Josh Breitbart of People’s Production House (NYC) emphasizes that having the right process is paramount to the public interest in planning communications networks and enumerates 5 key process points that would serve us well in just about any public project.
The most important thing I’ve learned about municipal broadband as I’ve observed and analyzed the processes in Philadelphia, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Boston, and elsewhere is that there is no cookie-cutter solution, no easy answer. The critical thing to finding the right solution is having the right process of working towards that solution.
Here are the keys, as I’ve come to understand them, to a healthy process, one that minimizes conflicts and leads to solid results:
- Sustain open participation beyond the initial public hearing stage, through the entire process and continuing even a solution is implemented.
- Promote horizontal relationships among stakeholders rather than hub-and-spoke relationships that all connect to this committee or to any one person or organization.
- Unite stakeholders around shared technology rather than dividing them into tiers.
- Incorporate existing human resources wherever possible to avoid redundancy and to build on existing relationships.
- Be open with whatever information you gather: publish documents, test results, and regular updates on an accessible website and make them readily available to people without Internet access.
This above is extracted from Josh’s written testimony for the NYC Broadband Advisory Committee.