@seanalan@newsie.social
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seanalan

@seanalan@newsie.social

Associate Director for Communications at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) Community Broadband Networks Initiative Find our work here https://communitynets.org/ [Digital Equity Advocate, #Broadband Access for All Evangelist, #BlackMastodon Connoisseur, Word Doctor, Net Worker, Script Flipper, Story Teller, Big Picture Seer, People Connector, #music #movies, #books, #NBA & #chess nut]

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seanalan, to internet
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One often overlooked benefit of municipal broadband is keeping local dollars close to home and using the extra $$ to make community investments

Check out what Westfield MA is doing thanks to the success of its municipal telecom utility Whip City Fiber

The "profits" the network has made are now being used to build new track and athletic fields for the entire community. Click link below for our story

https://communitynets.org/content/municipal-broadband-provider-whip-city-fiber-serves-win-everybody

seanalan, to internet
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🚨 New resource alert 🚨

This week the American Association for Public Broadband published a new handbook tailored to guide local officials in navigating the logistical, technical, financial, and political challenges in building municipal broadband networks.

Link below for my story on the new handbook with a link to full guide
https://communitynets.org/content/aapb-and-benton-publish-new-handbook-how-build-public-broadband-network

seanalan, to internet
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As the Affordable Connectivity Program is on the verge of termination - taking away the $30/month Internet service discount from 22.5 million Americans enrolled in the program - community broadband networks are in a great position to deal with what Congress refuses to fix

At link below, my colleague @KarlBode reports on one of Vermont's CUDs how they plan to use profits fr higher speed packages to keep existing ACP recipients connected

https://communitynets.org/content/nek-broadband-expands-access-affordable-fiber-rural-vermont

seanalan, to internet
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Unless Congress passes the newly introduced Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act, the program that provides a $30 monthly discount for 22 million low-income households to get Internet service will run out of funds by April.

The FCC and ISPs are preparing to wind down this vital digital equity program in the coming months unless...

My story at link below

https://communitynets.org/content/fcc-and-broadband-providers-prepare-acp-wind-down

seanalan, to internet
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Electric cooperatives are at the leading edge of bringing affordable to rural communities across the nation.

Our story here on First Electric Cooperative – and its broadband subsidiary Connect2First – making major inroads on their quest to deliver fiber service to long-neglected portions of Arkansas

https://communitynets.org/content/first-electric-cooperative-making-big-progress-delivering-affordable-fiber-service-arkansas

seanalan, to books
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I’m embarrassed to admit it but …

My whole life I’ve been into geography and yet — after 50+ trips around the Sun — it was like two weeks ago that I learned that Appalachia is pronounced Appa-LATCH-ia … not Appa-LAY-chia 🤦🏾‍♂️

Also, Y’ALL (Young Appalachian Leaders and Learners) apparently got issues with JD Vance’s best-selling “Hillbilly Elegy”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/25/books/review-appalachian-reckoning-region-responds-hillbilly-elegy.html

seanalan, to internet
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One step forward, two steps back?

My colleague Jessica Auer gives us the scoop on how round 2 of NTIA's Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program could mean the resurgence of old barriers for Tribes working to bring broadband to Indian Country


https://communitynets.org/content/old-data-woes-could-hinder-round-two-tribal-broadband-connectivity-program

seanalan, to internet
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One hairy challenge in building networks that West Springfield MA is now getting a taste of is the anti-competitive behavior of utility pole owners

They often delay the pole attachment and make-ready work required to deploy aerial fiber lines

My colleague @KarlBode gives us the scoop here

https://communitynets.org/content/verizon-pole-attachment-issues-delay-west-springfield-ma-fiber-plan

seanalan, to random
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Looking forward to first look at CP3 in uniform playing with Steph and them …

seanalan, to internet
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Happy to have been interviewed for this story. But, that's not why I'm sharing

Sharing b/c good local reporting is vital ...

And, this story by Dusty Christensen for The Shoestring is the best piece I've come across that surveys the digital landscape in Massachusetts from a community broadband perspective.

And does so in the context of a national moonshot effort to finally erase the "digital divide" via the bipartisan infrastructure law

https://theshoestring.org/2023/10/04/the-wired-wired-west-the-collapse-of-public-internet-in-easthampton-and-the-struggle-to-connect-massachusettss-overlooked-communities/

seanalan, to random
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Let me brag on my colleagues for a sec

You've probably heard the news of the FTC filing a major lawsuit against Amazon for monopolizing e-commerce

ILSR's Independent Business Initiative played an outsized role in pushing this forward — both in terms of policy analysis and advocacy work to get it to this point

Chances are in the press coverage on this you've heard or seen our co-director Stacy Mitchell quoted

Here's one good piece from NPR's Morning Edition

https://www.npr.org/2023/09/28/1202264853/examining-what-it-s-like-for-some-of-the-sellers-who-market-their-goods-on-amazo

seanalan, to internet
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Indian Country faces the biggest connectivity challenges

At last the fed gov is starting to make needed infrastructure investments as Tribal Nations are building and operating their own broadband networks to create digital sovereignty

Link below to our story on NTIA's Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program and how a number of Tribal Nations are getting down to business in creating digital sovereignty


https://communitynets.org/content/ntia-awards-another-57-million-under-tribal-connectivity-program-opens-second-round-funding

seanalan, to random
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As someone raised and fundamentally shaped by East Oakland, it especially bothers me to see how my hometown and other historically marginalized cities and neighborhoods in the Golden State may be left in the digital dust amid California's ambitious broadband deployment plan

Our story by Karl Bode on the latest here

https://communitynets.org/content/digital-equity-advocates-say-california-risks-bumbling-plan-deliver-equitable-broadband

seanalan, to random
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Speaking to reporters as I did for this article on community networks & how they can be a viable (and more desirable) solution to the broadband affordability crisis is fun

It's even better when the story is well-written and does the topic justice. Thank you Laura Michelle Davis and CNET for this article that looks at NYC Mesh

https://www.cnet.com/home/internet/features/internet-for-the-people-the-movement-for-affordable-community-led-broadband/

seanalan, to random
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17 states with laws that block/prevent municipal broadband got some 'splainin to do

To unlock their portion of the $42.5 billion BEAD program for new broadband infrastructure, states w/preemption laws are encouraged by feds to get rid of them or explain how the barriers will impede the "Internet for All" initiative

My story here looks at 3 of those states and what their BEAD plans say about these barriers that protect monopoly service providers from competition

https://communitynets.org/content/state-bead-plans-and-chilling-effect-municipal-broadband-restrictions

seanalan, to internet
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A massive coalition of more than 300 broadband policy experts and organizations have written a letter to the U.S. government.

The letter warns that smaller broadband providers, nonprofits, and municipalities will be elbowed out of an historic $42.5 billion broadband grant program without some notable changes to program rules.

Link to our story below

https://communitynets.org/content/expert-coalition-says-existing-bead-rules-harm-small-isps-municipalities

seanalan, to books
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Whenever I’m asked what I’d recommend to gain a good understanding of the history of US telecommunications/America’s information system, and how the Internet works, the first two I always say are …

Tim Wu’s “The Master Switch” and Andrew Blum’s “Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet”

Both, especially Tim Wu’s, are masterfully written

seanalan,
@seanalan@newsie.social avatar

@GW it’s really really good and super insightful

BlackAzizAnansi, to random
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If you could fight any historical figure, who would you fight and why?

seanalan,
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@BlackAzizAnansi as a former golden gloves boxer, I would love to get in ring with Rush, Bill O Reilly, and … the list is looooong

seanalan, to internet
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The potential of to improve health outcomes and reap astounding health care cost savings is really beginning to dawn on folks

Here's a good article here published in the Barn Raiser that focuses on the study we at ILSR did with the Southern Rural Black Women's Initiative (SRBWI)

Of course, telehealth is only possible if everyone has access to robust, reliable high-speed

https://barnraisingmedia.com/universal-broadband-telehealth-underserved-rural-households/

seanalan, to internet
@seanalan@newsie.social avatar

Officials in Loveland and Timnath, Colo ratify an Inter-Governmental Agreement that will bring ubiquitous, affordable high-speed Internet access to yet another community in the Centennial State

An increasing number of Colorado cities and towns are embracing municipal after years of frustration with the inadequate, high-priced service from the region’s monopoly incumbents

My story here

https://communitynets.org/content/timnath-colorado-and-loveland-team-further-expand-celebrated-municipal-fiber-network

seanalan, to random
@seanalan@newsie.social avatar

As a young woman of the Nuxalk Nation, Mallory Hans is one of about 50 people hailing fr various Tribes & First Nations fr across North America at the latest Tribal Broadband Bootcamp.

Hosted at the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino Resort on the St Regis Mohawk rez along the NY/Canada border, Tribes with deep telecom experience help other tribes just now entering the space or trying to figure out how to build and operate their own networks

My story here

https://communitynets.org/content/tribal-broadband-bootcamp-comes-saint-regis-mohawk-reservation-northern-new-york

seanalan, to random
@seanalan@newsie.social avatar

Heading to our 8th Tribal Broadband Bootcamp

Def one of the coolest programs we are involved with

https://www.indiantime.net/story/2023/07/27/news/tribal-broadband-bootcamp-comes-to-akwesasne/42798.html

luis_in_brief, to random
@luis_in_brief@social.coop avatar

Nice win for community fiber.

From: @seanalan
https://newsie.social/@seanalan/110769777842392476

seanalan,
@seanalan@newsie.social avatar

@luis_in_brief indeed. David slew Goliath once again

seanalan, to movies
@seanalan@newsie.social avatar

Denzel is the GOAT to me (and lots of his peers agree)

What I don’t get is how these streaming services (Netflix, HBOMax etc) don’t have a standing Denzel category w/all his flicks.

Is there some licensing issue I don’t understand?

Each platform may have like 2/3 of his movies tops

But his filmography is deeeeep. I don’t think Denzel has ever been in a movie that wasn’t good to great (mostly b/c he was in it)

Here’s 3 of his movies that don’t get enough play

Denzel on movie poster for Out Of Time
Denzel on movie poster for Safe House

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