Archive for October, 2007

A team of Redwood Technology Consortium members and helpers have put together a site that is designed to match people who have a need for temporary housing resulting from the fires in Southern Californa with people willing to put them up. The result of a brainstorm by Larry Goldberg the site went up within 24 hours of Larry soliciting for help on the RTC mailing list. Local developers Josh Koenig of ChapterThreeLLC, Matt Koglin of Antinomia, and Michael Welch of Redwood Alliance pitched in to get the basic site up.

The develpers used Drupal, an open source content management system a site framework. It’s a great example of how a simple service can be created almost instantly using a tool like Drupal. Over time the site can be expanded and refined with Drupal’s extensive module system. The site can be re-tooled to address similar needs for any future disaster.

Congratulations folks!

The past couple months have seen a rash of news reports about failed Municipal Wi-Fi networks. Or at least attempts to build them. Philadelphia, San Francisco and smaller communities found the cost and the return on investment hard to figure out. And wi-fi providers have not lived up to their own hype.

But according to this article, it’s a temporary setback. Communities are taking a step back and looking at more realistic models. But the drive is still there. This is a common pattern in technology. Some people can’t wait for the tortoise approach and dash ahead, not looking at all the potential pitfalls. I have to admit to being one of the hares sometimes. However, it’s clear that the goal, ubiquitous access to the network is a good one and, I think, inevitable. Wi-Fi enabled phones like the iPhone, will help drive the build out of networks in the near term. But ultimately, we will all be immersed in the network like the air we breath.

Some of the early Wi-Fi networks that have succeeded witll continue to build on that success and be that much furhter ahead as new systems and models roll out. Those that have taken the slower approach (the City of Eureka for example) can benefit from what the pioneers have learned and may be able to catch up. to some degree. It’s going to happen, folks. It’s just a matter of when and how.

Blue Lake writer and web publisher Kevin Savetz has recently launched a new service for the blind. It’s a simple service that connects the blind with volunteer readers. The idea is that a blind person can fax in any piece of text or a scan and a volunteer reader will call them and read it to them. Here’s Kevin’s own description:

Read This To Me is a free reading service for the blind, powered by volunteers and Internet collaboration.

ReadThisToMe allows blind and low-vision people to have printed documents read to them over the phone. All the blind person needs is a phone line and a fax machine (no computer is required.) Here’s how it works:

The blind person faxes the document to be read to the ReadThisToMe toll-free fax number: 1-877-333-8848. The first page of the fax needs to be a cover page that includes the client’s first name and callback (voice) phone number. The document itself can be just about anything: a handwritten letter, a bill, a can of food, a multi-page magazine article — just about anything that can be faxed Then, one of ReadThisToMe’s volunteer readers will call the client back and read the document.

The service is available throughout the U.S. and is absolutely free, though donations and business sponsorships are accepted.

More information is available at www.ReadThisToMe.org. Or, a recorded message describing how to use the service can be heard by calling 1-877-333-8847.

This is way cool! And while you’re at it, you should check out some of the other useful and fun sites Kevin is producing.

Thank goodness at&t revised its recently revised terms of service  so that I can once again feel free to write critically about the company (and all of its associates which is what, over 50% of the businesses in the world?). Just in time, too since at&t just won a sweet decision from the FCC that says it is free to charge whatever it wants for broadband service. Here’s a juicy quote from the article:

AT&T had sought relief from government imposed rules because it said that sufficient competition existed in the high-speed Internet, or broadband, market and therefore such price caps weren’t needed anymore.

And then there’s this: “…the agency’s two Democrats disagreed with the decision, saying the evidence to grant relief was “altogether underwhelming.” They added granting relief could lessen competition in certain areas.” Really? Certain areas like Humboldt  County, perhaps? As the sole provider of the sole fiber optic line, at&t currently has a choke hold on the region. Suddenlink already claims it pays more for it’s backhaul here than any other region they serve. Cox had the same complaint.

If multiple fiber outages weren’t enough to convince us that we need another connection to the Internet backbone, then perhaps the idea of increased competition with the behemoth telecommunications company may be just the extra kick we need.

Technorati Tags: at&t, broadband, fiber optic, isp

The Redwood Technology Consortium maintains a discussion mailing list that anyone can subscribe to whether you’re a member of RTC or not. Since the latest fiber outage there has been lots of heated discussion on the list, many people are saying, it’s about time we get this (alternate, redundant, ok second) fiber line built. What’s the hold up? Let’s “git ‘er done!” These are all great sentiments. But in fact the RTC has been advocating and pushing for this second fiber line since the first one finally got completed. Back then the possibility of four outages in a year seemed remote. I can remember an AT&T representative at the first Broadband Forum saying that in spite of a dozen close calls, an actual break was unlikely. And if by some chance something did happen they had their microwave towers as back up. “Ahem”. So much for corporate assurances.

So it’s great that there seems to finally be more people energetically speaking up about how the telecommunications infrastructure needs to be upgraded for economic stability, growth and overall public safety. Even Rob Arkley is busy posting to the RTC list and rousing the rabble.

But channeling the energy engendered by this latest fiber outage remains elusive. It’s a multi-million dollar project that no one is going to invest in unless there’s some reasonable expectation of a return. Still, some people are working on it. Perhaps public officials can be pressured (encouraged?) to support this private effort through a streamlined regulatory environment, low cost loans, etc.

In the meantime an established wireless provider from southern Humboldt is planning on expanding to cover more of the county. It’s a temporary solution and only one for those who can afford to pay two ISPs simultaneously in case one goes down. But if they can pull it off, and some can take advantage of it, more power to them.

Technorati Tags: alternate fiber, fiber, redundant fiber, Redwood Technology Consortium

Today’s fiber outage once again highlights both how dependent we are on Internet connectivity and how fragile that connection is. This is the fourth break in less than a year. AT&T’s microwave backup system is totally inadequate. Satellite service works for some as a back up system and others who can afford a redundant connection through 101netlink are fine. But neither of these solutions are capable of carrying the load for the whole region.

I know that plans are being made to build an alternate fiber line along an east-west route. I only hope that this latest failure will accelerate the process. The new fiber line will not serve only as backup for emergencies but will be used much as the current line is and will provide the potential for more competitive pricing and for reaching areas still untouched by broadband services. This has got to get built now!

Last year I wrote a blog post praising PowerSchool, the online system for tracking your child’s progress and communicating with teachers that Eureka City School is running. This year, I went further and wrote a Tech Beat article for the Times-Standard. I would link to it, but the search tool on the Times-Standard web site is so bad it can’t find it (but that’s grist for another blog post, I guess).

When the T-S article appeared I got a nice thank you email from Kevin Scheffler, Assistant Principal of Eureka High School. He was happy I was drawing people’s attention to the service. I replied by asking him some questions that I couldn’t get answered when I was working on the article despite several phone calls. I wanted to know:

1. How many years have you (Eureka City Schools) been using PowerSchool?
2. Do you have any statistics on how many people use the system?
3. Do you still have teachers that are not actively involved with the system?
4. Do you know any other local school districts that use this or a similar system?

Mr. Scheffler never wrote back. So, I am still wondering.

Now, after using the system successfully for several years, we have stopped receiving the weekly email summaries that let us know how our daughter is doing and what’s going on at the school. I contacted their tech support via email and got one reply that said they had tested our account settings. But we still are not receiving the email. I replied to the support message, but, after 2 weeks, have heard nothing more.

I don’t know if others are having problems with the system. And I am not sure why it’s so hard to get any responses from the school either on my questions or my support issue. Fortunately, we can still log in and get the most important information. I would hate to see that disappear, too.

Today was the “official” launch of a new four county (Humboldt, Mendocino, Del Norte and Trinity) broadband initiative now being called Redwood Coast Connect. The folks leading and funding (to the tune of $500,00) the initiative held a press conference today at the new Humboldt Bay Aquatic Center next to the Adorni Center in Eureka. The ultimate goal of the initiative is to bring ubiquitous broadband to the four county region.

They plan to do this by gathering and aggregating broadband demand through a series of ‘town hall’ meetings and surveys intended to include individuals throughout the region. Another effort of the initiative is to work at the state and local level to iron out policies and regulations at the state and local government levels to make broadband deployment more efficient and cost effective.

The major players in this are the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) headed by Sunne Wright McPeak, Peter Pennekamp of the Humboldt Area Foundation and Rollin Richmond, Presidnt fo Humboldt State University. CETF contributed half of the $500,000. The other half was gathered from a combination of local organizations including HAF, and the McLean Foundation.

While the goal is widespread broadband deployment to all areas no matter how rural, Connie Stewart, representing Patty Berg’s office was quick make a disclaimer that this effort may work, but there are no assurances. Of course, there is great hope that the approach will prove a model that can be repeated elsewhere in rural California. Preliminary results of this effort will be presented at the next Broadband Forum scheduled for early June, 2008.

It should be noted that this initiative is not directly related to the ongoing effort to get alternate fiber connections built throughout the North Coast. Those efforts are being pursued by others although, there will certainly be overlaps in interest.

BTW, the new Aquatic Center is a great building. Check it out.