Bill’s Blog #9, brought back memories of John Eger and his earlier initiative called Smart Communities. In 1997, John authored a piece for the San Diego Union-Tribune, titled, “Cyberspace and Cyberplace: Building the Smart Communities of Tomorrow” in which he articulated his vision for Cyber Cities of the future if they were to retain their economic vitality. He even used the word “flatten” in connection with the changing world. (Does Tom Friedman know that?) I mention this because, as we prepare for the next Petaluma CyberCity Roundtable on July 25, we will be going back to the conceptual building blocks that were used to create the foundation for PetalumaNet in 1995. (And eventually the PCCR in 1998.) Those two Petaluma-based initiatives, IMHO, continue to serve our community as both a “Think Tank” and as an “Incubator” for “hatching” (sorry for the pun, but since Petaluma was the Egg Capital of the World, it’s intentional) new information and communication technology projects capable of producing a set of operational benefits known as the 3E’s – greater efficiencies, effectiveness and economical savings.
The major purpose of this Roundtable meeting has already been touched upon in Hammerhead #5 – A Modern Element for Community Networking (7-7-06). Among the topics to be explored will be “Broadband Properties” and building the Fiber-Connected Community” that is coming down the pike. Will we be ready? Do we know what FTTH is all about? (FTTH = Fiber to the home) Do we know its implications for families … for municipal governments … and for other sectors of the community? Do we, as citizens, even care? These questions will be on the PN and PCCR radar screen as we continue the journey along our information highway into another decade of developing, implementing and evaluating collaborative projects.
Even though the Roundtable will be moving forward, one cannot help but wonder … whatever happened to the I-Net negotiations between the City and AT&T, that have been underway for a few years and the proposed pilot Wi-Fi project from last year. Time marches on, and if we don’t keep up to speed, we will just fall farther and farther behind other communities. As we have been told, the world is flat. As a nation, we have already dropped from being a world leader … telecommunication-wise. Let’s hope that our River Town will benefit from the proposed ICT triple plays we’ve been reading about lately. (JJ, is this your area of expertise?) Stay tuned.
Before I sign off, I want to apologize for the verbal “ping-pong” game I’ve subjected the regular readers of my blogs to over the past few months. As you can see in the heading for this post, my thoughts were wandering all over the map, again. When it comes to the world of information and Communication Technology, it’s almost impossible to separate our Information Highway from Our Cyberplace or Our Cyberspace. (I wonder how Bill Gates does it?) Note: For the viewer who wants more background information about the Smart Communities movement, check out … http://www.smartcommunities.org