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Subject: Chapel Hill Technology Advisory Committee

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  • From: Terri Buckner <tbuckner AT ibiblio.org>
  • To: chtechcomm AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Chtechcomm] Quick Notes from Last Night
  • Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 12:45:32 -0400

Quick Notes: These notes are not offered in place of official meeting minutes—only as a courtesy to those who were not present at last night’s meeting. If anyone disagrees with what is written here or feels something crucial has been omitted, please post your revisions (we will not discuss them).

Called to Order: 5:30 pm

Attending: Aris, Brandon, Brian, Alan, Martha, David,Uzoma, Will, Jeremy, Ralph, Terri
Guests: Bob, Arek, Chad Johnston


Wireless/Municipal Network

Andrea Rohrbacher, Chair, Board of Directors, DEDC, and I agreed to call an initial meeting toward the end of August to start discussing the downtown wireless initiative. Representatives from UNC, CHCCS, Town of Carrboro, DEDC and the IT committee will be included in the initial meeting. The committee decided (by unanimous vote) to identify a subcommittee to represent the IT Committee. Following the first Initiative group meeting, the subcommittee will report back on the initial scope of expectations, and the full committee will determine the parameters of the subcommittee involvement and communication protocols. We should all keep in mind that this committee is tasked with making recommendations to Council on the "feasibility" of a downtown wifi network, to include Pine Knolls and Northside.

Volunteers for the subcommittee are:

<>Jeremy Collins
Alan Polak
Brian Russell
Brandon Perkins
Terri Buckner (temporary)

If the full committee, or any subset thereof, disagrees with the feasibility report prepared by this subcommittee, a dissenting opinion report will be submitted to Council along with the subcommittee recommendations.

We looked at two maps, one that delineated the boundaries of both Pine Knolls and Northside and another of Northside only. Should UNC/CHCCS decide to collaborate on this Initiative, Pine Knolls potentially offers a very easy and relatively inexpensive rollout using university-owned fiber from Lincoln Center. If, due to limitations of the Internet2 agreement and the Umstead Act, UNC is unable to participate in this project, Bob Avery has identified four (4) government-owned structures in the Northside area that also have the potential for quick rollout. He and Will discussed the format (wifi v. wimax v. something else) and the relative cost of each. The subcommittee will pursue each of these options as well as others.

Will requested that we begin referring to the "wifi initiative" as the "municipal network" initiative.


Objectives and Actions Proposal

The document distributed over the weekend identifying 3 objectives and associated actions was developed in response to last month's discussion on committee structure and how to proceed with the strategic plans. This document, which I agreed to draft at the July meeting, is intended to serve as the 'cover sheet' for the three excellent strategic plans submitted to Council in April. Since neither the Mayor nor the Town Manager recognized those documents as strategic plans, this non-technical document is a proposal of what could be submitted to Council, a document they can understand and endorse, to allow us to proceed with the work identified in the strategic plans. Although the details of the strategic plans are not identified in this document, each "recommendation" can be fit into one of the three objectives.

Our Council liaison has reviewed the document and feels that it is headed in the right direction but suggested that we add in language to help Council members understand where the three (3) initiatives they have approved will fit in (Open Source, wifi, redistribution of used computers).

Committee members are asked to review this document and send any comments directly to me (tbuckner AT ibiblio.org) before Monday September 12 (I just added this date--wasn't discussed last night). I will incorporate comments and distribute a revised draft by Thursday, September 15 for discussion at our regularly scheduled meeting on September 20.


Technology Planning

Our Council liaison has informed us that our (several) requests to include the IT Committee in planning review process have been heard and that sometime this fall, we should expect to begin receiving concept plans. Mark didn’t have details on when this review would be formalized or under what conditions, but we should expect to hear more about this in September. In preparation for this enormous responsibility, the committee will need to move immediately to begin determining standards we might use to communicate with developers and other Town departments. No action was taken on this item, although the level of detail for the standards was discussed and general consensus appeared to be that the standards should be broad and directed at future growth capacity. Further discussion should be postponed until we have clarification from Council.


Electronic Meetings

The group decided not to take any action on the petition submitted to the Town Manager on August 3. It is unknown at this time whether the petition will be included in the agenda for the Council’s first meeting in September. The group was split (5-5) on whether to endorse the proposal as written. Therefore this item should be included on the September agenda.

Adjourned: 7:05 pm






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