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How will broadband affect burgeoning controversies over health care? The answers to this question and more came courtesy of a Broadband Cenus-hosted, hour-long panel discussion. View a video of the discussion.
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President Obama on Innovation and Sustainable Growth. President Barack Obama has new plans to strengthen the economy that will all favor people with hi-tech educations.
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Elevate Miami, a comprehensive Digital Inclusion program launched by the city of Miami, aims to serve youth, low-income families, minorities, seniors and residents facing barriers to digital inclusion.
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The Knight Center of Digital Excellence held its first Stimulus Webcast Session for Knight communities and program directors July 23. Watch it online now.
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By pushing hard on broadband, lawmakers hope to close the "digital divide" that has long separated rural America. In doing so, they hope to give rural consumers access to the same sorts of high-speed services and opportunities - think telemedicine, distance-learning and Web-based commerce - that city dwellers have enjoyed for years.
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Archive for the ‘OneCommunity’ Category
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
Communities looking for a real-life example of community broadband access need look no further than Akron, Ohio, where the city recently launched the first phase of its Connect Akron Wireless Network.
The launch is the beginning of a build out that reflects two years of planning and partnership between the City of Akron and OneCommunity, a nonprofit organization that serves Northern Ohio by connecting public and nonprofit institutions to its next-generation fiber-optic network. OneCommunity also operates the Knight Center of Digital Excellence through a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
The city showed off its new wireless capability to the public by hosting a small Internet café at Lock 3 Park. The first phase of the network covers one mile of the city, which includes the Cascade Plaza, the neighboring museums and library, as well as all three downtown hospitals and neighborhoods in three adjoining areas.
The Connect Akron Wireless Network is schedule to be fully built out and live by October and when completed, the 10-square-mile network will serve between 80,000 and 90,000 Akron residents and over 30,000 downtown workers. All 10 of Akron’s wards are able to participate in the demonstration over the next year. Residents and businesses have open Internet access with a robust download speed of five to 10 Mbps.
But keep in mind the initial build out is, well, initial.
City officials are hoping federal stimulus money will be available to extend wireless to the other 52 square miles of the city. Deputy Mayor David Lieberth estimated a full city build out could cost $7 to $9 million. OneCommunity is assisting Akron in its bid for broadband stimulus funds.
Overall, it’s a big step for a city that has been very active in trying to get connected. In addition, Akron’s current build out serves as an example of not only what’s possible, but what’s in the pipeline for communities just as committed as Akron.
“This network will act as a nationwide model,” said Mark Ansboury, vice president and chief technical officer of OneCommunity. “We’re hoping that Akron will be a showcase for how cities might create sustainable systems, provide better services to residents and streamline government.”
Tags: Akron, bandwidth, broadband, Broadband Expansion, community, Connect Akron, Connect Akron Wireless Network, David Lieberth, digital, high-speed, infrastructure, Internet, Internet cafe, KCoDE, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, Lock 3 Park, Mark Ansboury, network, Ohio, OneCommunity, stimulus, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Posted in Digital news, Knight Center, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, OneCommunity | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009
The Knight Center of Digital Excellence offers the following article as an occasional look at one program at a time on how broadband intersects with the work of libraries, schools, colleges, government and community organizations.
The Cuyahoga County Public Library consistently ranks as one of the nation’s busiest library systems. Last year, it ranked 7th in the nation in the volume of materials circulated – with 17.8 million items, mostly print books, checked out by patrons.
We’re not talking about New York City, or Chicago, or Los Angeles. We’re talking about a range of low- to high-income communities that surround Cleveland.
If library usage is a measure of a literate society, then it’s worth looking closer at Cuyahoga County. Here, you’ll find not only innovative programs, but programs that could not exist without Internet access – and in some cases, not without high-capacity Internet enabled by a fiber optic network in and around Cleveland, one of the nation’s largest fiber hubs.
To look at just one initiative within the Cuyahoga County Public Library (CCPL) system, a good place to start is with the summer camps that are now about to begin. Of six top priorities identified by the CCPL, one is to help youths reach their maximum potential. The summer camp initiative is one of several programs intended to advance this goal.
CCPL’s summer camps began in 2006, with 1,126 students participating in programs at five locations. By 2008, participation had more than doubled – with every program, since the inception, requiring Internet access for each child. This year’s program is set up to accommodate an attendance of nearly 8,000, in anticipation of continued rapid growth.
For recording keeping, participation in CCPL’s summer camps is measured by the number of days any one child attends a day of camp.
In some cases, such as in the Shipwrecks Camp with Titanic discoverer Robert Ballard, the offering could not exist at all, but for the availability of a super broadband network such as the Cleveland area has.
Here is a sampling of different camp programs and the growth in each that is tied to educational goals, with Internet literacy as a consistent component.
Shipwrecks Camp: Via high-speed Internet, 12- to 15-year-olds at various community locations, including libraries, are involved with hands-on activities that focus on underwater exploration with Ballard. Last year, youths observed the role of robotics in under-the-sea explorations and then experimented with various miniature robots.
This summer, there will be 26 camp locations in all. To accommodate growing demand for such offerings, new programs have been added in Lego Mindstorms robotics, Lego Simple Machines, digital animation, 3-D digital modeling, media arts, inventive thinking, career exploration and entrepreneurship.
New programs this summer that rely on high-speed, high-capacity Internet service include:
Digital Animation Computer Camp: Here 7- to 12-year-olds learn the basics of using objects, colors and sounds to create online characters. Students also learn to add story lines and stream figures into cartoons.
3-D Digital Modeling Camp: Two separate 3-D modeling camps are being offered, teaching 3-D modeling through the building of video games, cars, homes, airplanes and a version of Disney Land.
Video Game Creation: This camp for 13-17 year olds teaches students how to program and design their own video games.
Media Arts: Students learn to create a website, a recorded piece of original electronic music, and an original digital stop-motion video.
Among returning media-oriented programs:
BAG It! Build Arcade Games: Offered at one branch, this program allows students to design, create and edit their arcade-style video games. They determine the action, characters and game objectives and outcomes..
Even camp programs with a less technical, more traditional focus depend on Internet access, and require laptops for participants to use daily. Such programs include Club Cuyahoga, offered at two locations and aimed at 9- to 15-year-olds. In one of the offerings, for 9- to 10-year-olds, retired NBA player Jim Chones and his staff help students develop character and life skills through a variety of arts-based activities.
In another, 11- and 12-year-olds can learn about astronomy, math, science, gardening and more with staff from Cuyahoga Community College’s Tri-C for Kids program. In still another, Jim Chones’ and Tri-C staff jointly present leadership training for kids 12 – to 15-years-old, with a focus on developing personal leadership plans, communication skills and team building.
Commented CCPL Executive Director Sari Feldman in a recent conversation about the summer programs: “The need for high-speed communications is constant for us.”
CCPL is able to offer these great programs and make such an impact with Northeast Ohio students thanks to partnerships with organizations and institutions from across the region. And all of these programs are free – which makes the case for why libraries matter in the work of bridging our nation’s digital divide.
Tags: bandwidth, broadband, Broadband Expansion, Cleveland, Cleveland Experience series, community, Cuyahoga Community College, Cuyahoga County, Cuyahoga County Public Library, digital, digital animation, digital divide, education, high-speed, infrastructure, innovation, Internet, Jim Chones, KCoDE, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, laptop, network, Northeast Ohio, OneCommunity, Robert Ballard, Sari Feldman, Shipwrecks, summer programs, Titanic, Tri-C
Posted in Cleveland Experience series, Digital news, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, OneCommunity | 3 Comments »
Thursday, June 4th, 2009
The FCC’s recently-released Rural Broadband Strategy report covers a lot of ground and touches on many points we’ve been preaching at the Knight Center of Digital Excellence.
One of the big ones? The need for government agencies, communities and individuals to get coordinated.
In the report, a lack of interagency coordination was named as a significant challenge to the deployment of broadband in rural areas. Suggested efforts listed to overcome this challenge included:
• Streamlining and improving existing federal programs;
• Promoting efficient use of government funding and resources;
• Coordinating program criteria; and
• Expanding government websites and offering easy-to-access information on resources available for promoting broadband.
While these are good starting points, there’s still a need for specifics. It’s one thing to suggest collaboration, but quite another to target where the effort is needed most.
Here at KCoDE, we’ve been in the rural trenches and know that while larger government entities have plans, there’s a real need to get local communities coordinated. After all, it’s hard for individual towns and cities with populations of less than 1,000 people to put together economic development strategies and combat brain drain.
That’s where a hub city comes in. Let’s look at what’s going on in Aberdeen, S.D., a Knight community surrounded by numerous tiny towns.
The city has taken the lead in its area on broadband deployment with the launch of Absolutely! Aberdeen, an online economic development and marketing program designed to improve the quality of life and job creation in the Aberdeen area through promotion.
Absolutely! Aberdeen’s regional development plan, Prairie Vision, emphasizes this. The plan outlines an understanding – that by unifying shared concerns and pooling resources, the region strengthens its voice and effects positive change and development while building relationships and bringing about mutual opportunities.
Population decline due to both brain drain and an aging population is a primary concern across the Northern Plains. By unifying efforts, communities in northeastern South Dakota feel they’ll become stronger and better position themselves to succeed.
But Absolutely! Aberdeen is an example of a specific coordination solution for a specific rural community.
Specifics. While it’s good to see the FCC report emphasize the need for coordination at all levels, it’s important to realize that coordination efforts can’t be cookie cut. They need to be tailored to fit individual areas. The creation of hub cities is one way effective regional coordination can be achieved.
Work at the community level to increase regional coordination – and ensure that various programs are accomplished in an effective and efficient manner.
Tags: Aberdeen, Absolutely! Aberdeen, broadband, Broadband Expansion, community, digital, digital divide, economy, FCC, infrastructure, innovation, Internet, KCoDE, Knight, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, network, Prairie Vision, Rural Broadband Strategy, rural communities, South Dakota
Posted in Digital news, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, OneCommunity, Opinion | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009
By Scot Rourke, Knight Center of Digital Excellence
We’re supposed to have an economic “stimulus” plan to both stave off further economic decline and invest in key 21st century assets such as broadband and electronic medical records. In the 90-plus days since its approval, it is alarming how little of the stimulus money has been invested and how far the funding allocation dates have been pushed back.
In the case of broadband networks, the original stated goal was to have as much as half the stimulus funds committed or spent by Sept. 30. Now the federal government’s website, www.recovery.gov, lists the first award date as Dec. 31.
Projects that were shovel ready and on track to be done in 2009 sit idle as their planners wait in the hopes of aligning with stimulus funding. This is the exact opposite of what the stimulus was supposed to achieve - namely jobs in 2009.
In addition, delays unfortunately allow special interests more time for lobbying efforts, and clearly, the lobbyists are out in force. Take the telecom providers, who are going after a share of the $7 billion earmarked for broadband. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks lobbyist spending, companies such as Comcast, Verizon and others are pouring millions of additional dollars into lobbying. Comcast spent $12.5 million in 2008, up a whopping 2,193 percent from 2001. Verizon’s lobbying budget rose to $18 million last year, up from $8.2 million in 2001. I wish I owned a hotel in Washington, D.C.
On the flip side, the extra time should allow federal agencies to better align procedures, strategies, and get what seems great new talent up-to-speed and ready to manage this large, fast and unprecedented process. Perhaps it will also provide time for better coordination across agencies. I am encouraged by what I’m hearing about developing policies that tout innovation and reform.
Getting these ideas through the political machine is another story, but I’m optimistic, and we have to start somewhere. It’d be interesting to see this same transformation begin happening in state and local governments as well, but that would take much longer, and probably only accomplished with formal incentives. Still, it’s a critical component for all of our communities to be more globally competitive.
For our country to be competitive, we need government, one of our largest industries, to be able to attract and retain great talent with the relevant skill-sets to use technology to drive innovation. Only with this new strong leadership, joined with deep talent pools can we expect to see vast improvements in services and enhanced productivity.
So while it’s disappointing that more investment has yet to hit the market, let’s make sure we use this precious time to better collaborate across communities for larger, shared goals and efficiencies. Let’s further build out our plans to make sure they hit the targeted outcomes and will be sustainable once the stimulus is over. Let’s think about innovative ways to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to invest in 21st century assets and partnerships.
We can’t say we didn’t have time.
Scot Rourke is President and CEO of the Cleveland-based technology nonprofit OneCommunity, which operates the Knight Center of Digital Excellence in partnership with The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. To learn more about the Knight Center, go to www.knightcenter.org or e-mail info@knightcenter.org.
Tags: American Recovery & Reinvestment Act 2009, bandwidth, broadband, Broadband Expansion, Center for Responsive Politics, CEO, community, Congress, digital, digital divide, economy, high-speed, infrastructure, innovation, Internet, KCoDE, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, network, Ohio, OneCommunity, president, recovery.gov, Scot Rourke, stimulus, stimulus watch, Washington D.C.
Posted in Knight Center of Digital Excellence, OneCommunity, Opinion, Stimulus Package | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009
 By William “Garn” Anderson III, Knight Center of Digital Excellence
If you are trying to understand all of the possible program opportunities resulting from the ARRA and economic stimulus funds, you might feel overwhelmed. For example, how do you begin sorting through the complexities of the whole Smart Grid concept, and its potential benefits for U.S. communities and our energy utilization?
As in any building project, the first step is to settle on an overall strategic plan before you attempt to decide details. For communities, this means thinking hard about planning, so that Smart Grids and Smart Infrastructure can be a means of achieving goals and interoperability for hardwire or wireless applications. Smart investment means that smart planning drives decisions on new infrastructure.
Otherwise, in a few years from now, you might find yourself driving by a community college in town, a hospital, or even a high school or middle school, and kicking yourself for not thinking ahead.
The kinds of things you don’t want to be saying to yourself five years from now:
“Gee, when we did that big road project in town, with a little bit of extra effort and planning, we could have laid the fiber to make our community college wireless.”
Or: “What were we thinking? When we were installing those cameras downtown to improve public safety – so the police could monitor suspicious activity – we should have connected our emergency response system to the hospitals, too, so doctors, nurses and medics could quickly respond to the accidents and victims of injury.”
Or: “When we had the funds for interactive e-learning and work force development, imagine how much further ahead we’d be had we linked all of our anchor institutions and businesses together.”
You get the picture - of where you don’t want to be, that is.
Now here’s where you do what to be.
Instead of just planning for the use of Smart Grids, you’re examining the benefits of Smart Infrastructure and interoperability of numerous applications. A Smart Infrastructure ties together a vast array of projects and technologies for maximum benefit across sectors. It’s the opposite of the silo approach to planning, and it draws on an understanding that interconnectivity can serve multiple purposes. If you’re installing new roads, for example, you want to stretch your investment by laying fiber for Internet connections at the same time.
Similarly, with a little extra planning for a bridge project, you might easily connect an industrial park in your community to high-speed wireless Internet, allowing the sending and receiving of huge amounts of data and information. At the same time, having a smart road and smart bridge can improve traffic flow to help save time in daily commutes and avoid delays. All of this, in turn, could mean the difference between attracting new business or losing opportunities.
Smart Infrastructure isn’t just about Smart Grid energy efficiency. It’s also about having Smart Homes, Smart Schools, Smart Hospitals, Smart Buildings, Smart Safety Services, and really, Smart Communities. Just imagine all of the benefits. A Smart Home, for example, might have various medical monitoring devices, so that the frail and sick can be monitored and quickly assisted from remote locations. For some, this could represent the difference between living independently at home, or having no choice but to move to costly assisted-care facilities.
The take-away: The test of where you’ll be in five years, and whether your community is reflecting on what it should have done or reaping the benefits of a fully functional smart infrastructure, depends on where you are today. Is your community planning holistically? Are you thinking regionally about how you might leverage assets through collaboration? Are you working in tandem with your local, regional and state planning agencies?
A recent report from the Center for American Progress titled “Smart Grid, Smart Broadband, Smart Infrastructure,” points out that with “a bit of imagination and coordination” among federal agencies, federal stimulus funding can be stretched to achieve diverse goals. “The agencies,” the report urged, “should look for two-fers and three-fers – ways to update our electricity system, deploy broadband and achieve other goals when spending the stimulus money.’’
Even more recently, U.S. Rep. Anna Eschoo (D-Calif.) introduced legislation (HR 2428) to require that broadband conduit be installed as part of certain highway construction projects. It’s encouraging to see the momentum moving in this direction.
Yet in addition to federal initiatives, community leaders and stakeholders, in their requests for ARRA stimulus money, need to help lay the groundwork on a local level for comprehensive infrastructure to happen. Proposals should reflect holistic planning that considers education, health care, medical, economic development, employment, work force development and public safety as well as individual needs.
Smart Infrastructure? It starts with smart planning for smart stimulus proposals.
William “Garn” Anderson III is Vice President for Business & Community Intelligence of the Cleveland-based technology nonprofit OneCommunity, which operates the Knight Center of Digital Excellence in partnership with The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. To learn more about the Knight Center, go to www.knightcenter.org or e-mail info@knightcenter.org.
Tags: American Recovery & Reinvestment Act 2009, Anna Eshoo, broadband, Broadband Expansion, Center for American Progress, Congress, digital, digital divide, economy, electricity, high-speed, HR 2428, innovation, Internet, KCoDE, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, network, OneCommunity, smart grids, smart home, smart infrastructure, smart planning, stimulus, stimulus watch, utilities
Posted in Knight Center of Digital Excellence, OneCommunity, Opinion | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009
 By Doug Adams, Knight Center of Digital Excellence
With the U.S. investing more than $7 billion in federal stimulus for broadband, imagine what life may be like in just five or 10 short years from now?
What might my life be like, say in 2019? Here is a scenario:
6 a.m.
The alarm goes off, saying I have 27 unread e-mails and 14 articles cued up in my browser ready to read on my Kindle 10.0.
7 a.m.
While driving to work, I listen to Dan Patrick via my in-dash computer’s WiFi connection. WiFi is everywhere now.
8:30 a.m.
My wife calls. She’s worried about her mother, Betty, who lives three states away. Betty’s health monitoring provider tracks her movement patterns. Today, the Web-enabled video monitor showed Betty hadn’t made it to the kitchen by the time she usually does. Given she’s in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, a nurse from the monitoring provider looks in and finds her on camera in the study.
9:30 a.m.
I check back with my wife – she has just renewed her driver’s license and made her home business into an LLC. With government services online, she does this via our TV and ultra high-speed fiber optic Internet connection. I’m so glad we have a fiber connection to our home – it’s similar to the change we experienced when we went from dial-up to my old cable modem. Only with this upgrade have I been able to utilize the Internet for rich, two-way video communications with my doctor, work colleagues and friends.
10:45 a.m.
I check in on my daughter at school via webcam. She’s in biology class, and students are watching a live heart surgery in progress at the world-class Cleveland Clinic Foundation. They can see, hear and interact with doctors.
Another class is also watching the surgery – from India. It’s a class my daughter’s interacts with frequently. The same broadband application that allows students to watch live surgeries also allows them to engage with other students from across the world, bridging national and cultural differences.
Noon
Lunch with my college roommate, Bob. He’s an engineer for a California company, but works from home in Indianapolis. His fiber optic Internet connection allows him to send 3-D virtual mockups to his boss. At lunch, we check the stock market and box scores from the touch screen computer imbedded in our table.
We’re briefly distracted as a pair of officers having lunch in a booth behind us rush outside to confront an individual with a warrant out for his arrest. How do I know? Police are equipped with mobile computer systems and handheld devices that provide up-to-date information on suspects and threats. Using one of these handheld devices, one of the officers was able to make a positive ID and alert his partner before his lunch arrived.
3 p.m.
A problem crops up at work. Defective materials were delivered to a construction site in Texas. Our team utilizes visual feeds to inspect the materials and send images of the problem pieces to the manufacturer.
4:30 p.m.
I haven’t been feeling well, so I check in with my doctor from my desk. I open my mouth, say “ah,” and the diagnosis is strep. An e-prescription goes out to my pharmacy.
I know my wife likes to keep the temperature in our house a little cooler, but I’m not sure that’d be a good environment for me to come home to given my illness. Fortunately, I’m able to monitor and adjust my home’s utility services remotely. I decide to raise the thermostat a few degrees. Hope she doesn’t notice.
6 p.m.
Working too late to make my son’s soccer game, so I watch from my desk. Not only is high-speed, high-capacity WiFi everywhere, but so are webcams. They are completely secure and password-protected.
9 p.m.
The last thing I remember is driving, tired, on the back roads close to home. I’m thankful public safety monitors alerted safety forces when my car veered off the road. The paramedics told me they video-conferenced with emergency room doctors less than 10 minutes after the accident. The operating room and specialist I needed were onsite when I arrived.
The world I’m describing is not science fiction. All these “future” applications are available today, mostly overseas. They save lives, improve quality of life, create job opportunities and prepare citizens to be productive members of the knowledge economy.
The vision we really need as Americans? To see the future is here, we’re a good 10 years behind and we have no time to waste investing in the broadband infrastructure necessary to catch up.
Doug Adams oversees public information efforts for the Cleveland-based technology nonprofit OneCommunity, which operates the Knight Center of Digital Excellence in partnership with The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. To learn more about the Knight Center, go to www.knightcenter.org or e-mail info@knightcenter.org.
Tags: Akron, American Recovery & Reinvestment Act 2009, bandwidth, broadband, Broadband Expansion, California, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, community, Dan Patrick, digital, digital divide, Doug Adams, economy, education, healthcare, high-speed, India, infrastructure, innovation, Internet, KCoDE, Kindle, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, network, Ohio, OneCommunity, public safety, stimulus, stimulus watch, telemedicine, utilities, WiFi
Posted in Knight Center of Digital Excellence, OneCommunity, Opinion, Stimulus Package | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
Those of us who have Internet access already know what to do with it. We e-mail. We shop. We search for jobs and information.
But what about the roughly one-third of Americans who don’t have Internet service, and may not have a clue what they’d do with it if they did? The more than $7 billion in federal stimulus money for broadband networks is meant to serve this group.
But what will currently unserved Americans do with all this broadband?
Let’s take the example of Akron, Ohio, where the city, The University of Akron and the Knight Center of Digital Excellence are leading an effort to develop a 12-mile wireless network, the first stretch of which will be up and running in June. Those within the network will have free Internet access.
Knight Center team members are meeting now with various civic leaders, to discuss possibilities of how this broadband network can make a difference.
As we meet with people, ideas start rolling.
Job training could be enhanced, for example, so that current programs are reinforced with practice work online. After-school programs also could be expanded to serve more children through digital classrooms. And even soup kitchens might serve as a place where people can access the Internet.
What if each soup kitchen put up a kiosk, so those who come for meals might also check e-mail, maybe to see if that job interview came through? It will be a long time before everyone has a computer at home. This would give a largely unserved population another point of Internet access, in addition to the public library system and community learning centers being placed in Akron Public Schools.
These are just a few examples of the multiple layers of potential impact. Sure, there are some who will never use the Internet, even if they had it for free. But even these people may need access for health and safety reasons.
Your mother might be among those who wouldn’t use the Internet for any reason. But you’d still want your mother to have access. In an emergency, if she needed an ambulance, you’d want rescue workers to have quick online access to medical information about her.
Or, take a family with no computer in the home. If social workers were called to that home because of suspected child abuse, you’d want them to be able to check online immediately to see if there is a pattern of violence in that home.
We should look at broadband as the new utility service. It impacts how effectively we can participate in the economy, our chances of getting a job, our ability to acquire new skills, and even our health and safety.
America can’t have a third of its population disconnected - and disenfranchised - as a result of no Internet access. The haves and have-nots will be further delineated at a time when we should be narrowing gaps, not widening them.
The question is not, “What will we do with all this broadband?” but “What will we do without it?”
Tags: Akron, American Recovery & Reinvestment Act 2009, bandwidth, broadband, Broadband Expansion, community, digital, digital divide, economy, education, electricity, fiber-to-the-home, healthcare, high-speed, infrastructure, innovation, Internet, KCoDE, Knight Center, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, network, Ohio, OneCommunity, public safety, stimulus, stimulus watch, telemedicine, unserved Americans, utilities
Posted in Knight Center of Digital Excellence, OneCommunity, Opinion, Stimulus Package | 8 Comments »
Thursday, May 7th, 2009
Participating in today’s panel was an amazing opportunity to learn what some of the top minds in the broadband stimulus discussion are thinking
The cities of Seattle and San Francisco are examples of communities that have stepped up in a big way regarding community-based broadband solutions. But it isn’t simply because their leaders focus exclusively on the technical side of broadband – they emphasize the community aspect of being connected. The quality-of-life improvements that service-oriented programs brought in these cities are directly influencing the thought processes behind broadband investment.
As we expand our broadband networks, our cities get smarter and life improves for everyone. Seattle and San Francisco are demonstrating that technology can solve a number of our social problems. They’re using technology to reach people and create change.
It’s that “connect” ideal Chris Vein spoke on.
However, the fact that struck me throughout the discussion is that no matter how well connected different communities may be, our nation as a whole is well behind the rest of the industrialized world.
Rural, urban - we all have challenges.
As each panelist pointed out in his or her presentation, we need to use stimulus funding wisely to create sustainable networks. Examples are out there, and as each panelist demonstrated, there are number of committed individuals out there working towards the same goals we strive towards at the Knight Center of Digital Excellence.
Now is the time to create connected communities.
Tags: American Recovery & Reinvestment Act 2009, bandwidth, Best in Breed Panel, broadband, Broadband Expansion, Chris Vein, community, digital, digital divide, infrastructure, innovation, Internet, KCoDE, Knight Center, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, Mark Ansboury, network, OneCommunity, rural communities, San Francisco, Seattle, stimulus, stimulus watch, urban communities
Posted in Digital news, Knight Center, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, OneCommunity, Opinion, Stimulus Package, live blogging | 1 Comment »
Thursday, May 7th, 2009
by Mark Ansboury, VP & CTO OneCommunity and The Knight Center of Digital Excellence
2:15
Just finished my talk about how through OneCommunity and The Knight Center of Digital Excellence are creating sustainable networks and what we, as the broadband community, need to aim for in creating the universal broadband that President Obama is championing.
To view my slide deck go to: national-press-club_
2:25
Dr. Kate Williams, University of Illinois is focusing on measuring success. Individual level metrics are only part of the picture-we need to look at GIS mapping in correlation with community level metrics. She also discussed measuring sustainability for the projects for public computing and training or applications through bonding social capital, local leadership and deep outreach. Additionally, projects are more sustainable if they train local leaders and then empower them.
Tags: broadband, community, digital, digital divide, Dr. Kate Williams, infrastructure, KCoDE, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, Mark Ansboury, Obama, OneCommunity, stimulus, University of Illinois
Posted in Knight Center of Digital Excellence, OneCommunity, Stimulus Package, live blogging | 1 Comment »
Thursday, May 7th, 2009
12:35
I am on stage at the National Press Club in Washington DC and listening to Bill Schrier, Chief Technology Officer, City of Seattle talk about what an intelligent community looks like.
Who is unserved?
Bill says the entire nation is unserved and global competition is here so WE NEED TO STEP UP.
12:50
Chris Vein, Chief Information Officer for the City of San Francisco is discussing the recent successes for the city in reaching the unserved though health and digital inclusion. It is not just about Internet access, it is about hardware, it’s about focus on content/application, it’s about training and support.
San Francisco is creating a network of community networks - running city fiber to over 5,000 federally funded low income housing
Interesting note: the low income users now have faster access than most other San Franciscans.
Additionally, the city is providing affordable new and refurbished computers and a community education network. San Francisco has also created community health clinics in the inner city with telemedicine hub for real time care from doctors and specialists.
This is amazing! The city of San Francisco has stepped up in a big way to use technology to help provide solutions for the city’s top social programs.
Tags: Bill Schrier, broadband, Chris Vein, City of San Francisco, City of Seattle, community, digital, digital divide, fiber-to-the-home, infrastructure, KCoDE, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, Mark Ansboury, OneCommunity, stimulus
Posted in Knight Center of Digital Excellence, OneCommunity, live blogging | 1 Comment »
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