Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center presents:
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Models for Building Local Broadband:
Public, Private, Coop, Nonprofit
Wed, Sept. 19th - 4:30pm CST
Urbana City Hall - 400 S. Vine St.
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Presenters: Chris Mitchell, Institute for Local Self Reliance (expert in municipal broadband) Greta Byrum, Open Technology Institute (field analyst in broadband) Joanne Hovis, CTC Technology & Energy (public interest telecom expert) Wally Bowen, Mountain Area Information Network (non-profit internet provider) Brandon Bowersox-Johnson (Facilitator) - Chair, UC2B Policy Committee, City Council Member, Urbana IMC member
Archived video available below:
Urbana-Champaign in Illinois is completing construction of a public system - called UC2B - that will connect 10% of the community with fast broadband they can use to access the internet, share videos, make phone calls and more. The project was made possible by federal funds.
How do we connect the other 90% of our community to fast broadband?
With what funds? Who will control it?
How can these models support digital inclusion for minority and low income users?
Urbana IMC has gathered some of the top experts in the field of community broadband to join in a discussion of these questions. During this forum, which will be webcast nationally, we will explore public, public-private, non profit, and cooperative models for building out broadband.
We will discuss the benefits and challenges of each model to inform our community's upcoming decision about building out the rest of the UC2B network. Champaign-Urbana recently applied to build out the network with Gigabit Squared in a public-private partnership where the network is owned by a private company and the public sets the terms of use. The community is also exploring municipal and co-op models and has a request for proposals to seek other partners and solutions.
For more information contact: Danielle Chynoweth, UCIMC board member, at chyn@ucimc.org.
Submitted by sacrophyte on September 21, 2012 - 9:15am.
Curious, where are the online discussions? I am wondering if I might pose questions in a public forum. I have already asked this question on the Giga.coop facebook page and in an email to Brandon, Danielle and Peter Folk; so far I still do not know an answer.
Timezone issues? =)
4:30 EST?
Online discussions
Curious, where are the online discussions? I am wondering if I might pose questions in a public forum. I have already asked this question on the Giga.coop facebook page and in an email to Brandon, Danielle and Peter Folk; so far I still do not know an answer.
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