[DrRon Suarez]

The Post Road Foundation is actively providing grants to support community-owned broadband networks. Here are some communities and details on the grants provided by the Post Road Foundation:

1. **Berrien County, Michigan**:

– Berrien County received nearly $26 million in federal funding supplemented by local funds and private contributions to provide high-speed internet access to unserved rural areas. The initiative involves collaboration with Midwest Energy & Communications and local municipalities【43:4†source】.

2. **Additional Communities**:

– While specific names of other communities receiving grants from the Post Road Foundation were not detailed in the provided documents, it is known that the foundation works broadly to help various cities and towns plan and build public networks, provide workforce training, and promote internet adoption【43:0†source】【43:1†source】.

The Post Road Foundation’s support aims to bridge the digital divide by ensuring that rural and underserved areas have access to high-speed internet, thereby fostering economic development, improving educational opportunities, and enhancing the overall quality of life in these communities.

[DrRon Suarez]

The Post Road Foundation supports the development of community-owned broadband networks through grants and access to capital. Their aim is to help cities and towns plan and build public networks, provide workforce training, and promote internet adoption. Here are some key aspects of their support:

1. **Grant Funding and Capital Access**:

– The Post Road Foundation provides grants and other financial resources to assist communities in planning and building their own broadband networks. This financial support can cover various aspects of network development, including infrastructure construction and operational costs【43:0†source】【43:1†source】.

2. **Workforce Training**:

– The foundation also invests in workforce training initiatives to ensure that communities have the necessary skills to maintain and operate their broadband networks effectively. This includes training local residents in technical skills required for broadband infrastructure management【43:0†source】.

3. **Promoting Internet Adoption**:

– In addition to infrastructure support, the Post Road Foundation focuses on promoting digital inclusion by funding programs aimed at increasing internet adoption rates among residents. This can involve educational campaigns, providing devices, and offering affordable service options to low-income households【43:0†source】.

4. **Partnership with Other Organizations**:

– The foundation collaborates with other philanthropic organizations, like Connect Humanity, to amplify their impact. These partnerships help leverage additional resources and expertise, further supporting the development of robust community broadband networks【43:0†source】.

By providing these comprehensive resources, the Post Road Foundation plays a crucial role in enabling communities to achieve digital equity and build sustainable broadband networks.

[DrRon Suarez]

Questions About Funding Allocation and Prioritization:

1. How does the allocation of BEAD funding toward incumbent ISPs impact the long-term goals of digital equity in Michigan compared to community-owned broadband networks?

   • Follow-up: What mechanisms are in place to ensure that this funding truly benefits underserved communities rather than reinforcing existing disparities?

2. Given that a significant portion of BEAD funding is expected to go to incumbent ISPs, how can communities ensure they retain control over their broadband infrastructure and prevent future monopolization?

   • Follow-up: Are there provisions within BEAD or other funding programs that prioritize community-owned networks over corporate-owned models?

Questions About Sustainability and Community Benefits:

3. What are the long-term economic and social benefits of investing in community-owned broadband networks compared to relying on incumbent ISPs to provide services?

   • Follow-up: How can Michigan leverage these benefits to boost job creation and entrepreneurship within local communities?

4. In what ways do community-owned broadband networks contribute to more resilient and sustainable infrastructure compared to the infrastructure built and maintained by incumbent ISPs?

   • Follow-up: How do these models ensure better accountability and responsiveness to community needs?

Questions About Equity and Access:

5. How do community-owned networks ensure that all residents, especially those in rural and underserved areas, have equitable access to high-speed internet compared to the coverage provided by incumbent ISPs?

   • Follow-up: What strategies can Michigan employ to support the development of these community networks to close the digital divide?

6. With the end of programs like the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), what role can community-owned networks play in ensuring continued affordability and access to broadband for low-income households?

   • Follow-up: How does this compare to the approach taken by large ISPs receiving BEAD funding?

Questions About Innovation and Local Control:

7. How can community-owned networks in Michigan foster innovation and entrepreneurship in ways that might be limited under the control of incumbent ISPs?

   • Follow-up: Can you share examples from other states or regions where community ownership has led to significant technological or economic advancements?

8. What are the potential risks and challenges of relying heavily on incumbent ISPs for broadband expansion, and how might community-owned networks mitigate these risks?

   • Follow-up: What safeguards are necessary to ensure community networks are viable and competitive?

Questions About Policy and Advocacy:

9. What steps can local governments and communities in Michigan take to advocate for more equitable distribution of BEAD funding, ensuring it supports community-owned initiatives?

   • Follow-up: How can communities navigate state-level legal barriers that may inhibit the development of municipal broadband?

10. How does the community’s involvement in decision-making differ between community-owned broadband initiatives and projects led by incumbent ISPs receiving federal funding?

    • Follow-up: How can Michigan’s communities ensure that their voices are heard in the planning and implementation of broadband projects?

These questions aim to highlight the differences in approach between community-owned networks and incumbent ISPs, emphasizing the potential for greater equity, local control, and long-term benefits with the former. They also encourage discussion about how policy and funding decisions can support or hinder these outcomes.

[DrRon Suarez]

Understanding Fiber Innerducts: A Comprehensive Guide was published March 1, 2024. We are working on materials to assist with people planning the construction of affordable housing. Especially with new construction, there is no reason to not consider this as a way to lower the cost of living for everyone.

123.net

Understanding Fiber Innerducts: A Comprehensive Guide

Discover how fiber innerducts are utilized and how they are involved in the planning, installation, or management of fiber optic systems.

[DrRon Suarez]

Notta AI –

Summary

The transcript summarizes a presentation by Justin Kilpatrick, co-founder of Althea, on the design decisions and tradeoffs made in building Althea 01, a layer 1 blockchain tailored for Althea’s decentralized bandwidth market application. Key points covered include not needing enormous block space due to bounded transaction frequency, the ability to parallelize simple value transactions, the critical importance of lightweight clients for query load, and framing data availability as a logistics not financialization problem.

ChaptersLimited Block Space Needed

Bandwidth transactions are physically bounded unlike financial transactions, with frequency limited by system latency and finality times around 4-8 seconds. Even with continuous 4K video streaming, transaction demand caps around thousands per minute, addressable on a simple optimized chain.

Easier to Scale Than General Computation

Simple direct value transfers parallelize easily while EVM requires serial execution, benefiting less from parallelization. A hybrid model with efficient bandwidth transactions plus integrated EVM suits Althea’s needs.

Light Clients Critical for Query Loads

Effective light clients are vital to support enormous user query loads from devices like routers, unlike DeFi’s lower query assumption. Instant finality enables proofs for fast, lightweight bootstrap.

Data Availability as Logistics Not Financialization

Required data is cheap to store so availability is about having enough lower-footprint nodes. Intelligent light clients can store partial blockchain data to serve queries.

Action Items

• Research light client options compatible with Tendermint consensus
• Explore hybrid chain designs optimizing parallelizable transactions
• Model projected query load from user devices to size RPC infrastructure

[DrRon Suarez]

Watch the video of Justin’s presentation:
https://youtu.be/3Wi2jv2oxLk

[DrRon Suarez]

While not perfectly accurate, this is useful.

Action items from Otter

Some key action items from the meeting include:

– Devon will announce the call for folks to sign up to be part of the initial 3 Althea local chapters pilot programs

– Once people start signing up, Devon and Ron will figure out next steps like organizing listening sessions and having Ron involved

– Ron offered to help onboard any new teachers for the learning platform by doing one-on-one sessions to help them get started

Summary from Otter

Althea local chapters aim to foster robust conversations and connect people with opportunities to bring their interests into the real world. Speaker 1 discussed their experience in creating and managing successful online courses, including tokenization and course access. Speaker 1 and Speaker 2 also discussed digital equity, emphasizing the importance of empowering people to address these issues through bottom-up approaches. They also touched on the challenges of customer service in the digital age and the potential of including internet access as part of public housing.

Action ItemsOutlineAlthea chapters and community engagement.

• Speaker 1 and Speaker 2 discuss their experiences with AI tools and screen sharing.

• John Trent shares his journey of connecting with the Healthy Community, from joining NYC mesh to hosting a course on the topic.

• Althea chapters aim to facilitate meaningful conversations and real-world impact through Discord and Twitter, with a focus on connecting community members with engineers and network operators.

Creating local chapters for a community organization.

• Speaker 1 discusses Hamtramck, Michigan with Speaker 2, mentioning its history as a Polish neighborhood and its current situation with Motor City Lounge.

• Speaker 1 and Speaker 2 share experiences related to the Grateful Dead and their connections to the band’s community.

• Speaker 1 and Speaker 2 discuss creating local chapters for a community project, with options for public, private, or hidden groups.

• Speaker 2 suggests using sub-interest groups within a larger community to share knowledge and build with other groups.

Online course development and community website management.

• Experienced couple created a community website for healthcare administrators in West Africa.

• Speaker 1 explains the purpose of a worker-owned cooperative to restore the internet as a public commons.

Creating an online course platform.

• Speaker 1 plans to make instructor roles reusable and manageable with a front-end dashboard.

• John discusses the flexibility of his online course platform, including customizable lessons and pricing options.

• Speaker 1 considers pricing options for courses, including a token system.

Digital equity and internet access for marginalized communities.

• Professor shares knowledge on course design and hidden fees in online course, emphasizing empowerment of people from the bottom up.

• Unknown Speaker seeks collaboration to address digital equity, citing past mistakes and seeking input from chat GPT bot.

• Speaker 1 recommends reading Captive Audience by Cathy O’Neil, highlighting her past and recent statements on the internet and systemic change.

• Speaker 1 had difficulty navigating Comcast’s customer service due to a chatbot and an accented human representative, emphasizing the importance of clear communication in customer service.

Affordable internet access for low-income communities.

• Speaker 1 suggests government-funded programs for minorities are intentionally designed with obstacles to discourage use.

• Developer proposes including internet as part of public housing, bypassing individual household billing.

• Speaker 1 and 2 discuss affordable internet for tenants in high-end buildings.

otter.ai

Otter Voice Meeting Notes

Otter.ai uses artificial intelligence to empower users with real-time transcription meeting notes that are shareable, searchable, accessible and secure.

[DrRon Suarez]

OTI and EveryoneOnWorking Together to Evaluate the Impact of Broadband Inclusion EffortsPOLICY PAPER

By Georgia Bullen and Greta Byrum

Feb. 9, 2016
https://www.newamerica.org/oti/policy-papers/oti-and-everyoneon/

newamerica.org

OTI and EveryoneOn

This toolkit is designed to provide a resource for any organization offering digital services.

[DrRon Suarez]

We are working on a plan to approach libraries here in Michigan. Stay tuned for more updates soon.

[DrRon Suarez]

A simple thing to promote that non-technical people should understand would be to follow the recommendation about requiring that systems on the Internet interoperate. My sister, who is a lawyer, uses an iPhone, and my phone is Android. I end up missing some very important messages from her as a result.

[DrRon Suarez]

Some of the same people who discussed the mosaic app for their community also spoke about using the Gather app.

info.gather.coop

Gather

The App for Community

[DrRon Suarez]

Complete this form to join our (Merit) December 20th mapping working group meeting, where we will discuss all necessary information there. Don’t delay; learn how to support your community to “Test your speed for BEAD” as this is the last chance we will get to impact BEAD eligibility.

[DrRon Suarez]

Ron Suarez (You) 12:25 PM

Ryan Johnston: Are communities listed on the Next Century Cities website supposed to make connectivity affordable? Ann Arbor is listed on the website. When I asked about the cost to connect to a backhaul, I was told: It is $105,000.00 one-time fee per pair. (one time entry fee) $10,500 annually per pair

Ron, you can view the principles that our members agree to when they sign up for membership at https://nextcenturycities.org/join-our-movement/#advocating-for-good-connectivity-policy

Communities who join us are working towards universal, high-speed, affordable broadband for their residents, but we do not prescribe how they are to achieve that. We also don’t have Industry funders or members, and so we don’t have the resources or connections to help our members negotiate prices for connections with providers.

nextcenturycities.org

Join Our Movement - Next Century Cities

Home Next Century Cities Membership Next Century Cities supports mayors and community leaders across the country as they seek to ensure that everyone has fast, affordable, and reliable internet access. … Join Our Movement Read More »

[DrRon Suarez]

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[DrRon Suarez]

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