Who Will Narrow the Digital Divide
As music, movies, news, archives and other data increasingly are delivered on demand over thge Internet rather than in physical form, first-class citizenship requires a high-speed connection. Who is left in steerage? How can technology narrow the digital divide? A look at municipal wireless initiatives. Convener: Case Lide, Baller Herbst Law Group. Panel: Wally Bowen, Mountain Area Information Network; Ben Byrne, FreePress.net.
Excerpts of discussion
Quotes are paraphrased unless in direct quotes. Times are referencing the QuickTime video location.
(21:20) BOWEN: Mountain Area Information Network is a red state with a little oasis of Ashville, N.C., in the middle.
21:35) BOWEN — Try to make the home page fresh with daily content. Weather, pollen count, ozone, dot-it-yourself-community calendar, a splotlight section which rotates every day or so. (22:25) Home page get’s 13,000 unique visitors per day, more than the Ashville Citizen Times, Gannett owned. More than any in North Carolina, also a low-power FM radio statio. (22:45). Streamed live. Trying to use synergy of broadcast with online. (22:55). They have relationships with the local daily and progressive weekly.
(24:00) BOWEN — More than 300 businesses are in the Blue Ridge Web Market. Users can have a 24-by-seven booth. It is a free service offered. (not sure if business has to be getting their Internet access from MAIN to get the free listing).
(25:07) BOWEN — Used to have forums, but it became too labor-intensive with flame wars. They don’t have that any more. Tried registration, but don’t have the staff.
(25:27) BOWEN — Ten full-time staffers, and four parttime, most dedicated to running the ISP, the network admin, the help desk, administrator, web master and several wireless installers. (25:40) “We are pushing wireless as fast as we can; we cannot meet the demand for it. One reason is people are waking up to the cable duopoly problem.” (25:49) “and they realize that wireless is one way of getting around the duopoly stranglehold on the Internet that is coming.” (26:00)
(26:07) BOWEN — Right now they are using the 900mhz unlicensed spectrum. They are for getting access to lower-frequency, unlicensed specturm. (26:16) “This is going to be one of the most important issues for breaking the duopoly hold on control of the Internet. If Congress does not pass network neutrality, the only way we can put pressure on that duopoly control is with what economists call a strategic market bypass.” (26:38) “And some people are saying if we can get three or four major cities to really push wireless out, there will be enough peole who are outside the duopoly control to force the dupolies to not partition the Internet into these fast lanes and slow lanes.” (26:52) “That may be the only hope that we have if Congress does not act on network neutrality.” Bowen says it is hard to reach in a mountainous area all the people who need internet access without getting access to lower-frequency spectrum, because it will penetrate buildings and go around mountain ridges. They are raising money to do the buildout. The modems cost $400, and they charge $35 a month for residential service. They don’t like it that high, but that’s what works for them. They also run a $14.95/month IndyLink dialup service that is nationwide.
(29:25) BOWEN — “Again, we are giving people the option to spend their Internet dollars to support local media, our local radio station and giving them a bypass around the duopoloy.” (29:38) The discussion turns to considering municipal broadband developments, technology and strategy, including WiMax.
(1:07:20) BOWEN — Anonymity and privacy are key issues, Lide says. He discusses the Google San Francisco rollout plans with local advertising based on who is logged on.
(1:09:15) BOWEN — “It’s a tool for building community . . . . our mission statement says we’re using integrated media technologies to build community. So we’re wanting not to just have people participate online, we want them to come on out to that FCC hearing and show up, have their voice heard or go help with the clean-water stream or go out and vote, get access to the information they need to take that next step they need to get engaged and be active in the community. (1:09:49)
CASEY LIDE: A newspaper in North Carolina called the Pilot, in Moore County, N.C., is actually now deploying WiFi in its local town and wants to provide WiFi throughout the county — the newspaper. And they are doing this as a community service, as a valuable memberof the community. And so I think that raises a really interesting question about the role of newspapers in this, especially in the smaller towns. And related to that, along the lines of what Wally was saying with his network and the local content, and also sort of relating to the speaker we had at lunch today, (Tom Stites). I’m not sure entirely how to tease this out. But it’s interesting that the local content that Wally provides and the newspapers that might provide access, and the conversations at lunch, I think that all ties together in some interesting ways.
A question from a different session
In another session at MGP2006, Bowen was questioned by Phillip Meyer, a University of North Carolina professor:
PHILLIP MEYER: As the Asheville Citizen fades away, do you see yourself picking up some of its functions?
WALLY BOWEN: The question is as the Asheville Citizen-Times fades away do we see ourself picking up some of its role. I hope so. That would be terrific. This conference has really inspired me. We’ve always had it as part of our vision to be a content provider. My background is journalism. I am not a techie. I went into this in the early ’90s knowing that it wasn’t just aobut bridging the digital divide for access, it was access to what? Access to content. So this conference for me has kind of re-energized the journalist in me to begin thinking about that original journalism content. Now we’re doing that with our radio station. It’s all vonlunteer. We have one paid employee and he is a station operations manager, he is not a journalist. But our community is replete with unemployed, underemployed and retired journalists. And so if we can find the grant money we are ready to begin a community journalism project that would definitely be on line and definitely be on our radio station. I did this presentation to the Asheville Citizen Times right after Gannett took it over. And the publisher’s a good friend of mine, Virgil Smith. And some of the folks I presented to, his entire senior staff, some of those folks are my friends, and afterward they said: “When you walked out of the room Virgil turned and said, ‘There goes our competition.’ ” When we linked to the Citizen-Times [website] from our website, traffic on their website jumped 30 percent. So, if I were a newspaper, I would become an ISP in a heartbeat. It solves the problem. You don’t have to worry about network neutrality and what the cable and telephone companies are going to do. You’re going to have a revenue stream to reinforce your journalism. It’s just a no-brainer to me. So, yes, we have great hopes to supplant the Asheville Citizen-Times.
PHILIP MEYERS: A followup question: What will you do when Gannett Co. [owner of the Citizen-Times] tries to buy you out?
WALLY BOWEN: We’re a nonprofit. I have a board of directors. We’re all committed to . . . that will be a nice problem to face. But we are nonprofit, we are committed to the community. And that is why I think our economic model is so important. We can’t be bought out. When we became an ISP, some of the local for-profit ISPs were really opposed to what we were doing and we told the community, listen, Mr. Jones over here, Mr. Smith over there, they are going to sell out one of these days. And they all did. They sold out. They’re still called the Internet of Asheville. And they’ve gone through three or four different ownerships. The help-desk support service has dwindled. You call them up now you’re dealing with somebody no telling where. And so we’re one of the last standing ISPs in our community. So I think that non-profit, locally controlled, locally accountable economic model is very, very important. Because you are not subject to buyout.