Network Sierra Blog

Obama Promises Improved Broadband Access

2008-12-06T08:05:00.000-08:00

It's on the record. In this week's radio and YouTube address, President-Elect Obama has proposed improved broadband access as part of his economic recovery plan. He sees this as an important part of maintaining this country's competitiveness in the global marketplace and notes that the U.S., the country where the Internet was invented, is currently 15th in the world in terms of broadband adoption. Watch the address here, then send your comments and ideas via the transition web site, www.change.gov.

Help Coming for Rural Broadband?

2008-11-17T10:53:00.000-08:00

The Obama-Biden Transition Team has named two strong supporters of Net-Neutrality to be the FCC Review Team Leads.

Susan Crawford is a Professor of Law at the University of Michigan, teaching communications law and internet law. She was a partner with Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (now WilmerHale) until the end of 2002, when she left to become a legal academic. Ms Crawford recently ended her term as a member of the Board of Directors of ICANN.

Ken Werbach is an Assistant Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and the organizer of the annual Supernova technology conference (http://www.supernova2009.com). His research explores the legal and business dynamics of information and communications technologies. Formerly, he served as Counsel for New Technology Policy at the FCC during the Clinton Administration. He has also edited Release 1.0, a renowned technology newsletter, and founded Supernova Group, a technology analysis and consulting firm.

In March, Ms. Crawford had this blunt response to the assertion made by Richard Russell, the White House's associate director on science and technology policy, that the US rollout of broadband access was going well:

I think it's magical thinking to imagine that we're somehow doing fine here, and I just want to make sure that we recognize that even the [International Telecommunications Union] says that between 1999 and 2006 we skipped form third to 20th place in penetration.

At the annual Tech Policy Summit, a gathering of top officials in the world of tech policy, Ms. Crawford made the following observations about the current state of broadband in the US:

We're not doing at all well for reasons that mostly have to do with the fact that we failed to have a US industrial policy pushing forward high-speed internet access penetration, and there's been completely inadequate competition in this country for high speed internet access.

This is like water, electricity, sewage systems: Something that each and all Americans need to succeed in the modern era. We're doing very badly, and we're in a dismal state.

Since the first step in fixing a problem is the recognition that this is a problem, these choices bode well for increased broadband penetration, especially in under-served rural areas like ours.

You can listen to Susan Crawford discuss telecom policy here, and read Ken Werbach's columns on tech policy at internet-infrastructure journal Circle-ID.

VOIP Over WiFi in Mountainous Terrain

2008-05-13T09:48:00.000-07:00

I ran across an interesting article about a guy who is experimenting with VOIP Over WiFi in mountainous terrain.

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/14534

Shameless Self Promotion

2008-03-30T11:36:00.000-07:00

I have started a new blog, called Internet Newcomer. It is, as the title suggests, a blog of information and advice for Internet beginners. The aim with this site is to build a collection of articles and references that will bridge the knowledge gap that exists for most newcomers to the Internet, allowing them to view the Internet less as a mystery and more as an interesting new landscape to explore. This site is all about making the Internet useful to the newcomer, in either their business or personal life.

Please come and visit and leave comments or suggestions. If you like what you see, tell your friends. I expect that those who use the site will help to choose which paths to explore and to let me know if we have gotten off track.

Podcast on Community Wireless

2008-03-10T07:52:00.000-07:00

On IT Conversations, Jon Udell interviews Michael Lenczner, co-founder of Île Sans Fil, Montreal’s community wireless network.

With over 150 access points and nearly 60,000 users, the project is a huge success, all the more so given that municipal wi-fi projects in other cities have failed to materialize. And yet, Mike questions the value of what’s been accomplished. The project’s goal was not merely to light up hotspots in downtown Montreal, but to enhance the “sociality” of the city and elicit more and better civic engagement. He doubts these goals have been achieved, and asks himself hard questions about how technology can be deployed to these ends.When I met Mike recently in Montreal, I said: “It amazes that you’re asking yourself these questions. He replied: “It amazes me that others don’t.”

Listen or download at http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail3571.html

Broadband Planning Regional Meeting

2007-11-29T08:11:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Bob Ingalls and I attended the second planning meeting for an ambitious project, currently called Central Sierra Connect. It is being spearheaded by the Amador-Tuolumne Community Action Agency (A-TCAA), with funding from the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF). Although the project is in its early stages, its objective is to facilitate broadband availability to unserved and under-served areas of five counties: Mariposa, Tuolumne, Calaveras, Amador and Alpine. Significantly, all five county governments have indicated that they will participate and several business communities were also represented. Of the 25-30 people who attended yesterday's all day session, several expressed the opinion that there is currently a window of opportunity for this issue to be addressed by the counties of the foothills and if we do not start the process now, we may fall so far behind the urban areas of the state that we may never catch up.

A-TCAA has been invited to apply for a $250,000 grant from the CETF, which could be received as early as Q2 2008. They have already received a "pre-grant" of $10,000 to prepare the application. Part of that process has been the two planning meetings that took place in Sonora, aimed at bringing together participants (stakeholders, in planning-speak) from the five counties. Those of you hoping to see new wireless towers springing up in the next six months are likely to be disappointed. This is a long term project and the first step will be to develop a comprehensive plan that addresses the issues concerning all of the stakeholders. This phase of the project is likely to take a least a year from the time the grant is awarded. Years two and three of the grant cycle will implement the plan.

So, to recap, A-TCAA has received some money to help them apply to receive more money to pay for a plan. Believe it or not, this is real progress and I'm excited about it. It means that there is agreement across all of the foothill counties that this is a serious issue that requires action (or at least a plan of action). They have the support of a major source of funding in the CETF, which can open the doors to other sources. The participants in the meetings so far have been committed and capable. Bob is a member of the Infrastructure team and I have chosen to work with Outreach. The other teams in the project are: Advisory Council (administration), Demand Survey and County Liason.

The next milestone will be a completed grant application to the CETF, which we plan to submit by the end of February, for consideration at CETF's March board meeting. There should be a Central Sierra Connect web site available soon and I will continue posting here as we progress.

Will USA Recover Lost Ground In Broadband?

2007-07-23T23:11:00.000-07:00

Pundit "Bob Cringely" cites pressure on regional carriers to improve broadband service and reduce prices over the long term:

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070720_002525.html

$10 DSL from AT&T

2007-06-19T08:40:00.000-07:00

Yahoo! News and The Consumerist are reporting that AT&T, as part of concessions to the FCC for their acquisition of Bell South, are offering basic DSL service for $10 per month, on a one year contract. The plan is called FastAccess on the Bell South web site and it is supposed to be available in all 22 states served by AT&T. According to The Consumerist:

The plan provides download speeds of up to 768 kilobits per second and upload speeds of up to 128 kbps, matching AT&T's basic plan.

If you can't find the plan listed on the website, don't worry. AT&T wants it that way. They've hidden it, according to the AP.
...
To take advantage of the plan, you'll need to sign a 1 year contract and you need to be a new customer to AT&T broadband. This sounds like a good opportunity for anyone you know who still has dial-up, or for people who don't need cable internet and want something slower and cheaper. The modem is free.
Keep an eye out for the next concession, so-called "naked DSL." Within 6 months, AT&T will be required to offer DSL with no local phone service. The treasure hunt to find that one on their site should be equally fun.

Remember that this is for new DSL service only. If anyone reading this tries to get this service, please report on your experience in the comments.

Update: A reference to this program being offered by AT&T Yahoo! in California can be found in their Terms and Conditions, in the section headed AT&T YAHOO! HIGH-SPEED INTERNET.

Also this, reported in comments on another blog:

You can find the info on the att.COM website.

You have to “shop” for it by clicking on the learn more button.

Under Basic Plan for $14.99 click on the link that says “See if you Qualify”.

You have to answer a couple of questions then, put in your existing phone number.

The next page shows if you qualify, if you do the $10.00 deal shows up.

TA DA.

Wow...just, wow

2007-06-07T07:23:00.000-07:00

Everything is Miscellaneous

2007-05-22T09:03:00.001-07:00

Google Tech Talks has a new video by one of my favorite authors, David Wineberger, who's new book is titled Everything is Miscellaneous. Although it's kind of long (57:00), it's well worth watching. Here's the abstract:

David Weinberger's new book covers the breakdown of the established order of ordering. He explains how methods of categorization designed for physical objects fail when we can instead put things in multiple categories at once, and search them in many ways. This is no dry book on taxonomy, but has the insight and wit you'd expect from the author of The Cluetrain Manifesto, Small Pieces Loosely Joined, and a former writer for Woody Allen.

Watch it here or go to Google to watch the video.

State of Tuolumne County Broadband

2007-05-22T07:51:00.000-07:00

Network Sierra has seemed pretty dormant for the last several weeks but there has in fact been activity on the county level that could move the broadband agenda forward. Following the Conxx Presentation made to Network Sierra on April 18th, which was attended by several members of county government, efforts are underway to bring the Conxx team back to Sonora in June to make a presentation to the County Board of Supervisors. Teri Murrison (Supervisor, District 3) has been instrumental in keeping the process moving. She writes in her latest newsletter:

...opportunity is here too. The county is investigating a possible regional project to build a hi-tech backbone system that would host broadband, cell phone service, and police and fire radio communications. We will evaluate the technology over the next few months and if everything lines up and makes sense, may do a feasibility study and implementation within the next year or so. Such a system could benefit our local economy significantly and help attract new business opportunities.

Notice that the scope of this system goes well beyond providing county-wide broadband Internet service. The Conxx system provides nothing less than a replacement telecommunications system for the county. It also offers the scalability to expand to a multi-county regional system.

Of course, the claims that Conxx makes for their system cannot be taken at face value. If the county decides to proceed, they will need to do their due diligence and research other projects that Conxx has taken on in the past. This will require the dedication of staff resources, although Network Sierra members are more than willing to help with this phase of the project. It is worth noting that the Conxx system is already operating in a rural county in Maryland, that has many similarities to Tuolumne County. Ed Fernandez, of Network Sierra, has been in contact with some of the managers at AllCoNet and they report a mainly positive experience with their system.

If the Board of Supervisors agrees to move forward following the Conxx presentation in June, I believe that the next job of Network Sierra will be to raise the awareness of both the general public and potential stakeholders in a system like Conxx. Having an alternative telco infrastructure is not a trivial change to the status quo. We will need to make every effort to win broad support for this far-reaching project.

Update: Teri reports that there probably won't be any action until after the Board approves the budget (last Tuesday in June) and the first step will be a Board discussion of economic development goals. This will probably push any Conxx presentation into July.

RSS In Plain English

2007-04-24T17:00:00.000-07:00

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is an incredibly useful technology that's often not very well understood. Commoncraft has produced this video that does a great low-tech job of covering the basics in 3 1/2 minutes.

Click To Play (opens popup)

When you're done, subscribe to this blog!

Conxx Presentation

2007-04-22T12:13:00.000-07:00

On April 18th, representatives from Conxx, Inc. gave a presentation to a general meeting of Network Sierra, which was also attended by several members of county government. Conxx provides a turnkey system for replacing the telco infrastructure in a county or region. Their technology was developed in Alagany County, Maryland and they hope to replicate it in rural areas around the country. As Marv Dealy reported in his Byte by Bite column:

While a bit larger than Tuolumne County, comparisons between the two could be made and the information was compelling. To summarize, this company is providing services to the county, to businesses and to residents that include Internet connections with speeds up to 26 mb at very affordable rates. The system can also provide other services traditionally only offered by a telco like AT&T, such as voice circuits, T1, DS3/OC1, Frame relay, ATM and more. The system uses towers and antennae, fed by wire when available and linked with microwave when not, to broadcast a cloud, and the company said that the trees in Maryland are just as tough as the ones surrounding Craig Will's house, high in the mountains up Highway 108, and that they don't present a problem.

The discussion turned to how such a system could be financed in our county, and it appears there are pots of money that, if the pots can be connected, could do the trick.

Here are the Powerpoint slides used in the Conxx presentation.

Note: Use this link if you have trouble viewing the slides in this post.

This is the first fully integrated technology solution that I've seen that seems to address the needs of Tuolumne County. It's not inexpensive (~$5 million) but such sums have been provided to other rural areas through grants. It's important to stress that we don't expect that any significant amount of money will be available from Tuolumne County. We will however, require support and cooperation from the county in order to proceed with such an ambitious plan. So far, I'm cautiously optimistic that such support will be forthcoming.

These Directions For Planning Purposes Only...

2007-04-13T13:10:00.000-07:00

Planning a trip from New York to Paris? Of course you'll want to use Google Maps. Here's the link but make sure you pack dry clothes for use after step 23.

Broadband Expansion 101

2007-04-10T09:25:00.000-07:00

The task of bringing broadband Internet service to an unserved area has two key components:

the local connection
the long distance connection

The logistics are similar to setting up a town with postal service. The neighborhood post office is responsible for moving mail to and from all local addresses. It is also responsible for transferring mail to and from trucks sent by the large regional post office for long distance travel. Note that all in-town mail traffic travels through the neighborhood post office whether it stays in town or travels long distances.

In place of a local post office, broadband service relies on an automated device called a router located somewhere in the neighborhood. The router is so named because it is responsible for routing messages sent over the Internet toward their destination. All Internet messages sent or received by local addresses pass through the neighborhood router. Either wires or antennas must be installed to establish a link between each individual customer and the neighborhood router. It must also have a link to at least one high capacity long distance router to handle Internet messages traveling to or from out-of-town destinations.

Local Versus Long Distance

The equipment and labor required to run a local post office is distinct from what is involved in getting mail between distant post offices. At the local level, postal workers must concern themselves with local street names and addresses. Between post offices, the focus is on the zip code and country name. At the local level, individual letters are sorted by hand and delivered on foot or in small trucks. Long distance mail traffic travels in boxes sorted by regional destination and is carried in large trucks and planes.

The equipment required to maintain broadband Internet service at a local level is similarly distinct from the long distance requirements. At the local level, the neighborhood router is focused on carrying a relatively low volume of Internet traffic between many different customers located in relatively close proximity. Outside the local level, the focus is on high capacity and long distances.

High capacity, long distance, broadband equipment is generally referred to as backhaul infrastructure. To remember this term, I think of hauling lots of stuff and that it takes place in the background rather than in my vicinity. Backhaul routers generally don't support nearly as many connections as neighborhood routers. They just have to handle a lot of capacity and hand off messages to the next router in line.

Local broadband equipment is generally referred to as last-mile infrastructure. It does not have to support the distance or capacity required by backhaul infrastructure but it does have to support lots of individual connections with all the unique complications of maintaining a reliable connection with each individual customer. These complications are commonly known as the last-mile problem. It is similar to all the local knowledge that an individual mail carrier accumulates about which houses have dogs, where individual mailboxes are hidden, etc.

Economies of Scale

A single postal employee with a sorting table and small vehicle can handle all the mail traveling in or out of a single neighborhood route. The complexity, labor and capital required to operate a regional postal hub is huge by comparison. Despite this greater complexity and capital expenditure, the cost of moving one letter one mile is much lower at the regional level than at the local level due to economies of scale.

The same economies of scale apply to broadband infrastructure. The large cables and high capacity equipment that carry long distance Internet traffic are more expensive to set up than local equipment but per mile and per message sent they operate at a far lower cost than local equipment. The last-mile problem can be solved with less expensive equipment but it must be largely solved one customer at a time.

Risk and Return on Investment

It is generally assumed that the cost of setting up broadband infrastructure will ultimately be paid for by the customers who benefit from the service. On paper, it is not terribly difficult to justify these costs. The required equipment is nowadays produced at amazingly low cost. Once people become accustomed to having broadband service they generally find that the value they receive is well worth the cost. The tricky part is managing the up front investment required to put the infrastructure in place.

Google TiSP - Going With The Flow

2007-04-01T08:54:00.000-07:00

Google TiSP was announced today, offering free home wireless broadband service via fiter-optic cable installed through municipal sewage lines. From the FAQ:

We believe that all users deserve free, fast and sanitary online access. To offset the cost of providing the TiSP service, we use information gathered by discreet DNA sequencing of your personal bodily output to display online ads that are contextually relevant to your culinary preferences, current health status and likelihood of developing particular medical conditions going forward. Google also offers premium levels of service for a monthly fee.

Leave it to Google to provide services never before imagined!

FCC Correspondence

2007-03-28T11:24:00.000-07:00

After reading the recently signed Comcast contract, and having others validate my belief that it is a poor contract that will leave much of Tuolumne County without wireline Broadband for ten years, I sent an email to Michael Copps of the FCC. FCC Commissioner Copps had recently written an op-ed piece in the Washington Post regarding the state of Broadband in the United States. After my email is the link to his op-ed piece.

Commissioner Copps,

I applaud your stance in the attached article. Tuolumne County California just signed a new contract with Comcast to upgrade their service. The County was induced to signed the contract quickly by Comcast as they warned the State would take over the contract negotiations starting 2007. The contract is horrible and will leave 40% without Comcast service including Broadband Internet for 10 years. Part of the contract reads that if Comcast completes their upgrade in three years, the five year contract gets extended another five years. Comcast only has to provide service to neighborhoods with 40 connections per cable mile. This equates to one acre parcels or less in size. That leaves us out that are in two and three acre minimum parcels.

AT&T has completed all DSL expansion in our rural county and at least 40% of the homes do not have access to wireline Internet. At&T's answer is for us to sign up with the satellite provider WildBlue.

How can the United States get out of this mess? It is hurting the economy. Young adults want Broadband access even when they go on vacation now. Tourism in rural counties will be hurt in the future as they cannot provide this service in remote areas.

Bob Ingalls

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/07/AR2006110701230.html

His personal reply was marked Not Public: For Internal Use Only, so I will paraphrase his reply.

He thanked me for taking the time to get in touch. Commissioner Copps believes the way we'll get out of this is to develop a national strategy, a real commitment, to get broadband out to everybody. He suggested that broadband be funded under the Universal Service Fund, but there are other ways, too. He did not state what the other ways are. He further stated that the important thing is to make the commitment to this important infrastructure. He also believes that Broadband is the central infrastructure-building challenge of our time.

While it is encouraging that we have an enlightened FCC Commissioner, there are four other FCC Commissioners and if Commissioner Copps can't get anything done we are going to have to do it ourselves.

Long distance via the Internet: $29.95 per year

2007-03-26T15:38:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons why broadband should include fast speeds for uploads, as well as downloads, is the increasing use of Voice Over IP (VoIP). Unlike a web browser, which mostly receives data, voice applications send as much data as they receive (even if you're a slow talker). 128 kb/sec is about the lower limit for voice calls but add a web-cam and you'll want as much throughput as you can get. Latency (delay) with satellite systems can also cause problems with audio data.

With a stable broadband connection however, VoIP can be put to use today by the average home user, at a big cost savings over Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS). The key to making this system usable is to make it work with a standard telephone and to be able to make calls to any ordinary land-line phone. No one wants to make all their calls while tethered to their computer by a headset or spend big bucks on specialized WiFi phones. I have put together a system in our home using the Skype service, an analog phone adapter and our existing cordless phones. There are other VoIP services out there besides Skype; it's just the one I have experience with. Here's a diagram (courtesy of Von-Phone) of how the pieces fit together:

What you'll need for this system:

A Skype account, with "SkypeOut" service
This service currently costs $29.95/year and allows unlimited outgoing calls to any phone in the US or Canada. International calls can be made at an additional per minute and per connection charge (see Skype for details).
VoIP phone adaptor
This adaptor is about the size of a deck of cards. It connects to your computer via a USB port and to a phone using a standard RJ-11 jack. I am using a Yealink B2K adaptor that I purchased from Amperor Direct. The same unit is also available from Von-Phone. A search for "Skype Phone Adaptor" on eBay will turn up a number of products with prices ranging from $14 - $35 (watch out for shipping charges).
A phone to talk into
You could connect a single phone to use only for Skype calls but a better solution is to plug in the base station of a wireless phone system, allowing all phones to have access to Skype. The software that comes with the adaptor allows you to toggle between the POTS dial tone and Skype using the phone's star (*) key.

Special bonus: unlimited calling and two phone lines for $29.95. About six months ago, we decided to disconnect the 2nd phone line to our home. It was originally installed as a data line, back when we had dial-up Internet access and a fax machine (I now actively discourage people sending me faxes). When DSL became available, between consolidating our phone and Internet service and disconnecting the 2nd line, we saved a pot of money. But we missed being able to make voice calls on two separate lines. Skype to the rescue! Because we have a two-line cordless phone system, we were able to connect POTS to line 1 and the Skype adaptor to line 2, effectively creating a new second line. Both lines can be in use simultaneously; they can even be conferenced together.

So, how does it sound? On my system, the call quality is comparable to a cell phone. Somewhat worse than a POTS call but perfectly acceptable. Some Skype users have complained of echos and delays but that hasn't been my experience, probably because I have a stable DSL connection at 3m down and 384k up. I've had no complaints from the people that I call (including my 71 year old mother), however I should point out that at this time Skype does not support caller ID. This could be an issue if you frequently call people who won't pick up if they don't recognize the caller. There have been many requests for this feature but Skype will only say that, "currently tests are being conducted with several PSTN carriers for the possible future introduction of callerID."

Adapting to any new phone system means learning a few new habits. For example, unless you use Skype's built-in speed dial, there are a lot of numbers to punch in on a Skype call. Once you get the hang of it though, in most cases you just pick up the phone and dial. The Skype service offers many options that I haven't touched on here. Read about them and get user feedback on the forums at www.skype.com.

Comcast Contract Follow-Up

2007-03-20T08:50:00.000-07:00

Network Sierra member Bob Ingalls writes:

I had an action item from our first Network Sierra meeting to talk to Greg Applegate regarding the Comcast contract. Greg referred me to Marian Jackson (Government Affairs) of Comcast.

Marian told me that after Comcast upgrades their network, they will be offering Internet and telephone service. The key word is AFTER the upgrade as their current network does not have the capacity.

She also stated that they do stick to their 40 connections per cable mile. Their standard is that they have to cover the cost of installation in 60 months or the customer can pay for the cost for the connection. She estimated to get Comcast cable into Lambert Lake Estates would cost $100,000.

Bob notes that at such a cost, it is highly unlikely that a subdivision such as Lambert Lake Estates will be served. He has also forwarded this information to the Board of Supervisors.

How A Neighborhood Gets On The Internet

2007-03-18T13:02:00.000-07:00

Getting Connected

It is Network Sierra's mission to get Tuolumne County better connected to the Internet. To make this happen, it is helpful to understand how any individual computer or any local community becomes connected to the Internet in the first place.

I hope that the following basic description of Internet infrastructure provides some understanding without being so oversimplified that it runs roughshod over important details. I welcome any critique that might help us connect people the basic ideas in addition to getting computers connected.

How the Internet is Organized

How is the Internet Organized? The smart aleck answer is that it isn't. The Internet was designed not to require a centrally planned structure. Instead, it was designed to adapt to whatever connections happen to exist at any given time.

The following link provides a visualization of a portion of the Internet:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Internet_map_1024.jpg

This illustration gives a sense of a pattern that exists despite the fact that the Internet is constantly changing as people add or move connections.

Nodes and Connections

Each connection in the Internet can be visualized as a line between two points referred to as nodes. One task that does require some centralized coordination is the assingment of unique addresses to nodes so that each node can be distinguished. The nodes themselves are responsible for communicating with thier neighbors about who they are connected to. They update this information to adapt as connections come and go.

Nodes that have multiple connections are called routing nodes. When a routing node receives a message, it is responsible for passing it along. It must choose from among its immediate connnections which path is going to move the message closer to its final destination.

Nodes that have only one connection are called leaf nodes, as in the leaves of a tree. Leaf nodes are where individual computer users connect to the Internet. When information is sent between two computers it has to find its way from one leaf node to another. The first leg of this trip is easy to choose because there is one route out of a leaf node.

Attaching One More Computer

Attaching one more computer to the Internet is a matter of finding a nearby routing node that can support one more connection. By "nearby" we mean close enough that either a wired or wireless method of connecting can be achieved at a reasonable cost.

If you want a new Internet connection for your home, it is fairly easy to have a local Internet Service Provider (ISP) set you up with a modem and dialup account. Dialup service works over regular phone lines but is relatively slow. The term "broadband" commonly refers to any Internet service that is at least 20 times faster than dialup. Many of the latest and greatest web sites assume a broadband internet connection. Because of this, many people consider dialup service as too far out of date to be a real option.

Most ISP's offer broadband service in various wired and wireless forms. To get broadband service in your home, you have to live close enough to a routing node to make the final "last mile" connection practical. If there is no such routing node available in your neighborhood, you are out of luck. This is a common problem in rural areas.

Internet service via communications satelites is one alternative that people often turn to in rural areas. This type of service solves part of the capacity problem posed by dialup. Unfortunately, the distance that the signal must travel between earth and satelite is far enough that the turn around time on messages cannot keep up with many of the applications that people have come to use the Internet for.

Attaching A Whole Neighborhood

Routing nodes capable of supporting broadband service exist only in the more densely populated areas of Tuolumne County. Network Sierra aims to help ISP's justify the infrastructure that will bring routing nodes within reach of more neighborhoods. There are two key technical pieces to this puzzle:

The "last mile" problem
Backhaul

We touched on the "last mile" problem when discussing how to attach an individual computer to the Internet. It is essentially the means used to attach a leaf node to a routing node. In remotely situated areas, the last few routing nodes closest to the leaf nodes are sometimes also lumped into the "last mile" category.

Backhaul refers to the routing nodes and connections that tie locally situated routing nodes to the rest of the internet. It would be slightly oversimplified but appromimately correct to say that "last mile" infrastructure consists of leaf nodes plus routing nodes that touch a leaf node and that backhaul infrastructure consists of all other routing nodes and connections.

Cell Tower Maps

2007-03-07T09:35:00.000-08:00

The following maps show the locations of cell towers in Tuolumne County, excluding those on Forest Service lands. A request for those maps is pending.

Map 1 (437 KB PDF): http://www.networksierra.org/pdf/cell_tower_1.pdf
Map 2 (409 KB PDF): http://www.networksierra.org/pdf/cell_tower_2.pdf

Final Comcast Agreement

2007-03-07T09:25:00.000-08:00

Below is a link to the agreement signed by Tuolumne County and Comcast, on 12/19/06. Thanks to Supervisor Teri Murrison for providing it and to Ed Fernandez for requesting it. Ed notes the following:

After a quick perusal I noted two significant things:

It calls for an update completion date in five years.

It obligates service to be provided where there are a minimum of 40 connections per cable mile. Connections not meeting the 40 minimum can still be made at Comcast's option. This probably exludes most of the rural areas and high end subdivisions like Curtis Creek, Lambert Lake Estates, Ridgewood, Whispering Woods, etc.. Consider that a square parcel of 300 by 300 feet is just over two acres. Assuming connections on both sides of a road this equates to about 35 connections and does not take into account the miles of cable that are needed just to get to the development. (Most of the lots in the above mentioned developments probably have footage well in excess of 400 feet.)

Document link (1295 KB PDF): http://www.networksierra.org/pdf/agree-comcast.pdf

Google Calendar

2007-03-03T15:54:00.000-08:00

Another in an occasional series about online applications that I use regularly.

Google Calendar has become one of my mainstay applications. I use it to manage all my appointments and also to keep track of my wife and son (no easy task). Google Calendar excels at working with multiple calendars, even those that aren't part of the same Google account. Since my wife has allowed me to view (but not change) appointments on her calendar, they show up on mine too. Any entry from someone else's calendar is highlighted in a different color. At right is the display for managing calendars. Each one can be shown or hidden, as you choose.

Google makes extensive use of AJAX technology throughout the Calendar, making it more like a desktop app. For example, clicking on any date displays a popup in which an appointment can be entered without having to reload the page. Using artificial intelligence techniques, a meaningful calendar entry can be created by typing "7pm Dinner at Pancho's" into the popup's textbox (provided of course that you actually are going to dinner at Pancho's).

If you're planning on meeting up with a group, you can send multiple invitations to an event. The recipients can then confirm and even leave comments about the event ("if I'm late, order me the won ton soup"). After you've entered an appointment, Google Calendar can help to get there on time by sending you a reminder via email or SMS.

If you've entered a street address in your appointment, clicking the Map link will bring up the appropriate Google Map. The Calendar also integrates with Gmail, by offering to create a calendar entry for any date that appears in your email messages.

Google took an innovative approach to printing, outputting calendars in PDF format on-the-fly. This allows for precise layout control without the need to download, save and print a PDF file. Ironically, we print out a calendar around the first of each month, stick it on the refrigerator and then scribble on it for the rest of the month.

Lastly, you can export your calendar(s) in ICAL, XML or HTML formats. Using Google's configuration tool, you can embed your calendar in a web page and any changes you make to it will be reflected in real time.

FCC Supports VOIP Connections To Phone Network

2007-03-02T19:46:00.000-08:00

A recent ZDNet article reports an FCC ruling that requires regular phone companies to cooperate in allowing VOIP services to connect with their networks. This is of particular interest to rural customers who want to switch to VOIP to help justify the cost broadband access.

Computer Education

2007-02-26T20:19:00.000-08:00

Usability guru Jakob Nilsen has posted a brief essay on Life-Long Computer Skills that I would love to see taught here in Tuolumne County. As a technology provider, I often see people frustrated by a lack of understanding of how their computer works below the surface of the desktop. There are many computer classes available locally which focus on the use of a particular program or tool, but none that I know of that provide the broader picture that Mr. Nilsen suggests:

Teaching life-long computer skills in our schools offers further benefit in that it gives students insights that they're unlikely to pick up on their own. In contrast, as software gets steadily easier to use, anyone will be able to figure out how to draw a pie chart. People will learn how to use features on their own, when they need them -- and thus have the motivation to hunt for them. It's the conceptual things that get endlessly deferred without the impetus of formal education.

Picking and choosing from the article's list of course topics, almost every computer user that I know would benefit from a better understanding of:

Search Strategies
Information Credibility
Information Overload
Writing for Online Readers
Computerized Presentation Skills
Workspace Ergonomics

Notice that none of these topics are tied to any particular program or operating system. Rather, they teach strategies for working more easily and successfully with any computer, particularly one that is online. With a grounding in skills such as these, students can branch into more technical subjects such as debugging or user testing and usability issues.

To use military jargon, these skills are strategic, rather than tactical. Understanding them is a necessary step to being successful in today's information economy. Again, Jakob Nilsen:

In their book, The New Division of Labor: How Computers Are Creating the Next Job Market, Frank Levy and Richard J. Murnane highlight three key skills that are less likely to be offshored or automated in the future. Those skills are problem solving, understanding the relation between concepts, and interpersonal communication. The life-long computer skills I've outlined here can similarly prepare students for the type of careers that will be sustainable as globalization intensifies.

Read all of Life-Long Computer Skills.