[Advisors] TC -- moving ahead in 2015

Wed Jan 21 21:28:51 PST 2015

I've spent most of the last year at the working face of Canada's nascent community broadband 'movement'.

Interest is growing rapidly, and there is now a sufficiently strong footprint of initiative across Canada to get the attention of senior government and the regulator.

Regional initiatives are making the biggest waves, especially the SWIFT network initiative in southwestern Ontario:

That said, there is still a serious lack of advocacy for community broadband in Canada, compared to the United States:

www.bbcmag.com
www.ftthcouncil.org
www.muninetworks.org 
www.ruraltelecon.org
www.ntca.org
www.ilsr.org

An American firm, Magellan Advisers, just won the bid to conduct a broadband feasibility study for Strathcona County, a rural local government here in Alberta in immediate proximity to Edmonton.

Several Canadian firms responded to the RFP, including a colleague I've been partnering with on a regional broadband strategy for the Alberta SouthWest Regional Economic Development Alliance. 

My colleague previously developed the business case, business model and business plan for the FTTH deployment in Olds, and now sits on the governance board of Olds Fibre Ltd. (a.k.a. O-Net, www.o-net.ca). 

He was unquestionably the most qualified bidder for the specified scope of work, and also had the advantage of actually living in Strathcona County - he was highly accessible. 

We think he was overlooked because the U.S. has a much stronger footprint in community broadband, and Magellan is the heaviest hitter in the U.S. service sector for community broadband. 

Magellan doesn't know a damned thing about Canada, but nobody ever got fired for hiring a strong brand name.

I expect this will be costly for Strathcona County, and I don't mean higher mobilization costs.

If Canadian firms are to compete effectively in the emerging community/municipal broadband market, they will need advocacy as well. 

There is a pressing need for an agency to provide exposure, advocacy and guidance for community broadband in Canada, for the benefit of smaller communities first and foremost, but also for the growing service sector that communities and regional collaborations will require in order to establish and advance initiatives most effectively. 

I had hoped that iCANADA would evolve into this agency, but the lure of branding and consulting dollars seems to have pulled the initiative strongly towards the supply side of Canada's tech and telecom industries (incumbents).

iCANADA now appears to be a Canadian extension of the Intelligent Community Forum, which is based in New York City (www.intelligentcommunity.org).

The ICF is naturally biased towards the interests of larger urban centers, which are already far better served with broadband and also with advocacy (votes), thank you very much. 

For smaller communities across North America, the Intelligent Community brand is generally a marketing liability.

Efforts are now underway to frame an initiative that would effectively advance the interests of Canadian communities large AND small. 

I'm presently on the outside looking in, but I will jump at the opportunity to get involved as the initiative unfolds.

As a policy shop with a Canadian focus, TC could bring relevant and immediate capacity to this proposed agency. 

You can see where I'm headed with this, but I'm already getting ahead of myself.

For now, the only opportunity may be for TC to become involved in the framing discussion. 

If the TC Board and membership are amenable, I would like to explore this possibility and report back.

JvL

> On Jan 21, 2015, at 3:52 PM, Peter Frampton <pframpton at lefca.org> wrote:
> 
> I think your suggestions are good ones.
> Wondering also if we could see if the members might be traveling to a conference or whatever - to arrange a face to face.
> The National Social Enterprise Conference will be held in London Ontario in April.
> Is anyone planning to attend
> could we piggy back something
> 
> if so - I can reach out to friends/partners there and find some free space
> 
> 
> 
> Peter Frampton
> Executive Director
> The Learning Enrichment Foundation
> 116 Industry St
> Toronto, Ontario
> M6M 4L8
> P: 416-769-0830
> F: 416-769-9912
> E: pframpton at lefca.org <mailto:pframpton at lefca.org>
> www.lefca.org <http://www.lefca.org/>
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 2015-01-20, at 8:16 PM, Marita Moll <mmoll at ca.inter.net <mailto:mmoll at ca.inter.net>> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> Hello advisors.  As we are still in January, I don't think it is too late to wish all of you the best for 2015.  It may be cold and still pretty dark outside most of our windows, but at least we are moving toward those precious long warm summer days we are all waiting for.  The TC list has been very quiet for the last couple of months.  I think we all took some time to recover from the sadness of losing Gareth last year.  But, it is time now to think about how to move forward with TC.
>> 
>> In the final months of 2014 and with the help of John Wilkinson, a Toronto lawyer who came to our assistance thanks to miracle worker Peter Frampton, TC is once again on solid ground with respect to NGO status.
>> 
>> TC is still the only organization of its kind in Canada, with a 20 year history of connections into community networking sites around the country, with the potential to reach some of that elusive grassroots constituency that politicians, pollsters and lobbyists crave for.  We have had success in the past, sharing strategies to keep CAP going for longer than it would have otherwise and contributing to research and policy on digital strategies.  We are still very involved in national (CIRA, ISOC) and international organizations  (ICANN, NARALO).  Needs and priorities have changed and strategies need to change as well.  But there is still a lot of value in this organization if we figure out how to use it.
>> 
>> A current urgent need is find a way to begin holding regular meetings again.  The teleconferencing service that we were using is no longer available to us.  In the past we used a service called Freeconferencecall.com <http://freeconferencecall.com/> (https://www.freeconferencecall.com <https://www.freeconferencecall.com/>).  It worked pretty well but did entail long distance charges for those calling in, which generally does not amount to a lot these days, but could still be a deterrent for some.  I am looking for suggestions re: other options.
>> 
>> Once we resolve the communication issue, we need to set up a meeting to address some issues relating to the executive, review our mandate and set some goals and objectives for 2015.
>> 
>> Looking forward to hearing from you.
>> 
>> Marita
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