Aaron the Librarian

Not quite at MnPOW a full month and I’m off on another multi-timezone-hopping trip, this time to sunny San Mateo Public Library, where the OITP Advisory Committee will do some strategic planning and broad direction setting for OITP activities for the coming few years.

Kathy, again, negotiated some fabulous digs; this time at the San Fransisco Airport Marriott Hotel. Oddly, for me, I’m not on Southwest this time — they wouldn’t get me back early enough for my preference on Thursday. American’s Red-eye gets me back in time to make it to work on-time (I’m such the conscientious employee).

Assigned seats make the queueing less competitive here at any rate.

Worked in breakout sessions for most of the morning, didn’t really take any notes - but plenary session notes were taken by OITP designated staff note takers. I’ll post them when I get them - I’m at the hairport now, waiting - once again - in Boarding Group A, sitting in a chair instead of on the floor again.

More later…

This is a concatenation of my and Miriam Nisbet’s notes:

___Broadband

Linda Schatz (presenter)
Defining Broadband
:2000 FCC said 200kbps *in both directions*
:S2636 (2006?) still says that - clearly not enough to meet needs - way below other countries - also defines two other ways to contribute and distribute.
:there are three different definitions in the current bill (S2636?)

For many libraries, if E-Rate went away they would end up doing away with something else to keep connectivity
Broadband is E-Rate eligible today - need to make better known how this is an incentive to Broadband deployment

Kathleen Wallman (presenter)

“Libraries are the first choice as well as the last resort”
“Reinvest in America”

Kathy rattled off some great library & broadband related questions:

1. Why do you think you don’t have broadband now? If what you have isn’t broadband, what do you think broadband is? Is it different from 200 Kbps? Why?
2. If you had what you consider to be broadband, what would libraries do differenly or better than they can’t or don’t do now?
3. How would broadband transform libraries institutionally? Would broadband represent a paradigm shift in libraries’ mission - or just more of the same services faster?
4. What would your patrons do differently that they can’t do now?
5. Does the library need for broadband differ in rural vs. urban areas?
6. Will libraries still need broadband and e-rate support when most people have it at home? How about when “everyone” has it at home?

Libray issues similar to public safety/1st responders & rural healthcare -both of which have had to figure out ways to tell compelling stories to explain need
Evolving needs probably won’ty stop eviolving
Sustainability important

John Windhausen
US has no Broadband policy - relying on free market to take care of it - that has failed (obviously)
Libraries need to work with others on a plan for Broadband
:need to be part of the national discussion about what the policy and plan should be
:Who to partner and how to convene?

Media in Democracy — resource to examine
Covad — one player in this arena

General impressions
Broadband: coverage counts but response times matter
What is the tarnsformative aspect of broadband access?
Goal posts:
–evolving/emerging needs (may never be ‘reached’)
–sustainability
“Packet train needs to stop at every door” ? where is this quote from ? (side comment, if every door, then it’s a packet bus, not train)
Need a compelling narrative:
–what has been accomplished
– what remains to be done
–what could be done if broadband were successfully deployed
There is no National Broadband Policy — see ITU stats which show U.S. 12th or 16th in the world for broadband penetration. Countries in top 3-5 *do* have broadband policies.
Voice, Video, Data services are the Grail. (”Triple Play” services — industry buzzword)
Possible partner/ally groups: rural communities, public safety commission (Library response to Katrina is great example of how Libraries can be first responders)
What does library community need/want from the broadband discussion?
International resources:
–cost effective methods used elsewhere
–groups focused on meeting needs of worlds most underserved/dispossessed
We should be able to map (GIS fashion) library and communities connectivity status/speeds for graphical reference
Define what users need
–why should libraries be on or ahead of the adoption curve?
–define status quo
Dept of Agriculture provides low interest loans for access buildout in rural areas (broadband) - does this constitute a national policy? (No is the consensus)
Industry sets policy as governement regulation gets smaller
Libraries/ALA/OITP (and perhaps allies) could present a draft National Policy to achieve some things libraries and the general public may benefit from
Frame this as a “Reinvest in America” we’ve (the US government) invested $Billions overseas in the past few years, let’s start reinvesting at home.
Need to define the role of libraries in the 21st Century:
-Bold
-Visionary
-Expansive (not neccesarily expensive)

This is my concatenation of my and Miriam Nisbet’s notes:

___Municipal Wireless

Greg Rohde
FCC has stayed out of this so far
Many models of service out there, most using unlicensed spectrum
Spectrum Issues
1. Cities may want to get in on the 2008 auction of the 700 Hz bands
2. 2.5 Mhz band vastly underutilized right now
:main license holders are: Clearwire and educational institutions

John Windhausen
Municipalities have great opportunity- some neighbohoods already going forward
Some issues
1. What are the effects on deployemnt of other technologies now that wifi is here?
2.How will this affect fiber deployment? May discourage it though it’s a better technology

– One negative aspect of unlicensed spectrum technology (WiFi, etc) is lower security
– Libraries should work with local governements to discuss how a municipal system could be used by libraries as well as 1st responders, public safety - esp to act as a disaster center (in addition to serving the public every day) for the community
– Should we look into wireless and fiber as mutually exclusive? no really need both - shouldn’t rely on any one system for communication needs

This is my concatenation of my and Miriam Nisbet’s notes:

___Net Neutrality

Greg Rohde (presenter)
Look at John windhausen paper [Link to Retreat Resources page]- PK “Good Fences” (John also working w/EDUCAUSE)
Non-discrimination in services, applications, content access and provision
How does that concept (non-discrimination) fit into ‘network management’? QoS?
What are the remedies we want?
Stevens bill re:Net Neutrality - sounds pretty good, but allows telecoms to limit “neutrality” by click-through and/or standard contract. (bad!)
Price discrimination in / for capacity is fine - discrimination in content is the trouble
Libraries as content providers - an important (often overlooked) role
Telcos argue Net Neutrality will interfere with their ability to manage their networks & ensure QoS

Tom Wilson
there are legitimate reasons for bit discrimination (e.g. universities’ mgmt of networks to limit bandwidth of music downloads — how to determine the difference is a sticky point)

Bob Bocher
Calls this (Tom’s example) “Edge management”

Larry Irving
Net Neutrality debate has been divisive in a partisan way - a real departure from traditional approach to telecom

Overarching Impressions
‘net neutrality’ — we need a new term for this — need a term that is not so laden with multiple, conflicting meanings
Bandwidth charges: equity of costs is not - and has never been - the issue for libraries.
We need Telecom providers point of view to see where we agree and disagree and to see what hurdles there might be.

This is a concatenation of my and Miriam Nisbet’s notes:

___E-Rate / Universal Service

Nancy Bolt
1. Need facts about library connectivity (see John Bertot research)
:Why don’t more libraries apply for E-Rate?
:Do we still need it?
2. How do we measure importance?
:Seems that libraries cannot have too many computers - how are they being used?
:Why are they (they = computers? or users?) in libraries? and not elsewhere?
:Libraries as refuge in emergencies/disasters - how does E-Rate tie into that role?
3. How should E-Rate be paid for?
4. How does E-Rate relate to other tools we could provide? (Slingbox, etc)
:Is there a conflict with efforts to filter services?
5. What support do libraries need to stay curent with technology?
6. Fairness, Affordability, & Access, is this our message?
:What to add to it?
:How?

Heather Hudson
Are libraries getting their fair share of E-Rate pot?
Is Internet connectivity a result of E-Rate? Do we know?
What percentage of libraries have broadband access? Isn’t that the most important Question?
What is FCC’s role vis a vis Libraries?
If E-Rate form changed, what would libraries do?
-Where would we get the money?
-Is there a better way to pay for it?
-Other sources of funding?
Will role of libraries change if more homes get Broadband?
Libraries can be anchor for communities and magnets for improving broadband to local communities
Yet, libraries are small customers for telcos, they have no incentive to help us.
We need more data.
Increase library and services visibility

Mark Lloyd
Model for Universal Service Fund is the early Post Office.
Universal Service fund is NOT welfare - it’s a way to ensure involved citizenry USF is embatled and will remain so - we must fight for it
- fight is against groups that see America as a nation of markets ratrher than a democracy
Much of the Waste,Fraud,Abuse is a result of application process complexity
–this needs fixin’
**Need to correct the record/FUD: The Telcos are not the entities that pay into the Universal Sevice Fund (USF) - it’s the consumers
**Need to differentiate USF which does *not* provide for Internet connectivity and E-Rate, which does.
A priority for changing is should be having *all* telecom providers/consumers pay into USF
Other main problem is USF based on old technology - wired services - notion is that all Americans should be connected - which means advanced technologies and services
Needs go beyond wiring/connections to staffing, training for users, and infrastructure

Greg Rohde
Need a clear message:
-who we are
-what we need
-why

Overarching impressions
Why does this matter?
Why is/Is this the best way to pay for this?
If E-Rate went away how would that affect libraries?
Need a literature review on data available for E-Rate, universal service, etc.
Need to come up with terms that are more focused than current terminology.
Do we have a definitiuon of what libraries are to their communities? (are there multiple?)
Is there a Market Failure? How to determine? What to do about?

Opening speaker Larry Irving, part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 development team.

Very pro-Web 2.0 concept “Web 2.0 provides unfiltered access to underrepresented groups” to share their largely unheard stories. Some of the technologies he’s into include Slingbox, MySpace (where he has access to digital natives’ content via his daughter linking him as a MySpace friend), blogs, videoblogs, and YouTube.
Main points I got were:
1. Libraries need to define what it means to be a library in the 21st Century;
2. We need to look into broadband definitions (currently officially defined at 200 MB/second per the Telecommunications Act of 1996 — or variously as 500 MB/s, 1.5 MBbs, or 3 MBps by FCC documents);
3. We should look at cost comparisons internationally, e.g. cost per Mbps access an cost per bit - US is overpaying by significant amount;
4. Practice the Gretzky/Jordan rule: determine where the puck/ball will be and play *there*, meaning figure out where the action will be and start getting there. I think the “NexGen Librarians” are getting there though I lament the us vs. them impression I get when I read some NexGen content;
5. How do “we” (the current policy making generation of 40-60+ year olds (or digital immigrants) get inside the heads of the “digital natives?” Where would be a good place to hold a policy discussion with digital natives? (I posit Internet Librarian as good place to hold a policy discussion - though having never been, are IL attendees interested in a policy discussion?)

A couple other soundbytes:
–”People are smarter than inventors” (possibly apocryphal) example: Slingbox was invented to get TV over internet, the inventor’s wife immediately saw the utility to check up on the baby sitter and sleeping child while they were out of the house.
–”A change is gonna come.” Song reference to close his talk.
–Look up David huges’ 1990’s vision (from ~1995/96) — I don’t remember why I thought this was important to list here - also I missed any meta-info on Dave so I’m finding more false positives than I want to admit.

From the invitation:

We will be holding a major workshop on Telecommunications policy in Denver, Colorado this August 28-31st, and I would like to invite you to attend.

Congress is embarking on a major restructuring of telecommunications regulation that will have a major impact on the Internet, as well as on libraries that use it, that provide access to it, and that make digital resources available through it. The workshop will be a dialog between telecommunications policy experts and knowledgeable librarians intended
to establish a clear and comprehensive position for libraries in this debate. I realize that this is a significant time commitment for you, but as a member of our advisory committee and as an expert in technology services, your presence and participation is crucial to us and to ALA’s advocacy efforts.

All in all, a good idea whose time has come. I’m flattered to be here.

Kathy, the scheduling and negotiating goddess at OITP, managed to squeeze the Retreat into a fabulous hotel. We’re at the Brown Palace Hotel, check out the Photo Gallery. We will be meeting in the Tabor Stratton and Onyx rooms for the next few days.

Funny story, I walked in a few minutes ago and checked in; as I walked up to the desk I thought “wow, what a nice roomy lobby, must be a two story room.” Then I went to throw my stuff in my room; as I walked off the elevator I had a moment of vertiginous surprise, as I looked down down down seven stories to the lobby floor below. Quite a thrill, actually; I haven’t been that surprised and impressed and (a little) dizzy in a long time.

Well, this is the life. First “real” day OTJ at M[new]POW and I’m not even on-site. Yes, that’s right, my new colleagues are quite the awesome, understanding, and flexible bunch. I’m off to Denver today to the Telecom Retreat with ALA OITP (in my capacities as Member of the OITP Advisory Committee and as someone technology and telecom policy aware).

I managed to juggle schedules enough to see the kids to their first day of school at GBLUES, the “lab school” on campus at MPOW. I think it’s quite cool that both my kids are attending college before their ages reach double digits