Civil Defense - a weblog by Joshua Breitbart

The first public hearing of the New York City Broadband Advisory Committee is today.

Wakeup Call (6-9am on WBAI 99.5 fm) has been offering a solid introduction to the Committee and the issues, with Council Member Gale Brewer whose bill created the Committee and Laura Forlano from NYCwireless. I was on last week giving something of an introduction.

Now I see AMNY has an article about it in this morning’s paper, “NYC looks to catch up on broadband,” with a quote from yours truly:

“This is not just about wires in the ground and routers on a post,” said Joshua Breitbart, policy director of the People’s Production House, a media accessibility advocacy organization. “This is about the way New Yorkers will communicate for the next 100 years.”

The author contacted me through the blog. Cool. Thanks.

As Laura points out, this is really the first chance New Yorkers have to weigh in on our Internet future. For years already, city officials - from City Council, the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, the NYPD, Parks Department, and other agencies - have been making plenty of decisions about what kind of broadband Internet we should have in this city. They’ve heard testimony before, but only from industry experts and telecommunications corporations like Verizon and Time Warner. There were public hearings, but being open to the public and the public being invited are two very different things.

The important thing about this hearing is not only that it’s a chance to get your views on the record. The important thing about this hearing is that it is the end of the era where our communications future is determined behind closed doors.

So, if I don’t see you up in the Bronx today, I hope I see you - and hear you - at one of the hearings in the other boroughs.

Stay tuned here for a report on the hearing, my testimony, and more coverage from Wakeup Call.

The New York City Broadband Advisory Committee that we discussed in the New York’s Wireless Future panel is holding its first public hearing in the Bronx on Friday, March 30.

There has been a change in venue: The March 30th public hearing will now be held in the Gould Memorial Library Auditorium on the campus of Bronx Community College, University Ave. at W. 181st Street, from 10 am to Noon. (Get directions.)

The room holds something like 500 people. They’re expecting at least 200. Council Member Gale Brewer’s office (she’s the prime mover behind the BAC) is distributing a flyer, available as a pdf download. They’ve also set up a blog.

In order to promote awareness of the Committee and the hearing and to spark imagination of what that future could look like, Wakeup Call is producing a series on municipal broadband. Listen to me preview the series on this past Monday’s show.

That radio appearance finally motivated me to start up a podcast, which will include the entire series as well as the hearing. You can subscribe to the podcast here. And you can find the audio files in the sidebar of the blog.
Here is the list of BAC members, the first of which were appointed by the City Council while the second batch was appointed by the Mayor.

Council appointees:

• David Birdsell, Dean, Baruch College Graduate School of Public Affairs, City University of New York
• Neil Pariser, Senior Vice President, South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation (SoBRO)
• Andrew Rasiej, Founder of Personal Democracy Forum and MOUSE
• Jose Rodriguez, President and Founder, Hispanic Information and Telecommunications Network (HITN)
• Elisabeth Stock, President and Co-Founder, Computers for Youth (CFY)
• Nicholas Thompson, Senior Editor, WIRED Magazine
• David Wicks, Founding Partner, Alwyn Group, Former Cablevision executive

Mayoral appointees:

• Mitchel Ahlbaum, General Counsel and Deputy Commissioner for Telecommunications Services, New York City Department of Information Technologies and Telecommunications (DoITT)
• Shaun M. Belle, President and CEO, Mount Hope Housing Company
• Thomas Dunne, Vice President of Public Affairs, Policy and Communications, Verizon New York
• Avi Duvdevani, Chief Information Officer / Deputy General Manager, New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA)
• John J. Gilbert III, Executive Vice President / Chief Operating Officer, Rudin Management Company
• Wendy Lader, Vice President Telecommunications Policy, New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC)
• Howard Szarfarc, President, Time Warner Cable of New York and New Jersey
• Anthony Townsend, Research Director, Institute for the Future

I’ll have more commentary on the makeup of the BAC in the near future, but it’s obviously a mixed bag with a lot of people heavily invested in the status quo. That doesn’t mean we should boycott it, but it does mean that we have to be clear that it cannot be the final arbiter of our communications future.

The 9th annual Allied Media Conference:
“Breaking Silence, Building Movements”

June 22-24, 2007
Detroit, MI
www.amc2007.org

SESSION PROPOSAL DEADLINE IS MARCH 23.

The best thing about organizing the Allied Media Conference is hearing from you – whether you’re asking us to send you promotional materials (the new postcards are in and they are beautiful!), registering for the conference and posting to the website, or submitting your ideas for sessions – so we’re extending the deadline for session proposals to March 23. Send us your ideas, requests, and suggestions with this easy-to-use form.

See the original call for proposals.

People’s Production House is hiring. And we’re not the only ones.

The PPH position is for a community organizer working on our Digital Expansion Initiative. We’ll be working together, though I don’t know if that’s a plus or a minus. The goal of the project is to work with PPH’s community partners to define and campaign for meaningful broadband access in New York City.

Here’s the job description:

PPH is hiring a community organizer to spearhead a citywide campaign on a key media policy issue. The organizer will plan the campaign, reach out to community partners, develop materials, and educate partner organizations and their members. You will work closely with our Media Policy Director [that's me!], taking the research and studies produced by PPH and working them into the campaign and helping translate the needs and desires of our community partners into policy demands. No prior knowledge of media policy issues is required, but a distinct willingness to learn them is critical! We are looking for an awesome and experienced community organizer who can appreciate how important media policy issues are for low-income communities and communities of color, and can help us build momentum around media issues in New York City. We expect the world to be a different place as a result of your work here.

If you’re interested, send a cover letter stating why you want the job and what connection you see between media and community organizing, along with a resume to jobs@peoplesproductionhouse.org.

More than 15 other job announcements below…

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In media reform as in most political endeavors, direct action gets the goods. You don’t like the questions the corporate media are asking the decisionmakers? Ask ‘em your own questions.

The big news in the DC news biz every week is who will be appearing on the Sunday talk shows – Face The Nation (CBS), This Week (ABC), and Meet The Press (NBC). Those shows send out a press release with the lineups every Thursday.

Competing news agencies send interns or other rookies to sit outside of the corporate media studios in case the guests want to make any statements after the interview. There’s a microphone stand set up outside; sometimes the guests stop there on their way out of the interview and take some questions.

Those other news agencies don’t send more seasoned reporters because they don’t expect to get any of what they consider useful footage there. Also, this all takes place on a Sunday morning when many of their employees would rather be in bed.

A couple of months ago, some enterprising media activists joined the post-talk show gaggle in order to ask the questions no one else is asking. The project is called The Washington Stakeout and is the work of DC Indymedia veterans and Sam Husseini, best known for his work with the Insititute for Public Accuracy.

If you check the site, you can see the Stakeout asking questions about Israel’s nuclear weapons of John Edwards and about pre-Iraq war intelligence of Colin Powell.

Washington DC is basically a series of concentric boxes, each one designed to keep you from thinking outside of its borders. It’s refreshing to see this kind of imaginative yet straightforward media activism in this town.

Allied Media Conference contributors Invincible and Climbing PoeTree will be part of the “Trinity of the Holy Coasts,” a remarkable multi-genre performance event in Oakland this weekend. You’ll see many other AMC organizers, contributors, and participants there, as well. It’s exactly the kind of collaborative efforts the AMC is all about. You do not want to miss it.

Here are the details…

 

Trinity Of The Holy Coasts

Brooklyn + Detroit + Oakland

A Night That Will Unite The Nation – One Night Only!!!

In a move that is sure to make mountains tremble in the world of hip hop and launch a new era of tri-coastal artist collaboration, the most daring up and coming artists in the country have come together for a single event. Artists from Brooklyn, Detroit, and Oakland will bring together East, West, and Midwest into a blazing hot showcase of pure talent.WHAT: “Trinity of the Holy Coasts” a night of multi genre performances that will rock our world.

WHEN: Saturday, March 17th,

WHERE: House of Stormz / 1439 105th Avenue / Oakland, California

COST OF ENTRY: $5-10 sliding scale

FEATURING:

Alixa & Naima a.k.a. Climbing PoeTree (representing Brooklyn)

Invincible (of Anomolies/bling47) and

Ri Ri Garcia, (both repping Detroit)

Tru Bloo (of NaR),

PLUS DJ Emancipacion (soul sistah’s kitchen/the W) and

DJ Black Ndalight (soul sistah’s kitchen, Dream EZ) (all holding down Oakland)

Hosted by Oakland’s Micia Mosely, comedienne extraordinaire.

MORE INFO:

Alixa and Naima – A tattoo artist from Colombia and a gymnast from the back roads of Massachusetts, their powers combined they are the Heart Beat Soul Sister Artist Warrior duo “Climbing PoeTree.” Alixa and Naima have blazed stages from Oakland to Atlanta, South Africa to Cuba. They have led workshops in institutions from Cornell University to Rikers Island. And they have painted murals on walls from the Bronx, to Santiago, to Jamaica. Climbing PoeTree uses their art to expose injustice, heal from violence, and generate vision to help us all.

Ri Ri Garcia – Redefining the word “remix”, Mariaelena “RiRi” Garcia is a renaissance woman: indeed. A vocalist, lyricist, drummer, producer and DJ, Ms. Garcia’s multi-talents have taken her to many stages. She has played for thousands at such places as the legendary Nectarine Ballroom (now called The Necto) in Ann Arbor, Michigan and most recently at the 2006 San Francisco Pride Celebration. Truly mastering the technique of “Reading the Crowd”, earning the moniker, “Rimarkable”, her style can range from everything to Dusty Grooves, New Wave, Deep House, even Polka, and to the dirtiest Hip-Hop. “If it’s got a beat, I WILL make you dance,” she says.

Invincible – Detroit based emcee Invincible scripts lyrics to communicate both personal experience and a desire to affect social change. Through her clear delivery, witty wordplay, and conceptual songwriting she reminds listeners, you dont have to choose between style and substance. Though several labels tried to sign her, Invincible forewent the easy way to a record deal, taking the independent route, and in the hoopla XXL dubbed her “Every A&Rs Worst Nightmare” in a 2002 feature. 1/5th of the all female hiphop collective- Anomolies crew, she has appeared on the critically acclaimed Platinum Pied Pipers “Triple P” album, and most recently returned from a European tour with Bahamadia and Stacy Epps. Splitting her time between community work, youth organizing, and constant touring, Invincible is recording her debut solo EP coming out in 07, and full length album through Bling47.

Tru Bloo – As a young Arab-American, poetry and songwriting became a significant outlet for Tru Bloo. She began performing at open mics at age 15, addressing various issues of societal discrimination. As the years passed, she became painfully conscious of both the beauty and hardship of being a queer and gender-variant Arab-American. In 2002, Tru Bloo started doing hip hop shows in the Bay Area, New Orleans, and Chicago. In late 2004, she met Bennu, her partner in lyricism, and they formed NaR. This creation was to be the first-ever queer Arab hip hop duo. (NaR says, “We give props to the queer palestinian-hawaiian artist Juha, who came before us.”) Their lyrical acrobatics come with honesty, rage, and healing. Tru Bloo is also an attorney who represents the local poor and homeless population in San Francisco, in order to obtain disability benefits.

DJ Emancipacion

DJ Black ndalight

We recorded the “New York’s Wireless Future” panel at the 2007 NYC Grassroots Media Conference. You can listen to it on the People’s Production House site.

These local broadband projects are so critical because we have no national broadband strategy. France, Holland, South Korea, and Japan have all blown past the US in connection speeds and prices because they have made broadband construction a national priority and have developed strategies to get the job done.

As a result, decisions about local investment in broadband infrastructure – all of these local muniwireless battles – will determine the way we communicate for the next 100 years. Because we have no national broadband strategy, these decisions are being made at the local level, by mayors and city councils, and that is where we need to act.

So I encourage everyone in New York to attend the first public hearing of the NYC Broadband Advisory Committee on March 30, from 9 AM - 11 AM, in the rotunda of Bronx Borough Hall, 851 Grand Concourse.

Here’s the full announcement…

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