Part 56: Fiber to Wireless: Part One: "Crosby meets CENIC"
Channel: Libraries In Response
Date: 2021-09-21

Join two national leaders on broadband and digital inclusion for an illuminating hour of updates and vision!

Hear from Louis Fox, CENIC CEO, who oversees the $3.25 billion CA Broadband Middle-Mile Network, described as "...the most ambitious state digital equity effort in the history of the public internet."
  
"This, and other related efforts in other states, will remake the broadband ecology and forever change the R&E world much as the privatization of the NSFnet or the advent of dark fiber networks did."
 
Guiding principles as a framework for middle-mile implementation:
• Provide affordable, open-access, middle-mile broadband infrastructure to enable last-mile network connectivity throughout the state.
• Build the network expeditiously, leveraging existing infrastructure, networks, and construction projects, where feasible.
• Prioritize connectivity to unserved and underserved communities, including community institutions.
 
Listen also to Crosby Kemper, IMLS Director and former Board Chair of Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition

"COVID-19 has not only created a public health emergency, but it has also created a deep need for trusted community information, education, and connection that our libraries and museums are designed to provide.” 
 
  "There's a lot of love for libraries and for museums inside the Beltway,"