Here is an article by Bill Coleman recently printed in Blandin’s eNews:

While the H1N1 virus seems to be in remission, we are now witnessing the renewal of RUS BIP and NTIA BTOP fever. The NTIA BTOP CCI is especially contagious. The prescribed medication is demand aggregation, a concept that has driven community broadband planning for more than the past decade.

As people read the federal notice, they think, “This is written just for us!” It is written for them and almost everyone else who reads it. Who wouldn’t want an I-Net connecting government, health care, and education partners at 70% off retail price? Find a private sector provider who will come up with the 30% match and you get the public sector side for free! This concept works equally well at the municipal, county or regional levels – for rural, urban or suburban places. That is going to be one big stack of applications!

Before you submit an application that looks just like this, get your team together and ask some questions. First, what are we going to do with this network that will make us stand out from the others? What new ideas or collaborative behavior are we going to implement over this network? Ideas like merging ten rural counties into one unit of government would definitely get some attention. Merging ten rural county IT departments gets you part way there. Or creating a unified health care system linking hospitals (even competing ones), clinics, nursing homes and pharmacies together with shared records. Obviously, all of these big ideas require more than six weeks of discussion (Have you started yet?). These networks support all kinds of transformation, but are only one piece of the puzzle; the network is probably the easy part.

Another question revolves around existing networks and providers. Could one or a collaboration of existing providers provide this network? What is it that you are really seeking from such a network? While 144 strands of fiber in your own conduit sounds sweet, what if you had two, four or six multiplexed strands to connect to your partners and stakeholders? The MN High Speed Task Force called for more partnerships between communities and providers with the providers strongly endorsing this approach. Let’s give it a test.

Unlike the H1N1, the NTIA BTOP fever is guaranteed to pass in six weeks. For some, it will pass very quickly with early decisions not to apply. For others, the fever will intensify as the March 15 deadline gets closer, causing severe discomfort resulting from too many meetings, lost text revisions and partnership hurdles. All followed by a recuperation period of four to six months waiting for news from Washington D.C.
Smart communities will use this time to keep working on solutions rather than betting that their 1 in 20 long shot will come home.