not having a particularly TV centric >> household. We also do minimal music streaming. >> >> So a typical household with a few kids/parents around who like tv and/or music: >> * 3 hours a day of music from pandora/spotify = 6.5GB >> * 1 hour a day of news/talk shows on standard definition TV = 30.4 GB >> * 1.5 hours a day of Movie on a nicer HD tv = 136 GB >> * 2 hours a week of Ultra HD/4k = 50 GB >> >> So that adds up to 220GB which is pretty close to the 250GB cap. A bit of web >> surfing, youtube, email (especially large attachments) could easily consume the >> rest. Especially since audio/video streams are getting more data intensive over >> time. >> >> The above might sound like more than you'd expect, but keep in mind that might >> be spread over several users. Even appliances these days can use a fair amount >> of bandwidth. My stereo for instance (a fairly standard Denon receiver) >> consumers a fair amount of data for firmware updates periodically. Spending a >> day hiking and taking pictures can take a fair amount of bandwidth to upload >> photos. Things like movies or games can easily be over 1GB, and cloud based >> usage that's today means that the same movie might be downloaded more than once >> just to allow time shifting for 2 users to watch at different times. >> >> So sure 250GB is plenty for a single person under common use cases, but add some >> roommates/kids, video hangouts with grandparents, some phone calls or VOIP over >> wifi, and you can easily exceed 250GB. I'm a very technical user with a wide >> variety of uses for my home internet connection, but my 10 year old daughter >> uses a roku (easy to use streaming widget for audio/video) and tablet that >> results in consuming WAY more data than I do. My point being that even Joe >> Average Davis resident with roommates or kids could easily consumer more than >> comcast's data cap. >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Davisgig mailing list >> Davisgig at list.omsoft.com >> http://list.omsoft.com/mailman/listinfo/davisgig >> > > -- > Rob Nickerson > > CEO > Om Networks > UCD Class of 96 > C: 530-848-3865 > > If we have helped you in a positive way, please give us a good > recommendation at daviswiki.org , and/or > yelp.com . > Please like us on Facebook > . and put us in your > circle at Google+ > _______________________________________________ > Davisgig mailing list > Davisgig at list.omsoft.com > http://list.omsoft.com/mailman/listinfo/davisgig -- ?Sing the names of the dead who brought us here, who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, picked the cotton and the lettuce, built brick by brick the glittering edifices they would then keep clean and work inside of.? -- Elizabeth Alexander Doug Walter ? dawalter at dcn.org ? (home address) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bill at broadley.org Wed Jan 7 01:08:27 2015 From: bill at broadley.org (Bill Broadley) Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 01:08:27 -0800 Subject: [Davisgig] Rob's Proposal In-Reply-To: <1420569995404.92232@UCDAVIS.EDU> References: <16A1AAEC-F13B-4405-B737-9BA98CE86992@ucdavis.edu>, <1420529266.35290.YahooMailBasic@web161704.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> <1420569995404.92232@UCDAVIS.EDU> Message-ID: <54ACF78B.4090701@broadley.org> > From: Shneor Sherman Sent: Monday, January 5, > 2015 11:27 PM To: Fei Li Subject: Re: [Davisgig] Rob's Proposal > > I can currently stream HD 24/7 if I were so inclined. What data plan do you have? With who? What is your monthly cap? If I login to comcast it claims I used 225GB in Nov, 173GB in Dec, and 58GB so far (as of Jan 7th) in January. Netflix claims 3GB an hour for HD. 24/7 * 3GB for a month would be over 2000GB a month... and that's assuming you don't upload stream it anywhere else with sling. > I also have > sling included with my satellite subscription, and it's nice to be > able to stream that when I travel. But much as I like the idea of > gigabyte to the home, while quad density HDTVs are available, no one > is providing the service Netflix and Amazon seem to have a fair bit of content. Popular shows like Breaking bad, House of Cards. Seems pretty popular with new series as well, alpha house, transparent, and orphan black. Looks like dozens of different tv series, movies, etc. I'm sure you could burn quite a bit of bandwidth watching them. 4k seems to be gaining popularity pretty quick. Wasn't that long ago that a 40" 1080P tv was $400. > and no one will until enough homes have > these currently very expensive models. 39" 4k TVs's start under $400, not what I'd call "very expensive". They will of course get cheaper and more popular over time. I didn't spend $400 on my last TV, but many do. > I understand your position as > a millenial, but you are a tiny minority of Davis homeowners. My 10 year old daughter would easily burn through 250GB given a roku or tablet and unlimited acces. > It's > homeowners who are the majority in Davis, and until you can spell out > advangates of gigabyte internet, no one will pay much attention. So > what's the killer app or apps that will make it worthwhile? Also, Replacing $75-$150 TV packages with 100s of channels of crap to get a few channels you like. What's worse that cable/sat has a rigid schedule and you have to worry about what is playing when and on which channel or the hassle of managing a DVR ahead of time. God forbid a sports game delays what you were trying to record. My daughter is 10 years old and as far as I know has never seen a TV commercial. She watches what she wants, when she wants to, with no forced commercials, previews, etc. Currently we pay $7.50 or so to netflix for streaming, and $80 a year (last I checked, I think it got more expensive recently) for amazon prime. Thus the rapidly gaining popularity of cord cutting. Even HBO and Cinemax, Showtime, ESPN, CBS, Sling, dish, etc are now coming around to realizing people like streaming/cord cutting. > what good is it if I can't afford the services? Rob's document talks > about 100 mbps to the home - that's one-tenth of the proposed > capacity. 100 mbit is plenty for common use cases, however if you actually use 100 mbit comcast and/or AT&T will get rather unhappy with you and likely terminate your service and leave you no recourse. At 100 mbit you hit the comcast cap in just over 4 hours. > Who needs the rest? Again, what is this going to do for me? > Unlimited data sounds nice, but what does that mean in practice? I Not having to carefully managing your bandwidth use. Want to leave a video hangout going to you can watch your kid/cat/aquarium? Want to backup that large music/video/photo connection? How about watch more than 1 hour a day of 4k content on a $400 TV? How about backing up one of the smaller disks you can buy today, a 1TB. Do you want to wait 8 months with comcast using 125GB month so you still have half the data for other uses? > can see, for example, that medically frail homebound individuals > might benefit from transmission of huge amounts of medical data, but > 10 mbps should easily manage that (if I trust the connection). Sorry > to be so pragmatic, hopefully someone out there has more ideas. Medical data is pretty small these days compared to video streaming. I've seen grand parents consume a fair bit of data just doing a 1080P video conference regularly with grand kids. With a bit of creativity you can even play board games. My samsung TV came with a video cam + multiple directional antennas designed to let a living room of people interact with a living room of people elsewhere with bidirectional 1080P video and wide band (full duplex) audio. Granted the most popular use I see is a 3 way video conference between my kid, family in Pennsylvania, and other family in Germany. Typically for 1-3 hours on weekends depending on what's going on. Kids love to show off artwork, paintings, drawings, lego buildings, even performances with pianos or violins. I've been at more meetings where some people are there physically, some are just connected via laptop. From anywhere from science meetings to singing happy birthday together. Video hangouts have replaced most things I used to use phone calls for, kids, even toddlers love it. Peek-a-boo isn't very fun to play over a phone ;-). From russell at vort.org Wed Jan 7 16:02:12 2015 From: russell at vort.org (Russell Neches) Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 16:02:12 -0800 Subject: [Davisgig] Rob's Proposal In-Reply-To: <54ACF78B.4090701@broadley.org> References: <16A1AAEC-F13B-4405-B737-9BA98CE86992@ucdavis.edu> , <1420529266.35290.YahooMailBasic@web161704.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> <1420569995404.92232@UCDAVIS.EDU> <54ACF78B.4090701@broadley.org> Message-ID: <1420675332.2833.3.camel@vort.org> I actually don't think the technical or financial details are especially compelling arguments. That isn't to say that municipal broadband is not cheaper, faster and technologically superior, or that it delivers better service. The truly compelling argument is actually a moral argument. Right now, consumer broadband networks are all controlled by companies that are openly undermining our democratic institutions. They use their power as monopolies to damage markets and destroy innovative new companies. They are complicit with unconstitutional mass surveillance. They have deliberately resisted deployment of modern technology because they see artificial bandwidth scarcity as a profit center. Consumers have warmer and friendlier feelings for the Internal Revenue Service than for AT&T, Comcast and Time Warner. These companies are bad actors. There are real and significant disadvantages to public utilities. However, the disadvantages are insignificant when set alongside the caustic effect of tolerating monopolies in our communities. The single biggest advantage of a public utility is that your relationship with it is subject to democratic institutions. Citizens can set their complaints before the relevant commissions and the city council, cast their ballots for candidates that want to address problems they care about, or run for office themselves. These mechanisms of redress are imperfect, but an imperfect mechanism is better than NO MECHANISM WHATSOEVER. Well, that isn't quite true. You can influence the broadband providers. Simply buy a hundred billion dollars of their stock, and they'll take your comments under advisement. Russell On Wed, 2015-01-07 at 01:08 -0800, Bill Broadley wrote: > > From: Shneor Sherman Sent: Monday, January 5, > > 2015 11:27 PM To: Fei Li Subject: Re: [Davisgig] Rob's Proposal > > > > I can currently stream HD 24/7 if I were so inclined. > > What data plan do you have? With who? What is your monthly cap? > > If I login to comcast it claims I used 225GB in Nov, 173GB in Dec, and > 58GB so far (as of Jan 7th) in January. > > Netflix claims 3GB an hour for HD. 24/7 * 3GB for a month would be over > 2000GB a month... and that's assuming you don't upload stream it > anywhere else with sling. > > > I also have > > sling included with my satellite subscription, and it's nice to be > > able to stream that when I travel. But much as I like the idea of > > gigabyte to the home, while quad density HDTVs are available, no one > > is providing the service > > Netflix and Amazon seem to have a fair bit of content. Popular shows > like Breaking bad, House of Cards. Seems pretty popular with new series > as well, alpha house, transparent, and orphan black. Looks like dozens > of different tv series, movies, etc. I'm sure you could burn quite a > bit of bandwidth watching them. 4k seems to be gaining popularity > pretty quick. Wasn't that long ago that a 40" 1080P tv was $400. > > > and no one will until enough homes have > > these currently very expensive models. > > 39" 4k TVs's start under $400, not what I'd call "very expensive". They > will of course get cheaper and more popular over time. I didn't spend > $400 on my last TV, but many do. > > > I understand your position as > > a millenial, but you are a tiny minority of Davis homeowners. > > My 10 year old daughter would easily burn through 250GB given a roku or > tablet and unlimited acces. > > > It's > > homeowners who are the majority in Davis, and until you can spell out > > advangates of gigabyte internet, no one will pay much attention. So > > what's the killer app or apps that will make it worthwhile? Also, > > Replacing $75-$150 TV packages with 100s of channels of crap to get a > few channels you like. What's worse that cable/sat has a rigid schedule > and you have to worry about what is playing when and on which channel or > the hassle of managing a DVR ahead of time. God forbid a sports game > delays what you were trying to record. > > My daughter is 10 years old and as far as I know has never seen a TV > commercial. She watches what she wants, when she wants to, with no > forced commercials, previews, etc. > > Currently we pay $7.50 or so to netflix for streaming, and $80 a year > (last I checked, I think it got more expensive recently) for amazon prime. > > Thus the rapidly gaining popularity of cord cutting. Even HBO and > Cinemax, Showtime, ESPN, CBS, Sling, dish, etc are now coming around to > realizing people like streaming/cord cutting. > > > what good is it if I can't afford the services? Rob's document talks > > about 100 mbps to the home - that's one-tenth of the proposed > > capacity. > > 100 mbit is plenty for common use cases, however if you actually use 100 > mbit comcast and/or AT&T will get rather unhappy with you and likely > terminate your service and leave you no recourse. At 100 mbit you hit > the comcast cap in just over 4 hours. > > > Who needs the rest? Again, what is this going to do for me? > > Unlimited data sounds nice, but what does that mean in practice? I > > Not having to carefully managing your bandwidth use. Want to leave a > video hangout going to you can watch your kid/cat/aquarium? Want to > backup that large music/video/photo connection? How about watch more > than 1 hour a day of 4k content on a $400 TV? > > How about backing up one of the smaller disks you can buy today, a 1TB. > Do you want to wait 8 months with comcast using 125GB month so you > still have half the data for other uses? > > > can see, for example, that medically frail homebound individuals > > might benefit from transmission of huge amounts of medical data, but > > 10 mbps should easily manage that (if I trust the connection). Sorry > > to be so pragmatic, hopefully someone out there has more ideas. > > Medical data is pretty small these days compared to video streaming. > I've seen grand parents consume a fair bit of data just doing a 1080P > video conference regularly with grand kids. With a bit of creativity > you can even play board games. My samsung TV came with a video cam + > multiple directional antennas designed to let a living room of people > interact with a living room of people elsewhere with bidirectional 1080P > video and wide band (full duplex) audio. > > Granted the most popular use I see is a 3 way video conference between > my kid, family in Pennsylvania, and other family in Germany. Typically > for 1-3 hours on weekends depending on what's going on. Kids love to > show off artwork, paintings, drawings, lego buildings, even performances > with pianos or violins. I've been at more meetings where some people > are there physically, some are just connected via laptop. From anywhere > from science meetings to singing happy birthday together. > > Video hangouts have replaced most things I used to use phone calls for, > kids, even toddlers love it. Peek-a-boo isn't very fun to play over a > phone ;-). > > > > _______________________________________________ > Davisgig mailing list > Davisgig at list.omsoft.com > http://list.omsoft.com/mailman/listinfo/davisgig From rob at omsoft.com Wed Jan 7 17:16:14 2015 From: rob at omsoft.com (Robert Nickerson) Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 17:16:14 -0800 Subject: [Davisgig] Rob's Proposal In-Reply-To: <16A1AAEC-F13B-4405-B737-9BA98CE86992@ucdavis.edu> References: <1420500323.17278.YahooMailBasic@web161705.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> <16A1AAEC-F13B-4405-B737-9BA98CE86992@ucdavis.edu> Message-ID: <54ADDA5E.8080800@omsoft.com> Hi SlingTV is a good complement to this project, it is my intent that we stock the DavisGig data center with as much content provider servers right on the network floor. Google, Netflix and others will work with you to drop their server right there at the edge of your network so that is all available quickly. It also makes cloud providers a bit more "local" when we can go see their servers in our municipal facility. thx RAN On 1/5/2015 7:53 PM, Fei Li wrote: > One option is to see if we can get service providers to provide something like Sling TV: http://www.cnet.com/news/dish-launches-20-sling-tv-streaming-video-service-with-channel-lineup-that-includes-espn-disney/ > > Millenials (like me) are unlikely to purchase traditional cable TV subscriptions unless bundled for cheaper with internet, such as Comcast's model. The ability to stream HD television content 24/7 would require a reasonably fast connection as well as unmetered internet, which no ISP currently provides at the basic consumer level. We're not only provding speed, we're providing legitimately unlimited data. > > But we need to figure out to a way to make the speed aspect attractive as well. ;) > > > >> On Jan 5, 2015, at 3:26 PM, Shneor Sherman wrote: >> >> I've read Rob's proposal. My concern is the cost and how it will be repaid. Incidentally, I noticed that there is no rough example of repayment for homeowners. That's a necessity, as the document is incomplete without it. >> >> Rob's document does not demonstrate any benefits to gigabyte fiber to the home beyond those available now. For example, I can stream content quite comfortably right now at 5 or 6 mbps. What will gigabyte internet provide beyond that? Whatever that may be, it needs to be addressed. What will I be able to do that I previously could not? >> >> The issue of homeowner cost is of supreme importance, since it is homeowners who will have to vote on this. So the cost and benefits need to be specifically spelled out. Given the rising cost of water in Davis, there has to be benefit to fiber that will be very valuable to households, or voters will simply reject any increased cost for living in Davis. Just talking about gigabyte internet to the home is a loser politically. >> >> I am wondering if digging for fiber could be combined with, for example, burying power lines and splitting the cost with PG&E. >> >> Just a few preliminary thoughts. >> >> Shneor Shermann >> _______________________________________________ >> Davisgig mailing list >> Davisgig at list.omsoft.com >> http://list.omsoft.com/mailman/listinfo/davisgig > _______________________________________________ > Davisgig mailing list > Davisgig at list.omsoft.com > http://list.omsoft.com/mailman/listinfo/davisgig > -- Rob Nickerson CEO Om Networks UCD Class of 96 C: 530-848-3865 If we have helped you in a positive way, please give us a good recommendation at daviswiki.org , and/or yelp.com . Please like us on Facebook . and put us in your circle at Google+ From rednoodler at mac.com Thu Jan 8 14:59:53 2015 From: rednoodler at mac.com (William Lowry) Date: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 14:59:53 -0800 Subject: [Davisgig] Davisgig Digest, Vol 2, Issue 8 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <6BE8ED0D-F365-4652-9949-A18A04532C55@mac.com> Residential customer here. Ex-UCD admin staff. Many UCD affiliates know and love high bandwidth. Happy to pay for it even if it exceeds my average need. Also, we need to have an alternative to private monopolies that do not offer what we want or need. Sent from my iPhone > On Jan 8, 2015, at 12:00 PM, davisgig-request at list.omsoft.com wrote: > > Send Davisgig mailing list submissions to > davisgig at list.omsoft.com > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://list.omsoft.com/mailman/listinfo/davisgig > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > davisgig-request at list.omsoft.com > > You can reach the person managing the list at > davisgig-owner at list.omsoft.com > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Davisgig digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: Rob's Proposal (Russell Neches) > 2. Re: Rob's Proposal (Robert Nickerson) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 16:02:12 -0800 > From: Russell Neches > To: Bill Broadley > Cc: davisgig at list.omsoft.com > Subject: Re: [Davisgig] Rob's Proposal > Message-ID: <1420675332.2833.3.camel at vort.org> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > I actually don't think the technical or financial details are especially > compelling arguments. That isn't to say that municipal broadband is not > cheaper, faster and technologically superior, or that it delivers better > service. The truly compelling argument is actually a moral argument. > > Right now, consumer broadband networks are all controlled by companies > that are openly undermining our democratic institutions. They use their > power as monopolies to damage markets and destroy innovative new > companies. They are complicit with unconstitutional mass surveillance. > They have deliberately resisted deployment of modern technology because > they see artificial bandwidth scarcity as a profit center. Consumers > have warmer and friendlier feelings for the Internal Revenue Service > than for AT&T, Comcast and Time Warner. > > These companies are bad actors. > > There are real and significant disadvantages to public utilities. > However, the disadvantages are insignificant when set alongside the > caustic effect of tolerating monopolies in our communities. > > The single biggest advantage of a public utility is that your > relationship with it is subject to democratic institutions. Citizens can > set their complaints before the relevant commissions and the city > council, cast their ballots for candidates that want to address problems > they care about, or run for office themselves. These mechanisms of > redress are imperfect, but an imperfect mechanism is better than NO > MECHANISM WHATSOEVER. > > Well, that isn't quite true. You can influence the broadband providers. > Simply buy a hundred billion dollars of their stock, and they'll take > your comments under advisement. > > > Russell > > On Wed, 2015-01-07 at 01:08 -0800, Bill Broadley wrote: >>> From: Shneor Sherman Sent: Monday, January 5, >>> 2015 11:27 PM To: Fei Li Subject: Re: [Davisgig] Rob's Proposal >>> >>> I can currently stream HD 24/7 if I were so inclined. >> >> What data plan do you have? With who? What is your monthly cap? >> >> If I login to comcast it claims I used 225GB in Nov, 173GB in Dec, and >> 58GB so far (as of Jan 7th) in January. >> >> Netflix claims 3GB an hour for HD. 24/7 * 3GB for a month would be over >> 2000GB a month... and that's assuming you don't upload stream it >> anywhere else with sling. >> >>> I also have >>> sling included with my satellite subscription, and it's nice to be >>> able to stream that when I travel. But much as I like the idea of >>> gigabyte to the home, while quad density HDTVs are available, no one >>> is providing the service >> >> Netflix and Amazon seem to have a fair bit of content. Popular shows >> like Breaking bad, House of Cards. Seems pretty popular with new series >> as well, alpha house, transparent, and orphan black. Looks like dozens >> of different tv series, movies, etc. I'm sure you could burn quite a >> bit of bandwidth watching them. 4k seems to be gaining popularity >> pretty quick. Wasn't that long ago that a 40" 1080P tv was $400. >> >>> and no one will until enough homes have >>> these currently very expensive models. >> >> 39" 4k TVs's start under $400, not what I'd call "very expensive". They >> will of course get cheaper and more popular over time. I didn't spend >> $400 on my last TV, but many do. >> >>> I understand your position as >>> a millenial, but you are a tiny minority of Davis homeowners. >> >> My 10 year old daughter would easily burn through 250GB given a roku or >> tablet and unlimited acces. >> >>> It's >>> homeowners who are the majority in Davis, and until you can spell out >>> advangates of gigabyte internet, no one will pay much attention. So >>> what's the killer app or apps that will make it worthwhile? Also, >> >> Replacing $75-$150 TV packages with 100s of channels of crap to get a >> few channels you like. What's worse that cable/sat has a rigid schedule >> and you have to worry about what is playing when and on which channel or >> the hassle of managing a DVR ahead of time. God forbid a sports game >> delays what you were trying to record. >> >> My daughter is 10 years old and as far as I know has never seen a TV >> commercial. She watches what she wants, when she wants to, with no >> forced commercials, previews, etc. >> >> Currently we pay $7.50 or so to netflix for streaming, and $80 a year >> (last I checked, I think it got more expensive recently) for amazon prime. >> >> Thus the rapidly gaining popularity of cord cutting. Even HBO and >> Cinemax, Showtime, ESPN, CBS, Sling, dish, etc are now coming around to >> realizing people like streaming/cord cutting. >> >>> what good is it if I can't afford the services? Rob's document talks >>> about 100 mbps to the home - that's one-tenth of the proposed >>> capacity. >> >> 100 mbit is plenty for common use cases, however if you actually use 100 >> mbit comcast and/or AT&T will get rather unhappy with you and likely >> terminate your service and leave you no recourse. At 100 mbit you hit >> the comcast cap in just over 4 hours. >> >>> Who needs the rest? Again, what is this going to do for me? >>> Unlimited data sounds nice, but what does that mean in practice? I >> >> Not having to carefully managing your bandwidth use. Want to leave a >> video hangout going to you can watch your kid/cat/aquarium? Want to >> backup that large music/video/photo connection? How about watch more >> than 1 hour a day of 4k content on a $400 TV? >> >> How about backing up one of the smaller disks you can buy today, a 1TB. >> Do you want to wait 8 months with comcast using 125GB month so you >> still have half the data for other uses? >> >>> can see, for example, that medically frail homebound individuals >>> might benefit from transmission of huge amounts of medical data, but >>> 10 mbps should easily manage that (if I trust the connection). Sorry >>> to be so pragmatic, hopefully someone out there has more ideas. >> >> Medical data is pretty small these days compared to video streaming. >> I've seen grand parents consume a fair bit of data just doing a 1080P >> video conference regularly with grand kids. With a bit of creativity >> you can even play board games. My samsung TV came with a video cam + >> multiple directional antennas designed to let a living room of people >> interact with a living room of people elsewhere with bidirectional 1080P >> video and wide band (full duplex) audio. >> >> Granted the most popular use I see is a 3 way video conference between >> my kid, family in Pennsylvania, and other family in Germany. Typically >> for 1-3 hours on weekends depending on what's going on. Kids love to >> show off artwork, paintings, drawings, lego buildings, even performances >> with pianos or violins. I've been at more meetings where some people >> are there physically, some are just connected via laptop. From anywhere >> from science meetings to singing happy birthday together. >> >> Video hangouts have replaced most things I used to use phone calls for, >> kids, even toddlers love it. Peek-a-boo isn't very fun to play over a >> phone ;-). >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Davisgig mailing list >> Davisgig at list.omsoft.com >> http://list.omsoft.com/mailman/listinfo/davisgig > > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 17:16:14 -0800 > From: Robert Nickerson > To: davisgig at list.omsoft.com > Subject: Re: [Davisgig] Rob's Proposal > Message-ID: <54ADDA5E.8080800 at omsoft.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > Hi > > SlingTV is a good complement to this project, it is my intent that we > stock the DavisGig data center with as much content provider servers > right on the network floor. > > Google, Netflix and others will work with you to drop their server right > there at the edge of your network so that is all available quickly. It > also makes cloud providers a bit more "local" when we can go see their > servers in our municipal facility. > > thx > RAN > >> On 1/5/2015 7:53 PM, Fei Li wrote: >> One option is to see if we can get service providers to provide something like Sling TV: http://www.cnet.com/news/dish-launches-20-sling-tv-streaming-video-service-with-channel-lineup-that-includes-espn-disney/ >> >> Millenials (like me) are unlikely to purchase traditional cable TV subscriptions unless bundled for cheaper with internet, such as Comcast's model. The ability to stream HD television content 24/7 would require a reasonably fast connection as well as unmetered internet, which no ISP currently provides at the basic consumer level. We're not only provding speed, we're providing legitimately unlimited data. >> >> But we need to figure out to a way to make the speed aspect attractive as well. ;) >> >> >> >>> On Jan 5, 2015, at 3:26 PM, Shneor Sherman wrote: >>> >>> I've read Rob's proposal. My concern is the cost and how it will be repaid. Incidentally, I noticed that there is no rough example of repayment for homeowners. That's a necessity, as the document is incomplete without it. >>> >>> Rob's document does not demonstrate any benefits to gigabyte fiber to the home beyond those available now. For example, I can stream content quite comfortably right now at 5 or 6 mbps. What will gigabyte internet provide beyond that? Whatever that may be, it needs to be addressed. What will I be able to do that I previously could not? >>> >>> The issue of homeowner cost is of supreme importance, since it is homeowners who will have to vote on this. So the cost and benefits need to be specifically spelled out. Given the rising cost of water in Davis, there has to be benefit to fiber that will be very valuable to households, or voters will simply reject any increased cost for living in Davis. Just talking about gigabyte internet to the home is a loser politically. >>> >>> I am wondering if digging for fiber could be combined with, for example, burying power lines and splitting the cost with PG&E. >>> >>> Just a few preliminary thoughts. >>> >>> Shneor Shermann >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Davisgig mailing list >>> Davisgig at list.omsoft.com >>> http://list.omsoft.com/mailman/listinfo/davisgig >> _______________________________________________ >> Davisgig mailing list >> Davisgig at list.omsoft.com >> http://list.omsoft.com/mailman/listinfo/davisgig > > -- > Rob Nickerson > > CEO > Om Networks > UCD Class of 96 > C: 530-848-3865 > > If we have helped you in a positive way, please give us a good > recommendation at daviswiki.org , and/or > yelp.com . > Please like us on Facebook > . and put us in your > circle at Google+ > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > Davisgig mailing list > Davisgig at list.omsoft.com > http://list.omsoft.com/mailman/listinfo/davisgig > > > End of Davisgig Digest, Vol 2, Issue 8 > ************************************** From rl at 1st-mile.org Fri Jan 9 13:40:17 2015 From: rl at 1st-mile.org (Richard Lowenberg) Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2015 14:40:17 -0700 Subject: [Davisgig] Resources Message-ID: <7320A945-3C1F-4A91-83F1-A3CA6A21C774@1st-mile.org> Rob, One of the best online resources that you or others should subscribe to is Community Broadband Networks, a program if the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. They track all projects and have an excellent list of links. Here's a current story: http://muninetworks.org/content/local-voices-show-support-local-connectivity-options RL --------------------------------------------------------- Richard Lowenberg, Executive Director 1st-Mile Institute www.1st-mile.org P. O. Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504 505-603-5200 rl at 1st-mile.org --------------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From szsherm at yahoo.com Sun Jan 11 11:51:51 2015 From: szsherm at yahoo.com (Shneor Sherman) Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 11:51:51 -0800 Subject: [Davisgig] Metric for Repayment Message-ID: <1421005911.71350.YahooMailBasic@web161706.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> There are roughly 20,000 households in Davis. If bond repayment was $100 a year for 30 years per household to repay issuing 30-year tax-free bonds, the total bond repayment would be $60 million. The actual project funds would only be at the very most (at the lowest interest rate) $24 million. So how many miles of fiber installation would that pay for? Please check out the history of local parcel tax votes at the Yolo Elections web site. Since these bonds would be issued for a specific project, I believe they would require a 2/3 vote. Alternative funding methods are likely to be even more difficult with the possible exception of grants. Shneor Sherman From rl at 1st-mile.org Tue Jan 13 17:34:55 2015 From: rl at 1st-mile.org (Richard Lowenberg) Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 18:34:55 -0700 Subject: [Davisgig] President's Speech Message-ID: <2DB4DF30-67B5-43FE-A60C-6091F6094191@1st-mile.org> Hot off the press. The White House has just released an outline of the speech President Obama will give in Cedar Falls, Iowa tomorrow afternoon. The President will highlight the success that Cedar Falls and other cities have had in bringing high-speed, low-cost Internet to their communities. The President is expected to announce the steps he will discuss in the State of the Union to promote community broadband including: a call to end laws that harm broadband service competition and a new initiative to support community broadband projects. http://m.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/01/13/fact-sheet-broadband-works-promoting-competition-local-choice-next-gener --------------------------------------------------------- Richard Lowenberg, Executive Director 1st-Mile Institute www.1st-mile.org P. O. Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504 505-603-5200 rl at 1st-mile.org --------------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rob at omsoft.com Tue Jan 13 20:37:52 2015 From: rob at omsoft.com (Robert Nickerson) Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 20:37:52 -0800 Subject: [Davisgig] Bill Broadley's Comments In-Reply-To: <1420570197.29765.YahooMailBasic@web161706.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> References: <1420570197.29765.YahooMailBasic@web161706.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <54B5F2A0.50405@omsoft.com> On 1/6/2015 10:49 AM, Shneor Sherman wrote: > Bill, I appreciate your response. However, it does not address the question: Where is the direct benefit to homeowners? An extra $5000 value to a half-million dollar home is inconsequential. How many homeowners want to be content providers or maintain a website on their own? I suspect very few. If we are talking about schools and libraries, it's far cheaper to provide lines only to those entities. > > I'm pretty sure that this will require an initiative, though the City Council could act on its own. To get votes, voters will have to see direct benefits. What might those be? > > Shneor Sherman Hi Shneor and All Its great that we have a chance, with this open forum, to discover what we need to convey in this effort to make it politically palatable for eveyryone and successful in its execution. The homeowners will be paying for the municipal owned fiber. I'd think they would pay a monthly fee, and Im throwing out $20 monthly as a guesstimate - with the 20k households figure in mind. They will be paying for access to the wholesale/transport layer, the actual physical muni fiber "transport" portion of their telecommunications. And then the homeowner will contract with a seperate, what I call "retail" service provider that will offer tiers (100 Mbps, 500 Mbps, 1 Gbps) of service all off this network. A good example is Ashland Oregon, though with modern tech. I would think the homeowners costs would come out about AT Least the same in cost to what you would pay for some triple play bundle deal from the du-opoly, and for gigabit speeds here. But personally I think in your case, if you think 5 Mbps is fine you will be better off with this model! If you decided never to buy Internet, or TV, or phone over this municipal broadband network you would still get for your $20 monthly: 1) 100 Mbps of "speed" locally. That means within the network, you could transfer files at that speed between, home to home, home to office, business to business, home to school. And say to the University (which might even want more and pay some portion of our network cost, thereby subsidizing the netwrok but so students could transfer at Gigabit to campus. That could help us get it deployed to outlying areas) 2) 3 Mbps Internet Access - Some small amount of IP transit to the Internet as a whole, I was thinking 3 Mbps, but perhaps 6Mbps is fine. This also helps the city address digital divide issues by subsidizing some of these connections, say to more unfortuante and lower income apartment complexes and neighborhoods. 3) City of Davis gets a city wide Smartgrid Capability for any utility or water management systems. With simple already available network monitoring protocols, some of which were developed AT UCDAVIS, it would allow for many research and development opportunities for UCD and all for growing manangement challenges of the next 20 years And here is what you could do with your Gigabit speed. You could hang out on youtube and download complete video operas, burn them onto BlueRays and send them as holiday gifts, or donate them to libraries. From rob at omsoft.com Tue Jan 13 20:44:01 2015 From: rob at omsoft.com (Robert Nickerson) Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 20:44:01 -0800 Subject: [Davisgig] Metric for Repayment In-Reply-To: <1421005911.71350.YahooMailBasic@web161706.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> References: <1421005911.71350.YahooMailBasic@web161706.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <54B5F411.5060008@omsoft.com> On 1/11/2015 11:51 AM, Shneor Sherman wrote: The actual project funds would only be at the very most (at the lowest interest rate) $24 million. So how many miles of fiber installation would that pay for? > That is part of what I do not know, but should be discoverable and made known through this process. That is why I'm reaching out for help to all of you, once the network is in the ground we have a better understanding > Please check out the history of local parcel tax votes at the Yolo Elections web site. Since these bonds would be issued for a specific project, I believe they would require a 2/3 vote. Alternative funding methods are likely to be even more difficult with the possible exception of grants. > There are a number of ways to finance this effort, I think State of California now lets communities apply to infrastructure bank loans for these types of deployments, so that might would be the 2/3 requirement. I'd think it only proper that everyone voted on it as it is a new monthly charge, like WSG. I'd just like to see if we can get the cost as reasonable as possible too, but perhaps we can stick with a figure like $20 monthly, and if we can get it our actual costs lower, we can subsidize buildouts into rural areas. RAN > Shneor Sherman > _______________________________________________ > Davisgig mailing list > Davisgig at list.omsoft.com > http://list.omsoft.com/mailman/listinfo/davisgig > -- Rob Nickerson CEO Om Networks UCD Class of 96 C: 530-848-3865 If we have helped you in a positive way, please give us a good recommendation at daviswiki.org , and/or yelp.com . Please like us on Facebook . and put us in your circle at Google+ From no-reply at wufoo.com Tue Jan 13 22:25:43 2015 From: no-reply at wufoo.com (=?UTF-8?B?Q29uZmlybWF0aW9uIE1lc3NhZ2U=?=) Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 22:25:43 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Davisgig] =?utf-8?q?MuniNetworks_Sign-up?= Message-ID: <20150114062543.1115AA0809@sjc-wfweb01.endor.lan> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rob at omsoft.com Thu Jan 15 12:01:27 2015 From: rob at omsoft.com (Robert Nickerson) Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 12:01:27 -0800 Subject: [Davisgig] Small Info Update Message-ID: <54B81C97.2090700@omsoft.com> Hi Netizens of Davis So over the past week, I've had a chance to meet with a city council member, and have a phone call with Richard Lowenberg of Design Nine and the 1st-mile Institute. These have been great experiences, and I have the following items to share as it pertains to this effort. In no particular order. 1) To move this into the political realm we can do one of two things. WE can take a city task force approach where the city uses informed citizens to study and evaluate different models and make recommendations to city council, or we can do a community driven effort, that aims to inform the public and the council and bring it that way. In either case, we need to develop an actionable, voteable proposition, to deliver to the voters to authorize the city to pass a bond or whatever financing mechanism is utilized. I was informed more of efforts from the POU community in Davis are using the community driven approach and are having good success informing council members, by hosting education style events, and doing most of the planning work themselves making things happen with City of Davis and PGE and Community Choice Aggregation http://www.pge.com/en/myhome/customerservice/energychoice/communitychoiceaggregation/index.page. 2) Any proposal that is to be put forward must have all other options presented alongside so that the councilmembers can "choose" between proposals. 3) The Muni Networks list and website is a good resource for communitites that have implemented or are implementing communtiy broadband. http://www.muninetworks.org/ There is a conference on this in Austin in April. http://www.bbcmag.com/2015s/ If anyone wants to send me I'd be happy to go, perhaps with someone who is also a better schmoozer. 4) With the assistance of Design Nine, we can leverage some of the best financial and deployment planning available for these types of projects. 5) Our plan (muni owned Layer 1+2) Retail (Layer 3 and up) is a good model. Public private partnership is one of the preffered models available for a community fiber deployment. 6) an investment firm in Australia is funding these projects in communities around the world already, and would efinitley be interested in our rollout. They have US offices. See - http://www.macquarie.com/mgl/com/globalcapabilities/corporate/industry-specialisations/telecom-media-entertainment-technology They have financed the UTOPIA network in Utah. I just read their page more closely and this is almost exactly the type of structure described in the paper. More at www.utopiaplanet.com However, I'd much rather we finance it ourselves, through a bond at the State of California, or infrsatructure bank, or Department of Commerce, than be operated and run by a private equity firm, as forward looking as it is. 7) Davis could potentially aim high, perhaps get the university involved in a symposium with the city, Davis Community Network, the Davis Gig effort, and get national expertise and input on making the best network. While we do this we are showcasing this model, getting it implemented in Davis, and be an example for deployments in other citiies. Here's some next steps. I'll talk to Richard McCann - a professional aquaintance, who is working on CCA for Davis power needs, learn more about their approach. And, its time to meet at Sudwerk and see who can do what and get down to some community networking, does next Wed, the 21st at like 6:30 or so seem a good date/time? And, We need a webpage -- Rob Nickerson CEO Om Networks UCD Class of 96 C: 530-848-3865 If we have helped you in a positive way, please give us a good recommendation at daviswiki.org , and/or yelp.com . Please like us on Facebook . and put us in your circle at Google+ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From flcli at ucdavis.edu Thu Jan 15 12:52:46 2015 From: flcli at ucdavis.edu (Fei Li) Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 20:52:46 +0000 Subject: [Davisgig] Small Info Update In-Reply-To: <54B81C97.2090700@omsoft.com> References: <54B81C97.2090700@omsoft.com> Message-ID: <1421355164928.82795@UCDAVIS.EDU> Awesome. That works for me. I'll also lead the website effort unless anyone has any objections.? ________________________________ From: davisgig-bounces at list.omsoft.com on behalf of Robert Nickerson Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2015 12:01 PM To: davisgig at list.omsoft.com Subject: [Davisgig] Small Info Update Hi Netizens of Davis So over the past week, I've had a chance to meet with a city council member, and have a phone call with Richard Lowenberg of Design Nine and the 1st-mile Institute. These have been great experiences, and I have the following items to share as it pertains to this effort. In no particular order. 1) To move this into the political realm we can do one of two things. WE can take a city task force approach where the city uses informed citizens to study and evaluate different models and make recommendations to city council, or we can do a community driven effort, that aims to inform the public and the council and bring it that way. In either case, we need to develop an actionable, voteable proposition, to deliver to the voters to authorize the city to pass a bond or whatever financing mechanism is utilized. I was informed more of efforts from the POU community in Davis are using the community driven approach and are having good success informing council members, by hosting education style events, and doing most of the planning work themselves making things happen with City of Davis and PGE and Community Choice Aggregation http://www.pge.com/en/myhome/customerservice/energychoice/communitychoiceaggregation/index.page. 2) Any proposal that is to be put forward must have all other options presented alongside so that the councilmembers can "choose" between proposals. 3) The Muni Networks list and website is a good resource for communitites that have implemented or are implementing communtiy broadband. http://www.muninetworks.org/ There is a conference on this in Austin in April. http://www.bbcmag.com/2015s/ If anyone wants to send me I'd be happy to go, perhaps with someone who is also a better schmoozer. 4) With the assistance of Design Nine, we can leverage some of the best financial and deployment planning available for these types of projects. 5) Our plan (muni owned Layer 1+2) Retail (Layer 3 and up) is a good model. Public private partnership is one of the preffered models available for a community fiber deployment. 6) an investment firm in Australia is funding these projects in communities around the world already, and would efinitley be interested in our rollout. They have US offices. See - http://www.macquarie.com/mgl/com/globalcapabilities/corporate/industry-specialisations/telecom-media-entertainment-technology They have financed the UTOPIA network in Utah. I just read their page more closely and this is almost exactly the type of structure described in the paper. More at www.utopiaplanet.com However, I'd much rather we finance it ourselves, through a bond at the State of California, or infrsatructure bank, or Department of Commerce, than be operated and run by a private equity firm, as forward looking as it is. 7) Davis could potentially aim high, perhaps get the university involved in a symposium with the city, Davis Community Network, the Davis Gig effort, and get national expertise and input on making the best network. While we do this we are showcasing this model, getting it implemented in Davis, and be an example for deployments in other citiies. Here's some next steps. I'll talk to Richard McCann - a professional aquaintance, who is working on CCA for Davis power needs, learn more about their approach. And, its time to meet at Sudwerk and see who can do what and get down to some community networking, does next Wed, the 21st at like 6:30 or so seem a good date/time? And, We need a webpage -- Rob Nickerson CEO Om Networks UCD Class of 96 C: 530-848-3865 If we have helped you in a positive way, please give us a good recommendation at daviswiki.org, and/or yelp.com. Please like us on Facebook. and put us in your circle at Google+ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rob at omsoft.com Thu Jan 15 16:18:03 2015 From: rob at omsoft.com (Robert Nickerson) Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 16:18:03 -0800 Subject: [Davisgig] Small Info Update In-Reply-To: <1421355164928.82795@UCDAVIS.EDU> References: <54B81C97.2090700@omsoft.com> <1421355164928.82795@UCDAVIS.EDU> Message-ID: <54B858BB.5020904@omsoft.com> Hi That's great! I also have a wiki at www.dcn.davis.ca.us/~help/dokuwiki/ So go at it folks with some time. Ill be putting in documents, and links as I am able, but anyone else is more than welcome to edit on it. RAN On 1/15/2015 12:52 PM, Fei Li wrote: > Awesome. That works for me. I'll also lead the website effort unless > anyone has any objections.? > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > *From:* davisgig-bounces at list.omsoft.com > on behalf of Robert Nickerson > > *Sent:* Thursday, January 15, 2015 12:01 PM > *To:* davisgig at list.omsoft.com > *Subject:* [Davisgig] Small Info Update > > Hi Netizens of Davis > > So over the past week, I've had a chance to meet with a city council > member, and have a phone call with Richard Lowenberg of Design Nine and > the 1st-mile Institute. These have been great experiences, and I have > the following items to share as it pertains to this effort. In no > particular order. > > 1) To move this into the political realm we can do one of two things. WE > can take a city task force approach where the city uses informed > citizens to study and evaluate different models and make recommendations > to city council, or we can do a community driven effort, that aims to > inform the public and the council and bring it that way. In either case, > we need to develop an actionable, voteable proposition, to deliver to > the voters to authorize the city to pass a bond or whatever financing > mechanism is utilized. I was informed more of efforts from the POU > community in Davis are using the community driven approach and are > having good success informing council members, by hosting education > style events, and doing most of the planning work themselves making > things happen with City of Davis and PGE and Community Choice Aggregation > > http://www.pge.com/en/myhome/customerservice/energychoice/communitychoiceaggregation/index.page. > > > 2) Any proposal that is to be put forward must have all other options > presented alongside so that the councilmembers can "choose" between > proposals. > > 3) The Muni Networks list and website is a good resource for > communitites that have implemented or are implementing communtiy broadband. > > http://www.muninetworks.org/ > > There is a conference on this in Austin in April. > http://www.bbcmag.com/2015s/ > > If anyone wants to send me I'd be happy to go, perhaps with someone who > is also a better schmoozer. > > 4) With the assistance of Design Nine, we can leverage some of the best > financial and deployment planning available for these types of projects. > > 5) Our plan (muni owned Layer 1+2) Retail (Layer 3 and up) is a good > model. Public private partnership is one of the preffered models > available for a community fiber deployment. > > 6) an investment firm in Australia is funding these projects in > communities around the world already, and would efinitley be interested > in our rollout. They have US offices. > > See - > http://www.macquarie.com/mgl/com/globalcapabilities/corporate/industry-specialisations/telecom-media-entertainment-technology > > They have financed the UTOPIA network in Utah. I just read their page > more closely and this is almost exactly the type of structure described > in the paper. > > More at www.utopiaplanet.com > > However, I'd much rather we finance it ourselves, through a bond at the > State of California, or infrsatructure bank, or Department of Commerce, > than be operated and run by a private equity firm, as forward looking as > it is. > > 7) Davis could potentially aim high, perhaps get the university involved > in a symposium with the city, Davis Community Network, the Davis Gig > effort, and get national expertise and input on making the best network. > While we do this we are showcasing this model, getting it implemented in > Davis, and be an example for deployments in other citiies. > > > Here's some next steps. > > I'll talk to Richard McCann - a professional aquaintance, who is working > on CCA for Davis power needs, learn more about their approach. > > And, its time to meet at Sudwerk and see who can do what and get down to > some community networking, does next Wed, the 21st at like 6:30 or so > seem a good date/time? > > And, We need a webpage > > > > -- > Rob Nickerson > > CEO > Om Networks > UCD Class of 96 > C: 530-848-3865 > > If we have helped you in a positive way, please give us a good > recommendation at daviswiki.org , and/or > yelp.com . > Please like us on Facebook > . and put us in your > circle at Google+ -- Rob Nickerson CEO Om Networks UCD Class of 96 C: 530-848-3865 If we have helped you in a positive way, please give us a good recommendation at daviswiki.org , and/or yelp.com . Please like us on Facebook . and put us in your circle at Google+ From rob at omsoft.com Mon Jan 19 12:06:29 2015 From: rob at omsoft.com (Robert Nickerson) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 12:06:29 -0800 Subject: [Davisgig] Organizational Meeting and Beer Tasting Message-ID: <54BD63C5.3040901@omsoft.com> Hi I'd like to call an organizational meeting, now that we have talked a bit about details. I hope to see who is available to add some of their time to the project. I'd like to come away with some sort of organizational plan for public outreach, which involves website, social media, davis wiki, and then in public type events. Sudwerk Wed, 1/21/15 6:30pm Look for the table with the Golden Rocket. If you are plannign to attend, please drop me a private email to rob at omsoft.com so I can get a sense fo party size to tell the waitstaff. Thanks -- Rob Nickerson From christopher at newrules.org Tue Jan 20 12:06:11 2015 From: christopher at newrules.org (Christopher Mitchell) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 14:06:11 -0600 Subject: [Davisgig] Recently in Community Networks... Week of 1/20 Message-ID: *Recent Stories from MuniNetworks.org - a project of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Instructions for unsubscribing appear at bottom. Send feedback. Forward Widely.* President Obama Speaks Against Barriers to Community Networks Wed, January 14, 2015 | Posted by christopher When we started to hear rumors that the White House was investigating community owned networks, we were excited but not sure what to expect. I have to admit that seeing President Obama - the President of the United States - saying that Cedar Falls was smart to invest in themselves was much more powerful than I ever expected (see the video below).' President Obama will visit Cedar Falls on Wednesday to address his plans to increase access to affordable, high-speed broadband across the country. Tune in at 3:40 Eastern to the White House Briefing Room to watch the live event. The efforts of so many people to legitimize community networks are now paying off. Belittled by the big cable companies and their paid experts, we certainly were not destined to reach this point. But we are here - and everyone now recognizes that local governments can play an important role in ensuring we all have great Internet access. ... Preliminary Coverage Here ... ... Post Speech Coverage Here with Video of his Talk ... Use Social Media to Support Local Choice! Tue, January 20, 2015 | Posted by christopher Join us on February 2 as we make the case for local Internet choice - with a few simple clicks, you can join our Thunderclap, where all of our social media accounts will publish a message in favor of local choice. The Coalition for Local Internet Choice is encouraging people to sign up in advance and to spread the word far and wide. Please encourage your friends, colleagues, etc., to join in and help us to build momentum after the President spoke out in favor of community networks last week in Cedar Falls! Missouri Bill Creates New Barriers to Community Networks Tue, January 13, 2015 | Posted by lgonzalez Republican State Representative Rocky Miller began the new legislative session with a bill designed to yank authority from local communities that need better connectivity. Even though the state already preempts local authority to sell telecommunications services , there is a current exemption for "Internet-type services." HB 437 [PDF] removes that exemption and would make it all but impossible for a local community to ensure they had access to the same types of services now available in Kansas City. The bill prohibits communities from offering services if there are any private providers with no regard to the type or quality of those services. There can be no mistake that bills such as these are aimed directly at communities contemplating building their own gigabit networks because the existing service providers have refused to invest in the needed infrastructure. ... More Details About this Troubling Bill ... Howard County Fiber Encourages New Jobs, Competition in Maryland - Community Broadband Bits Podcast 133 Tue, January 13, 2015 | Posted by christopher While at the Broadband Communities Economic Development conference in Springfield last year, I had the good fortune to catch a panel with Chris Merdon, the CIO of Howard County , Maryland. Howard County has become an Internet Service Provider, not just to itself, but to private firms as well. To improve Internet access for businesses, it is both leasing dark fiber to existing providers and directly offering services to businesses and buildings. We are grateful that Chris could join us for a Chris2 interview! We discuss how and why Howard County chose this strategy and how it is benefiting the community. ... Listen to the Show or Read the Transcript Here ... Gigabit Muni Fiber Partnership: Westminster and Ting Tue, January 13, 2015 | Posted by lgonzalez Westminster's city council just voted unanimously to establish a partnership with Ting,reports the Carroll County Times . Known primarily as a mobile service provider, Ting wants to offer Internet services via the new municipal fiber optic network. Ting announced earlier this month that it would soon begin offering Internet service in Charlottesville, Virginia as well. In their own announcement about the partnership, CTC Technology & Energy's Joanne Hovis described the arrangement : The City will fund, own, and maintain the fiber; Ting will lease the fiber and provide all equipment and services. Ting will pay the City to use the fiber?reducing the City?s risk while enabling Ting to offer Gigabit Internet in Westminster without having to build a fiber network from scratch. CTC has worked with Westminster since the beginning to analyze the community's situation, assets, and challenges. ... More Details on This Exciting Partnership! ... SandyNet Now Offering Gigabit FTTH in Oregon Thu, January 15, 2015 | Posted by lgonzalez Back in September, SandyNet announced that its FTTH gigabit network was officially up and running. The utility will continue to expand and eventually bring the network to all 4,000 households. Light Reading recently spoke with Joe Knapp, Sandy's IT Director and general manager of the broadband utility about the new offering. With a population of 10,000, Sandy is in Oregon between Portland and Mount Hood. The network is completely underground. Sandy is one of many communities that have developedsmart conduit policies , reducing the cost and preparing the environment for deployment over a period of years. ... More Information on Sandy Here ... Roanoke Valley Broadband Authority Issues RFP Fri, January 16, 2015 | Posted by lgonzalez The Roanoke Valley in Virginia has taken a deliberate pace on the road to improving local connectivity. On December 10th, the Roanoke Valley Broadband Authority (RVBA) released an RFP for proposals for an open access fiber optic network. The RVBA is seeking a partner to build the network that will remain a publicly owned asset but will be managed by a private partner. According to the RFP, the City of Salem Electric Department has fiber in place that will be integrated into the the network. The RVBA has already invested in design, engineering, and permitting of 42 miles of a fiber network to jumpstart the process. Construction should begin this year. ... More Information on the Story Here ... Hagerstown, Maryland Issues RFI for Gigabit Network Sun, January 11, 2015 | Posted by lgonzalez Hagerstown , population 40,000, recently released a Request for Information to field ideas to develop existing infrastructure for residents and local businesses. According to the press release: "The interest in our City and the potential shown for our market from industry professionals working with municipal broadband initiatives has been very promising. We look forward to moving ahead in collaboration with private partners to bring affordable technology to Hagerstown," says Mayor Dave Gysberts. The RFI identifies five goals ... ... Read the Goals Here ... -- You can always find our most recent stories and other resources at http://MuniNetworks.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Community Networks Weekly Updates" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to communitynetworks-weekly+unsubscribe at ilsr.org. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/a/ilsr.org/d/optout. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From AHirsch at Neighborhoodselect.org Wed Jan 21 08:14:28 2015 From: AHirsch at Neighborhoodselect.org (A Hirsch Tree Planter) Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 08:14:28 -0800 Subject: [Davisgig] How to make gig project part of City Agenda Message-ID: <00a901d03595$55426c00$ffc74400$@Neighborhoodselect.org> The Gig project should leverage off city push to have hi tech incubators and start ups. Pose the question: How can we be hi-tech city if we have rural class internet service? Alan -----Original Message----- From: davisgig-bounces at list.omsoft.com [mailto:davisgig-bounces at list.omsoft.com] On Behalf Of davisgig-request at list.omsoft.com Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2015 12:00 PM To: davisgig at list.omsoft.com Subject: Davisgig Digest, Vol 2, Issue 14 Send Davisgig mailing list submissions to davisgig at list.omsoft.com To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://list.omsoft.com/mailman/listinfo/davisgig or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to davisgig-request at list.omsoft.com You can reach the person managing the list at davisgig-owner at list.omsoft.com When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Davisgig digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Organizational Meeting and Beer Tasting (Robert Nickerson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 12:06:29 -0800 From: Robert Nickerson To: "davisgig at list.omsoft.com" Subject: [Davisgig] Organizational Meeting and Beer Tasting Message-ID: <54BD63C5.3040901 at omsoft.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Hi I'd like to call an organizational meeting, now that we have talked a bit about details. I hope to see who is available to add some of their time to the project. I'd like to come away with some sort of organizational plan for public outreach, which involves website, social media, davis wiki, and then in public type events. Sudwerk Wed, 1/21/15 6:30pm Look for the table with the Golden Rocket. If you are plannign to attend, please drop me a private email to rob at omsoft.com so I can get a sense fo party size to tell the waitstaff. Thanks -- Rob Nickerson ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Davisgig mailing list Davisgig at list.omsoft.com http://list.omsoft.com/mailman/listinfo/davisgig End of Davisgig Digest, Vol 2, Issue 14 *************************************** From rob at omsoft.com Thu Jan 22 20:41:44 2015 From: rob at omsoft.com (Robert Nickerson) Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 20:41:44 -0800 Subject: [Davisgig] First Meeting Message-ID: <54C1D108.9070701@omsoft.com> First meeting was good. We took a little over an hour and half, had some beers, some had dinner. I went over the municipal fiber for davis concept as I currently understand it, and made sure people were on board with this particular model. We discussed strategies for getting this complex project completed. Specifically, what approach do we take, either resident activist organization or city task force, to get it done. Ultimately we decided we will do both, starting with getting the activist group well established and rolling. and after our website is done, we have some more grounding in costs, and technical designs, we will get through with a task force going. We will populate the task force from people within the activist group. That way we can involve the city in looking at different options for implementing fiber optic, and see who is going to come in support or opposition. People were thinking of trying to get grants to help fund all the paperwork (plans and planning work, to be able to bring this off. With the tools of the internet, I think we can do a lot of that right now while we build things up. Maybe someone can talk to a local organization like techDavis and see if they would help with interim funding to hire and generate the plans. I identified at LEAST 5 areas that needs to be dealt with that I have put on the wiki here: http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/~help/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=operations People have volunteered for various areas. I'll flesh out the wiki a bit more on those areas, and I suggest we use our wiki as our main coordination tool for this project. It will be a helpful repository for crafting our public website content from. Feel free to contribute and do so yourself. If you have important information to add to the discussion to, I suggest you put it there, as its time to organize this information at a higher level that we can all reference to w/o looking through the mailing list archives. Thanks to Jason Aller for putting in a bunch of time building it out. Come on others - please do. Next steps, Im going to talk with POU people in town, and reach out to the Kevins in communications resources. The website group are going to get a web site going, Im sure if you want to help they would expect it. Things we need 1) Access to Google Maps Engine Pro - anyone already pay that ? Its like $50 per yr 2) We need to articulate why it is important to have municipal fiber in a completely lay person way, no acronyms or tech speak. 3) A Team Agreement that states our goals, and what we are and aren't going to do working together to acheive those goals (?) 4) Start talking to your friends and neighbors about it, and community groups you are involved with. I expect we will have another gathering next month. This is going to take time to do, but I bet it will happen, and everyone seems committed to doing it right, so it will work, and be a success. Onward! RAN -- Rob Nickerson CEO Om Networks UCD Class of 96 C: 530-848-3865 If we have helped you in a positive way, please give us a good recommendation at daviswiki.org , and/or yelp.com . Please like us on Facebook . and put us in your circle at Google+ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From AHirsch at Neighborhoodselect.org Fri Jan 23 11:52:13 2015 From: AHirsch at Neighborhoodselect.org (A Hirsch Tree Planter) Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 11:52:13 -0800 Subject: [Davisgig] Steampunk Internet Cartoon Message-ID: <000001d03746$1590bd70$40b23850$@Neighborhoodselect.org> Cartoon recaptioned from the New Yorker Meme: we have Steampunk internet in Davis...as behooves our City Logo. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: cartoon Davis Tech behind the Times.psd Type: application/octet-stream Size: 2175263 bytes Desc: not available URL: From rl at 1st-mile.org Fri Jan 23 11:55:51 2015 From: rl at 1st-mile.org (Richard Lowenberg) Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 12:55:51 -0700 Subject: [Davisgig] Steampunk Internet Cartoon In-Reply-To: <000001d03746$1590bd70$40b23850$@Neighborhoodselect.org> References: <000001d03746$1590bd70$40b23850$@Neighborhoodselect.org> Message-ID: Bike Trails on the Information Superhighway. RL On Jan 23, 2015, at 12:52 PM, A Hirsch Tree Planter wrote: > Cartoon recaptioned from the New Yorker > > Meme: we have Steampunk internet in Davis...as behooves our City Logo. > > _______________________________________________ > > Please ref our wiki for details, documents and contacts: > > http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/~help/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=start > > Davisgig mailing list > Davisgig at list.omsoft.com > http://list.omsoft.com/mailman/listinfo/davisgig --------------------------------------------------------- Richard Lowenberg, Executive Director 1st-Mile Institute www.1st-mile.org P. O. Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504 505-603-5200 rl at 1st-mile.org --------------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From flcli at ucdavis.edu Fri Jan 23 13:11:10 2015 From: flcli at ucdavis.edu (Fei Li) Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 21:11:10 +0000 Subject: [Davisgig] Steampunk Internet Cartoon In-Reply-To: References: <000001d03746$1590bd70$40b23850$@Neighborhoodselect.org>, Message-ID: <1422047469778.17584@UCDAVIS.EDU> Any ideas for logo for DavisGig? ________________________________ From: davisgig-bounces at list.omsoft.com on behalf of Richard Lowenberg Sent: Friday, January 23, 2015 11:55 AM To: davisgig at list.omsoft.com Subject: Re: [Davisgig] Steampunk Internet Cartoon Bike Trails on the Information Superhighway. RL On Jan 23, 2015, at 12:52 PM, A Hirsch Tree Planter wrote: Cartoon recaptioned from the New Yorker Meme: we have Steampunk internet in Davis...as behooves our City Logo. _______________________________________________ Please ref our wiki for details, documents and contacts: http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/~help/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=start Davisgig mailing list Davisgig at list.omsoft.com http://list.omsoft.com/mailman/listinfo/davisgig --------------------------------------------------------- Richard Lowenberg, Executive Director 1st-Mile Institute www.1st-mile.org P. O. Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504 505-603-5200 rl at 1st-mile.org --------------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From szsherm at yahoo.com Mon Jan 26 22:40:29 2015 From: szsherm at yahoo.com (Shneor Sherman) Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 22:40:29 -0800 Subject: [Davisgig] Davis Has A Telecommunications Commission Message-ID: <1422340829.2044.YahooMailBasic@web161705.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> Just for general information, the city already has a Telecommunications Commission. There is currently a UDC member vacancy. Here's a url: http://city-council.cityofdavis.org/Tags/Telecommunications%20Commission Not much there, but it looks like it ought to be the place to start. If someone wants to serve as a member, contact a council member and see if you can be appointed. They do take public comment.Or maybe someone already knows a member? From rob at omsoft.com Tue Jan 27 10:01:07 2015 From: rob at omsoft.com (Robert Nickerson) Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 10:01:07 -0800 Subject: [Davisgig] Davis Has A Telecommunications Commission In-Reply-To: <1422340829.2044.YahooMailBasic@web161705.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> References: <1422340829.2044.YahooMailBasic@web161705.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <54C7D263.8050102@omsoft.com> Hi I was on that commission, and it has been shut down as of 2013. RAN On 1/26/2015 10:40 PM, Shneor Sherman wrote: > Just for general information, the city already has a Telecommunications Commission. There is currently a UDC member vacancy. Here's a url: http://city-council.cityofdavis.org/Tags/Telecommunications%20Commission > Not much there, but it looks like it ought to be the place to start. If someone wants to serve as a member, contact a council member and see if you can be appointed. They do take public comment.Or maybe someone already knows a member? > _______________________________________________ > > Please ref our wiki for details, documents and contacts: > > http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/~help/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=start > > Davisgig mailing list > Davisgig at list.omsoft.com > http://list.omsoft.com/mailman/listinfo/davisgig > -- Rob Nickerson CEO Om Networks UCD Class of 96 C: 530-848-3865 If we have helped you in a positive way, please give us a good recommendation at daviswiki.org , and/or yelp.com . Please like us on Facebook . and put us in your circle at Google+ From christopher at newrules.org Tue Jan 27 12:05:05 2015 From: christopher at newrules.org (Christopher Mitchell) Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 14:05:05 -0600 Subject: [Davisgig] Recently in Community Networks... Week of 1/27 Message-ID: *Recent Stories from MuniNetworks.org - a project of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Instructions for unsubscribing appear at bottom. Send feedback. Forward Widely.* *Got Social Media? Please use it to support local choice - here is how !* *We'll be talking about Community Networks and Local Choice in Austin in April! We got a deal for you to attend ! * Ting Delivering FTTH Is Great News for Community Fiber - Community Broadband Bits Episode 134 Tue, January 20, 2015 | Posted by christopher In recent weeks, we have been excited to see announcements from Ting , a company long known for being a great wireless provider (both Lisa and I are customers), that is now getting into FTTH deployments. The first announcement was from Charlottesville where it acquired another company. Last week theyannounced a partnership with Westminster, Maryland . This week we interview Elliot Noss, CEO of Tucows , which is the parent of Ting. Elliot has long been active in preserving and expanding the open Internet. We discuss many issues from Ting's success in wireless to cities dealing with permitting and access in rights-of-way to Ting's willingness and enthusiasm to operate on municipal fiber open access networks. We finish with some musings on upcoming over the top video technologies like SlingTV from Dish. ... Listen to the Show or Read the Transcript Here ... Most Municipal Networks Built in Conservative Cities Tue, January 20, 2015 | Posted by christopher We've been curious about voting patterns from communities that have built their own networks so we took our community broadband networks map and analyzed some election data. A substantial majority of communities that have built their own networks vote Republican. We decided to stick with the citywide networks, where a community has taken the greatest risk in building a citywide FTTH or cable network. This gave us more than 100 communities to analyze. We looked at the Presidential elections from 2008 and 2012 as well as the House election from 2012. This was to guard against any anomalies from a single election or type of election. [image: Municipal network voting patterns] Some 3 out of 4 communities have voted Republican in recent elections, a trend that has become more pronounced across these elections. And as elections in non-presidential years tend to skew more conservative, we would expect the results to show an even greater trend toward voting for Republicans. ... More Details here ... Maine Legislature All About That Broadband in 2015 Thu, January 22, 2015 | Posted by lgonzalez Maine continues to be a hot spot in the drive to improve connectivity as the 2015 state legislative session opens. According to the Bangor Daily News , 35 bills have been introduced that deal with broadband issues. The story also notes that several lawmakers have introduced bills that propose funding from the state. House Republican Norman Higgins advocates broadband infrastructure in rural areas of the state: ?I think most people understand that in this day and age for us to be competitive, that?s one of the necessary tools,? Higgins said, noting he?s found bipartisan support on the issue. ?The question, I think becomes: How do we do it? And who does it?? He proposes allocating millions of dollars to expand the availability of grants to municipalities that want to build and own high-speed fiber-optic networks that would be open to companies that want to serve businesses and homes, similar to the model pursued by Rockport, South Portland, Orono and Old Town. ... We are Excited to see What Happens in Maine! ... New Article on Economic Development and Fiber: "The Killer App for Local Fiber Networks" Mon, January 19, 2015 | Posted by lgonzalez Time and again, we share economic development stories from communities that have invested in fiber networks. A new article by Jim Baller, Joanne Hovis, and Ashley Stelfox from the Coalition for Local Internet Choice (CLIC) and Masha Zager fromBroadband Communities magazine examines the meaning of economic development and the connection to fiber infrastructure. Economists, advocates, and policymakers grapple with how to scientifically measure the link between the two but: As Graham Richard, former mayor of Fort Wayne, Ind., observed, ?From the point of view of retaining and gaining jobs, I can give you example after example [of the impact of broadband]. ? What I don?t have is a long term, double-blind study that says it was just broadband.? But, ?as a leader, sometimes you go with your gut.? ... Read Our Writeup Here ... Bill to Establish Broadband Grant Program in Montana State Legislature Thu, January 22, 2015 | Posted by lgonzalez In Missoula and Bozeman , momentum is building for improved connectivity by way of community network infrastructure. As usual, funding a municipal network is always one of the main challenges, but the state appears uninterested in helping them. State Representative Kelly McCarthy recently dropped HB 14 into the hopper, a bill to create a broadband development fund primarily for private companies. The bill authorizes $15 million in general obligation bonds for broadband infrastructure projects for middle-mile and last-mile connectivity in rural areas. Unfortunately, projects built and maintained by private entities have priority per the language of section 3(2)(b). ... A Few More Details Here ... Los Angeles Times Supports Local Authority Fri, January 23, 2015 | Posted by lgonzalez President Obama's recent appearance in Cedar Falls infused adrenaline into the debate about local authority for telecommunications decisions. As a result, some of the media outlets from large cities are now coming out in support of local authority. The Editorial Board of the LA Times published an opinion on January 21st *supporting the notion of restoring local authority* in states where laws prevent community decision making. The Times recognizes that rural areas will benefit most from reversing these restrictions, that the restrictions need to be removed for us to compete globally, and that there are numerous municipal networks that are up to the challenge of improving connectivity. The LA Times also recognizes the value of public-private partnerships in New York and in other places where local government has forged productive relationships with the private sector. ... Contact Your Local Editorial Board! ... U.S. Senator Cory Booker Introduces Community Broadband Act Thu, January 22, 2015 | Posted by christopher Senator Booker has taken the lead in introducing the Community Broadband Act to the U.S. Senate along with Senators McCaskill and Markey. We are thankful for their leadership on the issue. As part of their announcement , they included the following statements: ?As Mayor of Newark, I saw firsthand the value of empowering local communities to invest and innovate. The Community Broadband Act provides cities the flexibility they need to meet the needs of their residents,? Sen. Booker said. ?This legislation will enhance economic development, improve access to education and health care services, and provide increased opportunity to individuals in underserved areas. At a time when local governments are looking for ways to ensure their communities are connected and have access to advanced and reliable networks, the Community Broadband Act empowers local governments to respond to this ever-increasing demand.? ... Read More on This News Here ... Cap Times Weighs In on Mayoral Race, Muni Broadband, and Free Internet: We Need It! Wed, January 21, 2015 | Posted by lgonzalez The Madison Cap Times recently ran an editorial focusing on the surprising nature of mayoral races. We were also surprised - pleasantly so - to read the intention of the editorial board (emphasis ours): The Capital Times will add its proposals to the mix, with a special focus on using emerging technologies to promote high-wage job creation and economic development. *In particular, we'll advocate for the establishment of a municipal broadband system that can provide free high-speed Internet access to all Madisonians.* ... Madison is a great city that does plenty of things right. But it faces major challenges, some of its own making, some imposed by reactionary state government, some dictated by our complex times. A mayoral race is the pivot point at which to discuss those challenges and the proper responses to them. ... Read the Story Here ... Community Broadband Media Roundup - January 23 Mon, January 26, 2015 | Posted by rebecca We continue to see reverberations from President Obama's speaking out in favor of municipal networks. The presidential nod sparked state lawmakers to propose bills, news organizations to write editorials , and to give communities a better sense of how they can take action locally. As Claire Cain Miller with the New York Times wrote in her article for ?The Upshot?: ?The goal is not to replace the big companies with small, locally run Internet providers. It is to give people more than one or two options for buying Internet ? and spur everyone, including the incumbents, to offer more competitive service and pricing.? Jeff Ward-Bailey reported on Obama?s interest in tech issues in the State of the Union, specifically the laws limiting local deployment of networks. ... Full Roundup Here ... -- You can always find our most recent stories and other resources at http://MuniNetworks.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Community Networks Weekly Updates" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to communitynetworks-weekly+unsubscribe at ilsr.org. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/a/ilsr.org/d/optout. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From alw at waterhouses.us Thu Jan 29 20:37:59 2015 From: alw at waterhouses.us (Andrew Waterhouse) Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2015 20:37:59 -0800 Subject: [Davisgig] meet the mayor? Message-ID: <54CB0AA7.8050105@waterhouses.us> I dont know what our Mayor might think of a city owned high speed broadband system, but he is at Peet's downtown this Friday 7-8:30 am and welcomes anyone to come chat. (today's paper) It might be a chance to get him interested, especially with the President's mention of the idea. I think he would like to keep Davis at the forefront progressive cities and this is a way to stay in the lead. Andy -- Andrew Waterhouse 801 Sycamore Ln Davis, Calif 95616 From rob at omsoft.com Fri Jan 30 11:16:53 2015 From: rob at omsoft.com (Robert Nickerson) Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2015 11:16:53 -0800 Subject: [Davisgig] meet the mayor? In-Reply-To: <54CB0AA7.8050105@waterhouses.us> References: <54CB0AA7.8050105@waterhouses.us> Message-ID: <54CBD8A5.7020201@omsoft.com> Hi That would have been good, hopefully somebody went! If not perhaps we might have another chance at some point? Is this a regular thing? RAN On 1/29/2015 8:37 PM, Andrew Waterhouse wrote: > I dont know what our Mayor might think of a city owned high speed > broadband system, but he is at Peet's downtown this Friday 7-8:30 am and > welcomes anyone to come chat. (today's paper) It might be a chance to > get him interested, especially with the President's mention of the idea. > I think he would like to keep Davis at the forefront progressive cities > and this is a way to stay in the lead. > Andy > -- Rob Nickerson CEO Om Networks UCD Class of 96 C: 530-848-3865 If we have helped you in a positive way, please give us a good recommendation at daviswiki.org , and/or yelp.com . Please like us on Facebook . and put us in your circle at Google+ From gary_darling at sbcglobal.net Fri Jan 30 11:35:38 2015 From: gary_darling at sbcglobal.net (Gary Darling) Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2015 11:35:38 -0800 Subject: [Davisgig] meet the mayor? In-Reply-To: <54CBD8A5.7020201@omsoft.com> References: <54CB0AA7.8050105@waterhouses.us> <54CBD8A5.7020201@omsoft.com> Message-ID: <6C828F8D-254F-46B2-BC60-DAE6795B998B@sbcglobal.net> I think it would be best if we ask for a meeting and put everything on our own terms. If we try to take over his public meeting hours it will feel like we are jumping him and we may usurp some citizen with a simpler issue. Perhaps we could send someone to meet him that would invite him to a meeting that we would schedule in advance so we can ask him to a meeting at a specific date, time and place. Let?s treat him like an ally go in assuming that he naturally support this initiative because it is an obvious good idea. ?Gary > On Jan 30, 2015, at 11:16 AM, Robert Nickerson wrote: > > Hi > > That would have been good, hopefully somebody went! If not perhaps we might have another chance at some point? > > Is this a regular thing? > > RAN > > On 1/29/2015 8:37 PM, Andrew Waterhouse wrote: >> I dont know what our Mayor might think of a city owned high speed >> broadband system, but he is at Peet's downtown this Friday 7-8:30 am and >> welcomes anyone to come chat. (today's paper) It might be a chance to >> get him interested, especially with the President's mention of the idea. >> I think he would like to keep Davis at the forefront progressive cities >> and this is a way to stay in the lead. >> Andy >> > > -- > Rob Nickerson > > CEO > Om Networks > UCD Class of 96 > C: 530-848-3865 > > If we have helped you in a positive way, please give us a good > recommendation at daviswiki.org , and/or > yelp.com . > Please like us on Facebook > . and put us in your > circle at Google+ > _______________________________________________ > > Please ref our wiki for details, documents and contacts: > > http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/~help/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=start > > Davisgig mailing list > Davisgig at list.omsoft.com > http://list.omsoft.com/mailman/listinfo/davisgig From omrob at omsoft.com Fri Jan 30 11:39:05 2015 From: omrob at omsoft.com (Robert Nickerson) Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2015 11:39:05 -0800 Subject: [Davisgig] 2015 Broadband Communities Summitt in Austin, TX Message-ID: <54CBDDD9.6020700@omsoft.com> Hi SO someone should go to this event, it is going to be a really valuable experience to our effort. Its too much for me to afford right now, but perhaps someone else with Interest could go, and help make some contacts and learn more about the equipment, and financing aspects Info: http://www.bbcmag.com/2015s/ Register: https://www.regonline.com/Register/Checkin.aspx?EventID=1559280 Thanks -- Rob Nickerson CEO Om Networks UCD Class of 96 C: 530-848-3865 If we have helped you in a positive way, please give us a good recommendation at daviswiki.org , and/or yelp.com . Please like us on Facebook . and put us in your circle at Google+ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rl at 1st-mile.org Fri Jan 30 12:09:30 2015 From: rl at 1st-mile.org (Richard Lowenberg) Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2015 13:09:30 -0700 Subject: [Davisgig] Sonic Fiber Services In Santa Rosa + Petaluma Message-ID: Regional news: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/business/3446630-181/santa-rosas-sonic-expanding-fiber RL --------------------------------------------------------- Richard Lowenberg, Executive Director 1st-Mile Institute www.1st-mile.org P. O. Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504 505-603-5200 rl at 1st-mile.org --------------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rl at 1st-mile.org Fri Jan 30 12:17:29 2015 From: rl at 1st-mile.org (Richard Lowenberg) Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2015 13:17:29 -0700 Subject: [Davisgig] 2015 Broadband Communities Summitt in Austin, TX In-Reply-To: <54CBDDD9.6020700@omsoft.com> References: <54CBDDD9.6020700@omsoft.com> Message-ID: <139497B2-258C-46C7-B3D2-42D078D25800@1st-mile.org> Rob, I used to go and present at this annual conference, but will probably not be going this year. However, I personally know the organizers and many of the presenters, companies and others there, and would be pleased to provide some introductions. As mentioned when we spoke a few weeks ago, I think that among other strategic actions, a DavisGig Conference/Workshop (this Fall?) might be a good action to inform locals, and to get free advice and assistance from key experts, players and advocates, which I'd love to help organize. RL On Jan 30, 2015, at 12:39 PM, Robert Nickerson wrote: > Hi > > SO someone should go to this event, it is going to be a really valuable experience to our effort. > Its too much for me to afford right now, but perhaps someone else with Interest could go, and help make > some contacts and learn more about the equipment, and financing aspects > > Info: > http://www.bbcmag.com/2015s/ > > > Register: > https://www.regonline.com/Register/Checkin.aspx?EventID=1559280 > > > Thanks > -- > Rob Nickerson > > CEO > Om Networks > UCD Class of 96 > C: 530-848-3865 > > If we have helped you in a positive way, please give us a good > recommendation at daviswiki.org, and/or yelp.com. > Please like us on Facebook. and put us in your circle at Google+ > _______________________________________________ > > Please ref our wiki for details, documents and contacts: > > http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/~help/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=start > > Davisgig mailing list > Davisgig at list.omsoft.com > http://list.omsoft.com/mailman/listinfo/davisgig --------------------------------------------------------- Richard Lowenberg, Executive Director 1st-Mile Institute www.1st-mile.org P. O. Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504 505-603-5200 rl at 1st-mile.org --------------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rob at omsoft.com Fri Jan 30 12:56:11 2015 From: rob at omsoft.com (Robert Nickerson) Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2015 12:56:11 -0800 Subject: [Davisgig] Fwd: Re: 2015 Broadband Communities Summitt in Austin, TX In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <54CBEFEB.2000205@omsoft.com> Hi So If other people want to pitch in some cash to get someone out to the conference drop me a private email and I'll keep track. I'll let you all know next week if there is enough support or not. The conference price is $800 Thx RAN Hi Rob, Maybe we can all pitch in a few bucks to help pay for someone's ticket? I'd be willing to donate $40! Best, Todd Kaiser On Fri, Jan 30, 2015 at 11:39 AM, Robert Nickerson > wrote: Hi SO someone should go to this event, it is going to be a really valuable experience to our effort. Its too much for me to afford right now, but perhaps someone else with Interest could go, and help make some contacts and learn more about the equipment, and financing aspects Info: http://www.bbcmag.com/2015s/ Register: https://www.regonline.com/Register/Checkin.aspx?EventID=1559280 Thanks -- Rob Nickerson CEO Om Networks UCD Class of 96 C: 530-848-3865 If we have helped you in a positive way, please give us a good recommendation at daviswiki.org , and/or yelp.com . Please like us on Facebook . and put us in your circle at Google+ _______________________________________________ Please ref our wiki for details, documents and contacts: http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/~help/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=start Davisgig mailing list Davisgig at list.omsoft.com http://list.omsoft.com/mailman/listinfo/davisgig -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: