Austin

Here is a message I just sent to members of the Big Gig Austin group on Facebook.

Hello Big Gig broadband supporters.

The Google deadline for nominations is this Friday (3/26).

1. Now is the time to submit your personal nomination to bring the Google gigabit fiber to Austin, if you haven't already. It's quick and easy and only takes a minute. Directions here:

http://www.biggigaustin.org/index.php/biggig/nominate/

2. I'll be doing the final count of supporters on Friday, and obviously the more the better. We're currently at 3,300 and I know there are a lot more -- thousands more -- broadband supporters here in Austin. Can you help? Please make one final pass through your friends list, and invite interested friends to our group.

To invite your friends just go to:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=337158056344

and click the "Invite people to join" link in the left sidebar.

3. Finally, come celebrate at the "How Can Google Not Love Us?" Happy Hour this Tuesday. Event info here:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=10150148563425582

Hope to see you there.

Chip Rosenthal
chip [at] unicom [dot] com
info [at] BigGigAustin [dot] org

We'd also appreciate your support on Twitter. Please follow @BigGigAustin.

Hope to see you at the Big Gig "How Can Google Not Love Us?" Happy Hour and Tweetup on Tuesday, Mar. 23..

One month ago, Google challenged us to show them why Austin, Texas would be the best city in the world to build their gigabit fiber network. We came together and showed them the creativity and enthusiasm that makes Austin world famous.

The end is in sight. The Mar. 26 nomination deadline is days away. So, let's get together to celebrate what we've accomplished and push this effort over the finish line.

Please join us:

Big Gig "How Can Google Not Love Us?" Happy Hour and Tweetup
Sponsored by Big Gig Austin
Tuesday, Mar. 23, 5:30pm
The Highball, 1142 S. Lamar Blvd. (map)

Happy hour specials until 7:00pm: $2 Lone Stars, $2 pints and $4 wells. Plus free karaoke.

Hang out for Geeks Who Drink at 8:30pm.

Thanks to the groovy cats at The Highball for hosting us.

Co-sponsored by: Slackerwood, Helios Project.

The Big Gig Austin effort continues tonight, with a public forum to discuss the Austin response to the Google "Fiber for Communities" initiative. The forum is sponsored by the Community Technology and Telecommunications Commission.

Public Forum
Wed, Mar 10, 7:00 PM
Austin City Hall
Room 1101, Boards & Commissions Room
301 W. Second St.
Austin, TX
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/cityhall/visit.htm

The public is invited to attend and participate.

The forum is tentatively scheduled to be cablecast live on City of Austin cable channel 6, and streamed live online at: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/channel6

Statement by Chip Rosenthal
"Big Gig Austin" Press Conference
March 9, 2010

I'm Chip Rosenthal. I'm the chair of the Austin Community Technology and Telecommunications Commission. One of our jobs is to advise the City on what the people of Austin want for technology services. I'm here today to say that the people of Austin want Google to select Austin for their gigabit trial network project.

Within hours of the Google announcement, there were flurries of emails and tweets all across Austin. People were asking our city leaders to respond to the Google proposal – and they have. The Mayor and City Council have unanimously passed a resolution to submit a response to Google. City Manager Marc Ott and city staff have been working aggressively to produce a response that documents why Austin is the best place in the nation for Google to build their gigabit network.

That's what the people of Austin have asked for. And that's what the City is doing. That's great – but it's not enough.

This is not a standard company recruitment effort. The City isn't offering any economic incentives to Google. The City can't – and Google doesn't want them anyways.

I wrote previously that the City of Austin is working on a response to the Google "Fiber for Communities" request for information (RFI). I've met with City Council and city staff members, and everybody is enthused about the opportunity.

That's great -- but it's not enough.

If Austin is going to convince Google to build here, it's going to take a strong community response. In fact, there is a whole section of questions for the City to document the community response to the initiative.

The "Big Gig Austin" initiative has been created by a number of supporters, who want to work in support of the Google RFI. We've got about one month to document how incredibly badly Austin wants this network to be built here.

The official rollout of the project will be happening in the next few days. In the meantime, we've created a couple of resources.

• Twitter Account - You can connect to us on Twitter at @BigGigAustin.
• Facebook Group - You can join other supporters on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=337158056344

24-Hour Twitter Campaign

If, in the next 24 hours, if we can get 200 people to follow @BigGigAustin, I'll ask the City to put us in a press release. I know there have been discussions about sending out a press release about the Google fiber project. If we can get that kind of following so quickly, I'll ask the City to cite us in their press release as an example of how Austin is rallying behind this project.

So let's make the news. Follow @BigGigAustin and tweet your friends to join.

On Wednesday, the Austin City Council Committee for Emerging Technology and Telecommunications discussed the Google Fiber for Communities initiative. All three members (Councilmembers Laura Morrison, Randi Shade, Chris Riley) enthusiastically supported the project. They asked City staff to begin working on our response, and they promised to bring a motion for support before the full City Council. The councilmembers also directed city staff to work closely with the community, to get their support and assistance.

Today, I got the following email from Rondella Hawkins, the Manager of Telecommunications and Regulatory Affairs for the City of Austin. That's the department that is coordinating the City of Austin response. She is asking citizens to act in support of the RFI.

So to everybody who has been asking what you can do to bring the Google fiber network to Austin ... here you go!

Hello,

As you probably already know, the City is submitting an application to Google’s RFI to build FTTH fiber network here in Austin with a fast-approaching deadline of March 26th!!! We all know that Austin is the perfect test community for Google’s fiber network pilot.

You can help support Austin by completing Google's separate on-line application for residents and community groups. This in addition to the City's application.

Please note that you will need a Google email account (gmail.com).

Here is link: http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi/public/options

Don’t forget to spread the word to others! The city will launch a publicized campaign but I wanted to get the word out.

Thanks!

Rondella M. Hawkins
Manager of the Office of Telecommunications & Regulatory Affairs

In October, the Austin City Council considered a new ordinance to ban texting while driving. Numerous concerns were raised. The ordinance passed, but enactment was delayed until January 1, 2010. That was to allow for public education, and to review the concerns raised.

Discussion since then has focused on two primary problems with the ordinance.

First, the ordinance is vague and confusing. It isn't entirely clear what is prohibited and what is permitted. For instance, if you sync a note to your iPhone and glance at it later while driving, would that be a violation or not? It's hard to say.

Much of the confusion is based in the atrocious – borderline nonsensical – definition of an "electronic message" (§ 12-1-1) that was adopted:

Last October, the Austin City Council passed an ordinance that would outlaw texting while driving. The ordinance is scheduled to go into effect beginning of January.

Several people (including myself) raised concerns at the time of passage. Mayor Pro Tem Martinez postponed enactment from November to January to give the City an opportunity to do a public outreach campaign, as well as allow the community to review those concerns.

During this time, the ordinance has been discussed three times before various committees and commissions. Tonight it's scheduled to be discussed at the Community Technology and Telecommunications Commission meeting.

The Austin City Council is poised to take action tomorrow (Thursday, Oct. 22) that will make our city the laughing stock of the interwebs.

The issue is agenda item 28 at tomorrow's City Council meeting:

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/council_meetings/item_attachments.cfm?meeting...

The action is to pass an ordinance that they are calling a "texting while driving" ban. Except that's not what it is.

The Council is considering a total ban on any use of cellular data while driving, no matter how innocuous or harmless. Rather than ban dangerous behavior (say, typing on a keyboard while driving), this ordinance simply bans anything to do with cellular data.

If you download driving instructions to your phone before leaving home and glance at them while the car is in motion, you've broken this law. Under this law, the address that you'd scrawl on a piece of paper somehow becomes a driving hazard if it's on your phone.

If you look at the time on your phone and have a wallpaper that you downloaded across the mobile internet, you've broken this law. Under this law, information becomes a driving hazard merely because its transmitted by cellular network.

If you use voice-to-text functions to dictate an SMS, you've broken this law. You've created an electronic message and that will be prohibited.

Even if you keep both hands on the wheel and attention on the road at all times, if you interact with mobile cellular data in almost any fashion, then you've broken this law. How stupid is that?

The ordinance is poorly written, overly broad, and just doesn't have the facts behind it.

Yes, the ordinance is bad, but the way it's being done is even worse. Council is trying to ram this through without public review. The language was finished only a week ago. It was released to the press with misleading headlines that downplay the scope of the ban. Council is refusing to allow this to come before citizen boards and commissions for review and input.

This thing is on a fast track to be done before anybody realizes what's happened.

Can you please take 3 minutes right now and ask them to postpone action on the cellular device ban?

Do it here: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/council/groupemail.htm

We got some really good coverage of the DTV Transition issue today.

The news has been reporting the Nielsen statistic that Austin is currently the fourth least prepared city in the nation. That's the bad news, here is the good news: the report two weeks prior had us listed as third, and the local rate of improvement is outpacing the national average. So there's hope that with the added attention we can close the gap during these final days of the transition.

Many news outlets reported on the DTV Walk-In Centers that were announced by the city.

I talked to several local news outlets today.

News 8 Austin was on location all morning, do live reports every half hour. Thanks to Heidi and her crew for rolling out so early and giving the issue so much coverage. Here is her story: City aims to help as DTV transition deadline looms

Jenny Hoff of KXAN channel 36 came by and did a live report noontime. Here is her piece: One stop shop for DTV

Finally, Jeff Beckham of Austinist did his part to keep the local hipster population informed: City Stepping In To Help With DTV Transition

Thanks everybody for the good coverage today.