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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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Posts Tagged ‘Connect Akron’
Monday, July 6th, 2009
Kimberlee McKee, president of the Downtown Akron Partnership (DAP), spoke with us about her vision for the new Connect Akron Wireless Network, which will cover a 10-square-mile area of the central city and will serve between 80,000 and 90,000 Akron residents and over 30,000 downtown workers when complete later this year.
Q: DAP refers to this wireless corridor as a “living room.” Can you expand on that?
A: Downtown is the center of the community. It represents the heart and soul of the area. It is often described as the community living room – a place where all people, regardless of income, race, age, gender, etc. – can feel at home.
Q: DAP also anticipates more people downtown as a result of the network. How so?
A: It is our hope that the introduction of the wireless network will encourage businesses and other development, attracting students from the University of Akron. As more students take advantage of residential opportunities downtown in the coming years, we hope they will spend their free time at coffee shops, restaurants, the main library, the Akron Art Museum, Lock 3 Park and all of the resources downtown has to offer. The wireless network is a wonderful feature to help encourage students to incorporate downtown in to their daily lives.
Q: Does DAP have any specific plans at this point for drawing on the wireless network to promote downtown Akron?
A: In June we launched a redesign of our website, www.downtownakron.com, featuring interactive maps, a comprehensive calendar of downtown events and links to our social networking outlets to better serve downtown visitors. Recently Downtown Akron Partnership’s marketing efforts have been more toward email blasts and social networking. With the wireless network in place, more people than ever will have unrestricted access to all of the information DAP provides about downtown Akron.
Q: How might communications change during major downtown events, such as FirstNight?
A: We’ve been approached with ideas on ways to maximize the impact of the wireless network downtown such as digital kiosks and Bluetooth marketing. Moving forward, we will continue to work with the groups that are developing these ideas and possibly market downtown activities through these mediums.
Tags: Akron Art Museum, Bluetooth, broadband, community, Connect Akron, Connect Akron Wireless Network, DAP, digital, Downtown Akron Partnership, economy, education, healthcare, high-speed, hospital, infrastructure, innovation, Internet, KCoDE, Kimberlee McKee, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, library, Lock 3 Park, Ohio
Posted in Digital news, Guest Viewpoints, Knight Center of Digital Excellence | No Comments »
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 »
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