Archive for February, 2006

When we first started talking about broadband issues it seemed  increasing broadband access for the county would help give the area a leg up on economic development issues making the county more attractive to entrepreneurs and companies which depend on network access and reliability. As nearly each week a news report emerges on another community planning or deploying wireless networks,  the advantage of such a deployment locally is quickly vanishing. Increased and more reliable newtwork access will soon be considered a necessity for economic survival. Our area will soon will not be able to market its technological friendliness as a unique selling point. Humboldt County, if and when it upgrades its network services, will only be able to say, “Me too!”

To be sure, things are moving along, however slowly. The study on the feasibility of getting redundant fiber to the area will be finalized in April. The study will be presented as part of a Broadband Forum that will involve community leaders in government and business. The Forum’s agenda is still being finalized. But wireless (both community and rural networks) possibilities will be part of the discussion. The RTC is working with the City of Eureka to put some kind of wireless program in to action and other communities are working on their own wireless plans. Nancy Fleming, running for county supervisor, has wireless access on her issues list which means at least the topic will get some focus in the upcoming campaign.

I only wish the wheels turned faster. In an era of lightning fast change our county seems to move like a calistoga wagon at times.

Last October I had the privilege to visit Blacksburg, VA, the original ‘electronic village‘ where I participated in a small symposium of individuals, organizations and businesses involved in bringing broadband access to rural areas of Virginia. One of the companies that presented was Citizens, a cooperative venture bringing telephone, Internet and data services to western Virginia.

Citizens has just announced its expansion of its wireless service to several communities, including, soon, Blacksburg. The interesting aspects of this story are twofold:  The idea of a telecom coop bringing services to underserved areas is something that could be explored for Humboldt, Trinity, Del Norte and Mendecino counties; and the multitiered pricing plans that Citizens is offering. Citizens is a solid company with a great track record in serving rural Virginia and, in some areas competing head to head with larger ISPs. Their business model could work in many other communities. It’s worth exploring.

Verizon has announced the purchase of Cal-One Cellular which operates as Cal North Wireless.

“…the deal means that Verizon Wireless can expand its network footprint in northern California, specifically in Del Norte, Humboldt, Siskiyou and Trinity counties.”

Given all the drop outs in our cell service in this area, it will be interesting to see if Verizon will be able to ask “Can you hear me now?” and continue to get a positive response.

Yesterday (Saturday) was one of those near-perfect days in Humboldt County that makes me so happy and grateful to be living here.
It started out with a kayak excursion on Trinidad Bay. I joined a group of about 15 kayakers, all members of Explore Northcoast, a club devoted to paddling adventures. The air was clear and crisp, the water was calm, and in spite of the chill, I felt wonderfully warm and cozy as we paddled along the the rock gardens, through the passage at Prisoner’s Rock and out and around Pilot Rock. Along the way we paddled through kelp forests, stopped to watch tidepools on the Trinidad head and gazed from a respectful distance as a river otter chomped on a mussle while warming its fur in morning sun.

Because of an early start, I got home in time for a quick lunch, did a few chores (I did say it was a near-perfect day), took a nap and then headed for the Bayside Grange where I joined about 450 other people at a benefit for Don Wolski. Don is a beloved community member who has touched a lot lives through his participation in various local projects, including being one of the founders of the Redwood Technology Consortium. He is battling a brain tumor, and, in spite of two surgeries and lots of medication, seemed strong and happy last night, as people partied in his honor.

A lot of people know Don and his wife Maggie Gainer and many of them turned out to help Don, eat a great tamale dinner and enjoy music from a string of wonderful local bands. Many thanks to Larry Goldberg who worked like a demon to pull this off.

One kind of tech note: The event was web cast for anyone who wished they could be there but could not. It as a little bit of a duct taped operation that went down for a while when someone kicked the plug out of its socket by mistake and the router had to be rebooted. But it was clear lots of people were joining the party remotely and leaving messages in the chat function. It was high-tech Humboldt style.

The perfect weekend seemed to continue today as I went out for my run at dawn in another crystal clear monring. A bright half-moon still hung over the bay and the rising sun dusted the fog bank offshore in a soft rose color.

According to the Times-Standard, “Security National has registered a series of Internet addresses related to a proposed development of the Balloon Tract, including stopmarinacenter.com, stopmarinacenter.net and stopmarinacenter.org.” Addtional names they have registered include “eurekaballoontrack.org, eurekaballoontrack.net, eurekaballoontrack.com, balloontrack.com, balloontrack.net, balloontrack.org and marinacenter.com”. None of these are active. They just registered the first set so people in opposition to their project wouldn’t be able to. That hasn’t stopped some folks who have created a site at saveeurekawaterfront.org where you can ’sign’ a petition that states, “We the undersigned oppose using the waterfront Balloon Track property for a large retail development.” Other than links to articles and other information that’s all that’s on the site. No indication as to who or what organization is behind that site. A quick check of whois doesn’t reveal a thing. That always makes me suspicious.

Another new site has just been launched that plans to keep track of the tract project. This site appears to be neutral purporting to offer any information related to the fate of that parcel of land. But it does give a prominent link to the petition site.

Personally, I still don’t have a stand on this issue. I look forward to hearing arguements on both sides.

Reuters is reporting that around 20 different cell phone models that will offer the capability taking advantage of wireless Internet connections will be rolled out this year. The dual cell and Wi-Fi functionality, called ‘cell-fi’ in the article means that users will be able to switch from their normal cell phone carrier service to free wireless service when in a hotspot area to make phone calls. Thise will be a problem for cell services causing loss of revenue, but will be a boon to those who can take advantage of the lowered cost. At the moment, hotspots are in Humboldt County are still scarce. For example, if you bought one of these new phones and you were in Eureka, you’d only be able to take advantage of the wirreless feature at a few locations like Lost Coast Brewery or Old Town Coffee and Chocolates. But I am confident this will be change. I predict that within the year, as those new models become available, at least one or two wireless mesh networks will become available or will at least be in to the implementation phase.

The political campaign has already begun for the June 6 elections. Web sites are going up, campaign offices are opening and press releases are going out. One of the first campaigns to get under way is Nancy Fleming who is running for County Supervisor from the 4th District. Among her issues is wireless access. From her web site:

“We need to create the infrastructure for access to Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, and Internet for every household, business and school in this district. We need affordable (or free!) access to Broadband not only for homes and businesses but for more efficiency with law enforcement and safety officials.”

It’s difficult to know from this statement if she means providing “affordable (or free!)” wireless access to the whole county or just to the 4th District. I assume she must mean just the 4th District which includes Eureka, Samoa and Fairhaven. I further assume she probably means just Eureka. And I would even suspect she may mean just the downtown/Old Town area of Eureka. This is a reasonable and achievable goal. And, in fact, is already being set in motion. If I am wrong and she means the whole county, this would be an ambitious goal indeed and far more diifficult to do. But I am all for any of these possibilities.

By getting out in front with this issue, has Nancy Fleming laid claim to it or will Bonnie Neely the incumbent respond with her own proposal along these lines? I hope so, not to proclaim my allegiance to one or the other. But if both candidates for the 4th District have wireless or other broadband solutions on their radar, this means at least one Supervisor, whichever wins, will at least need to address it. This could only be good for those of us who believe high speed, low cost Internet access is crucial for economic survival, let alone future development.

I hope others running in other races pick up the issue. In April the Redwood Coast Rural Action group and the RTC will be presenting another Broadband Forum which will bring decision makers and stakeholder together for 2 days of discussion and workshops on broadband, redundancy and wirelss access. Stay tuned.

The Redwood Technology Consortium had a great presentation by Nancy Dean of the National Weather Service Eureka office Thursday night. She offered a historical look at the local office which began in the 1880s and led in to summary of the current status of the service. The presentation was fun and filled with lively questions and answers. Of course, it got kind of geeky, going far beyond weather questions and in to the various ‘products’ of the NWS such as xml feeds.

If you haven’t visited the NWS web site recently, I think it’s worth a look. There are some very intersting a fun tools that go way beyond whether it will be raining or shining over the next couple days. This page, for example, has a great map which allows you to switch between temperature, dewpoint, wind conditions, wave hight, cloud cover and other conditions. Rolling over an element automatically makes the map change. This is just the tip of the iceberg. The range of products is imprressive.

I just revisited Target.com and it looks like they’ve suddenly started adding ‘alt’ tags to their images.  Alt tags allow seeing impaired site visitors using screen readers to identify content on images. What’s odd is that tags are present once you enter their online catalog. Just not on the home page.
What’s more Target is offering a great little tutorial on how to fold fitted sheets! This could be the salvation of many marriages. Mine for one has suffered each time I am called upon to do the laundry or even help fold. We both struggle over the fitted sheet puzzle until one or the other of us just wads the thing up and throws it in the closet.

An article the San Jose Mercury News explains in brief about a law suit being filed by a blind student over Taget’s web site. The seeing impaired use screen readers in order to navigate around web sites. The screen readers read the text on the site, but also read elements in the code that describe images (called alt tags). The suit also complains the site site “requires the use of a mouse”. Sites designed for accessibility would allow a visitor to use the keyboard for navigation.

If this suit goes forward it could set a precedent that will affect millions of web sites which are not compliant to accessibility standards. However, it’s not clear what the legal grounds are here. In the US the Federal Government has a legal responsibility to meet accessibility standards for web sites. But as far as I know that’s the only statute related to web sites. The UK has interpreted its Disability Act as applying to web sites in general though apparantly most are not compliant.

It can be a challenge to make a web site that meets accessible standards but one would think government web sites (state and local, not just federal) sites should work to meet those standards whether they are compelled by law or not. I wrote about the new City of Eureka web site earlier and was very surprised at how poorly it was designed and how badly it ignores accessibilty. So that’s the local angle on this post.

Update: Apparantly the Web Standards Project has picked up on this story. If you want more in-depth detail on what’s wrong with the Target site, you can read this post.

Not to toot our own horn. OK, yes, to toot our own horn somewhat: You should check out Homework Hotline, especially if you have children in school. It’s a new show produced by KEET-TV designed to help kids with their math and science homework. It’s hosted by two local teachers (they rotate each week). Kids can call in with questions and they get answered right on the air. Each show also features a healthy recipe and a report on a project at one of the schools.

Here’s our horn part: We built the web site for the show. Check it out. The site keeps a record of all the recipes and eventually they will have a knowledgebase of science and math questions and answers. (The system is there, they just haven’t put much in to it yet). The site is completely sefl-managed by the KEET staff and will be updated regularly.

From what I understand, the show is already a big hit and they may expand it to 4 days/week next year. With the rapid changes in technology and its impact on our economy, giving kids an enthusiastic boost in math and science could be a great public service.

There is an interesting exchange on Bob Doran’s nascent blog (Bob is a writer for the North Coast Journal who wrote a cover story on Humboldt County blogs). He writes about his lack of knowledge about vlogs (video blogs) having just learned such a thing existed. I guess he doesn’t have time to read other newspapers. If he did he might have come across my Tech Beat article in the Times-Standard last November: Blogs, vlogs and podcasts: Syndicated content made easy through RSS. Vlogs have been around for over a year already.

The main point of that article, though is the use of RSS (Real Simple Syndication) which allows someone to ’subscribe’ to a web resource in order to be notified whenever that resource has been updated. The beauty of RSS is that you don’t have to keep visiting a web site to see if something new has been posted. Your RSS reader checks for you and keeps you informed. The RSS feed link to this blog can be found in the right column under the ‘Meta’ heading. What’s odd about all the Humboldt County blogs I have been visiting is that I can’t find the RSS link in any of them. It’s usually a text link, like mine, or a little orange button that says RSS or XML (exstensible markup language - RSS is a form of XML - I know, too geeky). I would subscribe to several of these blogs, including Bob’s but the feature is missing. Most of them are using Blogger, a very popular hosted system. I know they have this feature in their software. Maybe we need a Humboldt Blogger workshop.