Bice C. Wilson's FCC National Broadband Strategy Testimony

Offered Dec. 11, 2009

At Columbia University

My Background

My name is Bice C. Wilson. I’m a 13th generation resident of the Hudson Valley Bio-region. I live in White Plains, NY, attended Architectural School in Brooklyn, and for nearly 30 years I’ve been one of the two Principals of Meridian Design Associates, Architects, P.C. based in Manhattan.

I am, by profession, a place maker - an architect, and urban planner.

Everything I do considers human interventions that affect the well-being and vitality of places. And so, my testimony today will concern the failure of our civic culture to appropriately plan how our nation's information and communications infrastructure could enhance Community, Cultural & Commercial Development in the neighborhoods of our nation.

Shortcomings in Current US ICT Planning Culture

In 2008 it became clear to me that those building our information and communications technology (ICT) were acting as though their technology was evolving in a parallel universe, separate from the civic culture I am a part of, of design, public policy, planning and place-making.

In response, our firm established a brain storming process to explore this emptiness; the space between the world of ICT visionaries and the world of place-making; with participants from around the country - from libraries, technology companies, academia, designers, and entrepreneurs. This process was called DESIGNING THE INVISIBLE PUBLIC WAY, because the Broadband infrastructure we are strategizing about today is the bones of a new INVISIBLE public right of way.

INVISIBLE because; even though it is a brand new nervous system connecting the sense organs of our communities and institutions, threading its way through the urban fabric,; UNLIKE our roads and railroads, it is invisible and we do not talk about it ,

we do not intentionalize it,

we do not design it,

Our civic culture does not shape it for the well-being of our communities which are SO in need of the vitality made possible only by using this the new source of power –

Not water power,

Not steam power,

Not carbon fuel power,

- Information power.

Where information flows, new futures can happen.

Where It's Not, You Can't

In the Designing the Invisible Public Way (DIPW) process we coined a simple phrase that says it all –

“Where it’s not, you can’t”.

Where there is not the ability to connect into the World Wide Web, you cannot

Do commerce,

Trade information,

Build skills,

Share ideas,

Build human networks,

Make Creative Content

Have fun

Do ALL the things that people do there,

You pretty much can’t do anything that is going to connect you to contemporary Community, Culture & Commerce.

Where it’s not, you can’t

In addition we realized that there is already a VAST EXISTING NETWORK OF CREATIVE ECONOMY, KNOWLEDGE INDUSTRY AND HUMAN SERVICES INSTITUTIONS strewn through all the neighborhoods of our communities and cities,

(well, except for those dark spots, without access to the very institutions critical to the future success of their citizenry – but that’s for other testimony)

Each of these anchor institutions could, if provided with the vitality and potential that comes along with contemporary information and communications systems,

Could dramatically enhance the effectiveness of its core mission,

Could serve as a gateway for the skills building and subsequent use of these resources for its community and client groups, and

Could also serve as enhanced engines of community, cultural and commercial development.

Policy Recommendations:

• I suggest that community planners, economic development planners, concerned citizens and municipal officials should integrate this urban nervous system into the spectrum of concerns that are the focus of comprehensive community planning.

• The first step in accomplishing that integration will be to map the pattern of Anchor Institutions in our Community Geography, and to assess:



• the degree to which these institutions are served by world-class ICT resources and
• the capability of those institutions to utilize those resources that become available.

• One often hears the excuse that ICT network providers have to build towards reliable sources of revenue, such as buildings with paying customers or wealthy neighborhoods who can purchase premium entertainment products.For example, after 9/11/2001, Westchester COunty was contacted by myriads of potential businesses that wished to relocate to the county. There were many vacant office buildings without internet connectivity.
  
  Becuase they had no tenants, the local provider, who often had fiber passing the buildings, would not connect to them.
  
  
  Without connectivity, no business would locate there.
  
  
  This cost the county many jobs and much revenue.

• This argument is profoundly disturbing - such an argument would not be considered righteous in the context of the design of any other essential public right of way.
• I suggest that a policy should be established to:



• Incentivize the deployment of broadband resources broadly and universally to anchor institutions as an essential condition of granting franchises to the controlled monopolies for those services, and
• That strictly enforced penalties should ensue if providers fail to provide ubiquitous services - a failure that is woefully endemic in our nation.

I would like to place in the public record the URL of the collaboration website used in what has now become named “Designing the INTELLIGENT Public Way” –

www.dipw.meridiandesign.com

You will also find a link there to a focused study the brain-trust pursued exploring the application of the ideas developed to the future of the borough of the Bronx.

Thank you very much.

Copyright: Meridian Design Associates, Architects, P.C.