<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;"><div>Garth,</div><div><br></div>the community broadband trend is now off the hook in the U.S.<div><br></div><div>Community interests have become highly organized, well-informed and aggressive in their advocacy:</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.bbcmag.com">www.bbcmag.com</a></div><div><a href="http://www.ftthcouncil.org">www.ftthcouncil.org</a></div><div><a href="http://www.muninetworks.org">www.muninetworks.org</a></div><div><a href="http://www.ilsr.org">www.ilsr.org</a> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>(this site is particularly relevant to the theme of autonomy)</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Pushback against ILECs and State governments that have encumbered community/municipal broadband has become intense. </div><div><br></div><div>Some communities are ganging up to mount legal challenges against governments.</div><div><br></div><div>The FCC is also questioning the constitutionality of legislated encumbrances.</div><div><br></div><div>The consensus of informed opinion is that the legislation will be struck down as unconstitutional.</div><div><br></div><div>I've been watching the State-level battle unfold in California, where incumbents are lobbying the State legislature like there is no tomorrow.</div><div><br></div><div>Industry players are still winning some battles, but they are losing the war... the writing is on the wall.</div><div><br></div><div><span style="font-family: ArialMT;">Comcast has been the worst abuser, and they are now getting publicly roasted for their anti-competitive tactics and their overall failure to behave as a responsible corporate citizen.</span><br><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><br></div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><br></div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;">The FCC is now under intense pressure from both sides to take a clear position on community broadband.</div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><br></div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;">There is also strong advocacy for Obama to build his legacy out of this opportunity:</div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><br></div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Politics-Abundance-Technology-Establish-ebook/dp/B00A4OAH5U">http://www.amazon.com/The-Politics-Abundance-Technology-Establish-ebook/dp/B00A4OAH5U</a></div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><br></div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;">The lead author of this work is a former Chairman of the FCC, the second author developed Obama's broadband strategy, and now heads up GigU. </div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><br></div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;">This all looks encouraging on the State and federal policy front, but the real driver underneath it all is municipal policy. </div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><br></div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><div><br></div><div>The rock-bottom line is that broadband has already become an essential economic and social utility, and it needs to be highly accessible, scalable and affordable. </div><div><br></div></div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;">Communities that don't have competitive broadband will find themselves unable to foster and attract new businesses, or to retain the businesses they already have. </div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><br></div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;">"We can't afford to that" was once the prevalent attitude among communities, especially rural communities. </div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><br></div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;">Now the prevailing attitude is, "We can't afford NOT to do that". </div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><br></div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><br></div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;">Over the coming years, the broadband conversation in the U.S. will shift away from 'thresholds' (e.g., ubiquitous 20 Mbps download) to 'scalability' (future-proofness).</div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><br></div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;">It will also shift away from 'solutions' to 'impacts'.</div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><br></div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;">We are still rather far behind in Canada, but if we embrace these learnings from the U.S., we have a golden opportunity to leapfrog. </div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><br></div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;">The name of the game is engaging, fostering and supporting leadership at the community level.</div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><br></div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><br></div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;">CRTC Commissioners have now visited Olds, Coquitlam and other community broadband initiatives in Canada. </div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><br></div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;">During one of these visits, a Commissioner mused out loud about the benefits of broadband as a municipal utility. </div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><br></div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;">I am also hearing from people close to CRTC Chairman Pierre Blais that he is quite sincere in his objectives to serve the needs of customers rather than network operators. </div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><br></div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;">If the CRTC is sincerely interested in supporting the community broadband trend in Canada, they will need political cover for it. </div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><br></div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><div>If we respond with an effective solution for rallying and supporting community/municipal leadership wherever it exists across the country, we can help provide it. </div></div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><br></div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><br></div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;">My hope was that iCANADA would become this solution, but this hasn't happened. </div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><br></div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;">I'm not sure it could ever happen now, because of how iCANADA has aligned itself with industry (= $$). </div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><br></div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;">CNOC can't do it, because they represent supply-side interests... not demand-side interests.</div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><br></div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;">OpenMedia is too strident and reactionary... focusing on industry and government distracts from the real opportunity, and the real progress that is being made there. </div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><br></div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;">The door is wide open for positive and visionary advocacy initiatives that focus on the impacts of community broadband and where it can take the entire nation.</div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><br></div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;">James</div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><br></div><div style="font-family: ArialMT;"><br></div></div><div><div>On Sep 29, 2014, at 11:17 AM, Garth Graham <<a href="mailto:garth.graham@telus.net">garth.graham@telus.net</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite">I'd be interested in learning more about that US shift, James. Since the purpose of leadership is the protection of convention and thus the survival of the institutional basis of its power, I suspect that "unconventional leadership" is an oxymoron. Castels and others have made recent reference to a culture of autonomy, a shift in the role of the individual. "Civil society" hates this because autonomous individuals threaten the conventional "balance" among business, governments and civil society without which civil society doesn't exist. I suspect that US leadership reflects that very threatening increased individual autonomy in some way. I know of no such intellectual reframing in Canada.<br><br>GG<br><br>On 2014-09-29, at 8:57 AM, James Van Leeuwen wrote:<br><br><blockquote type="cite">The problem is conventional leadership, Garth.<br><br>Where there is real progress, it is the result of unconventional leadership.<br></blockquote><br>_______________________________________________<br>Advisors mailing list<br><a href="mailto:Advisors@tc.ca">Advisors@tc.ca</a><br>http://victoria.tc.ca/mailman/listinfo/advisors<br></blockquote></div><br></body></html>