The Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University is a public policy institute whose mission is to explore and understand cyberspace. Read the Center’s just-released long-researched case study on WiredWest. WiredWest: a Cooperative of Municipalities Forms to Build a Fiber Optic Network. Western Massachusetts Towns Create a New Model for Last-Mile Connectivity, but a [...]
Read the Report It recently became clear that a rational, data driven analysis comparing the financial impacts of regionalization with towns going it alone was needed for all involved. Only with such a comparison could towns make informed, eyes wide open, decisions on how best to proceed with bringing broadband to their citizens. And this [...]
Tim Newman (WiredWest Spokesperson and Delegate from New Marlborough) and Bob Labrie (WiredWest Executive Committee, Treasurer and Delegate from Goshen) are interviewed for this piece that showcases the efforts small towns are making to bring high speed internet to rural America. Click here for a link to the story and accompanying transcript. While cable companies [...]
The WiredWest Board of Directors has unanimously approved a substantial revision to its structural framework in response to concerns expressed by some member towns and by the MBI (Massachusetts Broadband Institute). The changes in the Regional Broadband Operational Plan, as the model is now called, address three specific areas: ownership of network assets, ability of [...]
Notes from May 10, 2016 meeting between Governor Baker and invitees from Western Mass ATTENDEES: Baker Administration and state officials: Governor Baker, Lt. Governor Polito, Secretary Jay Ash, Carolyn Kirk, (Deputy Secretary of Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development), Sean Cronin (Senior Deputy Commissioner of Division of Local Services [part of DOR]), Peter Larkin (MBI), [...]
May 10 meeting between Western Mass Town Broadband representatives and the Governor Attendees: Governor Baker, Lt Gov Polito, Secretary Jay Ash, Carolyn Kirk, (Deputy Secretary of Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development), Sean Cronin (Senior Deputy Commissioner of Division of Local Services [part of DOR]), Peter Larkin (MBI), Bill Ennen (MBI), Ed Donnelly (MBI), [...]
Susan Crawford is one of the three authors of the WiredWest Case Study. What Elizabeth Warren is to the Financial Services Sector, Susan Crawford is to Telecommunications Industry and the Internet. In this personal blog she expresses her dismay over the Commonwealth’s handling of the now-stalled effort to bring modern internet infrastructure to rural Western Mass (and indirectly [...]
Sign the Petition Now! Our towns are withering. Without broadband, the future of small Western Massachusetts towns is bleak... We've been living on wrong side of the digital divide for years, not able to fully participate in 21st century life and falling further behind year by year. But as last summer came into bloom, it looked like [...]
Governor Charlie Baker expresses his point of view on the Commonwealth's Broadband Project and his reasons for insusting on a delay, and then takes comments and questions from the audience at a meeting of municipal leaders from Hampshire & Franklin Counties sponsored by Senate President Stan Rosenberg on 4/9/16 at Greenfield Community College. Town Leaders answer back, expressing [...]
