Before any of us ever heard of Monica Lewinsky, we had our fill of Bill Clinton's request we help him build the "on-ramp to the information superhighway." Well maybe it was Monica -- or congressmen throwing stones over fornication -- but that on-ramp still hasn't reached many corners of Vermont, including some corners here in Norwich.
Who knew then that proximity to that on-ramp would define property values? Who then couldn't live without this listserv?
Yet here we are, navigating cyberspace, in search of edification and entertainment as though it were some human right to have the whole world at our fingertips.
And why not? Like the bridges, mills, railroads, the telephone and electric lines of generations past, the transmission and receipt of these endless waves of data are the stuff of opportunity, the infrastructure of our Information Age.
So here's the question: When does private access to the Information Age become a public good deserving direct community support?
Our public library receives direct financial support from the Town each year, but looks to individual members for donations to support their programs. This library has been a community institution for decades, helping residents access all kinds of information otherwise largely outside their reach.
Historically, we've left telephone and cable connections to private enterprise -- regulated monopolies to a large extent -- hoping the carrot of potential profits would wire us all, festooning our landscape with cables, wires, dishes and cell towers all buzzing with data. Who doesn't get a little warm and fuzzy descending Union Village Road into town any given evening, seeing the red lights of the communications towers in Lebanon looming benignly over Main Street?
Since 9/11, the federal government has become a big player in the name of public safety; hence our newest proposed "emergency communications" tower just coincidentally sited outside my kitchen window. NIMFY?
Then there are the public-private partnerships that can range from plucky little ECFiber trying to navigate a regulatory world defined by the big media/telecommunciations companies to the well-connected (!) VTEL gorging at the trough of congressional pork on a promise to bring each and every one of us "fourth generation" wireless data service -- letting many of us skip that second and third generation entirely.
So where do we fit in? Not "we" singular as in "when do I finally get high speed internet or 4G cell service," rather where do we as a town fit in all this? What's our role and what's the plan and what should we be doing about it?
Come talk about it Town Eating Day - - Saturday, March 3rd @ 10AM in the MCS Library.
Stay for lunch.
Norwich Town Eating Day - Food for Thought
http://www.towneating.org/Norwich_Town_Eating/town_eating_2012.html
Who knew then that proximity to that on-ramp would define property values? Who then couldn't live without this listserv?
Yet here we are, navigating cyberspace, in search of edification and entertainment as though it were some human right to have the whole world at our fingertips.
And why not? Like the bridges, mills, railroads, the telephone and electric lines of generations past, the transmission and receipt of these endless waves of data are the stuff of opportunity, the infrastructure of our Information Age.
So here's the question: When does private access to the Information Age become a public good deserving direct community support?
Our public library receives direct financial support from the Town each year, but looks to individual members for donations to support their programs. This library has been a community institution for decades, helping residents access all kinds of information otherwise largely outside their reach.
Historically, we've left telephone and cable connections to private enterprise -- regulated monopolies to a large extent -- hoping the carrot of potential profits would wire us all, festooning our landscape with cables, wires, dishes and cell towers all buzzing with data. Who doesn't get a little warm and fuzzy descending Union Village Road into town any given evening, seeing the red lights of the communications towers in Lebanon looming benignly over Main Street?
Since 9/11, the federal government has become a big player in the name of public safety; hence our newest proposed "emergency communications" tower just coincidentally sited outside my kitchen window. NIMFY?
Then there are the public-private partnerships that can range from plucky little ECFiber trying to navigate a regulatory world defined by the big media/telecommunciations companies to the well-connected (!) VTEL gorging at the trough of congressional pork on a promise to bring each and every one of us "fourth generation" wireless data service -- letting many of us skip that second and third generation entirely.
So where do we fit in? Not "we" singular as in "when do I finally get high speed internet or 4G cell service," rather where do we as a town fit in all this? What's our role and what's the plan and what should we be doing about it?
Come talk about it Town Eating Day - - Saturday, March 3rd @ 10AM in the MCS Library.
Stay for lunch.
Norwich Town Eating Day - Food for Thought
http://www.towneating.org/Norwich_Town_Eating/town_eating_2012.html
