Hello again, I hope you're all well :). I mentioned recently that I wasn’t sending a lot of updates out because I was waiting to hear back from the COB on several issues surrounding public fiber. I finally received an update from the city’s policy analyst, Mark Gardner, about the status of several actions surrounding public fiber. I’ll list them in order then elaborate. Here is the text from the e-mail I received. This was obviously written quickly by a very busy person. “We are meeting with Mt. Vernon and Anacortes staff (and JD Sinclair) day after tomorrow (October 4th).  Skype-in is scheduled with Christopher M. for Oct. 23 Council meeting.   We have other out-of-town consultants scheduled to present that day as well; there is a possibility we’d move Christopher’s presentation to early November so we don’t run out of time.  Report will be ready for either the Oct. or Nov. meeting.” -- Mark Gardner (COB Policy Analyst)  Overall this is potentially good news, but only if our officials are actually taking it seriously. For example, I checked with Christopher Mitchell of Community Broadband Networks (the nation’s top expert on public fiber networks) about his Skype meeting with the council and he informed me that although the COB has told me that they will meet with him via Skype on the 23rd they have given him no updates. So how do we know if they’re taking this seriously or just putting on a show? It’s actually pretty easy. If they only involve private providers that are currently benefiting from the status quo, then we know they’re not taking it seriously. They have done this in the past. Also, If they don’t ask the following questions we’ll know they’re not taking it seriously and/or trying to squash it. Here they are: 1. Ask for an overview of the social and economic benefits of a public fiber system over private providers. 2. What are the advantages of an FTTH (Fiber To The Home) network over wireless? What are the potential hazards of wireless? (Note: Even the FCC says that enough studies have NOT been done on the effects of wireless on children, meaning even fewer have been done on the effects on other animals and our environment in general). 3. How do we lower the cost of connecting to the network initially? How do these costs compare to connecting to Comcast, CenturyLink, or other private providers for the first time?  4. What are the advantages to a Democratic society to having Net-Neutral broadband over Anti-Net Neutral providers? How is this strengthened by having local providers and more local self-reliance? 5. How do we assure adequate access for everyone? (Meaning at least a 50 down/10 up connection as a basic right for all citizens like the Canadians are doing, using net-neutral, preferably local, providers). This of course requires admitting that the current low-income options are inadequate and of course needs to be city and county wide. Having it in a few pockets here and there isn't good enough. Also, if the city cites the outdated Comcast report, which has a sample size that’s too small to be relevant and didn’t look at enough neighborhoods to be accurate, from over 7 years ago, or they allow any of the providers to submit equally poorly created, biased, reports provided by themselves or paid off 3rd parties we’ll know they’re stacking the deck. For example, GeekWire released a report where they gushed all over CenturyLink a couple of years ago, but they're corporate sponsors include Comcast and CenturyLink. Here is a link to the report: https://www.cob.org/documents/issues/2010-05-kramer-comcast-physical-plant-inspection.pdf I am trying to remain optimistic, but blowing this kind of initiative off in an elaborate way would sadly not be out of character for our current government. Remember, two of our candidates lied outright about their support for something like this to the Young Democrats. They were Pink Vargas and Roxanne Murphy. In fact, they gushed over CenturyLink at the 7/24 meeting. The video is available here: https://www.cob.org/gov/Pages/meeting-materials.aspx Now is the time to push for a lot of signatures. Also, if you'd like to write to the mayor or your councils here is their contact info. The Mayor -- mayorsoffice@cob.org City Council -- ccmail@cob.org County Council -- council@co.whatcom.wa.us Mark Gardner (policy analyst preparing the report) -- mgardner@cob.org (Note: If you are a Batman fan you can also compliment then on the awesome 60's/70's Batman Comics font they used for the City Hall lettering).