My presentation from Freedom to Connect on why we should support Community Owned Internet networks. Unfortunately, the video starts about 1 minute into the presentation. Please leave feedback below. Continue reading
Last night, the House Energy Policy Committee in the Minnesota state legislature voted 8-6 to approve a 4% by 2025 solar energy standard, with an innovative new approach to financing solar power. It’s a powerful first step for what would be one of the more robust policies to support distributed, local solar power in the… Continue reading
Leverett, Massachusetts’ broadband initiative has moved to the next phase in bringing fiber to residents. The town selectboard recently decided on a bidder to build the community owned network. G4S designed the network and also works with the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) as it brings a middle mile fiber network to towns across the western… Continue reading
The town of Erie, Colorado, is conducting a residential survey as it considers a community owned network. Erie has about 18,000 residents and straddles Boulder and Weld Counties. The concerns facing Erie’s community leaders were recently summed up in a John Aguilar article in the Boulder Daily Camera. According to the article, four companies were… Continue reading
Welcome to our third episode of the Whatcha Workin’ On? podcast. Lisa Gonzalez interviews Neil Seldman, Ph.D., President of ILSR and the heart and soul of our Waste to Wealth Initiative. Neil tells us about the program and describes the many concurrent projects he is handling. Dr. Seldman also outlines some upcoming work for the… Continue reading
Last week, Catharine Rice and I were guests on a Democracy Now! segment filmed at the Freedom to Connect conference. We discussed what community broadband is, how it has benefited communities, and how a few big cable and telephone companies are trying to stop it. Continue reading
Blair Levin is Executive Director of Gig.U. Prior to that, he was in charge of developing the National Broadband Plan and long before that was Chief of Staff for the FCC during the Clinton Presidency. He’s had a lot of experience in telecommunications policy but here we focus on what can be done to move… Continue reading
Brendan Fischer of the Center for Media and Democracy’s PR Watch examines the ties between HB 282, the people behind it, and how it evolved into a threat to connectivity and local control. Brendan gave us permission to repost the story in full here. Since authoring this story, HB 282 was defeated in Georgia in a… Continue reading
Washington Post, March 11, 2013 Richard Vitullo has seen the future of trash, and it is moldering under his kitchen sink. Eggshell by eggshell, the Takoma Park architect is training himself to bypass the garbage pail and drop food scraps into the new screw-top bucket squeezed in beside the dish soap and sponges. Once a… Continue reading
WASHINGTON, DC (March 11, 2013) – The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) is pleased to announce that Nicola M. Chin (nee Wells) has joined the organization as its new Director of Strategy and Development. Chin will oversee ILSR’s fundraising and strategic planning. “We are delighted to bring Nicola on board,” said ILSR President Neil Seldman…. Continue reading