We have been assembling a working group representing local interests including: Internet Service Providers, Business, Education, Medical as well as Regional Business and Economic Development groups.

The goal is identify common problems and develop support for the group. We need to work together, continually sharing information about our needs and requirements. With this information we can assess the current infrastructure and create our wish lists for the future. Possible scenarios and ideas will be discussed to help pave the way to continue to the next steps.

Format and Objectives

1. Workshop format and total number of days will vary based on specific requirements.
2. Educational presentation on municipal, community and open access networks.
3. Other projects and community success stories and failures will be discussed
   
4. A sample network financial business model will be reviewed and discussed.
5. A portion of the workshop is devoted to a Q & A dialogue to discuss various issues surrounding new and emerging business models for communications networks, infrastructure planning, policy decisions and how to move forward.
6. The workshop will end with a concrete set of recommendations for what to do next and how to move forward.

See ground work for more details.

Expected Workshop Outcomes

By the conclusion of the workshop, community leaders will have some new ideas as to how:

• We can improve economic development, create jobs and establish a long term source of revenue through a communications infrastructure initiative.
• We can bring our community to the forefront of regional telecommunications initiatives.
• We can prevent incumbent market forces alone from dictating whether advanced connectivity is available for municipal services, commercial and industrial economic development all contributing to a vibrant local economy.
  
• We can work together to identify public, commercial and private, community-wide needs, goals, priorities and objectives.
• Our community can capitalize on intergovernmental assistance and/or partnering with private industry.
• We can provide our community with immediate investment and improvement to our communications connectivity services for public, commercial and residential use.
• We can contribute to economic development and quality of life can be dramatically improved with appropriate high speed connectivity networks.
• Our community can facilitate high speed connectivity services including improved safety & efficiency throughout the community to improve local, regional, national and global competitiveness for our businesses and residents.
• We can implement community improvement strategies and policies that yield maximum results at reasonable costs.
• We can pursue multiple objectives in parallel to save time and increase the efficient use of resources.
• We can identify gaps that may exist in our local and regional services and infrastructure.
• We can identify some of the best approaches to network methodology, technology and deployment funding.
  

Workshop details - Physical Arrangements:

Any local facility that can accommodate the appropriate number of people including tables for people to take notes, dry erase marker boards, overhead projector and computer presentation projector.

Some of the information we need to collect, at least one week in advance of the workshop (digital formats please)

• existing city connectivity infrastructure maps of documentation (GIS map layers, etc)
• List of interested parties, department heads and contact info

For more information contact:

Contact: Josh Sehn at 403-952-1717
or sign a letter of support
contact your local political representative

Additional Links