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Please advise us as to how our website groups and courses could be more helpful?
Our website has been built as a platform cooperative, and thus we emphasize collaboration. As we have been thinking about collaboration versus competition, we have been thinking that models of Open Access need to be promoted in order that the incumbent ISPs compete with each other to offer the best, combination of pricing and reliability. Currently, most of the incumbent ISP’s maintain monopolies in geographic areas and respect boundaries that are not very different from mafia families that do not venture into each other’s territories.
We feel that much better tools to enable collaboration among people in distributed geographies is sorely needed. As the decisions by states for distributing federal BEAD funding has begun, we would like to hear from our members as to how they would like to see our website evolve to better meet their needs. We have envisioned our mission, as a digital platform without boundaries, to enable geographically distributed members to collaborate with each other to develop sustainable solutions, rather than competing. Thus, we are very interested in hearing your opinions about any of the following questions. Please pick from the following topics or start a new one.
General Collaboration Interest
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Are you or your organization interested in collaborating with other local entities to pursue BEAD funding?
- Follow-up: What types of entities (e.g., local governments, co-ops, private companies) do you think would make the best partners?
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What advantages do you see in forming partnerships or consortia when applying for BEAD grants?
- Follow-up: Are there specific areas where you believe collaboration would provide the most significant benefits (e.g., sharing resources, reducing costs, covering more areas)?
Competition and Challenges
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Do you see any potential challenges or drawbacks to collaborating with other organizations for BEAD funding?
- Follow-up: What concerns would need to be addressed to make collaboration viable?
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How do you perceive the competition among local entities for BEAD funding? Do you believe this competition could be more beneficial or harmful to your community’s broadband goals?
Partnership Models and Preferences
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What types of collaboration models do you think would work best for your organization? (e.g., joint ventures, shared infrastructure, formal consortia, etc.)
- Follow-up: Would you prefer a loose coalition of partners or a more formalized, legally binding agreement?
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How important is it to you that any collaboration is structured to ensure equitable distribution of resources and benefits among all partners?
- Follow-up: What criteria would you suggest for ensuring fairness in such partnerships?
Strategic Goals and Alignment
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Are your strategic goals for broadband expansion aligned with other potential collaborators? If not, what are the main areas of divergence?
- Follow-up: How could these differences be reconciled to create a more unified approach?
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What are your priorities for broadband deployment (e.g., reaching unserved areas, improving speeds, affordability)? How might these priorities impact your willingness to collaborate?
Legal and Regulatory Considerations
- Are there any legal or regulatory issues you foresee that could either facilitate or hinder collaboration for BEAD funding?
- Follow-up: How should these be navigated in a potential partnership?
Long-Term Sustainability
- How do you see collaboration impacting the long-term sustainability of the broadband network you aim to build?
- Follow-up: What measures would you want in place to ensure ongoing cooperation after the initial funding and deployment phases?
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