December meeting minutes:  SWCC Communication Committee Meeting Dec 16, 2013.doc

SWCC Communications Committee

December 16, 2013 meeting minutes

Sector 4 CDC Office

Attendance:

John Boutet                  Location SW                 jboutet@frontiernet.net

Sean Harrigan              Wi-Fi Consultant           sean.i.harrigan@gmail.com

Jon Schull                     RIT                                jschull@gmail.com

Emailed update:

Robin Dettman              Consultant                    rjdedu@aol.com

Agenda Items

• Wi-Fi Updates - Review of news on Wi-Fi Issues 

  • News from Robin- will send in report

  • GreenLight in PLEX - possible fiber access for Wi-Fi ?

  • County fiber cable as an access point option ?

  • Call center as a training program for High School students - Possibility of RCSD participating in test program, perhaps with RIT or U of R partnership

  • Implication of Pew Research center Report on need for Wi-Fi:  http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/11/29/7-things-to-know-ab...

  • Latest from Joan Roby Davison / CDC / Grants

• Walk-in items

There was extensive discussion of the coming GreenLight fiber-optic network in the PLEX area and the possibilities that might provide to the area for a broadband connection to a Wi-Fi system. This was Jon and Sean's first interaction and much information was discussed. The Frontier Wi-Fi proposal was discussed as were smaller test options.

We left it that:

• Sean would layout a Cadillac and a bare-bones version of Wi-Fi networks that might be looked at.  The low end version would consider putting the Fiber/Wi-Fi internet connections in "walk-up" locations for easy maintenance (Libraries, Schools, Churches) that signal would be relayed mostly by antennas placed on homes of participating citizens who provide the modest power requirement for the benefit of a good signal.  It is a system that could be tested out on the cheap to see how it gets used.  This is closer to what we originally were thinking going into the April 2, 2012 meeting.

• Jon and Robin will be looking at making the political connections to help get the financial, city and county interest in making it happen.  Eleanor Coleman, Joan Roby-Davison and John Lightfoot will also add to the political networking needed.

• Eleanor, Joan, John Boutet and John Curran need to look at what "community" do we want to test this in.  Jon suggested combining this with efforts underway in the PLEX C.A.M.P.U.S. area with aquaponics and working with community organizations collaborating on that effort.

We really need to look at who are the users going to be.  An antenna can support about 20 users just surfing the web, but it will drop below that if several are downloading movies.  Are we going to be serving desktops in ~25% of houses w/o internet connectivity in an area or are there going to be 3 or 4 people in most houses or on the street who surf with cellphones or tablets.  We need to study the pew report and see if that holds for what we are doing here.

Robin Dettman's email report indicated he had met with Ron Till on RCSD issues and just touched on Wi-Fi. Ron has some connections with possible private funders. Robin is trying to establish connections with the Lovely Warren team and has talked with former mayor Bill Johnson.

Minutes submitted by John Boutet