usucansponsor

[Tim Lance <>]

Dear Mark,

 

The bias question isn’t a criticism but just a question.  I think using crowd sourcing is brilliant, and the question becomes what to do with the information.  If you used as a definition of broadband “Directly peers with AWS at 100G” you’d get a hit from us, but that information is useless.  I like the categories you have and would be interested to know percentage of population making use of services that are available.

 

Whatever those percentages are, improving them is really hard. A lot of that depends on poverty.  But policies can get in the way.  New York State really blew implementation of Common Core.  In principle I saw it as an opportunity for a reset and a chance to equip students with higher skills in reading, writing, and math.   But it became too politicized and we missed that opportunity.  The kids, and often their parents, with lower skills will not make rich use of broadband even if it is available. 

 

I wish I knew an answer.  When I was a math department chair I got involved with the schools and believe we made a difference, but only for a relatively small population without a clear path to scaling up.  Like your project there was no sustainability, as my only resource was the sweat equity of a dedicated few.

 

Regards,

Tim   

 

From: [mailto:]
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2018 8:54 AM
To: Tim Lance <>
Cc: James Werle <>;
Subject: Re: recently updated FCC national broadband map

 

You are probably correct in surmising that crowdsourcing biases against poorly connected areas (and the people who live in them). You have to see the map to offer additional data. 

 

On Thu, Mar 15, 2018 at 8:51 AM, Tim Lance <> wrote:

Dear Mark and James,

 

The broadbandcatalyst map is fascinating and, in areas where I feel I have some knowledge, seems to be accurate.  In places with enormous availability I know there are still populations who are without.  Does the crowd sourcing involve technologies that carries a perhaps unavoidable bias against those populations?

 

Regards,

Tim

 

From: [mailto:] On Behalf Of
Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2018 10:37 PM
To: James Werle <>
Cc:
Subject: Re: recently updated FCC national broadband map

 

The problems with FCC-collected Form 477 data are well known. Little has been done to fix those problems and while the mapping projects funded by NTIA under the BTOP program helped many have run out of funding. The map below, developed by a group from North Carolina, uses crowd sourcing to begin resolving the problems and improving resolution. This project does not have sustainable long-term funding though. 

 

 

http://www.broadbandcatalysts.com/

 

On Wed, Mar 14, 2018 at 10:07 PM, James Werle <> wrote:

Has anyone had a moment to take a deep dive into the newly released National Broadband Map?  https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov/

 

I curious to hear what folks think about it.  The provider submitted Form 477, updated 2x per year seems to be the data source informing the map. 

 

A couple of initial comments – 1) providing the public with a way to feedback on whether the provider information is accurate for their locale is an essential feature that is currently missing.  2) searching the area I know best, my home neighborhood, I noticed several errors and omissions.  I’m curious to hear if others are seeing for their zip code.  3) A bill has been introduced to move the mapping function to NTIA https://billjohnson.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=399321.  This will be worth watching.

 

Best,

James