[RTC List] Some Specific Stimulus Suggestions and Strategies

[Jan Kraepelien]

To all the sincere, passionate, and good people trying to improve our 
area's communications technologies,

I would like to make some specific suggestions regarding the four-county 
(Humboldt, Mendocino, Trinity, and Del Norte) unified proposal for 
broadband stimulus funding.  I'm hoping to generate some consensus that 
would allow us to proceed quickly, smoothly, and to the best advantage 
for our citizens and the players in our area's broadband 
technical/communication "great leap forward".  I'm trying to be concise 
and take the overview approach to look for broad areas of agreement.  
Five points:

1.  Kathy Moxon and Sean McLaughlin become co-executive directors of the 
"Redwood Broadband Working Group" (or some such name, see below).  They 
would be a perfect team in both their complimentary fields of expertise 
and connections.  Each would be half-time for five months, with one 
month off from these activities to be full-time at their current 
duties.  Humboldt Area Foundation and Access Humboldt (their current 
employers) provide an additional first month for them to assist in 
raising the funds to cover their four-month employment costs.  I am on 
the board of directors for Access Humboldt and would lobby for, I think 
successfully, this from our side. A variety of funding sources could be 
put together so that we would have them in this capacity through 
December.  They should additionally have a full-time administrative 
assistant for this period.  The funding is not as tough as some might 
think and is actually one of the easier things to accomplish on this list.

The co-executive director's duties would include co-ordination of all 
efforts in the administration, the selection process for projects, and 
final submission of the four-county unified proposal.  They would issue 
bi-weekly updates to interested parties, provide strong leadership, keep 
up our connections with state and national policy makers, and start the 
selection process going (first round - one-page synopsis  of your 
project).  Everything needs to happen fast and we have to be prepared 
for very detailed project explanations with projections, costs, 
technical specifications in the precise terms that will likely be required.

2.  Form a technical advisory committee from experts in our own area to 
assist and advise the executive directors and the working group members 
(see below). Let's take advantage of all that knowledge and innovation,

3.  Hire a consultant for external expertise who works at the national 
level.  I would suggest Joanne Hovis from Columbia Telecommunications 
Corporation in Maryland; the firm specializes in "communications 
engineering for the public interest".  Joanne is the one who made the 
excellent presentation at the May 4th meeting at College of the Redwoods 
on what is happening in Washington DC regarding the stimulus funding.  
This firm also was employed during the cable refranchising process in 
Humboldt County to develop a model for a community INet (fiber, or 
equivalent, connections between government buildings,libraries, schools, 
and important community sites).  The 2005 study could be easily updated.

4.  Immediately start forming the "Proposition-50-type" group (named 
something like the "Redwood Broadband Working Group") to administer this 
process, be the final decision makers, and direct the submission of the 
final unified proposal, including exactly what organization(s) formally 
submit it.  (It should be noted here that other proposals could be 
endorsed by this group, for instance those not seeking matching funds 
from state sources.)  A suggested composition of this group would be:

- County Administrative Officer/County Executive Officer of Del Norte, 
Trinity, Humboldt, and Mendocino Counties, or their designees.
- A City Manager from a city in Mendocino and one from Humboldt County, 
or their designee.
- Several Information Technology managers from the municipalities (by 
definition, municipalities includes counties)
- Tribal representatives in the same manner as the municipalities.
- Representatives from some school organizations, K-12, community 
colleges, HSU.  (maybe 4 total)
- A few community members chosen by the above group very early on.

This group might total 15 or so people and should connect up and start 
forming via  emails and conference calls in the next few weeks to 
hopefully have their first full-group conference call early in July.  I 
could help with this part.  Teleconferencing seems very appropriate for 
this group with ideally one big face-to-face meeting over the summer.

5.  Agree and adopt the basic approach suggested by Sean for applying 
for the $70 million+ that is being discussed currently.  This is the 
70-10-10-10 model and gives us an initial (and of course modifiable) guide:

- 70% goes to middle mile deployment and initial maintenance.   These 
are the  Hwy 299,  Hwy 36, and other fiber projects.
- 10% for other solutions for very rural deployment, chiefly wireless 
like microwave and WiFi.
- 10% for final mile government projects like completing INets, public 
safety, and efficiency/cost savings.
- 10% for pilot project deployment. Telemedicine, tribal area 
infrastructure development, or clever experiments are some good examples.

This gives us the best proposal for our four-county needs while also 
being much more likely to be funded than just a middle mile proposal.


This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build telecommunications 
infrastructure in our four counties that can last 30 to 40 years.  I am 
hoping this is a good plan for proceeding and await comments and 
suggestions.  Please pass this on to anyone who might be interested.

Jan Kraepelien