What happens when leaders from different sectors of a community work toward a implementing a broadband solution without coordination or a unified vision?
- Overlapping initiatives
- Duplication of costs
- Access complexities
- No volume leverage
Solarity’s approach to Community Broadband Success
It all starts with helping community leaders to come together to establish a shared strategy and vision for broadband so they can THINK STRATEGICALLY for the long-term, and ACT PRACTICALLY in the short-term.
When leaders in a community are all pulling together in the same direction toward a shared vision, the goal is easier to achieve.
Resources
Think Strategically
Five Lessons for Tech-Powered Civic Engagement: Through local experience and research, Next Century Cities’ has identified five key lessons that community leaders can employ as they leverage increased access and next-generation technology to expand civic engagement initiatives. Each lesson is explored in depth in the sections of this playbook.
National Digital Inclusion Alliance: The National Digital Inclusion Alliance is a unified voice for home broadband access, public broadband access, personal devices and local technology training and support programs.
Planning a Community Broadband Roadmap: A Toolkit for Local and Tribal Governments: This Toolkit presents the planning steps necessary to create a Community Broadband Roadmap, offers tips and advice from BTOP grantees and provides links to resources and tools.
New report swings and misses on communities and next generation broadband: Blair Levin of Brookings, opines on the pitfalls and errors of a new report entitled “Municipal Fiber in the United States: An Empirical Assessment of Financial Performance.”
What the Internet of Things (IoT) Means for Local Government: Drew Clark, writing for Public CEO examines how increasingly, computing power is everywhere. The personal computer that once resided on the desktop migrated to the hip pocket and the wrist watch, and now to eyewear and clothing. Welcome to the “Internet of Things”…
No Field of Dreams: Doug Adams and Michael Curri, writing for Broadband Communities Magazine. “Build it and they will come” is not a winning strategy for fiber network deployers. To appeal to the pragmatic majority, operators must educate potential customers about the benefits of ultra-broadband applications.
Data-Driven Digital Inclusion Strategy for Gigabit Cities: Denise K. Linn of Harvard University prepared this study for Google, which offers up recommendations for gigabit cities and aspiring/future gigabit cities on how to decrease the digital divide.
Act Practically
Subscribe to Broadband Communities Magazine: Broadband Communities is the leading source of information on digital and broadband technologies for communities. Subscribe for FREE!
Community Asset Checklist: Complete the Google Fiber Checklist. Over the last few years, gigabit Internet has moved from idea to reality, with dozens of communities working hard to build networks with speeds up to 100 times faster than what most of us live with today. This checklist document is written specifically for the cities we’re currently working with. But the items on this checklist are a collection of best practices recommended by the Fiber to the Home Council, the Gig U report and the U.S. Conference of Mayors and can help any fiber provider or city that’s thinking of building a new network.
Understanding your options: The Art of Possible, Joanne Hovis and Andres Afflerback of CTC Technology and Energy present an overview of public broadband options.