Strategies
From WikTOPIA
Strategies will vary with the relationship groups have to UTOPIA: hooked up in a pledging city, waiting to be hooked up in a pledging city, waiting in a non-pledging city, hoping in a non-member city, and wistful in an unincorporated area. But each group will benefit from the success of every other group.
First: the more success UTOPIA has anywhere, the greater the pressure to adopt it, build it, and use it in other areas. More financial vitality helps it borrow and build, and makes it more attractive for cities to join. And more clients = more consitituents.
Second: the more connections, the more valuable each connection becomes. This is obvious in telephone networks. Because broadband is new, it is not so obvious with UTOPIA. Consider institutions like the Leonardo interactive science museum, the Clark Planetarium, or the Natural History Museum. If Salt Lake has UTOPIA, all the schools connected to UTOPIA can make real-time interactive visits. If they have made physical visits in the past, they still can. But it doesn't make sense to make a physical visit each time a segment at one of those places fits in with a teaching unit.
It's not just about kids. What about watching Frontiers of Science lectures at the U without a trip to the Skaggs biology building (the driving, the parking, the walking, the weather, and getting there early to be sure of a seat)? Or the Dewey Lectures at the Salt Lake library (good luck getting a ticket)? And it works both ways: more offerings means more subscribers, more subscribers means more offerings. Especially when each subscriber could create offerings.
So we all have a common interest in supporting and facilitating each others' strategies. This page is meant to be the top level exploration of strategies, As approaches are elaborated, they will need to bud off to pages of their own, and bud off again to the level of specific cities where they can be applied. For example, the applications section on this page points to a page titled Applications. That page could point to a page on cultural institutions. That page could point to various cities. The Salt Lake page would be for thinking about building support with the Leonardo, the planetarium, and the natural history museum.
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Demonstrations
Hands-on demonstrations seem especially attractive. Most of these would have to be in cities that are already wired. But there might be exceptions even to that. The Xmission office is in downtown Salt Lake City. Could they provide a room with a few 50 Mbps machines to use, long enough to get an exposure? Business clients could test drive 100 Mbps machines. The U must have some fiber optic lines; could they divert a few strands to letting ordinary students have the experience?
Within the UTOPIA network, what kind of sites can we imagine? Schools could give students some exposure. They might offer adult education classes on UTOPIA. Libraries are a natural location for the general population. A pledging city could justify putting a few sample terminals in city hall.
There may be commercial angles. As a step beyond the internet cafe, what about a UTOPIA cafe? Game arcades might install UTOPIA boxes for virtual reality games. Given the possibilities for internet broadcasts, providing production facilities is another opportunity. Maybe in connection with a community theatre, so you have a stage and lighting. Schedule a live internet broadcast of your play or your band.
Videos
Videos are a step away from a hands on experience, but they can cover a lot of ground in a short time. A short piece on YouTube might compare UTOPIA with other infrastructure, or show a single game or application. Longer pieces on YouTube or DVD might look at a set of appications in a particular setting. Half-hour "documentaries" on DVD could survey a broader range of applications or go into depth on a sector.
Videos like this would have various uses. They could be pointed to in publicity, or linked to on websites, as a way to provide more information. Documentary type DVDs could be offered to libraries for checkout by patrons. If the quality were really high, they could be offered to educational stations for broadcast.
When you want to build support in a particular sector, say education, it would be really handy to have a documentary video outlining the ways UTOPIA can be applied in an educational setting. Since you have a relatively small target audience, you could mail them out, or hand them out at meetings. When you want to build support on a city council, it would be really handy to have a video covering a broad range of applications with a broad range of appeal. Mail them out to council members well before the meeting.
Some people on a list server for Linux users responded to this idea. They had the technical skills you need for a project like this. Apparently interest died out. This wiki is the opportunity for sustained collaboration on ideas like this if you have the skills. Start a page, start a plan, and talk it over.
Publicity
Broad publicity may be tricky. It would be nice to create a ground swell of grassroots pressure for UTOPIA construction. But desires that can't be satisfied may also produce frustration. And good publicity may generate bad publicity in response. There is a sort of instinctive tendency to think in terms of rousing support to influence elected officials. But there are other strategies worth considering. Good applications and convincing demonstrations may be more effective than retoric, and more satisfying to techie tempraments.
Television
In a thread about UTOPIA on the [SLLUG] mailing list, David J. Iannucci offered to contact Utah NOW on KUED about doing a program on UTOPIA. On Feb 11, 2008, he sent an email to the list asking for input:
"I have written up an explanation of the UTOPIA issue for the producers of Utah NOW, so they have an idea what this is about, based on what I know, which isn't much. I've put it on a mini-wiki, and would like to encourage anyone with something to add to edit the wiki directly."
"You can edit anonymously - just click the edit tab. I'd ask you not to increase the length much, because I don't want to put them off by giving them too much work to do :-), and also not to incorporate arguments for or against the issue. That's for the show guests to do. This is just to let the producers know that it's something worth putting on TV.
"I'll leave it up there about a week before finally sending it on to KUED. Thanks for your help! And please feel free to tell anyone else who can contribute to the wikidoc."
Advertising
In an interview in December, 2006, Paul Morris, former executive director, discussed the problem of advertising. "The pace of network construction poses a challenge for...service providers, Morris said, as they have learned not to advertise services city-wide until the network is also city-wide. Consumers who see ads for FTTH long before it's available to them experience what Morris calls 'antici-pointment'--anticipation followed by disappointment.
"'It's when someone calls up [a service provider] and finds out they're in a part of the city [where the network] won't get built for a couple years, and then they're mad.'
"When the network is fully deployed in those six initial cities, he said, that problem will disappear, and service providers can advertise more broadly." [1]
Applications
The key strategy seems to be demonstrating uses for UTOPIA that are so valuable there is no question about wanting it. Uses can be thought of in terms of sectors: education, business, entertainment, community development, etc. Uses can be thought of in terms of functions: conversations, conferences, many-to-many interactions, collaboration, etc. Some of these may be easy to implement given simply the speed and interactivity available with UTOPIA. Others may start with ideas that need serious programming to work. May it be open source.
This was the point made by Michael Place of Xmission in January 2008 on a Linux mailing list:
- 15/50M fiber networks are still relatively rare. If we're to show citizens of Utah the value of such a network, I would argue that we have an obligation, as technologists and developers to focus some attention on writing applications and producing content for our friends and neighbors that uniquely illustrate the value of the UTOPIA infrastructure.
- Telling people they can get 300 HD network channels might well be less appealing to many people than telling them 2-3 unique, local and targeted educational opportunities for their children, produced by the community and made available for those on the network. It's all about the content and precious little content on the public Internet is built to take advantage of what UTOPIA can truly bring.
- It's great that UTOPIA allows us quick .iso downloads and speedy torrents, but wouldn't it be truly compelling if we could give people on the network access to their community in unique ways that only massive broadband projects can provide? Perhaps what I'm really saying is this: get coding, get producing, get hacking. ;]
Because this topic is so broad, a page called Applications has been created to start work in this area. If things develop nicely, pages will bud off of it for specific sectors, functions, and ideas. It probably makes sense to use each application area as a focal point for material specific to that area. Stuff that is up already, and experience with it; stuff that could be up, and what it would take; projects to put stuff up, and interest in this stuff at places without UTOPIA.
As applications are understood in these ways, videos can be made, tours can be arranged, conferences can be organized, and support can be built.
Building Support
The first impulse, when you want UTOPIA, is probably to write your elected officials, or to hope for a campaign directed toward them. You gather as many convincing facts and arguments as you can in preparation for the challenge. The idea of building support says: "Hang about! You are asking people to take a risk involving millions of dollars, backed by other people's money. What do the people say whose money is at risk?" A lot of resentment toward government may come from making decisions based on thin majorities. Wouldn't it be better to wage a campaign for the hearts and minds of the taxpayers?
It would surely take longer, and be more difficult. But it seems much more likely to yield the right result. If the result is "No," that is probably the right result for that city at that time. After all, the residents of a city are the potential clients. They need to subscribe to make the thing work. Another angle: until there is solid support, there is no need to bring it to elected officials. You never risk a "no." You just keep building support until finally the only possible answer is "yes."
Obviously this raises all manner of questions and issues. This page suggests some strategies, but how do we collaborate effectively to make them work? Which ones are good and practical, and which ones are pie in the sky? How do we get people in various sectors to take an interest and provide some kind of endorsement? How can endorsements and enthusiasm be shaped into tangible, obvious, support and commitment? Is there a way a city can come to recognize that a very solid majority of its members are in favor of UTOPIA?
Asking for It
At his FreeUTOPIA website, Jesse Harris put up this guide to asking your city council for UTOPIA:
"I get asked on a fairly regular basis how a regular citizen can manage to get UTOPIA rolling in their area. While there's no magic bullet, this How To should put you on the right track.
- Put together a strong proposal to make your case. Make a 10-minute presentation that covers why your city needs to join UTOPIA and summarize those remarks in a 1-2 page letter. It's better to have your arguments together first and then find someone to present them to. Don't know where to start? Grab this PowerPoint presentation and replace [My City] with the name of your city: UTOPIA Presentation
- Identify city council members who would be interested. Look for those with a background in data-intensive fields such as technology, research, real estate or construction. They've likely had to work with sending or receiving large amounts of data that took forever to finish. As much as I don't like to get partisan over here, my experience has shown that Democrats are more likely than Republicans to be interested in broadband policy. Make contact with those most likely to support membership in UTOPIA before presenting to the city council as a whole. Don't forget the try the mayor's office while you're at it.
- Ask for an agenda item at your next city council meeting. Believe it or not, you too can speak to the city council about whatever you want. Find out who's in charge of city council agenda items in your city and ask them if you can do a presentation on UTOPIA. More often than not, you can get about 10 minutes to speak. I've managed to get a slot at a legislative committee hearing, so it's not that big of a deal.
- Get prepared for your meeting. Tell friends and family about the meeting and encourage them to attend. The best people to have there are ones that will speak about how UTOPIA will help their businesses. Also make sure you get the word out to UTOPIA supporters in other cities so that you can have them testify about the benefits of UTOPIA. I'm happy to post any UTOPIA-related news or announcement here and I'm sure the folks on the Pro-UTOPIA e-mail list would be equally interested.
- Be ready for an intense Q&A session. The city council will hammer you with financial questions. Make sure you've prepared by reading up on when UTOPIA expects to go revenue-positive (2012) and how much it costs the city to join (a feasibility study, no cost for non-pledging, a trust fund for pledging). Above all, don't be afraid to defer questions to a UTOPIA representative if you don't know the specifics. Feasibility studies are priced on a case-by-case basis and will contain information on how much sales tax revenue would need to be set aside for pledging status. Some Q&A sessions can last a half hour or longer depending on the council.
- Plan for follow-up presentations. Cities don't jump into these things based on a single presentation no matter how slick it might be. Plan for future city council meetings as representatives from UTOPIA, Qwest and Comcast may be invited. Make good use of the public comment periods and make sure as many supporters as possible do so as well.
- Above all, thank the council for their time. They're pretty busy folks who are sacrificing as much time as you are to hear what you have to say. You're also asking them to put some money (and their future election prospects) on the line. They need to know what you appreciate their hard work and sacrifice.
"Still getting stuck? Feel free to e-mail me for help. I'm glad to put together and even conduct presentations to help spread UTOPIA as far as possible. I can also put you in touch with some representatives at UTOPIA who are happy to give your council members a tour of the facilities and provide their own presentations."
Go to his essay for the email link and any attached comments.
