Public Wi-Fi Initiative Presentation at County Legislature Open Forum

On July 10th John Boutet, Joan Roby-Davison, Eleanor Coalman and Dawn Noto attended the County Ligislature Open Forum and made individual presentations reviewing the work the SWCC Communications Committee has been doing to promote a public Wi-Fi pilot program in part of the SW Quadrant.

John gave an overview and handed out a summary of the objectives, possible location of pilot area and the estimates of capital cost to install the system ($325,000) and Monthly Recuring Cost for service ($1,000).

Here is the link to the handout: Open Forum Wi-Fi Handout.doc

Joan focused on the roll the CDC would play and benefits the program would have that match the CDC's goals such as stimulating traffic in the business corridors, attracting new residents to the area, and raising property values. She also indicated we are planning to apply for a grant for the up front capital investment but are holding off until we identify how we are going to fund the recurring serviced charges for at least five years.

Eleanor stressed the many organizations that are already working to meet needs of residents in the SW Quadrant and the work she has been doing helping groups connect and cooperate in their efforts. She mentioned the interest in getting MCC presence in the area and the benefit a Wi-Fi system would have for online education courses and helping all organization better communicate with residents who currently don't have Internet access. She also mentioned the significant benefit that online "medical visits" will play in the near future to reduce medical costs and how a Wi-Fi system would enable that.

Dawn, one of who's many hats include President of the Susan B. Anthony Neighborhood Association, covered the benefit to the tourist industry that Wi-Fi in her area would have. The tourist draw the Susan B. Anthony house already has would be enhanced by making it easier for visitors identify additional things to do in the area. The service would also help the residents in the neighborhood be more connected.

We heard back from John Lightfoot that the presentations were well received and that it had generated interest for further consideration. We thank John for all the help he has provided the Common Council and our Communications committee.

After the meeting I caught the tail end of the Public Meeting at John Walton Spencer School 16 where RCSD Superintendent Dr. Bolgen Vargas was discussing options being considered for the school given the many physical problems the school has. After the meeting I had a chance to talk with him a bit about some of the school issues and presented him with a copy of the Wi-Fi handout we had given to the legislators. I stressed the roll we saw for using the Wi-Fi connection to keep parents and schools connected. I also had a chance to discuss this with School Board Member Mary Adams and the School 16 Principal. Given the fact that currently about 80% of the students are bussed in, the benefit of Internet connectivity with parents could be significant. They have a number of students that were bused in from the proposed Wi-Fi pilot area.

There is going to be a Board of Education Public Hearing on School 16 at Central Office, 131 W. Broad Street, 6:00pm Thursday July 12. It would be interesting to attend to hear the issues raised by all concerned and better understand the potential roll Internet connectivity could have.

3 members like this

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Eleanor Coleman on July 11, 2012 at 10:42pm

Having Wi-Fi brings with it another unique opportunity - it places youth in a leadership role based on their fearless and curious capacity around technology. SWAN is working in partnership with the Sector 4 CDC to provide a Summer Youth Employment Program for 12 youth ages 14 and 15. Youth will be interviewing business owners to find out if they are able to provide jobs for youth. Once the youth have been oriented, we will be using Location SW to capture the data and update the community on the process and activities. After youth develop their surveys, they will be put on IPADs - wouldn't it be great if we had Wi-Fi!!!!!

SWAN's Computer Bridges program brought together parents and children to learn about computers together. What ended up happening, was that youth became the teachers (especially with the games; I actually wouldn't have been able to teach the class without them because I didn't know how to play the games and didn't really have an interest in learning). I think anytime we can create an environment where we can tap into youths' natural leadership potential, we can't lose.

Permalink Reply by Ken Maher on July 13, 2012 at 9:42am

John, I am so glad to see you all carrying this forward. It will be a great asset to the community.

Permalink Reply by Eleanor Coleman on July 12, 2012 at 11:03am

Good link about what NYC is doing (old payphones to free wi-fi) from Joan:

Check it out!

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57470757-93/old-nyc-payphones-tran...

Sector 4 Community Development Corporation
Unity/St. Mary's Campus
89 Genesee Street, 1st Floor
Rochester, NY 14611
Phone: 585-328-5750
Fax: 585-328-7351

http://sector4cdc.org

Serving the South West Quadrant and Neighborhoods

Permalink Reply by Ken Maher on July 13, 2012 at 9:43am

Eleanor, this is a great idea. Maybe it could be incorporated into a bigger plan for the SW.

Permalink Reply by John Boutet on July 13, 2012 at 2:56pm

Doing the SW was what we initially started out talking of doing Ken but the numbers we got from Frontier were a bit hard to get our heads around and we backed off to look at a pilot area where we could more easily get something rolling to see what the results are and use that to build support for doing more. We are getting people interested and I think it is going to happen. Not sure when yet but we are moving as fast as we can.

Permalink Reply by John Lightfoot on July 13, 2012 at 12:44pm

John Boutet, I wanted to inform you that a meeting with the Brooks administration is being scheduled and will probably happen in a few weeks to further our discussions of Frontier Communication Solutions and the free zones. Good job!

Permalink Reply by John Boutet on July 13, 2012 at 3:17pm

That's great news John. Thank you so much for having suggested we make a presentation at the Open Forum. This morning I got a call from Edward Omiccioli from the Tech Department at the Rochester City School District. One of the fliers we had handed out at the Open Forum had found its way to him. He has been looking at doing something like this to connect schools with students and parents. He has sent me links to several sites detailing what other cities have done and he has been looking through all the material we have posted on Location19. The ball is rolling. Thanks for the help.

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