joeklein

Start up, stupid!

2009-11-04T22:51:00.002-06:00

The Wisconsin right-wing nuts are insistent on our state Mississippi-fying itself by lowering taxes. They like to spend money on prisons and highways, so the cuts to balance out their proposed corporate tax cuts must come out of education, public assistance, mass-transit and parks. I can be for lower taxes, but fix the budget hole made by truth in sentencing, and the urge, started by Thompson and sustained by the highway lobby, to build highways until you have eight lanes to Crivitz. We spend far to much of our state dollars on prisons and highways.

The voters should ask, is the concept that "low taxes and low regulation are the key to more business," valid? What if the tax and regulation cutting saga is nothing but Baloney Stock? If our model is Texas and Mississippi, then they should be the states with the most per capita start ups!

BUZZZ! Wrong answer!

Crunch Trends came up with this map:

Interesting article and hypothesis: http://trends.techcrunch.com/2009/09/11/state-startup-analyis-crunchbase-supports-ntrepeneurial-immigration-reform/

Then another look at start up data by a gentleman in Illinois comes up with another interesting hypothesis: http://www.sachinagarwal.com/what-states-have-the-best-startup-environment

Another great place to look and think about the problem is the SSTI State Venture Capital Dashboard.

So, to be frank, the line towed by the Walkers - Sykes crowd is pure unadulterated bull. The truth is that the "tax climate" and regulation has only a minimal effect on start ups. The real truth is probably more a combination of education, access to capital, and acceptance of risk taking. Since our state's major capitalists are either in retail, insurance companies, or the decedents of long dead early 20th century entrepreneurs, we have a problem here. The old rich of our state are nearly the opposite of the risk takers who fuel growth elsewhere. The risk takers tend to be young, urban, and both economically and racially diverse.

Our first step in making Wisconsin more entrepreneurial should be to stop listening to the old rich, who want us to be like Mississippi, and start making ourselves more like Silicon Valley, Boston and Seattle.

What our state needs is creativity, urbanity, diversity, capital and a clear picture of the future based on science. What we don't need is a misguided and wrong ideologue like Walker turning the knob of state commerce toward Mississippi, when we should be turning it toward Silicon Valley.

That would be stupid and disastrous.

Being Silly and Going Nowhere

2009-08-20T13:34:00.006-05:00

The real issue in running for government is, do you have the guts to put yourself out for public ridicule? If you desire a change for the better, what better place to put ideas to the test, but in the public forum?

So let's not ridicule, but respect people who seek public office, especially if their sole motivation is to further the public good. Attack policies, not people. ... and yes I should endeavor to do the same.

I honestly believe that I would have done better things for our community than the current County Executive.

That I am guilty of not being a professional politician, I confess, this is true.

I would like to think that for the most part the good people at Urban Milwaukee, and those within the progressive, trade unionist, and urbanist circles of Milwaukee County would see me as a friend. Is it then a proper thing to call your friends 'silly' for desiring to do right?

Doyle’s Decision Could Send Ripples Through Milwaukee’s Political Landscape

The Car Economy

2009-04-27T15:54:00.002-05:00

"With cars, you can go where you want to go when you want to go. But they also have the most environmental impacts, the most social impacts and the greatest cost to our system - to park it, to enforce it, to run it, to import the oil. All of these things have severe impacts that we really just can't sustain anymore. The other modes have their limitations, too. As a pedestrian, you can only go so far. As a bicyclist you can go a little bit further, as a transit rider you can go furthest, but you can't go where you want to go all the time. There's got to be a way to link all these modes. When you add in car-sharing, bike-sharing and taxis, all of a sudden you have this menu of options that you can use, just like you would a car, without all the impacts."
-- Timothy Papandreou

"In the early 1920s when every US city of more than 5,000 residents had at least one streetcar line, households spent an average of just 3 percent of household income on transportation. Today families spend an average of 19 percent."
-- Privatizing The Cost Of Transportation

The anti rail crowd arguments don't stand up to scrutiny. Good public transit saves society and individual families money and it gets cheaper the more people use it. Cars, on the other hand, cost more the more they are used.

Taken For A Ride

2009-03-27T00:17:00.000-05:00

The anti-transit cabal

2009-03-22T15:07:00.014-05:00

The Cato Institute and the Reason Foundation are the sources and for many of the rail v. bus "studies" cited by Sykes, Belling and Walker. They have an agenda. Take a look at who is connected.

The Kock Family lies at the center of the web. They use libertarian doublespeak to argue for disemboweling government regulation so that they can gain special financial advantage by keeping America addicted to oil and automobiles. The people most victimized by the intellectual dishonesty of these organizations are disenfranchised white middle class males who have been brainwashed into supporting political movements that give power and money to these big oil industrialists.

David and Charles Koch own virtually all of Koch Industries, an oil, natural gas, and land management firm and the second largest privately owned company in America. based on an annual ranking of the world's wealthiest people compiled and published by Forbes magazine on March 11, 2009, David and Charles Koch are tied for being the 19th richest person in the world, each with assets in excess of 14 billion. Their father was a co-founder of the John Birch Society.

Please support rail mass transits, but don't forget to purchase your pins to aide identification at our next public meeting. To fully understand this comment, view the John Birch Society link.

The State of The County

2009-02-16T13:55:00.002-06:00

Walker - the blind.

2009-02-15T17:20:00.011-06:00

Walker is blind to the future, perhaps that is why he stand in front of a 48 star flag on the Milwaukee County web site. Apparently he thinks he is living before August 21st, 1959.

The County Executive reveals his inability to be either pragmatic or capable of empirical thought through his transit policy. Perhaps this is the product of believing at face value reports produced by the big oil funded Cato Institute and the Reason Foundation. The public should be suspect of these "Libertarian" organizations funded by people seeking their own advantage regardless of the impact on the health and welfare of our society. After all, the Laissez-faire society these "think tanks" advocate is the perfect place for keeping the lower and middle classes under the thumb of big oil.

Walker's ideological posturing has been an impediment to the progress of Milwaukee County. He is a roadblock to fixing the problems at Milwaukee County. This is why the Milwaukee County continues to decline under his "leadership." As the 'ol Harry Truman quote goes: "How many times do you have to get hit over the head before you figure out who’s hitting you?”

Good transit brings wealth to communities. Transit is a logical and necessary investment in a world of increasing population, diminishing oil supplies, and climatic change.

The below PBS NOW episode features a conservative Mayor with vision. An example to show that not all conservatives are blind to the future.

An example to be emulated

2008-11-22T00:33:00.007-06:00

If it works in a car centric place like Charlotte, NC; it can work in Milwaukee.

Reconnecting America's Jeff Wood presents a slide show about Charlotte's transit system

Slideshow

International monetary policy -- thinking out of the box.

2008-11-20T15:52:00.005-06:00

One of the problems that contributed to the Great Depression was a breakdown in international trade. One boost to international trade, as shown in the Euro zone, is a shared currency and the elimination of exchange rates. One achievable possibility would be to synchronize monetary policy between the Euro, Canadian Dollar, US Dollar and the Yen. I.E. 1 Greenback = 1 Loony = 1 Euro = 100 Yen.

This would increase trade between the participants and build a exchange rate free trade zone among relative equal nations.

Recent world events have shown us that our economies are truly closely linked. The myth of separateness is refuted by the daily interactions between our stock markets, exchange rates, and banks.

Auto Makers

2008-11-20T15:17:00.011-06:00

The talk show unfairness doctrine.

2008-11-18T13:30:00.002-06:00

Bruce Murphy throws rhetorical punches at Sykes in his recent posting on MilwaukeeMagazine.com.

Sykes doesn’t directly address or deny that conservative talk radio hosts
(1) perpetuate the notion that listeners are victims and the host is the vehicle by which they are empowered;
(2) use an us-versus-them approach that regularly targets Democrats, “Republicans in Name Only” and the mainstream media;
(3) refuse to do an even-handed discussion of issues;
(4) belittle callers when the argument can’t be won on the merits;
(5) strategically find occasions to disagree with the Republican leaders or conservative doctrine to give the impression of being an independent thinker;
(6) won’t risk their credibility by backing a Republican candidate who has no chance of winning;
(7) rely on the “you know what would happen if this was a liberal” line of attack;
(8) use the “pre-emptive strike” to immediately accuse the media of overplaying a budding news story that might make conservatives look bad;
(9) selectively use facts to support their position and ignore any that don’t; (10) pound away on an issue, hour after hour, day after day, to motivate listeners to contact their public officials in support of a particular policy;
(11) use a double standard on such issues as the line-item veto, perjury and activist judges (all three are great if they help Republicans or conservatives, but bad if used in support of Democrats).

More evidence that Milwaukee's anti-rail talking heads are wrong.

2008-11-18T10:11:00.002-06:00

This You-Tube video was posted to The Overhead Wire.

Steady at the helm!

2008-09-19T16:16:00.001-05:00

The laissez-faire meltdown.

2008-09-18T13:02:00.005-05:00

Look at our economic history. The regulatory regime put in under FDRs New Deal managed to smooth out the boom and bust cycle that plagued the U.S. economy in the century prior to the 1930s. The post FDR America had recessions rather than depressions. The economic cycle of boom and bust that ravaged this country between the civil war and the great depression was tamed by regulatory oversight of both Wall Street and the banking industry.

In the 1980s and 1990s a rabble of post-Reagan economic ideologues emerged from the right wing of the Republican Party. These self proclaimed Neo-Conservatives or ‘Neocons,’ sought the dismantling of FDR’s regulatory regime and a return of America to laissez-faire policies.

The Neocons apparently snoozed through history class during the lecture on the “Gilded Age,” an often glossed over period in American History; a time when laissez-faire economics so destabilized American society as to cause labor revolts and wild swings in the economy. The social, economic and political disruption was so extensive as it nearly destroyed the system of capitalism in the United States and contributed to the rise of the Bolsheviks in Europe. We did that laissez-faire experiment and it proved disastrous.

A country dominated by large unregulated monopolies is little different from a country where the state is the monopoly. Be it Corporatists or Communists; the centralized control of the populous by a corporate elite or a single political party, inevitably tends to drive countries down the path toward endless war (cold or hot) and suppression of both political and economic freedom.

Unregulated capitalism tends to destroy itself. Market capitalism works best when many independent producers and providers of goods and services, openly compete. Thus unregulated, laissez-faire capitalism, which allows the aggregation of capital, political, and economic power into the hands of the few, is destructive of the system that spawns it. Regulation is necessary.

The regulation of large business, when properly done, is good for small business. Small business can be defined as places where the owners work side by side with the workers. Somehow the Neocons managed to cleave small business people, independent consultants, entrepreneurs, and the working middle class away from progressive politics. They have successfully propagandized the idea that what is bad for the large corporation is bad for anyone seeking economic improvement. The Neocon economic illusions build on cheap energy and cheap labor, forces us now to drive past the abandoned row of walking distance neighborhood owned stores, the few cents saved at the big box alternatives taken away by declining wages and rising fuel prices. Big box stores suck the oxygen out of small town business districts and neighborhood commercial strips.

For workers, economic diversity allows many places where talent can be plied and provides many opportunities for self-improvement. Economic diversity, allows social mobility, monopoly, locks workers in. Access to education and capital allows the big brewery worker to open a micro brewery, or the big electronics company's young engineer to start a computer company. This is that story of Randy Sprecher and Steve Wosniak. Economic diversity brings opportunity, monopoly brings servitude. The domination of our country by big businesses has transformed the once proud American working class into hamburger flippers and big box store greeters.

The Neocons sold a bill of goods to the American people; they linked Liberty and personal freedom to laissez-faire economic policy. Ironically in the process they managed to strip our country of fundamental Constitutional guarantees such as the right of habeas corpus and judicial review of place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized; making a person’s, houses, papers, effects and self, open to unreasonable searches and seizures at any time or place. History evidences that the maintenance of our national Liberty is more the stead of the small shopkeeper than of the corporate Robber Barron.

Our current economic and political condition, the ill-defined and endless war on terrorism, and the deplorable erosion of our constitutional rights are the product of the Neocons.

Desperate to retain power, they fall back on doublespeak. So now these defenders of the laissez-faire resort to nationalizing lending institutions, suppressing investigation of their VP candidate’s past, and engaging in blatant voter suppression. These are the acts of desperate ideologues, desperate to retain power.

Now is the time for action. Both the Republican Party and the people of the Republic need to break the link to the Neocons. The GOP and McCain by maintaining their link to the Neocons have chained themselves a sinking ship. America needs to repudiate the Neocon philosophy and vote them out, or we, like the GOP, too shall assuredly find ourselves chained to that same sinking ship.

Palinoccio

2008-09-11T16:05:00.005-05:00

"Palin's requests to Congress came at a time of huge federal deficits, while Alaska state revenue was soaring due to rising oil prices and a major tax increase on oil production that Palin signed into law in late 2007."
-- Palin's earmark requests: more per person than any other state

"Palin reduced the state government's requests for special projects this year to 31 earmarks totaling $198 million, about $295 person."
-- Despite cuts, Alaska earmarks still high

"Total 2008 earmark spending for Wisconsin is $182.5 million, or roughly $33 per resident, according to the database."
-- JSonline: Earmark spending has power to divide, unite

Vote Republican

2008-07-04T15:01:00.001-05:00

Voter ID - sans card

2008-06-24T15:33:00.005-05:00

Nobody likes it when I say voter ID can be done in such a way as to not discourage voting. If the real goal is to insure the legitimacy of the voter, then we could simply take a digital snapshot at the time of registration and put the snapshot, with the registration information into a data base. This can be done with web based software and a laptop.

When you go vote the poll worker would then look you up on the database. If you need to register on site, the poll worker would use a laptop with a cheap USB camera to put your address and image into the database.

No fuss, no hassle, no waiting at the DMV.

The fact that this method is not under consideration speaks volumes about the intent to use voter ID for vote suppression.

Wisconsin: Forward in Railroad Electrification

2008-02-08T18:46:00.000-06:00

Now is the time for Wisconsin to implement bold transportation alternatives. A recent Science Applications International Corporation study publish in November 2007 and entitled Public Transportation’s Contribution to U.S. Greenhouse Gas Reduction said:

“One of the most significant actions that household members can take to reduce their carbon footprint is to use public transportation. Today, 78% of commuters drive to work alone (ranging from 56% in New York State to 85% in Michigan). The annual use of an automobile driving an average of 12,000 miles per year and with an average 22.9 MPG consumption emits 4.6 metric tomes of CO2 per year. Households that have an SUV or light duty truck drive an average of 14,500 miles per year and have an MPG of 16.2 emit 7.9 metric tons per year. The average two wage earner and two vehicle owner household in the U.S. travels almost 24,000 miles per year. Households could reduce their carbon footprint by 25-30% by foregoing a second vehicle and using public transportation when it is available.”

In terms of public policy, electrification of transportation appears to have the potential for the quickest, the most permanent, and the most profound impact with the best ancillary benefits for human health, land use, pollution, and Global Warming. The most effective means of reducing the carbon footprint of mass transit is to use electric powered equipment, with power derived from non fossil fuel sources.

Wisconsin can become a national leader in moving our country back toward a sane transportation policy by upgrading its existing rail infrastructure through a bold public-private initiative. The major impediment to railroad electrification and use of existing rail for public transportation are tax policies that bias railroads against electrification and double track infrastructure.

As an example of a bold proposal, contemplate the ramifications of developing electrification under a state-wide not-for-profit cooperative. This would allow the sharing of construction and maintenance across all of Wisconsin’s railroads including short lines. Building the rail electrification system under the auspices of an open not-for-profit cooperative allows for inter-corporate cooperation under a non government entity that is in keeping with state and federal antitrust legislation.

Wisconsin should offer tax incentives for electrification, putting electrified double track lines on an equal tax footing with single track non electric lines. To preserve the integrity of a state-wide rail electrification program, the resulting electrification infrastructure, maintenance and revenues could be held by the above proposed not-for-profit Wisconsin cooperative. Rail infrastructure owners and operators (I.E participating railroads, regional transit authorities, Amtrak and WISDOT) would constitute the membership. Wisconsin could then offer a state guaranteed “green bonding” program that provides capital for the rail electrification cooperative.

The rail electrification cooperative should be given the right to sell any resulting carbon offsets on the CCX. Rail right-of-ways outside of urban areas should become part of the power generation system with placement of wind turbines at each mile marker. The power derived from these would be metered back to the local electric grid to offset the power used by the trains. The land leases for the power generators’ footprint would then be credited against the hosting railroad’s power consumption. The revenue from any excess power could then be used cover the interest, recover capital costs on the capital bonds, pay for maintenance and fund improvement of the electrification infrastructure.

In keeping with the Progressive Era Wisconsin Idea, the not-for-profit electrification cooperative could work with the University of Wisconsin system to develop means of storing energy so as to make wind power as reliable and constant as power from a power plant. This would help optimize the potential gains of electrification on three fronts by reducing our state’s carbon footprint, reducing our state’s transportation costs, and making us a leader in alternative power generation, storage and distribution.

For the railroads the incentives should be a no-brainer. Electric powered rail equipment is not only environmentally friendly, it can provide service at a higher frequency, and reduced maintenance and operating cost when compared with diesel-electric. Not only would the State of Wisconsin improve the commercial rail freight handling capabilities within the state, but at the same time it would decrease the cost of implementing commuter rail system in the KRM corridor and Madison. It can be a win-win on both the private and public side.

The best of all plans would be to develop a system that can work as part of a broader regional initiative so as to extend electrification to major freight and passenger rail termination points just beyond the state border such as Chicago and Minneapolis-St. Paul. An aggressive electrification program would not only make the Wisconsin economy more immune to oil price increases, it would propel Wisconsin into being the nucleus for a high-speed, intercity rail system, giving our businesses the market advantage in surrounding markets.

Electrification 101: A 10% Reduction in America's Oil Use in Ten to Twelve Years
Electrification 101: The Cost-Effectiveness of Electric Rail ... Examples from Real-World Experience
Electrification 101: Electrification of Transportation as a Response to Peaking of World Oil Production

From CWA release: Information Unions Slam Newspaper-Broadcast Ownership Rule

2007-12-18T20:43:00.000-06:00

Washington, D.C. – The Communications Workers of America, its newspaper and broadcast sectors, and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists expressed disappointment over the Federal Communications Commission’s revisions to the newspaper-broadcast ownership rule. The changes will allow a single corporation to own both a broadcast and newspaper operation in the 20 largest media markets.

CWA and affiliates -- The Newspaper Guild-CWA and the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians-CWA -- along with AFTRA, expressed strong concern that the FCC did not require that any merged newspaper-broadcast operation maintain separate newsroom and editorial staff, an addition that would have helped to ensure an independent editorial voice in communities. They also stressed that ensuring a diverse media is more critical than ever in today’s environment and raised concerns about the impact of consolidation on competition, diversity of opinion and quality jobs.

TNG-CWA President Linda Foley said more, not fewer safeguards are needed to promote media diversity. In the United States, local television and newspaper media markets already are highly concentrated, and most cities are one-newspaper towns, she said. “Today, most Americans get their news from local sources. The FCC’s action means that fewer distinct, local media voices will be available as news sources for citizens. Particularly in markets that already are highly concentrated and these changes fail to protect the public interest,” she said.

“Our members know what happens when one company owns more than one TV station or a major TV station and the monopoly newspaper in the same market. The owner merges operations, slashes jobs, and reduces the quantity and quality of the news,” said John Clark, president of NABET-CWA.

“As the ownership rules are relaxed, we will see even further consolidation and editorial control by just a few corporations,” said Tom Carpenter, AFTRA General Counsel and Director of Legislative Affairs. Carpenter noted that when the newspaper-broadcast ownership rule was first adopted, the FCC stressed that was “essential to a democracy that its electorate be informed and have access to divergent viewpoints on controversial issues” and that it was “unrealistic to expect true diversity from a commonly owned station-newspaper combination.”

“This rule change is contrary to the FCC’s mandate to safeguard diversity of local voices and the public interest,” he said.

The unions had called on the FCC to provide a full public review of the proposed rule, including a 90-day comment period as well as an open process to resolve issues of localism and women’s and minority ownership of broadcast media.

Which came first 9/11 or the wiretap?

2007-11-03T18:41:00.000-05:00

Recent revelations defeat the argument that we needed to wiretap as a reaction to 9/11.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/02/almost-soviet/

The distraction of school choice.

2007-10-24T09:09:00.000-05:00

The issue of School Choice has often created emotional political divides in our community. It held out for many people of limited income an opportunity to help their children escape from, what they perceived as, a broken public school system.

In specifics it works some times, for some people. In the aggregate it has proven to be an expensive experiment with neutral results. My conclusion is underscored by the recent article in the Journal Sentinel "Choice may not improve schools, study says."

It has been my contention for some time that School Choice, while a rightly intentioned movement by some progressive thinking members of our society, has failed to resolve the problems plaguing public education.

Here is why, in my humble opinion, School Choice has failed.

1. It is a distraction from having a meaningful discussion on how to alter public education so as to make it relevant to a post industrial, post agricultural society.

2. By putting pots of money out in the public for alternative educational methods, it attracts as many charlatans and well meaning nuts as it does legitimate educators.

3. It is used as a blunt instrument by anti-government neoconservatives to attack public education and school teacher unions.

At best, it has done little good. At worst, it has siphoned away from the public school systems many parents and students, who by example, provide academic and social leadership.

We need to set aside the "take no hostages" politics that has turned modern issues into into binary absolutes. Many ways exist to tackle issues, but we must be willing to open our minds and engage is civil public discourse if we want to explore alternatives.

The future of School Choice needs to be discussed, but so does the the future of public education.

Open letter to Doyle regarding H-1B visas

2007-09-12T19:01:00.000-05:00

Dear Jim Doyle,

I want to let you know I am against any increase in H-1B visas. The fact that you, as my governor, signed on to a letter to increase H-1B visas is a slap in the face to all IT workers seeking jobs.

To claim there is a critical shortage of highly skilled professionals in math and science is a lie. This myth has long ago been debunked by a Duke University study at
http://www.issues.org/23.3/wadhwa.html

I hope you will listen to voters who have to live with the consequences of jobs being given to H-1B visa workers rather than the corporations who want to give our jobs away.

Sincerely,
Joe Klein

Merde de Poulet

2007-09-04T21:13:00.000-05:00

"I yam what I yam ..."

-- Popeye

Here is what the bloggers are saying about Joe Klein.

Badger Blogger writes ...

"By checking his Bio page, we can see that he is yet another East Side tree hugging liberal (oh, they prefer to be called “progressive” now) that wants to make Milwaukee taxpayers pay for a light rail choo-choo that no one will ride… except maybe himself, since he claims to have taken the city bus downtown to register as a candidate."

Another cogent and elegantly phrased argument against the child's word for steam engine.

Here is a news release about the light rail in Saint Louis that, it was said, nobody would ride.

"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."
-- Abraham Lincoln

Wigderson Library & Pub writes ...

"I'm not sure what qualifications someone with the occupation of "geek" brings to the position of County Executive."

Perhaps you missed the impact that Steve Jobs and Bill Gates (both geeks and college dropouts) have had on the American economy.

You need only look at the deteriorated state of the Milwaukee County Parks, the cuts to the Milwaukee County Transit System, the empty land on the Milwaukee County portion of the Park East development, the Milwaukee County parking annex fiasco, the lack of oversight on pensions ... Scott Walker's qualifications speak for themselves. The public will only take being fed the foul excrement of blaming prior administrations for so long.

Scott Walker is a tax-cutting anarchist who threatens to irreparably damage public institutions held by him in the public trust. He has failed in his fiduciary responsibility to preserve the institution once held by the City of Milwaukee, (the Public Zoo, the Public Museum, the Public Parks) and turned over to Milwaukee County for the mutual benefit of all the people.

Where is the leadership and action? We have been the recipients of nearly six years of spin.

"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."
-- Abraham Lincoln

Unlike the Merde de Poulet politicians, talk show entertainers, and bloggers who fear dialog, I say bring it on.

So, how about your opinions on the issues?

Open Software, Open Minds, Open thinking.

2007-08-24T12:03:00.000-05:00

One of the big problems at Milwaukee County is the lack of creativity by both Scott Walker appointees and the existing bureaucracy. They tend to look for commercial solutions from a semi-closed circle of vendors and consultants. They don't want to take a risk on some of the technologies like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) that can save Milwaukee County money and thus allow for the preservation of services.

Many VoIP carriers provide flat rate lines with unlimited calling in the US and Canada.

Significant savings can be incurred using VoIP based PBXs especially if implemented using Open Source based systems such as Asterix.

If Federal, State, County, Cites and Villages interconnect over their own fiber networks, the cost of inter agency calling can be reduced to nearly zero.

We need to get our heads out of the sand and stop government reliance on on gold plated IT solutions. A mentality that worships big consultants and big business solutions seems to reign supreme in Wisconsin. We need to foster a spunky, roll-your own, self dependency. Open Source Software (OSS) can provide low cost solutions to many of governments IT problems. To be effective, it takes disciplined software development and a cooperative approach with other other Villages, Cities, Counties, States and Countries involved in OSS development.

Google (A Linux shop) and Yahoo (A FreeBSD Shop) are companies that have made themselves using OSS to craft customer solutions. With the right minds at the helm, OSS solutions can architected to be scalable and reliable.

We need to put money into employee development rather than the pockets of large consultant firms like Accenture. We need to cooperate with other developers using the Internet and work to collectively improve our OSS based software. Taking an open, cooperative yet self reliant approach, we can insure that government can best serve the people and be frugal at the same time.

Infrastructure Cooperatives as an alternative to "natural monopolies".

2007-08-21T10:46:00.000-05:00

One of the revolutionary elements of the Internet is the ability of different network operators to interconnect and exchange data seamlessly. This was made possible by building a systems based on layers of open standards.

Much of the information exchanged between different Internet providers flows across exchange points. Typically, exchange points are operated by neutral third parties. Many exchange points are private entities, some are cooperatives. The exchange point operator is responsible for maintenance of the physical infrastructure. A typical exchange point is a large building filled with switches, routers, servers, wire, fiber, power systems and environmental systems.

TCP/IP based (the protocol suite behind the Internet) networks have a unique technological twist in that there exists a standardized protocol for defining the policy for exchange of data between different networks. This protocol is called Border Gateway Protocol, or BGP for short.

In effect, the exchange point is a market place where network providers can sell or trade data, people negotiate the trade or sale and the mutual regulation of that exchange is highly formalized in the form of the BGP protocol.

The concept of an exchange point can be taken beyond a single building. In places like the London Internet Exchange Ltd. (LINX) the infrastructure has been extended to a cluster of network connected buildings in the heart of London.

In Wellington, New Zealand, a city initiative extended the concept of the exchange to include a city wide network. Companies in buildings on the Wellington CityLink network have the option of selecting Internet services from multiple providers. This created an open market for Internet services on a city wide basis. This was made possible through the magic of open protocols used over a common neutral network infrastructure.

Currently it is possible to provide all the combined services traditionally provided by cable TV and telephone companies over Internet. Globally, both cable TV operators and telephone companies are upgrading portions of their networks to support and use Internet protocols.

Now, what if instead of granting cable and telephone companies local monopolies, we put in a common, shared, infrastructure cooperative? As in Wellington, the local municipality could provide initial capital and organization, but operating capital and the retirement of debt would come through membership fees paid to the cooperative. What if the cooperative was open to any operator capable of providing services within the confines of the open standards? It would be bizarre ... or rather a bazaar; an open market where the consumer can choose from competing companies.

This would provide a system where we would have true open markets and true competition as opposed to the Orwellian use of the term "competition" as coined by AT&T's lobbyists.

Unfortunately, we can't have municipalities organizing open telecommunications cooperatives in Wisconsin because of laws passed in Madison that where written by AT&T lobbyists.

In the 19th Century, Wisconsin was a political cesspool. Our state was every bit as corrupt as it is today. In the mid-1800s, a railroad baron by the name of Byron Kilbourn – who today has a major street in Milwaukee named after him – paid the governor at the time (Coles Bashford) $50,000 to sign legislation giving Kilbourn a land grant to build his Milwaukee and La Crosse railroad. Kilbourn paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to members of the Legislature to pass the legislation. That was an enormous amount of money at a time when most people were earning less than a dollar a day. Only one senator – “Honest” Amasa Cobb – turned down the bribe.
-- http://www.wisdc.org/op050305.php

Look at the money being poured on our politicians at the state level by the telecommunications companies. They are the robber barons of our era.

Do we need to grant "natural" monopolies or has computer technology and standardization given us the ability to use standard platforms for the delivery of goods and services? If you want to get radical, think about applying the same principals as outlined above to the WISDOT owned railroads and to electric power lines.