[RTC List] RTC Meeting June 25th

[Larry Goldberg]

First of all, I want to commend the RTC board for "stepping up to the  
plate" to do what's necessary in this critical time for our  
community's broadband future.  With Kathy Moxon now at the helm  
organizing and direction our community's broadband stimulus efforts, I  
feel a great sense of relief that we're getting back on track.

With that said, I offered the RTC board some suggestions on how to  
handle tomorrow's meeting:
	
The purpose of this meeting is not to select any individual  
technologies, specific projects or technical approaches.  We need to  
help guide the decision-makers (whether they're the Board of Supes,  
local government or some other organization) and need to offer broad  
policy guidance and not micro-management advice.
We should consider and, hopefully, adopt a set of "guiding principles"  
for the decision-makers
We should make our technical expertise available to decision-makers if  
they should require independent technical assessments as part of a  
review process.
We should encourage the Board of Supervisors to form a "Broadband Task  
Force" to help on this and future broadband issues.
We should emphasize policies which provide the maximum efforts to  
unserved and under-served markets
We should promote public education and awareness of broadband issues
We should work with other organizations, but not be subservient to  
their plans

I have some concerns, as well:
While a tremendous effort went into the RCC report (over two years of  
work), the final report was never opened to community review and  
comment and therefore I don't believe it fully represents the best  
policy recommendations at this time.  I believe that if we rely on  
their findings exclusively, this could be a problem, but we should  
certainly utilize any and all data which supports our regional  
application.
Over the past five years or so a series of technical studies have been  
conducted without any public review or comment and are now being cited  
as "established policy."  I urge everyone to make educated decisions  
on our broadband policy goals based on sound logic and "ground  
truth."  I believe that further discussion is necessary to develop a  
comprehensive long-term broadband plan and this is a good start.
While "Middle-mile" has become the mantra for fixing ALL our broadband  
problems, we should not neglect last-mile issues, public education,  
public open access and local peering as critical network & broadband  
policy issues.

As far as the guiding principles go, I recommend that we consider the  
following:
adopt the 70/10/10/10 principle proposed by Sean McLaughlin.
Encourage a coordinated regional approach to broadband implementation
Encourage a single public authority to help guide and administer a  
regional broadband network
Adopt a cost-benefit analysis which identifies all the costs of a  
project and all the benefits (direct and indirect)
Promote all proposals which utilize the maximum of local talent and  
locally made products
Calculate total jobs produced (short-term & long-term)
Support long-term financial viability & sustainability analysis
Promote some free public access in every community
Support continued development of a regional strategic broadband policy
Ensure that all projects are complimentary (and integrate) with the  
overall broadband plan
The RTC should remain engaged and directly involved in formulation of  
broadband policy for the region

That's my two cents worth.  I'll see you all tomorrow. 
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