Broadband & Community Broadband

The migration of job applications, payment systems and government documents online makes high-speed broadband access a necessity for all communities. Faced with the high prices of services and lagging connection speeds offered by incumbent providers, more and more cities around the country are building their own broadband networks to meet the needs of their residents, businesses and public institutions. Empowering communities to control their own communication infrastructure is one of the core values of OTI.  Last month we began a partnership with MuniNetworks.org to cross-post stories about municipal broadband projects. Today we continue that partnership with an update on Leverett, MA, where residents recently voted overwhelmingly to raise their own taxes to support the design and construction of their locally owned and controlled municipal broadband network.

By Lisa Gonzalez

We brought you news of Leverett, Massachusetts and their decision this spring to pursue a municipal fiber optic network. In April, voters approved a measure to develop the initiative, and this past weekend took the last step toward building the network. The town of 1,851, voted to raise their taxes to pay for a fiber-to-the-home network. The result was a resounding 462 for and 90 against.

The GazetteNET.com covered the story:

This entry is part of an ongoing series of cross-posted content from the Netizen Project, providing news and information for the citizens of the Internet.

People aren’t free online if the only choice they have is a slow signal controlled by a giant cable company, said speakers analyzing the future of broadband during the Freedom to Connect conference in Silver Spring, Md.

Network use is growing, but national wire line providers are resting on their laurels, said Blair Levin, a former Federal Communication Commission official who said this is the first time since the creation of the commercial Internet when there are no plans announced to build more advanced networks.

Community wireless mesh networks need a local group of enthusiasts and sometimes experts to build, maintain, and expand their local infrastructure. But klatches of technologists capable of (and interested in) building a wireless mesh network are rare in most communities throughout the world, especially in marginalized communities and communities of color in the United States. Yet, many of these communities are highly organized, home to strong affinity groups based on mutual interest and a neighborhood focus.

I recently wrote about a local effort to build a wireless community network in Mount Pleasant, Washington, D.C. In April I chatted with Bill Comisky, the first neighbor-link in the Mount Pleasant Community Wireless Network (MtPCWN), a grassroots approach to providing wireless access to the neighborhood.

Since the 1990s, digital inclusion discourse has come a long way in addressing the role of social context and social infrastructures in making Internet access meaningful. Scholars, such as Dailey, et al. (2010), Selwyn (2004), Hargittai (2002), Warschauer (2002), and DiMaggio and Hargittai (2001), demonstrated that going online requires more than a live wire into the home. According to these works, digital inclusion requires attention to individual skills and know–how, social and community support systems, and results in various modes of access.

The migration of job applications, payment systems and government documents online makes high-speed broadband access a necessity for all communities. Faced with the high prices of services and lagging connection speeds offered by incumbent providers, more and more cities around the country are building their own broadband networks to meet the needs of their residents, businesses and public institutions. Empowering communities to control their own communication infrastructure is one of the core values of OTI.

The Federal Communications Commission is designing a new digital literacy program right now, and they need your input.

How community focus and technology initiatives refresh our local churches, mosques and synagogues

The religious and spiritual institutions that currently anchor our neighborhoods and tie together our communities can provide us with another benefit - a chance to build and own our own communications infrastructure.

Testimony before
The Committee on Government Operations, Council of the District of Columbia
regarding
Budget Oversight: OCTO
by
Joshua Breitbart, Director of Field Operations,
New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative
April 18, 2012

As federal and local authorities continue efforts to close the digital divide in the United States, innovative researchers are using new approaches to understand why some people “adopt” broadband—and why others choose to remain offline.