This morning I had breakfast with the Seattle Neighborhood Coalition, a community discussion group that has been eating breakfast on 7th Avenue every month for the past 20 years. Today’s topic was the Broadband Telecommunications Taskforce (established last year by Jim Compton), and there were several speakers that weighed in their opinions of what the Report actually brings to our fair city.
I grabbed some video with my phone, and put it up on iMob::Seattle for those of you who are interested. (You will need a .3gp codec installed to view these)
Casey’s TrainNode got some ink in the Tacoma News Tribune today. I wonder how long it will take Sound Transit to come to their senses and start providing net on their own?
Casey’s train shenanigans are documented on Seattlest today. Last week he had 6 people connecting through his mobile node… I wonder how many folks with laptops will be cramming into Car 403 tonight?
It’s not really the right season, so I’ve removed the Project Corn camera from my right column. To replace it, I’ve pointed a camera out the window so we can all watch the birds land on the antennas at NodeOne. There may be some activity this week when we go up to tweak some settings. I’m sure you’ll all stay tuned 
The Seattle Broadband and Telecommunications Task Force now has a website. I mentioned a while back, but they had not picked their members at that time, nor formed any sort of agenda. It should be interesting to watch.
Yesterday, Rob and I were guests on Webtalk Radio with Rob Greenlee. We talked about Community Wireless, WiFi, WiMAX, SeattleWireless and of course, Metrix Communication.
We talked for quite a while, but it should be interesting to hear the edited version on the analog watt monster.
Here are the radio times:
Seattle/Tacoma: KLAY 1180 AM on Saturdays at 11 am. and Tuesday on KVTI 90.9 FM at 10 pm - 30 min. version)
Syndicated Sunday at 8 am PST on WHBU AM 1240 Anderson, IN, WYAM AM 890
Huntsville,Tupelo, MS., N. Alabama, WVMI AM 570 Biloxi, Gulfport, MS, WKEI
AM 1450 Kewanee, IL, KZNI AM 1260 Idaho Falls, ID, KZNR AM 690
Blackfoot/Pocatello, ID, KNTR AM 980 Lake Havasu City, AZ, KKAA AM 1560
Aberdeen, SD, KCFJ AM 570 Alturas, CA (through the Talkone.com broadcast syndication)
Went to City Hall again today to see if there were any updates to Resolution #30684, and sure enough, there were. Jim Compton proposed some language changes over the week, and it looks as if the new resolution specifies that the Task Force will be creating a document to explore feasibility on a network using municipal resources rather than a municipally owned network. The resolution was voted on by the Utilities and Technology committee and will be brought forward to a vote by the full city council.
Hot damn!
Today at the City Council meeting, Jim Compton proposed a resolution (Council Resolution 30684) to create a task force to investigate WiFi, WiMAX, fiber and powerline networking. The goal as Compton sees it, is to create a city wide (border to border) wireless network that will utilize the miles of fiber that the city already has an asset, and create a tool that drives education, the economy, innovation and broadband applications, and is both equitable and accessible by nature.
Representatives of Tacoma’s Click Network talked briefly about their network’s uses and applications (local loop with multiple internet providers, cable tv utility, meter reading), as well as the path they took to achieve it.
CTTAB was also in attendance and helped clarify some points about municipal owned network vs network using municipal resources, and how such a network could connect with existing networks, private and public.
One thing that this meeting showed, is that the city is not only interested in wireless, but it is interested in doing it in the right way. This was not a call for press releases, or a ‘lets throw up a hotspot’ meeting, but rather an announcement that they’re really thinking about it, and they plan on throwing resources at it because it’s important. Hopefully they will get the right people in the room.
Thanks to all the people that mailed me this morning with a link to this article in the PI. If it wasn’t so vague, I probably wouldn’t have gone.
Update: Here is the full text of the resolution.
This is kind of funny. I’m sitting at B&O, using my GPRS connection because Rob’s node is down (he’s in Italy, so it’s forgiveable). There are some other people with computers, sort of frustrated that they can’t get their free Internet, so I started up a network using Apple’s built-in AP. Now there are three people using my GPRS. Good thing I’ve got an unlimited data plan.
If you’ve got a 3650 and bluetooth on your mac, Rael has some good instructions here.
A cascade of weird mail problems led to the lists breaking. They are fixed now. Sorry for any inconvenience. Mail away.
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