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Technology Advisory Committee
Meeting Report
October 11, 2005
The committee met at 7:30 PM at the Community Board’s district office. Attending were Thomas Lowenhaupt, committee chair, Giovanna Reid, district manager, Eugene Atkins, resident committee member, and Jeffrey Saunders, resident committee member.
Five items were discussed.
1. The PEG Channels - Legislation before the U.S. Congress would eliminate the public, education, and government access channels now available on the cable systems here in Queens (channels 34-35-56-57) and throughout the country. These channels provide an opportunity for local issues to be brought before the community. Fierce competition between the telephone companies (Verizon and SBC being the giants in the telco industry) and the cable companies (Time-Warner and Comcast being the two largest, but not as dominant as the telcos) has the telcos claiming that they require speedy access to install cable systems or they will suffer severe financial difficulties. The telcos want local cable franchising authority stripped away from cities. And they don’t want to have to provide such services as the PEG channels. In turn, the cable companies are arguing that if the telcos don’t have to provide it, neither should they. After all, a level playing field is only fair. MORE: see The Alliance for Community Media's site at http://www.alliancecm.org.
2. Broadband @ $14.95 - The availability of Verizon's $14.95 per month internet access rate in Community District 3 sounds appealing. However, many residents report that that they’re not able to sign up for the service because of limitations in the Verizon system. Representatives from Verizon were unable to attend this meeting, but will be at the committee’s November 22 meeting where we will look at this in much more detail.
3. Hands On – The committee is developing a digital recording system that will enable meetings (initially at the district office) to be recorded and played over the web site and on mobile music players like the iPod. We’re about 25% of the way to getting it working and hope to test it by recording our November 22 TAC meeting. But we need to further test the software and to acquire, test, and install two table-microphones.
4. Network Neutrality - Should your Internet Service Provider be allowed to edit the sites and services you access? There's new technology that will allow such controls. The committee too a first look at a complex subject. The very short story is that Internet Service Providers (both cable and telco) would like to control what is provided over their systems for technical and financial reasons. The chair reported that he recently installed Vonage, an alternative voice service that works over the cable wire, in a Jackson Heights apartment. The occupant is now able to do everything he would with a typical home phone over the cable wire. And thus he was able to cancel their MCI’s Neighborhood service. (Vonage costs $30 vs. $45 for the previous provider.) Neither Time-Warner or Verizon (soon to purchase MCI) like this type of competition and would like to ban such services. They would like to control what people do and what connects to their systems – much like AT&T did until the 1970s. The broader business community says this will crush innovation, that people would never have created such services if it was the option of the ISP to block their offering. The business and creative community say it’s just a service like Google or ESPN. They ask, if ISPs can block a Vonage, what else can they block? BTW, the local cable company has a competitive offering to Vonage that they own and would like to sell to you. MORE: see http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/b_paper.pdf.
5. Virtual Planning Spaces – Schools, roads, parks, and other city facilities can now be constructed “virtually” online. For example, a new park could be constructed – topography, swings, trees, benches, fountains. etc. - with avatars (online cartoon-like characters that are controlled by the user (indeed can look like the user). These avatars can walk around, observe, and discuss the proposed development. This planning tool is far more available now than earlier this year when the committee chair first reported on it. The big change is that now residents can gain free “observe” access to one of these services, Second Life (see www.secondlife.com). Beyond the ability to better visualize a proposed development; such virtual constructions enable more people to participate in our discussions. And they are far more inviting to younger adults. Perhaps our next community project can be developed in this virtual world.
With many committee members unable to attend because of health, work, and parenting requirements, no decisions were made. The committee will continue discussions on these issues and might bring some to the board for its consideration in the coming months.
Our next meeting is Tuesday, November 22, 7:30 PM at the district office. Representatives from Verizon will attend to discuss the $14.95 access plan.
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