[1st-mile-nm] Broadband Fiber for Libraries

[Richard Lowenberg]

I'm posting this a bit after the noted meeting, but the subject is
relevent to this list.   New Mexico Libraries, while requiring broadband
access, and serving as primary community connection sites, are very
underserved.
rl
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http://www.telestructure.com/pressrelease.html

National Initiative to Deliver Fiber-Speed Internet Connectivity to Every
US Library Underway

Inaugural Workshop on July 2, 2007 To Develop Implementation Strategies
(Sausalito, CA - June 12 -) The Community TeleStructure Initiative (CTI)
announced today plans for a series of workshops on the National Fiber to
the Library (F2L) initiative; its goal being to connect every library in
the U.S. with fiber-speed internet by 2010.  The first workshop will be
held in Sausalito, CA on July 2, and will include broadband policy &
market leaders in California joined by key national policy leaders like
the American Library Association, the Fiber to the Home Council and the
FCC.

In spite of having invented the internet, each year shows the U.S.
slipping ever farther behind other developed economies in broadband
penetration and price/performance levels; even more so in the use of
fiber-based connections as fiber's potential has not been generally
understood or demonstrated.

Now, long sought killer applications requiring high performance internet
connections like distance learning, telemedicine, access to remote museum
resources, HD video conferencing and high resolution multi user
simulations may have found a new friend in the fiber-connected local
library.

After early leadership in broadband deployment the library has more
recently been portrayed as the place of last resort for access to the
internet; the default response for minimally bridging the digital divide.
The Fiber to the Library proposal advocates for the library as an early
adopter, a place where faster, better information and communications
technologies and services are available first.

Providing next-generation broadband access via optical fiber to America's
Libraries assures our library system will be able to meet the information
needs of the 21st Century. New, broadband-intensive services will be
generated sooner and made available more broadly via fiber-connected
libraries, asserts Joe Savage, FTTHC President.

Since March '05, the CTI consortium of national organizations including
TechNet, IEEE, ITAA, PTI & EDUCAUSE has called on communities to accept
lead responsibility for deployment strategies of broadband infrastructure
in their area. To date a number of states including California, Virginia,
Massachusetts and Florida have responded favorably to the challenge by
convening state policy and market leaders in TeleStructure Broadband
Roundtables developing ways to support local community initiatives in
their states www.telestructure.com.

According to CA State Librarian, Susan Hildreth: "Libraries are becoming
the digital hubs of our communities, where high-speed connections and
information intersect with community.

The Sausalito Workshop will also explore expanded tech-related roles for
libraries with regard to demonstrating & testing new technologies as well
as supporting their community's information and communication needs for
disaster preparedness and other E-government support services.

"Public libraries are facing a bandwidth crisis as they struggle to stay
abreast of a rapidly growing demand for Internet access to E-government,
emergency services, health information, and a wide range of other
information sources and services," said Rick Weingarten, Director, Office
for IT Policy, American Library Association.

The Sausalito Workshop will explore and propose strategies for rapid
deployment and identify possible enabling roles at all levels of
government from national to local.  There will be a special focus on the
potential for state governments to support local initiatives and act as
aggregator or as mediator for federal support.

Make connecting every public library in the country with fiber-based
internet by 2010 a national goal and a key component of a new national
broadband strategy.  The idea is simple, measurable and doable, says Don
Means, Principal at Digital Village and F2L Workshop host. If we connect
every library, we'll quickly have fiber within a mile of every residence
and since libraries are open to all, it will be effectively even closer.

The event will be supported in part by the U.S. Institute of Museum and
Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and
Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian.  It
will also be co-sponsored by the Office for IT Policy, American Library
Association.

Contacts:

Jennifer Colton
Flashpoint PR
colton at flashpointpr.com

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American Library Association

ALA Office for Information Technology Policy has released a magnum opus,
the Public Library Connectivity Project: Findings and Recommendations,
(153 pages long, 57 pages of report and 96 pages of appendices) which was
commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

www.ala.org/ala/washoff/contactwo/oitp/papersa/public_version_final.pdf


ALA Broadband web site

http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/woissues/techinttele/broadband/broadband.cfm


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Richard Lowenberg
P.O.Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504
505-989-9110,  505-603-5200 cell

New Mexico Broadband Initiative
www.1st-mile.com/newmexico
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