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Wi Fi Captures Kent’s Attention...

Posted by dave in General on April 30, 2006 | No Comments

City Wi Fi Talk in the air

As City Manager it is not unusual to get quoted in the paper.  What was unusual was the amount of positive comments I received from people regarding a recent headline in the Record Courier announcing my interest to expand Kent Wi Fi opportunities.  Given the number of people who have called and offered their support for the idea, I’d like to continue that conversation and see if we can round-up some Kent experts and take advantage of the technology resources that are already here.

I am no Wi Fi expert but I’ve been doing my homework and the truth is you don’t have to look very hard before you find a lot of excellent examples of cities using Wi Fi technology to be a catalyst for new technology businesses.  After bouncing around big city examples, I found a great example of a medium sized city that partnered with the state university in town, the University of Georgia in Athens.

The City of Athens and the University saw an opportunity to collaborate and establish themselves as a nationally recognized center for mobile technology of which Wi Fi is a small but important piece.  They were thinking big and working together to achieve big.  I immediately thought of Kent and Kent State.

To get started they created an excellent  Market Report on Wi Fi which summarizes the state of Wi Fi roll out in a number of cities. Reports in this field get old in a hurry given the rapid state of technology evolution so there’s probably even better ones and if anyone knows of any I’d love to hear about them.

Here’s an excerpted summary of the Athens and University of Georgia project that captures exactly the kind of impact I think is possible here in Kent.

Athens and the WAGz
Our goal is to discover the future of mobile media; lucky for us, there’s no better place to do it than here. Athens, Georgia oozes creativity – in music, art, literature, and business. The Classic City understands the power of experimentation. So downtown Athens provides the ideal opportunity for tinkering with mobile media content. In the 24-block area of downtown Athens immediately adjacent to UGA, there are retail businesses and service providers, entertainment and dining venues, government offices, residential complexes . . . all within one wireless cloud.

The Wireless Athens Georgia Zone (WAGz) lights the public areas of downtown Athens with WiFi (802.11b) connectivity. Anyone with a WiFi-enabled device can access information about Athens and web-based projects designed by NMI students. In the WAGz, people can send and receive a variety of text, audio, and video information.

But the WAGz really isn’t about wireless technology. The WAGz is a mobile media sandbox in which we want to discover the compelling applications for wireless. The WAGz provides us with a real-world research test-bed where we can explore the types of mobile media content that will drive the wireless industry.

The Athens-Clarke County Unified Government has been an active supporter of our wireless initiatives, providing the power and poles to build our wireless cloud over Athens. And downtown companies are involved in exploring ways wireless can help streamline their businesses.

At the heart of Athens is the 605-acre University of Georgia campus, where technology plays an important role in almost every field. UGA’s comprehensive disciplines create an opportunity to apply wide-ranging knowledge to the mobile media examination. Faculty, staff, and students from all over UGA are playing important parts in the NMI wireless initiatives.

Related Information”…heavy with connections, communications and – mostly – possibilities.. And there are other, quirkier possibilities that play to the singularity that is Athens.”

Michael Kanell,
New Media Institute
University of Georgia

To get the full flavor check out the web site for the Mobile Media Consortium and see if you don’t get as excited as I was when I read about the possibilities.  I saw another interesting summary article in the National League of Cities newsletter (see page 2).

So where do we go from here in Kent?
Kent State University has some exceptional technology and communication resources and I hope we can build our own consortium.  But in the meantime, I need to understand the other resources here in town and to hear from you.

Even to get started, I’d like to know where Wi Fi is currently available in Kent.  I’ve seen it advertised in a couple of places but I’d like to start our own informal Kent inventory, so if you know of locations, please let me know. And likewise, if you know of people I should be talking to, also please let me know or have them contact me.

I’m sure there’s plenty of reasons we could come up with why this won’t work in Kent but I’m stubborn about not letting go of good ideas and I’ll keep asking “WHY NOT?”

Dave

City Manager Starting Something New In Kent...

Posted by dave in Recent Releases on April 28, 2006 | No Comments

[cue the music, Buffalo Springfield 1966]
“There’s something happening here…what it is ain’t exactly clear.”

[scroll pictures of recent Kent news clips]
“Kent Bicentennial Plan Wins National Award”
“Kent Dam Restoration Sets the Standard in Ohio”
“Kent Home to Hitachi Corporation’s National Medical Showcase Facility”
“Kent Company – RocketCalc – Receives Nation’s First Inter-Galactic Order From Space Station”
“Two New Bio-Technology Companies Look to Open in Kent With Tech Transfer Licenses from Kent State University”
“Right Dimensions Seeking to Transform Kent Downtown”

[lower music, zoom on city manager]

City Manager If you’re visiting this site to see what this blog business is all about, welcome aboard.

I’m not sure if after 11 months I technically still qualify for “new guy” status anymore but that won’t stop me from trying “new” things if I think they have a chance to make Kent better. That’s what this blog is all about.

Blogs aren’t actually all that new anymore. Everyone from CEO’s to city manager’s have jumped on the blogging band wagon. I’ve admired blogs for some time so I thought it was time to get on the Blog train too.

Blogs elevate and connect. They don’t rely on throwing information up over the wall and hoping for a safe landing on the other side, they tear down the wall and allow ideas to be exchanged in conversation. This is a quantum leap for interactive communication and is great news for citizen access and participation in their local government.

[cue man on street interview]

Man on Street But how is this blog actually going to help Kent?

City Manager In my first year on the job it’s become apparent that important issues affecting Kent’s future need to be talked about, debated, and pursued in a more meaningful way than time permits through the newspaper or in Council meetings alone. Quite frankly community building is too hard and too important to leave to chance. Prosperity is not inevitable – but it is achievable – if we’re willing to roll-up our sleeves and get our hands dirty. To me that’s what this blog is all about.

The blog is intended to be equal parts bulletin board, soap box and community journal. I am hoping it becomes our community canvass where we sketch new ideas to create a brave “new” Kent for the next generation of Kent kids who deserve to have as much here to enjoy as we have, and hopefully even more.


[cue woman in car asking question]

Woman So what sort of things will we talk about?

City Manager The best parts about blogs are their spontaneity and originality that comes from the free flow of conversations so I don’t have a grand plan for rolling out the blog.

That being said, I do anticipate postings that provide updates on existing/proposed city projects, postings referencing what other cities are doing on issues relevant to Kent, postings regarding economic development proposals, city finances, and Kent’s unconventionally interesting residents. I want to highlight the “good news” stories in Kent, post Kent happenings, and offer some insight into my own aspirations for the city and my leadership beliefs. My promise to you is to try to make each posting relevant but as interesting and unconventional as I can.

To personalize the blog I temporarily have my mug shot on the top until I can come up with a great way to convey the Kent 360 blog concept which is the real source of inspiration for the site. We need a graphic celebration of Kent and all it’s nuances, niches and degrees. I’m hoping we can create a window to see all of Kent through, and be a place to hear and be heard as Kent finds its own voice — hence the tag line, “many voices, one Kent.”

[fade to high school student with hand raised]

Student Are there rules for blogging?

City Manager Blogging doesn’t have an official rule book but it does operate with an unwritten compact to use the powers of blogging for good, not evil. Obviously, I hope that people will use the blog in a way that is productive rather than destructive.

Critical ideas are welcome but critical attacks and personal defamation need to be handled somewhere else. I want the site to be a place of reflection, good conversation and thoughtful debate rather than a weapon for berating others – so if it turns out that the replies are demeaning or profane we have the capability of pre-screening outside comments before they actually get posted on the site and we will turn that switch on if necessary; but I hope that people will honor the spirit of the site and be respectful towards the other 359 degrees of Kent opinions.

[cue to customer with lap top in Kent juice bar offering free Wi Fi internet access]

Customer Typing W-h-e-n      c-a-n     w-e      g-e-t      s-t-a-r-t-e-d ?

City Manager Pull up a chair and let’s see what happens.


[fade out, cue music, Black Eyed Peas, 2004]

“Let’s get it started…Let’s get it started.”

This is where the script ends and we begin improvising.

From this point forward we write our own story.

In my next posting I’d like to follow up with a little more discussion of the future of Wi Fi in Kent. If you’re interested, please come back. If not, thanks for making it this far. In the meantime, I welcome your thoughts on blogging.