MAIN’s future includes ‘wifi on steroids’ and a higher-power MAIN–FM, says Wally Bowen (update

The future of the Mountain Area Information Network (MAIN) was detailed at a Nov. 17 meeting led by Executive Director Wally Bowen. The following is an aggregation of tweets by Xpress reporter Jake Frankel, who attended the meeting.

“It’s no big secret I’ve been diagnosed with ALS… But I really enjoy this work.,” Bowen says.

I want to get things with MAIN in order so I can move on to other things.

MAIN [has been] focused on building our own online and broadband infrastructure. We first started organizing in ‘93.

“Tea Party General Assembly for outlawing municipal broadband networks this year.” But MAIN is OK because it’s set up as a [nonprofit] company.

Big companies in WNC now have access to broadband, but we still need to help rural folks, small businesses in the country.

Federal stimulus money has been very helpful in allowing the Education and Research Consortium of the Western Carolinas (ERC) to expand broadband fiber in WNC. It’s remarkable.

But fiber isn’t feasible in most rural areas, so MAIN uses “mesh” tech wi-fi to connect wireless hot spots. [In addition] we have a experimental license from FCC to test “wi-fi on steroids” using vacant TV channel white space. We will soon be using wi-fi to enable “smart” refrigerators, washing machines, etc [for energy savings].

If local organizations don’t set broadband controls, Wall Street and big utility companies will.

Using cloud computing effectively is a huge piece of the puzzle. MAIN’s cloud platform will help level the playing field.

We’re hoping to strengthen MAIN–FM’s radio signal within 30 days. It will be heard better across AVL and Buncombe County. Now that the radio station’s signal will be stronger, we need more community journalism voices. We’re seeking help. We’re looking to expand our board in this critical time of transition. We’re looking to partner with the community.

UPDATE: Wally Bowen provided a follow-up statement to his remarks at the meeting:

Media infrastructure is key to local self-reliance in WNC

ASHEVILLE – Communities must become self-reliant in broadband and media infrastructure to achieve sustainability, said media activist Wally Bowen, founder and executive director of the nonprofit Mountain Area Information Network (MAIN).

Speaking Nov. 17 to local economic and social justice leaders about the future of MAIN, Bowen compared broadband and media infrastructure to navigable rivers, trading routes, rail lines, and electric utilities that were critical for sustainable communities in earlier eras. “In the 21st century,” he said, “community-owned media infrastructure is essential for green jobs, economic justice, and sustainability.”

Bowen made his remarks as MAIN begins a search for new leadership in the coming year. Bowen has been diagnosed with ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. He is speaking out, he said, to ensure that community leaders understand MAIN’s pivotal role in the region’s growing sustainability movement.

He said all communities over time face a “self-reliance” question: “Should we self-provision critical infrastructure or depend on Wall Street and the markets?”

“This question has never been more relevant than today because broadband access to the Internet and World Wide Web has been captured by Wall Street and a cable/telephone duopoly, and Congress appears unwilling or unable to restore nondiscrimination rules which governed the Internet until 2005,” he said.

Bowen said that local economies will soon be embedded in what IT experts call the “Internet of Things,” a world in which everyday objects from cars to household appliances will be WiFi-enabled.

Likewise, personal energy consumption via “smart-grid” technologies will be subject to real-time management. “This continuously connected world depends on broadband, and if that broadband is only available from the cable or phone company, you can be sure that the economics will be rigged in favor of Wall Street at the expense of Main Street,” he said.

Fortunately, history shows that local communities can choose self-reliance over dependency, Bowen said.

In 1889, Statesville, N.C., opted for self-reliance by building its own municipal power system after failing to attract an investor-owned utility. Half a century later, said Bowen, most American farms still lacked electricity, so Congress passed the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 to help finance nonprofit rural electric cooperatives.

In the 1980s, Morganton, N.C. opted for self-reliance by expanding its municipal power system to offer cable TV, after years of complaints – including the 1982 blackout of the UNC-Georgetown national championship game – about its commercial cable provider.

Bowen cautioned that corporate interests often oppose local communities which “self provision” critical infrastructure. Morganton’s commercial cable-TV provider sued the city to block its cable venture. Only in 1993, after a decade-long legal battle, did Morganton win the right to self-provision cable TV. Today, Morganton’s municipal cable system offers broadband Internet access at competitive rates and with no contract.

But the municipal broadband option in North Carolina is history. Last May, the cable and telephone companies successfully lobbied the N.C. General Assembly to ban any new municipal broadband networks.

“That means the only option left for communities seeking broadband self-reliance is the nonprofit model pioneered by MAIN,” said Bowen. Nonprofit networks, like rural electric cooperatives, are part of the private sector, he said. Unlike public networks, “the cable and phone companies can’t pass a law to make us disappear.”

The benefits of broadband self-reliance work hand-in-glove with sustainability efforts, he said. Community broadband keeps Internet dollars in the local economy and builds social capital, an essential ingredient for sustainability. While absentee-owned networks outsource jobs and IT expertise, local networks keep these assets local.

“Social capital happens when a local entrepreneur runs into the local network engineer at their kids’ soccer game and brainstorms a new app for promoting local businesses,” said Bowen. “These interactions are routine in places like Silicon Valley and Research Triangle Park.” By contrast, communities dependent on absentee-owned networks forfeit social capital to more urban and affluent areas, undermining their prospects for sustainability, he said.

Greg Wilson, a climate scientist and entrepreneur who moved to Madison County from Atlanta, told the audience about his business venture gathering and marketing critical climate data from his mountaintop office. His venture requires broadband access, and only MAIN was able to provision his remote location, he said.

Over the last decade, Western North Carolina has pioneered the community broadband option via more than 500 miles of nonprofit fiber-optic lines, said Bowen. These networks include ERC Broadband serving Asheville and adjacent counties; Pangaea in Polk and Rutherford counties; French Broad EMC in Madison and Yancey counties; and Balsam West serving the region’s far western counties.

But Bowen cautioned that these fiber networks are “wholesale” providers for major institutions such as schools, hospitals, government and major industries. They do not offer “retail” (or “last mile”) service for individual homes and businesses.

“MAIN is the only nonprofit last-mile provider in the region. That’s why we want to make sure that the critical community infrastructure represented by MAIN is not taken for granted during this time of leadership transition,” Bowen said.

He added that the transition would include an immediate expansion of MAIN’s Board of Directors plus a $50,000 capital campaign for strategic planning and executive director search.

Meanwhile, Bowen urged “buy local” advocates to switch their web-hosting from GoDaddy to MAIN. He said MAIN will soon add data-backup and data-storage as part of a “cloud computing” platform which will help level the playing field between local businesses and Fortune 500 companies.

Bowen also announced that the broadcast component of MAIN’s infrastructure, MAIN-FM, will be returning to the local airwaves with a much-improved signal in mid-to-late December. The Nov. 17 event was held at Grateful Steps Publishing in Asheville. END

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4 thoughts on “MAIN’s future includes ‘wifi on steroids’ and a higher-power MAIN–FM, says Wally Bowen (update

  1. Viking

    We should create a ‘Wally Bowen Day’ for Asheville and North Carolina, if not the nation and with an international presence. Or if Wally prefers, a Free Speech and Open Media Day.

    Wally Bowen Day would be about celebrating the work of one Asheville citizen to amplify citizen voice and provide great examples of what I’m calling Democracy as a Service (DaaS) business models. He is one of our more well-known figures on the national stage and I would guess internationally to some degree.

    The world might not have official ‘Wally Bowen’ Days in respective countries, but Wally would probably like this to be called something like ‘Free Speech and Open Media Day’ instead of drawing focus to himself. In the US we do have an official Constitution Day and Citizenship Day on September 17. But that’s more about celebrating the historical act of drafting and enacting the constitution. Universities and colleges nationwide have created “U.S. Constitution and Citizenship Weeks” where historical factoids are promulgated, which is fine.

    Right now ‘open media day’ refers to sports organizations having reporters come down to arenas or golf courses to meet players and talk to sports associations. Apparently California has an official state Free Speech Day. The Free Speech Movement the started in I doubt North Carolina does and changing that with an official Free Speech and Open Media Day would probably be a better way to honor Wally.

    I would safely say that Wally is North Carolina’s Mario Savio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Savio . For OWS fans, Mario’s 1964 speech exhorting UC Berkeley students to “put your bodies upon the gears” as a form of defiance of an academe that simply considers student potential as a form of capitalist resource rather than a, while imperfect, divine human spirit (see Herbert Marcuse).

    There are people who are closer to Wally than I who are in a position to report on his work and draft white papers… if not a book or two. One book might be his biography. Another that covers his work within the context of other DaaS/open media activists. Let’s find out if Wally would like a North Carolina Free Speech and Open Media Day or if he has another term forming part of a strategy that insures real change on the front he has been fighting in all these years.

  2. Barry Summers

    The AC-T reported in early October that Wally had “stepped aside” as Executive Director & that MAIN’s Board had hired Ron Curran as “interim director”.

    Could we have a little clarity on who’s currently running MAIN?

    • Jake Frankel

      Hey Barry, This info just in from MAIN’s Anna Jane Joyner in response to your query:

      Mr. Curran had emergency by-pass surgery and resigned from his position as Interim Director. Wally Bowen has resumed the position of Executive Director during the transition period.

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