City Council Resolution on Google Fiber

events

Mary Beth Henry, Deputy Director of the Office of Cable Communications and Franchise Management, sent us this message about tomorrow’s city council meeting:

Just a reminder about the Google Resolution at the upcoming Portland City Council meeting on Wednesday March 17 at 10:30 am. It would be great if testimony reflected the wide variety of creative’s in Portland.

Testimony is up to three minutes and you can sign up just outside the Council Chambers beginning at 9:30. The Council meetings are streamed live and on cable channel 30. This is your opportunity to talk, sing, dance etc. in your own way about why Google should select Portland. Thanks!

Because this is a “time certain” resolution, you won’t have to hang out for hours if you want to comment, or just watch the discussion. Having a packed chambers for resolutions like this helps solidify the resolve of council members, so please make a point of coming, and remember to be green for fiber.

If you’d like to read the resolution ahead of time, it’s available here.

Wednesday, March 17th, Be Green for Fiber

tips

Many of us probably already planned to wear green tomorrow, but, this year, please join me in being “Green for Fiber.”

There are a lot of reasons to be green for fiber:

1. High speed networks make telecommuting possible, saving emissions caused by daily commutes.

2. Wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day keeps you from getting pinched. Open-access, community fiber will keep you from getting pinched by ISP bandwidth caps and protocol blocking.

3. High speed networks will encourage new business development, meaning more green in our city.

4. We’re green with envy at cities that already enjoy speeds of 50-100Mbps, and we want them to envy our 1Gbit service.

Whatever your reason, on March 17th, 2010, join me in being green for fiber!

Why Do You Want Fiber?

Uncategorized

So far, Sheldon, Ward, Crystal and David have told us why they want open-access, community fiber. We’ll be posting more videos, soon, but right now, tell us why you want fiber.

I want fiber, in part, because I don’t have Cable or Satellite TV, I don’t have a DVR and I don’t subscribe to Netflix. If I’m not home to watch something when it’s broadcast, I use the Internet to watch it (legally). Sometimes this works great, and other times it’s slow and unreliable. Sometimes (like with the Olympics) I couldn’t even get the broadcast, because I was not on an approved ISP.

I see open-access fiber as a way of leveling the playing field, so that content creators can provide their content directly to consumers. This will improve the experience for consumers, and also open up the door to new content creators who can take advantage of dealing directly with their audience.

Why do you want fiber?

David Olson on Community Fiber

video

David Olson, Director of the Cable Franchise Management Office, discusses open-access community fiber, and the City’s response to Google.
Here’s a great piece the Willamette Week did back in ’99 about David and the City’s battle with AT&T (now Comcast). You’ll note the similarities between what we face now, with no fiber in Portland while Verizon customers in Washington County have it, and the situation with slow broadband rollouts a decade ago.