<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<p>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</p>
<p>
<title></title>
<meta name="generator" content="LibreOffice 5.0.4.2 (Windows)">
<style type="text/css">
@page { margin: 0.79in }
p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120% }
a:link { so-language: zxx }
</style>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Hello Davisites!</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Here is a a
letter going out to our davisgig-announce list at some point
soon. <br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Want to share the
good news, and if you have any feedback let me know by private
email. <br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Please READ –
TLDR
– Make the City Council Meeting on Tues.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Our City Council
will take its first important step toward realizing our goal of
a
community owned fiber optic network! Next Tuesday's 8/30/16 City
Council meeting will feature a report by the Broadband Advisory
Task
Force, and a vote of affirmation in support of our important
work in procuring a feasibility study for fiber optic cable
deployment for all the
homes and businesses in Davis. Assuming this carries, the RFP
will go forward as a request from, and funded by, City of
Davis. City council members will receive the draft RFP in their
materials packets and will vote on approval of it for
publishing. <br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><br>
</p>
This RFP is based on the one we all developed some months back,
with some small changes.
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">This is the
important first step, DavisGIG has raised funds for, and
building on
that success, now the City Council will be stepping in to fully
fund
this study, as well as the essential conduit and infrastructure
mapping, and code changes to implement a Dig Once policy.
DavisGIG
and DCN will use your generously contributed funds to support
and
sustain this effort through community outreach efforts while
this
study, and others, like engineering, and demand aggregation
efforts,
go forward. <br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">All of you,
DavisGIG, and the BATF, are about to take the very important
step of
reclaiming network access from big investor owned entities, and
managing this ourselves, in our own community. Lets work
together,
if you think you have a worthwhile perspective to share, come
down, and give 3 minutes to tell the council members. <br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">This is a
milestone,
and its important for citizens to come and speak at public
comment in
support of this item, which will feature presentations from
Diane Parro, CIO City of Davis, and Chris Clements, BATF
co-chair. This is the first meeting of the new City
Council, a new group of leaders, with an important agenda, and
its
imperative they know how important a fiber optic deployment is
to our
residents and businesses. They want to know the considered
opinion of citizens
on this matter, and not just "X Company sucks!!" or "I need more
speeds.." <br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">It will also be
great for them to see some more people supporting and working
on, DavisGIG, aside from Jeff M and I. <br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">A community owned
fiber optic network is an investment in our future. Not only
will it
provide very reliable and cheaper Internet connections to
everyone
now, we will help fund our city through our monthly broadband
payments, and get better service without the constant worry of
ever
increasing Internet access bills. Furthermore,
building out our own telecommunications plant gives us lots of
options. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Our city will be
able to implement real time telemetry throughout its utility
operations, and realize lots of benefits unbounded network
access has
to offer. See some of the exciting applications being sponsored
by
US-Ignite at <a href="http://www.ignite.org/">www.us-ignite.org</a></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">So good job, as
has
been told again and on, this is a multi year process, but our
work so
far is starting to bear significant results. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Thank you for
your continued interest and engagement.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">RAN<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><br>
</p>
</p>
</body>
</html>