[Advisors] Comment to CRTC Basic service review

[Marita Moll]

Thanks David.  I think our constituency is quite large, actually.  We 
can't count it -- but every one of us is in contact with many 
like-minded people and have influence at many different levels. I really 
believe that, through our continued discussion and interventions re: 
Internet policy, we punch way over our weight.

The Open Data report, to which you have provided a link below, describes 
the Canadian situation with respect to open data and digital literacy as 
follows:

"This commitment supports development of tools, training resources, and 
other initiatives to help citizens acquire the essential skills needed 
to access digital information. Although this commitment is important to 
reduce the digital gap, division of powers in Canada limit the federal 
government’s power over education in provinces. Furthermore, this 
commitment does not tackle the fact that many citizens and civil society 
organizations lack the technology needed to work with data. To improve 
digital literacy, other commitments should address the access to 
technology."

Trouble is, I am not sure how to interact with this project or what we 
could do.  If someone knows more about this than I do and can offer some 
suggestions, they would be welcome.

Marita


On 2/8/2016 3:35 PM, David Murdoch wrote:
> Thanks for your efforts on this submission Marita.
>
> A couple of questions for us to ponder:
>
> How large a constituency, when including like-minded groups, do you 
> think are represented by this, and future opportunities for TC to submit?
>
> What opportunities are there to increase the quantity of data related 
> to our arena of interest? More Open Data could possibly more 
> accurately support our positions in future but only if the data 
> exists. Canadians often look south (ie Pew) to find supporting references.
>
> BTW this just came into my mailbox:
>
> On Mon, Feb 8, 2016 at 3:56 PM, James McKinney 
> <jamespetermckinney at gmail.com 
> <mailto:jamespetermckinney at gmail.com>> wrote in [civicaccess-discuss]:
>
> As part of the Open Government Partnership, the Independent Reporting 
> Mechanism researcher, Mary Francoli, has published her evaluation of 
> the government’s progress on its commitments. The report is now open 
> for comment:
>
> http://www.opengovpartnership.org/node/8597
>
> See also her piece in the Hill Times: 
> http://www.hilltimes.com/opinion/2016/02/08/open-government-at-a-crossroad-canada-needs-better-funding-and-access-to-information/45138
>
> For example, page 7 (English version) of the report relates to digital 
> literacy.
>
> David Murdoch
>
> On Sun, Feb 7, 2016 at 9:48 PM, Marita Moll <mmoll at ca.inter.net 
> <mailto:mmoll at ca.inter.net>> wrote:
>
>     Since I have commitment tomorrow, and since things always go wrong
>     when you leave them to the last minute, I have just submitted our
>     comment letter to the CRTC.
>
>     In a nutshell -- yes, we think broadband belongs in the basic
>     service basket, the minimum speeds for uploading and downloading
>     need to be revised, we ask that the CRTC support community-based
>     broadband initiatives and find new ways of funding broadband as
>     public infrastructure.
>
>     Thanks to those of you (you know who you are) who helped put this
>     together.  I attach a pdf of the document.  I will ask Ian to post
>     it on our website.
>
>     Marita
>
>     _______________________________________________
>     Advisors mailing list
>     Advisors at tc.ca <mailto:Advisors at tc.ca>
>     http://victoria.tc.ca/mailman/listinfo/advisors
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> David Murdoch
>    East River, Nova Scotia Phone: (902) 277-0766
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://victoria.tc.ca/pipermail/advisors/attachments/20160208/bbf27b36/attachment.html>