From rob at omsoft.com Wed Sep 2 16:57:05 2015 From: rob at omsoft.com (Robert Nickerson) Date: Wed, 2 Sep 2015 16:57:05 -0700 Subject: [Davisgig] Friday Vendor Meet + Lawn Signs + Good Article about Fiber Message-ID: <55E78CD1.7000708@omsoft.com> Hi All 1) Friday Vendor Meet - DavisGIG is sponsoring a meeting with Fujitsu Network Communications this Friday for city leaders. Looks like we will have our Mayor Pro Tem, some folks from City IT, UCD CR, an some folks from our group. This is one of the things we need to be doing, helping our City leaders figure out Fiber Optic Deployments through exposure to different vendors and deployment scenarios. ITs happening at the Pollinate Co-Working space from 11am to 1pm, and hopefully will help give city staff a better understanding of what is involved from a company that builds these out regularly. Go us! 2) Lawn Signs - So am working with ink monkey to get double sided full color signs. Would appreciate it if someone could help me get some words added to the Logo with URL. I have a very old adobe suite and so can't edit the EPS files myself. If anyone can help edit up 2 versions of the logo/url for a "front and back" that would be great. 3) Good link from one of our list members - http://gizmodo.com/why-americas-internet-is-so-shitty-and-slow-1686173744 So also coming up on 9/16 we are doing Jumpstart Davis and meeting with Soroptomists. Please attend the Jumpstart event if you can. Thanks ALL -- 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 Fri Sep 4 20:21:05 2015 From: rob at omsoft.com (rob) Date: Fri, 04 Sep 2015 20:21:05 -0700 Subject: [Davisgig] Today's Meeting with Fujitsu Network Communications Message-ID: <19b72df66a91f726f29aed39f90f2223@mail.dcn.davis.ca.us> Hi Davisites Very good meeting today on the effort. Well represented by City staff, Mayor Pro Tem, UC1D CR Operations, and DavisGIG advocates. This was a sales pitch buy a very large and accomplished vendor in the area with an offer backed by big capital funds. However, it was an affirmation that we are on the right track with our plan, and I think it soundly demonstrated to all present that these networks are being built and deployed by big business for municipalities Many of the operational points are congruent with our model, present on the wiki. http://wheel.dcn.davis.ca.us/~help/dokuwiki/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=fiberrfei.pdf The city gets an asset, there is a wholesale entity that operates the network and leases access to it to providers. FNC thinks we might broker access to different content providers, like a netflix or hulu directly, but we will lease access to ISP, Video and Phone providers,. The city pays for it but gets back revenue through the whole sale provider's lease fees to ISPs. They offered complete design, build, and operate services for this network, that would then be open access to ISPs. Downside is they charge thousands of dollars per address per year. For 30 years. So yeah - these larger institutions with access to this type of financing and build out expertise are charging a premium. Then it would become the property of the city after 30 years if it made the payments. to JPMorganChase/Goldman/McQuarrie Capital whomever big finance is for there implementation. They just completed a project for Taos New Mexico, and I know McQuarrie Capital is involved closely with the Utah fiber build out "Utopia" So way more money than just what a build out would cost. However, I'm sure it would work as advertised, and some people were impressed with a 24-36 month build out. They did say that as long as they get paid though, they wouldn't mind "where it came from" leaving it open to other sources of revenue. There are other vendors to meet with, offering similar services, and a volunteer present at the meeting informed us of a good local contact who has been part of building out fiber optic networks in New England for municipalities, that gave a from the hit quote in line with the estimates we have come up with. Perhaps the best outcome was City, and UCD staff taking the concept seriously enough to make time to attend this talk, in light of other scheduling conflicts. Word from City is that perhaps sooner than later a Task Force will be put together to advise the council as to the best course of action, ala what GD has said happened with the start of DCN at multiple DavisGIG meetings. Onward! and I'll be calling a next steps Central Committee Meeting for the first Wed in October. RAN Can someone tweet about this? P.S. Anyone else who was there have anything to add? From christopher at newrules.org Wed Sep 9 06:53:52 2015 From: christopher at newrules.org (Christopher Mitchell) Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2015 08:53:52 -0500 Subject: [Davisgig] Recently in Community Networks... Week of 9/9 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.* New Municipal Broadband Feasibility Study Underway in Firestone, CO Mon, August 31, 2015 | Posted by Tom Ernste The Board of Trustees for the city of Firestone, CO is evaluating the feasibility of a new municipal broadband service for this growing town of about 10,000 people that sits just 30 miles north of Denver. This according to a recent report in the Times-Call newspaper in Longmont, Colorado. The feasibility study will compare Firestone?s existing telecommunications infrastructure with those in nearby communities such as Longmont and Boulder that already have municipal networks. It will also assess the potential for growth of the service in Firestone to a nearby 3,500-home community development project. It would be travesty to build a 3,500 home development without having a plan for high quality Internet access. Even if CenturyLink or Comcast were to deploy fiber optics there, the community should ensure there are plans for conduit or an open network to allow multiple service providers to provide a real choice. ... Get the Rest of the Story Here ... Danville's Incremental Strategy Pays Off - Community Broadband Bits Episode 166 Tue, September 01, 2015 | Posted by christopher Danville, Virginia, has long been one of the municipal network approaches that we like to highlight. Built in a region hard hit by the transition away from tobacco and manufacturing economies, the open access fiber network called nDanville has led to many new employers coming to town and has shown the benefits of a low-risk, incremental investment strategy for building a fiber network. Jason Grey, Interim Utilities Manager, is back on the show to update us on their approach. He introduced the network to us three years ago on episode 22 . Since we last checked in, Danville has continued expanding the fiber network to a greater number of residents and Jason talks with us about the importance and challenges of marketing to residents. We also discuss how they lay conduit as a matter of course, even in areas they do not plan to serve immediately with the fiber network. ... Listen to the Show here ... Hamilton Partners With Local Provider to Serve Businesses in Ohio Tue, September 01, 2015 | Posted by lgonzalez Hamilton, Ohio, has entered into a partnership with local firm, CenterGrid , to use city-owned fiber to boost economic development. The firm will offer Internet access and data transport to local businesses via existing infrastructure as the two enter into a five-year pilot project agreement, reports the Journal-News . The city's business incubator, the Hamilton Mill , is the initial pilot site where emerging businesses are already receiving high-speed connectivity: ?As the initial pilot site, CenterGrid?s service has resulted in the Mill receiving network connectivity that is better than 83 percent of Internet connections throughout the US ? that is huge,? Chris Lawson, executive director of the Hamilton Mill said. ?For the types of companies that we are attracting, this level of connectivity is imperative for them to be successful.? A press release from CenterGrid describes rates as economical, competitive, and determined by individual business requirements. According to the press release, entrepreneurs at The Mill are already taking advantage of the service. ... Learn More About Their Approach Here ... Rio Blanco County Has Big Plans for Open Access Network Thu, September 03, 2015 | Posted by phineas In Rio Blanco County, you?re almost more likely to find a dinosaur fossil than a human being. This rural county in northwestern Colorado has about two people for every square mile, but its sparse population is not stopping it from advancing an ambitious open-access broadband initiative . More than a year into the rollout of the network plan, Rio Blanco County (RBC) has already succeeded in soliciting $2 million in matched funds from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA), contracted a network operator, and secured easements (land-use rights) from the county?s two largest municipalities to begin construction on the FTTx network. The bulk of the funding will come for the County budgeting for the infrastructure. The network will initially touch every block and ultimately be expanded to deliver a fiber connection to each premise in the two towns. ... Learn More About This Exciting Approach ... Fiber-optic Community Broadband Service in the Washington State Wilderness Wed, September 02, 2015 | Posted by Tom Ernste The Spokane Business Journal recently wrote about the community broadband system in Pend Oreille County, a long a favored destination for all seasons outdoor recreation . Beginning in 2013, the Pend Oreille County Public Utility District (PUD) began providing residents and tourists with high-speed fiber to the premises broadband via a 573-miles fiber network. The network was made possible by a $27 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) grant . Private companies commonly say that such rural areas are not densely populated enough to justify investing in high-speed broadband infrastructure, leaving many rural communities on the disadvantaged side of the digital divide . High-speed community broadband systems like the one in Pend Oreille County cancel out this potential problem as they allow tourists, residents, and businesses alike to be closely connected with nature while staying connected for business demands. Indeed, as the website for Pend Oreille County?s Economic Development Council makes clear, the community broadband service is at the core of the county?s ambitious plans to attract people and businesses to the area. ... Many More Details with the Rest of the Story Here ... Community Broadband Media Roundup - September 4 Tue, September 08, 2015 | Posted by rebecca *Colorado* Boulder Valley school board eyes putting broadband question on November ballot by Amy Bounds, Daily Camera *Kentucky* Kentucky is building a statewide middle mile network. Kentucky Moving Forward With Effort to Expand Broadband In Rural Areas by Allison Crawford, WKMS Kentucky Wired broadband internet project announced in Hazard by Tanner Hesterberg, WYMT-TV Kentucky state, local leaders kick off pioneering broadband-access initiative by Paul Wesslund, Louisville Business First ... Read the 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 rob at omsoft.com Sat Sep 12 16:27:56 2015 From: rob at omsoft.com (Robert Nickerson) Date: Sat, 12 Sep 2015 16:27:56 -0700 Subject: [Davisgig] Meetings + Jump Start Davis + General Meeting Message-ID: <55F4B4FC.9050200@omsoft.com> Hi Davisites Just some quick updates on DavisGIG 1) Have meetings this week with the DJUSD Director of Instructional Technology about the DavisGIG network, with the intent of asking them for support, plus being at the table for future discussions with the other major stakeholder groups. That is this Tuesday at 1pm at the District office. Anyone who has time to make this please do, one or two would be great, to help show to them, this is a citizen effort for the whole community. That next day, we are giving a talk at the local Soroptomist chapter luncheon (thanks HB!) 2) Jumpstart Davis - 9/16/2015 6:30pm at Sophia's Thai Kitchen - downtown Davis. We are going to get a whole lot of new supporters for FiberOptic in Davis. Please attend if you can so you can help mix in the crowd and talk it up. It will be a 5-10 minute talk on the concept, plus another 30-60 minutes of networking. That is something I'm not the best at, so please come and add your effort to the cause. 3) Lastly next General Meeting, #6, Wed Oct 7th, at 6:30pm at Sudwerk. So please come by if you can. We will provide an update on the effort, the latest cost estimates from the big company, and identify some other vendors to meet with City Staff. Look for an article from the Vanguard after Jumpstart Davis as well. Here's to some cool weather! -- 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 christopher at newrules.org Wed Sep 16 04:39:13 2015 From: christopher at newrules.org (Christopher Mitchell) Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2015 07:39:13 -0400 Subject: [Davisgig] Recently in Community Networks... Week of 9/16 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.* The Benefits of, Lessons From, SandyNet - Community Broadband Bits Episode 167 Wed, September 09, 2015 | Posted by christopher Two of the stars from our video on SandyNet in Oregon, join us this week for Community Broadband Bits episode 167. Sandy City Council President Jeremy Pietzold and IT Director Joe Knapp (also SandyNet General Manager) tell us more about the network and recent developments as they finish connecting the majority of the City to gigabit fiber. We talk about the challenges and lessons learned along the way as they transitioned from running a Wi-Fi network in some areas of town to all areas of town to overbuild ing the wireless with fiber optics. Jeremy also discusses more of a story we recently reported on SandyNet's business services, which are the lowest cost, highest capacity deals we have seen. ... Listen to the Show Here ... RS Fiber Cooperative Breaks Ground Wed, September 09, 2015 | Posted by phineas Six years after an initial feasibility study was conducted to assess bringing broadband to Renville and Sibley Counties in southeastern Minnesota, members of the RS Fiber Cooperative board were finally able to dust off their shovels for agroundbreaking ceremony on July 9 . Although those shovels may have ended up being more symbolic than they were practical, the ceremony marked an important and long-awaited step in the fight to extend broadband to 10 cities and 17 rural townships across the largely agricultural region. The groundbreaking ceremony marked the start of stage one of a two-stage project that will take five to six years to complete. By the end of 2015, the RS (Renville-Sibley) Fiber Cooperative plans to connect 1,600 homes and businesses with fiber, with 90 percent of its service area covered by high-speed wireless . It hopes to connect another 2,600 homes and businesses by the end of 2016, with the eventual goal of reaching 6,200 potential customers. ... More on This Great Model for Rural Connectivity ... NYSBA Building (Economic) Bridges with Dark Fiber Fri, September 11, 2015 | Posted by phineas The New York State Bridge Authority (NYSBA) expects to bring in over $900,000 over the course of the next ten years in revenue from dark fiber leases. The agreements, which allow private companies to access publicly owned dark fiber spanning the bridges, will also help maintain low tolls and allow regional telecom operators to expand their data transmission networks. The NYSBA announced on August 4 that it would be leasing dark fiber on two new bridges - the Bear Mountain and Rip Van Winkle bridges in upstate New York. These will be the third and fourth NYSBA bridges that generate revenue from fiber leasing. The NYSBA dark fiber leasing program is now in its fifth year. Since the Authority does not receive any state or federal tax money for the operation and maintenance of its bridges, it has sought creative solutions to finance the upkeep of its infrastructure. It has now leased dark fiber on four of five intended bridges, with plans to lease more on a fifth - the Kingston?-Rhinecliff Bridge - in the near future. ... More Details on the Program Here ... New York Times Supports Local Authority Tue, September 08, 2015 | Posted by lgonzalez In a recent editorial , the New York Times recognized that cord cutting is the wave of the future. They agree with the Coalition for Local Internet Choice , and other advocates for local telecommunications authority that the FCC should take steps to remove barriers to local Internet choice created by states on behalf of cable and telco lobbyists. The Editorial Board notes that laws limiting municipal networks block the ability for consumers to take full advantage of this phenomenon: *Among other things, they should override laws some states have passed that make it difficult or impossible for municipalities to invest in broadband networks.* Even though consumers are moving away from cable TV subscriptions, large corporate providers are making up for losses by an increase in Internet access subscriptions. As a result, they still maintain a significant leverage and consumers still face the same old problem - a lack of competition. Striking down anti-competitive state laws blocking munis would create a healthier balance, argues the Times Editorial Board. ... Read the Full Story Here ... Introducing Our Institutional Networks Page Tue, September 08, 2015 | Posted by hannah Community anchor institutions play a critical role in bridging the digital divide. These networks that connect government buildings, libraries, and schools are often called ?institutional networks? or ?I-Nets.? Since the start of MuniNetworks.org, we have noted the ways these institutions have expanded services and saved money. Now, these stories have been compiled into one quick-reference resource . As franchise agreements run out with incumbent service providers, public institutions often struggle to renegotiate contracts at sustainable prices. Other communities have been left behind altogether by large cable and telephone companies and cannot get the high quality Internet access needed for their libraries or schools. ... More Information Here ... P3 between Westminster and Ting is ?Community Broadband Innovative Partnership of the Year? Thu, September 10, 2015 | Posted by Tom Ernste The National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA ) recently named the public private partnership (P3) between the City of Westminster, MD and Ting Inc. as 2015?s ?Community Broadband Innovative Partnership of the Year.? NATOA will officially honor the partnership at their Community Broadband Awards ceremony in San Diego this week. In a press release NATOA praised the P3 ?...for showcasing an entirely new approach in public private partnerships to reach the common goal of bringing next generation fiber broadband to communities while demonstrating the possibility of creative solutions.? In Ting?s own press release announcing the award, they described their unique arrangement as private partners in Westminster?s initiative aimed at providing their rural community of more than 18,000 people with blazing fast fiber internet service: ?We have agreed to an open access model. For a period of time at launch, Ting will be both the exclusive network operator and the exclusive service provider. After that, while we will maintain the exclusive role of network operator, we will open up the network to competitive service providers. That gives Westminster the dual benefits of stability and competition. They know that the network will be managed competently by one closely managed relationship. They also know that their businesses and residents will benefit from having many providers competing to offer them the best service at the best price.? ... Congratulations to Ting and Westminster ... AT&T Willing to Fetch for NSA, No Questions Asked Sat, September 12, 2015 | Posted by lgonzalez It has been an open secret that AT&T maintained a cozy relationship with the NSA, but only recently has the extent of that relationship been revealed. AT&T had no qualms about illegally providing enough Internet traffic data to forge a relationship fondly described by the NSA as a "highly collaborative." Edward J. Snowden provided documents chronicling the relationship; ProPublica and the New York Times reviewed them jointly. In that information: One document reminds N.S.A. officials to be polite when visiting AT&T facilities, noting, ?This is a partnership, not a contractual relationship.? ProPublica and the New York Times reviewed the information and recently published articles on their joint findings. ProPublica's article describes how anything floating across domestic networks owned by AT&T was up for grabs and, in at least one documented case, involved international clients: ... Get the Rest of the Story Here ... Community Broadband Media Roundup - Sept 11 Tue, September 15, 2015 | Posted by rebecca *Featured Stories* FCC's Sohn Urges Cities to Build Own Broadband by John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Don't wait for incumbents to supply requisite service Sohn told NATOA that rather than viewing themselves as taxers and regulators, her audience should see themselves instead as facilitators of the kind of service they have been "begging" incumbents to provide "for years." FCC's Sohn: Forget Incumbents, Build Your Own Broadband Networks by Karl Bode, DSL Reports Sohn was quick to highlight successes in places like Sandy, Oregon, and the surge in public/private partnerships like the one between Ting and Westminster, Maryland. Sohn also highlighted the important fact that after fifteen years of apathy, the FCC is finally taking aim at protectionist state laws written by incumbent ISP lawyers, which prohibit towns and cities from wiring themselves -- even in cases where nobody else wants to. ... Read the Full Community Network 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 christopher at newrules.org Tue Sep 22 04:41:45 2015 From: christopher at newrules.org (Christopher Mitchell) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 2015 07:41:45 -0400 Subject: [Davisgig] Recently in Community Networks... Week of 9/22 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.* Salisbury Fibrant Launches 10 Gbps Citywide - Community Broadband Bits Podcast 168 Tue, September 15, 2015 | Posted by christopher Salisbury's municipal FTTH network, Fibrant is the first citywide 10 Gbps network in the nation. Located in North Carolina, Salisbury is also one of very few municipal citywide fiber networks that was built by a city without a municipal electric plant. This week, Salisbury Director of Broadband and Infrastructure, Kent Winrich, joins us for Episode 168 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. We talk about why Salisbury opted to build its own fiber network and then supercharge it with enough upgrades to be able to offer 10 Gbps capacity throughout the community. We discuss economic development opportunities and how those outside of Salisbury would like to see it expand. ... Listen to the Show Here ... Newark, Delaware Considers Municipal Fiber Feasibility Study Tue, September 15, 2015 | Posted by phineas The City of Newark, population 30,000 and home to the University of Delaware, is considering commissioning a feasibility study but first will host a workshop to discuss the potential of a municipal network. City leaders want to bring together members of the community, broadband providers, experts, and municipal employees before it commits to the $10,000 study. Residents spoke at a recent city council meeting, demanding that the City inquire into the potential for a municipal broadband network, reported Delaware?s News Journal . Community interest led City Information Technology manager Josh Brechbuehl to research the City?s pre-existing Internet infrastructure, as well as speak with a wide array of broadband experts. Brechbuehl delivered a presentation to the city council on July 27 (transcript of the council meeting minutes here ), during which he laid out his vision for bringing high-speed Internet to Newark: ... Read His Vision and More Details Here ... Estes Park Moves to the Next Phase; Considering Muni Fiber Network Thu, September 17, 2015 | Posted by lgonzalez Back in February, voters in Estes Park, Colorado , enthusiastically reclaimed authority to decide locally on a community fiber network. Now the community is moving ahead by taking a detailed look at deploying a municipal gigabit network. BizWest reports that a consultant hired to study connectivity in the town of 5,800 recently recommended five possible solutions to the community's poor connectivity problem. The Town Board of Trustees considered a municipal telecommunications utility to be the most promising and passed the issue to city staff for further research. ?Now it?s up to us to thoroughly research the feasibility of the town establishing a broadband service utility, considering our financial and operational abilities and the best interests of the community?s future,? said Mayor Bill Pinkham in a media release. ... Get the Rest of the Story here ... Chattanooga Best Place For Startups and Outdoor Play Thu, September 17, 2015 | Posted by lgonzalez Chattanooga was hot in August - and we don't mean just weather-wise. EPB Fiber Optics achieved a major milestone, raising subscribership to over 75,000 . The Gig City also outpaced the rest of the state in new startup activity and received recognition from *Outside Magazine* as the 2015 Best Place to Live in America. The *Times Free Press* covered the Chattanooga startup scene in a recent article, describing how the city is leading the state in economic investment for new business ideas. When compared to the same period in 2014, Hamilton County's initial business filings rose 12.6 percent in the April - June 2015 period. Statewide that figure for the same timeframe was 9.9 percent. *The Times Free Press* article focused on Platt Boyd, an architect and entrepreneur who came to Chattanooga with his 3-D printing business. He moved his business there after competing in the 2014 GigTank . His 3-D printer large enough to create walls may one day change the way buildings are constructed. ... Well Done Chattanooga - More on the Outside Designation Here ... Fiber Sailing into the Port of Lewiston, Idaho Fri, September 18, 2015 | Posted by hannah The Port of Lewiston, the most inland seaport of the West Coast, will soon be deploying a dark fiber network, according to a July city media release . The network will serve several of the community's largest businesses, the medical center, the state college, and the airport. Although the plan calls for $950,000 to construct the network , port officials intend to have it operational by year?s end. ?This is what ports do, we develop infrastructure to support, attract and grow businesses in order to build a stronger economy,? said Port Manager David Doeringsfeld. ?In today?s world, businesses must have adequate bandwidth and redundancy to remain competitive.? The project has been highly supported by the nearby Port of Whitman County which already has maintained their own open access fiber network for over 10 years. Connecting a fiber line through the Port of Lewiston would create a loop, improving redundancy on the Port of Whitman County?s network . Better redundancy could prevent outages and ensure the ongoing reliability of the network. ... Yet Another Example of Muni Fiber and Economic Development ... Boise to Collaborate With BSU and Highway District For Downtown Fiber Wed, September 16, 2015 | Posted by lgonzalez Boise, the Ada County Highway District (ACHD), and Boise State University (BSU) have entered into an agreement to deploy fiber along a busy downtown Boise corridor. The high-speed lines will supply connectivity to a new building BSU intends to lease as a facility for Computer Science Department students. The fiber will also connect the BSU Bookstore. The city will use the fiber to connect its City Hall and a Police Department substation located on the BSU campus while ACHD will add this fiber line to its current fiber network to control traffic throughout the city. According to an Idaho Statesman article , the city has been installing conduit on campus, connecting it to ACHD conduit situated in the downtown core during the past year. Conduit installation cost the city approximately $47,000; BSU will now install fiber in the conduit at a cost of approximately $75,000. ACHD will contribute a section of its own conduit to complete the connection and will provide the permits to install the fiber. ... Get the Rest of the Story Here ... Mendocino County Worried About Their Copper During IP Transition Wed, September 16, 2015 | Posted by lgonzalez This is not our first look at problems with communications service in rural Mendocino County, California , but we continue to see concerning stories coming from it. The tenuous situation along the North Coast, where large private providers have refused to invest in redundant networks, is heightening concern among first responders, community leaders, and citizens. The problem stems from the tendency of incumbents to neglect existing copper systems that need to be replaced with fiber based VoIP. Randy MacDonald, assistant fire chief of the Camptche Volunteer For Department of rural Mendocino County recently presented the department's concerns to congressional and regulatory staff in D.C. The Press Democrat quoted him in a recent article that examines the issue in their region: ?We?ve built a second-to-none 911 system,? MacDonald said. But ?we?re almost by default allowing it to become degraded as technology changes.? ... More Details in the Full Story Here ... Gigi Sohn Celebrates Self-Reliance Among NATOA Members Sat, September 19, 2015 | Posted by lgonzalez In a September 9th speech to the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA), Gigi Sohn, Counselor to the Chairman at the FCC, encouraged government officials to build their own networks. She told attendees at the annual conference in San Diego: Without question, the landscape is changing for local governments, but in a good way. Most significantly, the future is not in cable, but in broadband. Even the cable operators acknowledge this. Rather than wait for incumbent ISPs to build the network your cities want and need, you can take control of your own broadband futures. Rather than thinking of yourselves as taxers and regulators, which has been the traditional role, you can think of yourselves as facilitators of the kind of services you?ve been begging the incumbents to provide for years. This is incredibly exciting, and I?m sure somewhat frightening. But the new model for local governments looks to benefit their citizens through externalities, not direct revenues. ... Additional Excerpts From her Speech Here ... Community Broadband Media Roundup - September 18 Mon, September 21, 2015 | Posted by rebecca *Georgia* City to study building broadband service by Ben Nelms, The Citizen Peachtree City is the latest city in Georgia to consider a city-owned fiber network. If approved, it could result in more than 20 miles of underground fiber cable. With municipal-owned broadband, the city would own the right-of-way for fiber installation and would call the shots on infrastructure rather than relying on a for-profit vendor. ?This is a big decision,? said interim City Manager Jon Rorie. ?So is the juice worth the squeeze going forward?? *Illinois* Alderman: City should use existing fiber-optic network for Internet service by Fran Spielman, Chicago Sun-Times A Chicago Alderman says the city should switch from private ISP's to the city?s own higher-capacity fiber-optic network. ... Read the Full Community Network 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 rob at omsoft.com Wed Sep 23 21:36:01 2015 From: rob at omsoft.com (Robert Nickerson) Date: Wed, 23 Sep 2015 21:36:01 -0700 Subject: [Davisgig] A) Broadband "Core Utility" + B) Meetings + C) DavisGIG Committee meets Wed Oct 7th at Sudwerk at 6:30pm Message-ID: <56037DB1.1080508@omsoft.com> Hi Davisites A) The WhiteHouse Broadband Opportunity Council has just referred to Access to Broadband a ?Core Utility? This is a big deal, and a big report. Thanks for the Tip ET! We are reframing Internet Access as a utility, and the DavisGIG community-owned plan fiber for fiber optic network is a de facto a more utility style implementation of Internet access. http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/22/white-house-says-broadband-is-a-core-utility/ B) This month has been about meetings, here are some good meetings DavisGIG has had recently. These are important becasue the convey the vision to other leaders and stakeholders in the community and help move the project along. I'd like to really encourage other folks in the community to come to these and share their $0.02. When you present our civic leaders with multiple perspectives from people with diverse life experiences all advocating a similar goal for the City, it helps convince them this is the right choice. So thank you to everyone that arranged these events and attended them on our behalf over the last month. Lets move this along. Meetings 1 - DJUSD with Director of Instructional Technology and IT Manager 2 - David Greenwald - PVOD 3 - Soroptomist luncheon 4- Jumpstart Davis 5 - DCN Executive Committee Meeting 6 - Chief Innovation Officer 7 - Felisha Alvarez - Davis Enterprise Details 1 - The Meeting with DJUSD was presented as an initial meeting to brief people in the superintendent's office on the project, andinvite their participation in future discussions with other stake holders involved in building out our municipal fiber optic network. IT was a 45 minute meeting, attended by myself, Richard Lauckhart from El Macero, along with Marcia Bernard and Bob Kehr. We provided an overview of how the network would operate, the benefit it would bring to the schools, their stronger negotiating position with Comcast for future Inet use, and other issues. They indicated they would discuss it amongst their technology committee, to come up with additional things they could do with a fiber optic network to all the homes and businesses. They were very concerned about digital divide issues and reaching all of the students in Davis. This plan does do that, as it was conceived, so that is a strength. They asked what they could do to help, and we suggested, get engaged with the process, at a task force, and 2x2 meeting level to advocate and support the deployment of a municipal fiber network. Joing the volunteer list. Further asked that if it went forward they re-engage at the board level with DCN or a future DavisGIG operating committe of DCN. 2 - David Greenwald met me at the Makerspace and did a 10 minute interview for the Jumpstart Davis Event, made no promises and delivered nothing. His recorder is nice, I think I'm going to get one for our next General Meeting. 3 - Had a very comfortable reception and delivered an extemporaneous lecture about DavisGIG to the Soroptomist group. We really need to engage further with this network and more like it. Most of us are surrounded in realms of tech geekery, and so take fiber optic for granted as a naturally preferable evolution for Internet Access in Davis, this group were over half retirees, and yet I felt everyone not only understood the concept, they were largely positive on it. There was a 20 minute or so talk, with about 15 minutes of great questions. We were able to distribute our 3-4 Internet contact points to their list, and I heard some options and good feedback. Thanks HB! 4 - Jumpstart Davis is a regular monthly meetup to showcase local entreprenuerial activities. Thank you to the many DavisGIG Volunteers who came to support our talk. IT was also somewhat extemporaneous, with presentation slides from our prior Library outreach effort. A lot of City leaders were present as well, and it was great for them to hear all the general rambunctious energy from all our supporters and other attendees at the event. We reinforced contacts with community leaders, made some new allies of the effort, and really drew great enthusiasm from a dinner party at a nearby table. A good thing is that this meeting led to 2 future meetings which happened this week, with CIO of the City and the Enterprise. Scott Ragsdale from Davis Roots spoke in passing about helping get this sold in Davis, but no contact has been forthcoming from him. He also said soemthing like that at the Small Business Boost conference and didnt return any email then either, so likely no help there. 5 - DCN has regular weekly lunch meetings, and this last week it was attended by a very eloquent DavisGIG advocate Matthew Williams. He presented several new strategies he feels could help move our project forward in a more timely way, plus opinions on the financing and direction of the effort. Some good public relations ideas he brought are a student campaign in conjunction with DJUSD where we get all school children to donate a $1 or so, for their future broadband network, a powerful symbol. He's also advocating financing the effort from revenue bonds, and paying for the network from ISP lease fees or ?franchise fees? for accessing the network, rather than an every address pays for the service, which would trigger a Prop 218 vote, or some other tax. Finally, another solid idea is solicitng the MRIC folks to assist in putting forward funds for the preparation of the FSR, and so we can get this all done in a more timely way then going through the perceived slower public process. I very much appreciate someone who is as passionate about getting this done, and to let everyone know, as Matt has been forthcoming on this in these meetings. He is running for City council in 2016, and I believe DavisGIG will be a plank in the platform. IT seems now this is taken on a life of its own, but, hey a great meeting! And great to have another enthusiastic person that is community minded and determined to see this happen. 6 - Had a great 1 hour talk with Diane Parro at the Davis Makerspace this morning. We discussed our backgrounds, the Internet, mediums of Internet transmission, what's needed, for DavisGIG to operate, so on and so forth. GREAT meeting. We are fortunate, because it seems in her prior work in the County she has been liasoned on Broadband issues extensively out of Don Saylor's supervisor office, and has brought the issue forward for years through various committees if only to be stymied. Now this in Davis. After the meeting she has a good grounding of how networks operate, why fiber is better than coax, and why open access is better than monopoly Internet. Process going forward is getting something to council in the October/early Nov timeline, putting together her a workiing group, not a TASK FORCE, to help get the RFP/FSR stuff done. Stuff we have been discussing since meeting 2 of the DavisGIG group. I've put it out there, that we want to just do all that now, and I'll be seeing what they say to that next week. 6/16 is right aroung the corner. After this first, grounding in Internet Concepts, We are meeting again next week, time to have another person or two from our group to drop in and add their bit. Drop me a line. Especially someone that can put their FSR Hat and getting things done, and reassure them we can take it on, at least fast tracking this process to some consultancy to get a quick turn around from a reputable agency. Several peoplein the community have put forward we could fundraise on that issue, , and perhaps get buy in from the Innovation Center folsk. She is also working on her round of higher level stakeholder meetings and getting buy in from other peole in town. Helped give her a list. 7 - After DP left the Makerspace, Felisha Alvarez, a UCD grad and reporter from the Enterprise took a great in depth 1 hour or so interview on DavisGIG. I spun out the long yarn of our tale, our history, and how we have gotten to where we are. What comes next, and a lot of similar stuff that we went over with DP. We'll see if it goes anywhere, but she sounded very interested. C) We should have lawn signs at our next meeting. Wed October 7^th at 6:30 pm at Sudwerk. Anyway ? more is to be done. Please check out TRELLO ! http://www.trello.com/davisgig Pick a task, get it done.If you need an invite email rob at omsoft.com. You should be able to see 4 or so boards covering general project areas, with lists for specific areas and cards for individual tasks. Add your own tasks or boards if you want. we are starting to have a need to flesh this project out, now that there is civic interest. Go to it. At least sign up and get us some free Trello Gold. Onward. RAN -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rob at omsoft.com Wed Sep 23 22:36:18 2015 From: rob at omsoft.com (Robert Nickerson) Date: Wed, 23 Sep 2015 22:36:18 -0700 Subject: [Davisgig] Resend with, SPELLCHECK! Message-ID: <56038BD2.3030402@omsoft.com> Hi . Again! RAN A) The White House Broadband Opportunity Council has just referred to Access to Broadband a "?Core Utility?" This is a big deal, and a big report. Thanks for the Tip ET! We are re-framing Internet Access as a utility, and the DavisGIG community-owned plan fiber for fiber optic network is de facto, more utility style implementation of Internet access. http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/22/white-house-says-broadband-is-a-core-utility/ B) This month has been about meetings, here are some good meetings DavisGIG has had recently. These are important because the convey the vision to other leaders and stakeholders in the community and help move the project along. I'd like to really encourage other folks in the community to come to these and share their $0.02. When you present our civic leaders with multiple perspectives from people with diverse life experiences all advocating a similar goal for the City, it helps convince them this is the right choice. So thank you to everyone that arranged these events and attended them on our behalf over the last month. Lets move this along. Meetings 1 - DJUSD with Director of Instructional Technology and IT Manager 2 - David Greenwald - PVOD 3 - Soroptomist luncheon 4- Jumpstart Davis 5 - DCN Executive Committee Meeting 6 - Chief Innovation Officer 7 - Felisha Alvarez - Davis Enterprise Details 1 - The Meeting with DJUSD was presented as an initial meeting to brief people in the superintendent's office on the project, and invite their participation in future discussions with other stake holders involved in building out our municipal fiber optic network. IT was a 45 minute meeting, attended by myself, Richard Lauckhart from El Macero, along with Marcia Bernard and Bob Kehr. We provided an overview of how the network would operate, the benefit it would bring to the schools, their stronger negotiating position with Comcast for future Inet use, and other issues. They indicated they would discuss it amongst their technology committee, to come up with additional things they could do with a fiber optic network to all the homes and businesses. They were very concerned about digital divide issues and reaching all of the students in Davis. This plan does do that, as it was conceived, so that is a strength. They asked what they could do to help, and we suggested, get engaged with the process, at a task force, and 2x2 meeting level to advocate and support the deployment of a municipal fiber network. Join the volunteer list. Further asked that if it went forward they re-engage at the board level with DCN or a future DavisGIG operating committee of DCN. 2 - David Greenwald met me at the Makerspace and did a 10 minute interview for the Jumpstart Davis Event, made no promises and delivered nothing. His recorder is nice, I think I'm going to get one for our next General Meeting. 3 - Had a very comfortable reception and delivered an extemporaneous lecture about DavisGIG to the Soroptomist group. We really need to engage further with this network and more like it. Most of us are surrounded in realms of tech geekery, and so take fiber optic for granted as a naturally preferable evolution for Internet Access in Davis, this group were over half retirees, and yet I felt everyone not only understood the concept, they were largely positive on it. There was a 20 minute or so talk, with about 15 minutes of great questions. We were able to distribute our 3-4 Internet contact points to their list, and I heard some options and good feedback. Thanks HB! 4 - Jumpstart Davis is a regular monthly meetup to showcase local entrepreneurial activities. Thank you to the many DavisGIG Volunteers who came to support our talk. IT was also somewhat extemporaneous, with presentation slides from our prior Library outreach effort. A lot of City leaders were present as well, and it was great for them to hear all the general rambunctious energy from all our supporters and other attendees at the event. We reinforced contacts with community leaders, made some new allies of the effort, and really drew great enthusiasm from a dinner party at a nearby table. A good thing is that this meeting led to 2 future meetings which happened this week, with CIO of the City and the Enterprise. Scott Ragsdale from Davis Roots spoke in passing about helping get this sold in Davis, but no contact has been forthcoming from him. He also said something like that at the Small Business Boost conference and didn't return any email then either, so likely no help there. 5 - DCN has regular weekly lunch meetings, and this last week it was attended by a very eloquent DavisGIG advocate Matthews Williams. He presented several new strategies he feels could help move our project forward in a more timely way, plus opinions on the financing and direction of the effort. Some good public relations ideas he brought are a student campaign in conjunction with DJUSD where we get all school children to donate a $1 or so, for their future broadband network, a powerful symbol. He's also advocating financing the effort from revenue bonds, and paying for the network from ISP lease fees or "??franchise fees"?? for accessing the network, rather than an every address pays for the service, which would trigger a Prop 218 vote, or some other tax. Finally, another solid idea is soliciting the MRIC folks to assist in putting forward funds for the preparation of the FSR, and so we can get this all done in a more timely way then going through the perceived slower public process. I very much appreciate someone who is as passionate about getting this done, and to let everyone know, as Matt has been forthcoming on this in these meetings. He is running for City council in 2016, and I believe DavisGIG will be a plank in the platform. IT seems now this is taken on a life of its own, but, hey a great meeting! And great to have another enthusiastic person that is community minded and determined to see this happen. 6 - Had a great 1 hour talk with Diane Parro at the Davis Makerspace this morning. We discussed our backgrounds, the Internet, mediums of Internet transmission, what's needed, for DavisGIG to operate, so on and so forth. GREAT meeting. We are fortunate, because it seems in her prior work in the County she has been involved with on Broadband issues extensively out of Don Saylor's supervisor office, and has brought the issue forward for years through various committees if only to be stymied. Now this in Davis. After the meeting she has a good grounding of how networks operate, why fiber is better than coax, and why open access is better than monopoly Internet. Process going forward is getting something to council in the October/early Nov timeline, putting together her a working group, not a TASK FORCE, to help get the RFP/FSR stuff done. Stuff we have been discussing since meeting 2 of the DavisGIG group. I've put it out there, that we want to just do all that now, and I'll be seeing what they say to that next week. 6/16 is right around the corner. After this first, grounding in Internet Concepts, We are meeting again next week, time to have another person or two from our group to drop in and add their bit. Drop me a line. Especially someone that can put their FSR Hat and getting things done, and reassure them we can take it on, at least fast tracking this process to some consultancy to get a quick turn around from a reputable agency. Several people in the community have put forward we could fundraise on that issue, and perhaps get buy in from the Innovation Center folks. She is also working on her round of higher level stakeholder meetings and getting buy in from other people in town. Helped give her a list. 7 - After DP left the Makerspace, Felisha Alvarez, a UCD grad and reporter from the Enterprise took a great in depth 1 hour or so interview on DavisGIG. I spun out the long yarn of our tale, our history, and how we have gotten to where we are. What comes next, and a lot of similar stuff that we went over with DP. We'll see if it goes anywhere, but she sounded very interested. C) We should have lawn signs at our next meeting. Wed October 7^th at 6:30 pm at Sudwerk. Anyway ??? more is to be done. Please check out TRELLO ! http://www.trello.com/davisgig Pick a task, get it done.If you need an invite email rob at omsoft.com. You should be able to see 4 or so boards covering general project areas, with lists for specific areas and cards for individual tasks. Add your own tasks or boards if you want. we are starting to have a need to flesh this project out, now that there is civic interest. Go to it. At least sign up and get us some free Trello Gold. 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 christopher at newrules.org Tue Sep 29 11:46:50 2015 From: christopher at newrules.org (Christopher Mitchell) Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2015 14:46:50 -0400 Subject: [Davisgig] Recently in Community Networks... Week of 9/29 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.* *We are Hiring! Looking for someone excited to write for us on community networks in our Minneapolis office! Job description here - please circulate! * *We are excited about the upcoming AnchorNETS Broadband Summit for Schools, Health, and Libraries on November 16 & 17 in Mountain View, California. *Developed by the SHLB Coalition, *AnchorNETs* is designed to educate leadership from schools, health and library organizations; introduce them to partners, solutions providers and capital sources; and provide a strategic road map to bring gigabit connectivity and all the benefits of this 21st century infrastructure to constituents, communities and people. *More Details here!* Spanish Fork Upgrading to Fiber in Utah Mon, September 21, 2015 | Posted by lgonzalez Spanish Fork Community Network (SFCN) recently announced it is upgrading its cable network to a fiber optic network. The network has already started improving services by increasing speeds for the highest tiers at no extra costreports the Herald Extra . Residents and businesses in the town of approximately 37,000 have relied on the municipal cable network since 2001. Over the past 14 years, the network has come to provide triple-play to 80 percent of Spanish Fork homes. Officials kicked off construction on September 3rd: ?We?re excited this is the next step for the SFCN network," [SFCN Director John] Bowcut said. "We?ve always planned on doing fiber to the home, and now we?re in the fiscal position where we can go ahead and install that for our customers." ... Read the Full Exciting Story Here ... Westminster Homes Now Receiving Gig Internet Access From Ting Mon, September 21, 2015 | Posted by lgonzalez After several years of planning, deployment, and the formation of a partnership with Ting , Westminster's fiber network is now serving its citizens. In August, local CPA Tim Redmond and his wife Allison were the first to get gigabit Internet access, according to a Ting press release . Apparently, Redmond has been waiting for some time to be able to access such speeds online: Redmond has followed along with Westminster?s efforts to get the gig for city residents. He first learned of gigabit fiber Internet coming to town in a pretty low-tech way. ?We got our water bill and there was an enclosure. It described that fiber optic Internet was coming to Westminster? and introduced Ting Internet as the service provider for Westminster. It was welcome news; Redmond has been following fiber since his college days when Verizon started to push FiOS in Baltimore. When it became clear that big providers aren?t willing to go anywhere but a major metro, he became despondent. OK, despondent might be a slight overstatement. ?I was bummed,? is what he actually said. ... A few more Details from Westminster here ... Dark Fiber Network Saving Money, Generating Revenue in Burbank Tue, September 22, 2015 | Posted by lgonzalez ONE Burbank , the dark fiber network that has provided connectivity for studios since 1997, is bringing a number of benefits to Burbank schools and taxpayers,reports the Burbank Leader . The network is saving public dollars, generating revenue, and providing better connectivity to schools and public facilities. Five years ago, we reported on Burbank's asset and its primary customers - Hollywood studios. That trend has continued but now the network generates even more revenue. As a result, all electric customers served by Burbank Water and Power save with lower utility bills: Last year, ONE Burbank generated $3.4 million in revenues for the utility, [General Manager Ron] Davis said in May. That?s compared to roughly $205,000 in 1997 and about $1.5 million five years ago, according to data Davis presented to the City Council. ?The bulk of that [$3.4 million] is all margin and helps keep electric rates down,? Davis said. ?[We do] basically zero marketing and collect that margin.? ... Read More About the Incredible Benefits of their Network ... Explaining Right-of-Way Basics - Community Broadband Bits Episode 169 Tue, September 22, 2015 | Posted by christopher For this week's Community Broadband Bits, we are delving into an area of law and practice that is quite important for Internet network deployment but tends to be dry and confusing. Not for us today though, we have Sean Stokes, a Principal at Baller Herbst Stokes & Lide, joining us to explain Right-of-Way basics. We talk about what the public Right-of-Way (ROW) is, who is responsible for maintaining it, how entities can get access to it and how poles are distinct from the ROW. We discuss how much power local governments and pole owners have to deny access to these assets and some of the costs associated with make-ready. If you don't know what make-ready is, you'll know in less than thirty minutes. We finish our discussion by exploring the "Municipal Gain" policy in Connecticut, where munis are entitled to some space on the poles for any purpose they choose to use it. Historically, this was used only for public safety, but it was recently broadened. Sean also explores how he believes we should simplify access for fiber-optic s rather than basing access on the particular end service being offered. ... Listen to the Show Here ... Orono and Old Town Receive Funding for Fiber in Maine Thu, September 24, 2015 | Posted by lgonzalez The Old Town-Orono Fiber Corporation (OTO Fiber), the entity created by the cities of Old Town and Orono in Maine to design, install, maintain and manage a planned fiber network, recently received a grant for $250,000. The funds, awarded by the Northern Border Regional Commission (NBRC), will help the communities commence their open access network project. According to a statement released by Maine Senators Angus King and Susan Collins, this was one of six awards to Maine communities. The other grants included road, sewer, and other municipally-owned facilities needed to maintain or grow jobs in the northern counties of Maine. Congress created NBRC in 2008 as a state-federal partnership to encourage job growth in several northern counties of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, and New York that experience economic distress. ... Learn More About these Communities here ... Albany, NY Proposes Feasibility Study for Municipal Broadband Service Wed, September 23, 2015 | Posted by Tom Ernste In July, the city of Albany, NY released a Request for Proposals (RFP) seeking qualified consulting firms to conduct a feasibility study for a municipal broadband service. As the RFP states, the study will look to develop strategies, find gaps in service and adoption, and develop a business plan to explore partnerships between the city and private ISPs. According to Broadband Communities magazine , a working group comprised of several important community organizations and business groups in Albany will help to steer plans for the possible municipal broadband initiative. Jeff Mirel, a technology professional in Albany and a member of the working group, explains the group?s goals for the feasibility study: ?The first step is asking the right questions, which is what we want this study to do. What are the real broadband needs and issues that both businesses and residents experience here? Is it infrastructure, technology, education, affordability? How do we address the gaps to not only keep and attract companies, but bring these employers and a connected local workforce together? By taking a deep, comprehensive look at broadband access and usability, along with best practices, we can move towards meaningful, actionable strategies.? ... Read the Full Story Here ... Avoid Partisan Fights with a Personal Face on Economic Development Fri, September 25, 2015 | Posted by christopher *The following commentary comes from Mike Smeltzer, one of the key people responsible for the UC2B network in the Illinois twin cities of Urbana and Champaign. Mike had this comment after a question about how we can elevate local bipartisan conversations from the local level to the state and federal level without getting lost in political bickering. He wrote this and gave us permission to republish it.* The Urbana City Council could be confused for Madison's, while Champaign's Council is far more conservative. I spoke to both of them on a regular basis in the early days of UC2B seeking their support. I learned early on that I could not tell Urbana's Council what they wanted to hear on Monday night, and then change the message to better please Champaign's Council on the next night. Those dedicated public servants watch each other's meetings on the PEG channels. ... Read the Full Commentary Here - Good Advice! ... Paul Bunyan Communications Wins Award for GigaZone Sat, September 26, 2015 | Posted by hannah Sometimes we just want to celebrate a small victory for local communities. Back in June, Paul Bunyan Communications won the 2015 Leading Lights National Award for Most Innovative Gigabit Broadband Service. This small cooperative from rural northern Minnesota beat both innovative local firms like C Spire and national companies like Google. Whereas Comcast is rolling out Gigabit Pro in Silicon Valley, Paul Bunyan Communications is serving sparsely populated, often-ignored, rural areas. Gary Johnson, the Paul Bunyan Communications CEO/General Manager was honored to accept the award and explained their approach to gigabit access ... More on the Award Here ... Join MAG-Net Campaign on Prison Phone Rates and Lifeline Program Funding Wed, September 23, 2015 | Posted by lgonzalez The Media Action Grassroots Network recently launched a fall campaign, Fight for Our #RightToConnect , an appeal to the FCC to expand the Lifeline program to include coverage for broadband and to place a cap on prison phone rates. From MAG-Net: Right now the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is working on two issues that could dramatically help close the gap on some of these disparities. First, the FCC is considering reforms to the prison telephone industry that would establish an affordable flat rate for all phone calls out of jails, prisons and detention facilities, ending a practice of price gouging. Second, the FCC is planning on modernizing a low-income program known as Lifeline, which would help low-income families afford an Internet connection at home. We want to urge the FCC to move forward on both of these issues, which is why members of the Media Action Grassroots Network are kicking off a ?Right to Connect? initiative. During the next few weeks, we?ll be educating our communities on Lifeline and Prison Phones and encouraging people to take action on both of these issues. Our activities will culminate with a 15-person delegation that will travel to Washington D.C. to meet with members of Congress and the FCC to demand they support our communities. Want to join us? Take a few moments to sign MAG-Net's petition , which will be delivered to the FCC on October 6th-7th. MAG-Net has produced a #RightToConnect Outreach Kit with sample blasts, social media suggestions, and images that can help raise awareness. Share the campaign on Facebook and Twitter to get the word out. For more information on what you can do, contact Steven Renderos at steven at mediajustice.org -- 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 rob at omsoft.com Tue Sep 29 20:54:18 2015 From: rob at omsoft.com (rob) Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2015 20:54:18 -0700 Subject: [Davisgig] Important - Financial Estimates Required Message-ID: <17a4a48c070d9e5eee91335d2c918016@mail.dcn.davis.ca.us> More Meetings So Its time for another meeting with Diane Parro new CIO at the City, on Thur 10/8 at 8:30 AM at the Davis Makerspace. This meeting will take an hour and we will go over our estimate of costs involved in building out and running the network, as well as what kind of revenues the city could expect. Big Deal Meeting. This is an important meeting, we have to show this as a net benefit for the City to invest, and it will be our goalpost for costs going forward with the City process. It's important we provide good estimates, and that we present our opinions on why they are accurate and how this would work for the city. This will be the basis for costs they think of from the initial staff report as it all gets knocked around at Council level. I've started to collect costs on equipment, and will also be able to put in the network operations labor side of things, plus the network hardware and Internet connections to the Data Centers. Meeting this Thursday 10/1/2015 at 10am with Pacific Utility construction, located in woodland. They are a local contact I have made that does conduit and fiber installs for the major carriers, and would love to sub bid out this job and keep our dollars in our county. My plan is to ask them how they would do this job, and get a ballpark estimate. Anyone that wants to come to one or both meetings drop me a line, I'd love other perspectives and effort from the community to make this happen. IT is a very important one. Also - I'll be putting what costs we have collected already on trello for others to check out. Presently this will be some figures on equipment, plus some labor operations costs omsoft will help put together, and an estimate on uptake. I'd be using an estimate of 33% of homes/businesses taking up the fiber network, does anyone think that number is out of line? Its still TBD if everyone in the city pays out on this, for the benefits, making it a 2/3 + 1 vote or only the 33% that we get as subscribers and their corresponding franchise or lease fees. That should et hashed out with a feasibility study report. AND Meeting at Sudwerk, Wed Oct 7th at 6:30pm ALSO Lawn signs are being printed. And a big thank you to Davis Media Access, as davisgig announcements are showing up on KDRT, 95.7fm. People are looking at our Facebook page a lot more, and its increasing awareness. Independent of that, I tell someone new about it every day. Today was the Pastor of University Covenant Church. All they can get is 6 Mbps ATT ADSL. They are STOKED about DavisGIG. So please if anyone wants to take on regularly updating the Facebook page and putting up content from twitter, and the mailing list that would be appreciated. Onward! Thanks RN From steve at dcn.org Wed Sep 30 09:18:39 2015 From: steve at dcn.org (Steve McMahon) Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2015 09:18:39 -0700 Subject: [Davisgig] Important - Financial Estimates Required In-Reply-To: <17a4a48c070d9e5eee91335d2c918016@mail.dcn.davis.ca.us> References: <17a4a48c070d9e5eee91335d2c918016@mail.dcn.davis.ca.us> Message-ID: """ I'd be using an estimate of 33% of homes/businesses taking up the fiber network, does anyone think that number is out of line? """ I would love to see us doing something like Google, which offers a free (monthly) low-level tier for the cost of finalizing the connection. I also think that would help justify the base buildout as something everyone pays for. We wouldn't need it to be free, but that low tier should be very inexpensive so that we can make progress on digital divide issues. That should enhance the "take" rate, though the revenue from higher bandwidth users would need to provide the payback and profit for the city. Another argument for having everyone help pay for the base buildout: we're likely to end up using this network for everything from water-meter reading up. Not to mention the fact that it adds to the values of everyone's property -- not just those who buy a gig. On Tue, Sep 29, 2015 at 8:54 PM, rob wrote: > More Meetings > > So Its time for another meeting with Diane Parro new CIO at the City, on > Thur 10/8 at 8:30 AM at the Davis Makerspace. This meeting will take an > hour and we will go over our estimate of costs involved in building out and > running the network, as well as what kind of revenues the city could > expect. Big Deal Meeting. This is an important meeting, we have to show > this as a net benefit for the City to invest, and it will be our goalpost > for costs going forward with the City process. > > It's important we provide good estimates, and that we present our opinions > on why they are accurate and how this would work for the city. This will be > the basis for costs they think of from the initial staff report as it all > gets knocked around at Council level. > > I've started to collect costs on equipment, and will also be able to put > in the network operations labor side of things, plus the network hardware > and Internet connections to the Data Centers. > > Meeting this Thursday 10/1/2015 at 10am with Pacific Utility > construction, located in woodland. They are a local contact I have made > that does conduit and fiber installs for the major carriers, and would love > to sub bid out this job and keep our dollars in our county. > > My plan is to ask them how they would do this job, and get a ballpark > estimate. > > Anyone that wants to come to one or both meetings drop me a line, I'd love > other perspectives and effort from the community to make this happen. IT is > a very important one. > > Also - I'll be putting what costs we have collected already on trello for > others to check out. Presently this will be some figures on equipment, plus > some labor operations costs omsoft will help put together, and an estimate > on uptake. > > I'd be using an estimate of 33% of homes/businesses taking up the fiber > network, > does anyone think that number is out of line? > > Its still TBD if everyone in the city pays out on this, for the benefits, > making it a 2/3 + 1 vote or only the 33% that we get as subscribers and > their corresponding franchise or lease fees. That should et hashed out with > a feasibility study report. > > AND > > Meeting at Sudwerk, Wed Oct 7th at 6:30pm > > ALSO > > Lawn signs are being printed. > > And a big thank you to Davis Media Access, as davisgig announcements are > showing up on KDRT, 95.7fm. > > People are looking at our Facebook page a lot more, and its increasing > awareness. Independent of that, I tell someone new about it every day. > Today was the Pastor of University Covenant Church. All they can get is 6 > Mbps ATT ADSL. They are STOKED about DavisGIG. > > So please if anyone wants to take on regularly updating the Facebook page > and putting up content from twitter, and the mailing list that would be > appreciated. > > Onward! > > Thanks > RN > _______________________________________________ > > 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: From rl at 1st-mile.org Wed Sep 30 09:58:23 2015 From: rl at 1st-mile.org (Richard Lowenberg) Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2015 10:58:23 -0600 Subject: [Davisgig] Important - Financial Estimates Required In-Reply-To: References: <17a4a48c070d9e5eee91335d2c918016@mail.dcn.davis.ca.us> Message-ID: <7d71fc0e420a3948868bbe21c90fad8b@mail.dcn.davis.ca.us> Wonderful to remotely watch your DavisGig process and progress. Along with financial projections and refinements, it may be easy and worthwhile to begin mapping the phased interest in and deployment of fiber infrastructure, noting early sign-ups and potential high-bandwidth users. Just simple Google Maps. All networked best, RL --------------------------------------------------------------- Richard Lowenberg, Executive Director 1st-Mile Institute 505-603-5200 Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504, rl at 1st-mile.org www.1st-mile.org --------------------------------------------------------------- From chris.nicolini at gmail.com Wed Sep 30 11:11:53 2015 From: chris.nicolini at gmail.com (Chris Nicolini) Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2015 11:11:53 -0700 Subject: [Davisgig] Important - Financial Estimates Required In-Reply-To: <17a4a48c070d9e5eee91335d2c918016@mail.dcn.davis.ca.us> References: <17a4a48c070d9e5eee91335d2c918016@mail.dcn.davis.ca.us> Message-ID: Rob, Thank you for taking the time to advance this important project, I very much appreciate all of your hard work! I live in Davis, and would love to help out with creating a viable alternative to the dismal ISP options available in my neighborhood. I'd like to help with regular updates and getting the word out about DavisGig - and with updating content, etc. - if you still need assistance. I currently handle all digital communications for the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at UC Davis, which involves just about anything related to content - especially social media and web news. In November, I am starting in a new position that oversees social media for the entire university, where I'll be responsible for the day-to-day management of the social media channels for UC Davis. You can learn more about my experience and background here . Feel free to email or call me sometime this week when you have a moment if you'd like to talk. Thanks again for all of your work on this project! Chris Nicolini On Tue, Sep 29, 2015 at 8:54 PM, rob wrote: > More Meetings > > So Its time for another meeting with Diane Parro new CIO at the City, on > Thur 10/8 at 8:30 AM at the Davis Makerspace. This meeting will take an > hour and we will go over our estimate of costs involved in building out and > running the network, as well as what kind of revenues the city could > expect. Big Deal Meeting. This is an important meeting, we have to show > this as a net benefit for the City to invest, and it will be our goalpost > for costs going forward with the City process. > > It's important we provide good estimates, and that we present our opinions > on why they are accurate and how this would work for the city. This will be > the basis for costs they think of from the initial staff report as it all > gets knocked around at Council level. > > I've started to collect costs on equipment, and will also be able to put > in the network operations labor side of things, plus the network hardware > and Internet connections to the Data Centers. > > Meeting this Thursday 10/1/2015 at 10am with Pacific Utility > construction, located in woodland. They are a local contact I have made > that does conduit and fiber installs for the major carriers, and would love > to sub bid out this job and keep our dollars in our county. > > My plan is to ask them how they would do this job, and get a ballpark > estimate. > > Anyone that wants to come to one or both meetings drop me a line, I'd love > other perspectives and effort from the community to make this happen. IT is > a very important one. > > Also - I'll be putting what costs we have collected already on trello for > others to check out. Presently this will be some figures on equipment, plus > some labor operations costs omsoft will help put together, and an estimate > on uptake. > > I'd be using an estimate of 33% of homes/businesses taking up the fiber > network, > does anyone think that number is out of line? > > Its still TBD if everyone in the city pays out on this, for the benefits, > making it a 2/3 + 1 vote or only the 33% that we get as subscribers and > their corresponding franchise or lease fees. That should et hashed out with > a feasibility study report. > > AND > > Meeting at Sudwerk, Wed Oct 7th at 6:30pm > > ALSO > > Lawn signs are being printed. > > And a big thank you to Davis Media Access, as davisgig announcements are > showing up on KDRT, 95.7fm. > > People are looking at our Facebook page a lot more, and its increasing > awareness. Independent of that, I tell someone new about it every day. > Today was the Pastor of University Covenant Church. All they can get is 6 > Mbps ATT ADSL. They are STOKED about DavisGIG. > > So please if anyone wants to take on regularly updating the Facebook page > and putting up content from twitter, and the mailing list that would be > appreciated. > > Onward! > > Thanks > RN > _______________________________________________ > > 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: