Building a smarter Reading
Reading, PA
In 1876, skeptics employed by Western Union
advised their company not to invest in a crackpot communications scheme from an
inventor named Alexander Graham Bell.
Why,
they asked, would anyone want to use Bell's cumbersome telephone technology
when they can already send a messenger to the telegraph office and have a clear
written communication sent to any large city in the United States?
More
than 140 years later, the value of investing in communication technology,
including public Wi-Fi, is still being debated.
Some
believe aggressive investment in high-tech internet communications
infrastructure can help rebuild cities, close the digital divide, spur new
industry and create new jobs.
"Access
to high-speed internet service and low-cost or free Wi-Fi would be essential to
our downtown Reading revitalization efforts," said Randy Peers, president
and CEO of the Greater Reading Chamber & Economic Development Corp.
"Any major up-and-coming city has invested in such infrastructure, and
Reading should as well."
Others
say it's a nice idea, but wonder how to pay for it.
"I
think public Wi-Fi is yet again another amenity that a downtown can say it has
in attracting visitors and businesses," said Charles R. Broad, executive
director of the Reading Downtown Improvement District. But, he added, "we
have not identified how it's going to be funded, and who will pay for equipment
and access."
The
prevalence of data plans, and the ease of accessing Wi-Fi in restaurants and
other public spaces could lessen the demand for the service, and the desire to
invest in it, Broad said.
"What
is the need for somebody to sit on a bench in public park to have free
Wi-Fi?" he asked. "Is it worth the infrastructure to provide it?
There is a need. I just don't know how much of a need."
The digital divide
Broadband access is "absolutely
critical," said Reading Public Library Executive Library Director Bronwen
Gamble.
Data plans are costly.
"There's
a digital divide, and it's very real," she said. "If you want to
apply for any job; a job at Giant, you have to do it online."
Were
it not for the library's free Wi-Fi, 26-year-old Shawn Weber and 29-year-old
mother of three Jessica Harp would be on the dark side of that digital divide.
Weber,
who lives at the Hope Rescue Mission near Sixth and Greenwich streets, dreams
of opening a tattoo parlor and restaurant. He arrives at the library once or
twice a week to scour the job ads.
"I'll
do anything," he said. "I'm not one of them people that thinks I'm
too good to flip a burger, but I know that I don't have the qualifications to
run a bank."
Harp,
whose kids are ages 10, 6, and 1, has a small cleaning business with just a
couple of clients.
"I
can't afford that money every month," she said.
Having
internet access, though, allows her to monitor how her kids are doing in
school.
"You
can go on a computer and you can look up their grades, their attendance and
everything," Harp said.
Luis
Ortiz tapped into the library Wi-Fi system and was able to find a room to rent
in Shillington.
"Whoever
doesn't have Wi-Fi, or is not connected to the real world, they are like shut
out, and it's dark," Ortiz said.
No plan for investment
There is no coordinated, active, municipal
plan for large-scale investment in an expanded fiber-optic network in Reading.
But that doesn't mean Reading is a black hole where Wi-Fi is concerned.
The
Reading Public Library's four branches offer free access to Wi-Fi to patrons.
The signal often draws people with mobile devices to the library steps, or
nearby parking spaces at Fifth and Franklin streets after hours.
Comcast,
the nation's largest Wi-Fi provider, has 165 Xfinity Wi-Fi hot spots in Reading
and an additional 127 hot spots throughout Berks County. Comcast customers can
access these spots for free, and noncustomers can access these spots twice a
month for an hour at a time.
The
Penn Corridor Development Plan was commissioned by the Berks County Economic
Partnership in 2005. It recommended, among other things, that the city invest
in fiber optics, though that recommendation was tied mainly to expanded
capability and use of security cameras.
In
March, 2008, the city awarded a $1.48 million contract to CelPlan/Wi4Net of
Reston, Va. to lay a fiber-optic cable and connect 22 security cameras. It now
has more than 50 cameras.
In
2014 Berks-based MAW Communications and ReDesign Reading created a free Wi-Fi
hot spot at the corner of 6th and Penn streets that they hoped would ignite a
technological flame in Reading.
It
didn't.
MAW
Communications did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Smart cities
The technolgical flame does burn in some
places like Lancaster, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Austin, Texas; Miami; Orlando,
Fla., and especially Chattanooga, Tenn. These cities have invested millions in
fiber-optic and other infrastructure that help can spur new investment, reduce
crime and pollution and help conserve valuable resources, said Philip Bane,
managing director for the Smart Cities Council in Reston, Va., which advises
municipalities on smart city practices.
New
York-based Intelligent Community Forum also works to educate cities around the
world on how to better use technology to improve lives.
Smart technology can help fix old problems.
Traffic
congestion, a problem in many cities, cost the US economy $124 billion in 2013,
according to one study.
Smart
sensors on traffic lights in some cities helps synchronize lights, which
reduces congestion. Better response time for emergency medical teams is a side
benefit.
Power
outages cost businesses up to $130 billion per year, according to the
Department of Energy.
Smart
sensors on power lines, however, can significantly reduce outage time by
detecting the exact location of outages, diverting current around them,. and
more precisely guiding repair crews to fix them.
This
led to a 55 percent reduction in power outage time in one year in Chattanooga,
according to information published in the "Smart Cities Readiness
Guide." That saved businesses an estimated $40 to $45 million.
Chattanooga
gets mentioned a lot in smart city discussions.
Once
ravaged by suburbanization, loss of manufacturing, deteriorating municipal
infrastructure, social division and what the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency in 1969 said was the dirtiest air in America, Chattanooga has done an
about face. People are moving back. Businesses are investing.
It's
rebirth was capped by a robust, roughly $270 million investment in about 8,000
miles of fiber-optic lines and various smart-grid applications.
According
to a 2015 study by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's Department of
Finance, the city's investment led to "incremental economic and social
benefits ranging from $865.3 million to $1.3 billion, while additionally
creating between 2,800 and 5,200 new jobs."
Another
study by RelocateAmerica.com showed that Chattanooga was attracting new
residents at a rate roughly 30 percent faster than the national average. The
study indicated that baby boomers and millennials were the ones driving the
moving vans.
"Right
now, people just don't understand what this is all about," Bane said.
"The biggest thing is educating in a vendor-neutral way. Most cities don't
think they have the money, but they do. It's just how they spend it."
The
council's "Smart Cities Readiness Guide" is a veritable bible of how
smart technology can help cities reduce energy consumption, improve
telecommunications, transportation, water and waste water management, public
safety and a host of other area.
Lancaster gets wired
The city of Lancaster is banking on big
savings from smart technology. It spent $1.7 million with MAW Communications,
419 Washington St., to build a fiber-optic network that will be extended over
time.
"The
main reason we wanted to do this was that we saw many opportunities to make government
more efficient by having fiber in place," said Lancaster's Director of
Public Works Charlotte Katzenmoyer..
The
city expects to save $130,000 to $200,000 per year through automatic water
meter reading. It also hopes to make its school district more competitive with
wealthier suburban districts by providing free and low-cost, high speed
internet to city residents.
"If
we want to increase home ownership and reduce rentals, we need to have good
schools and good infrastructure," said Katzenmoyer. "That's a selling
point."
KINBER
One of the most intriguing developments
involves the Keystone Initiative for Network Based Education and Research, or
KINBER, a nonprofit organization comprising some of the state's top
universities.
Founded
in 2010, KINBER was awarded a $99.6 million federal grant to design, build and
manage what is now an 1,800-mile fiber-optic network. That network is called
the Pennsylvania Research and Education, or PennREN.
The
network connects universities, colleges, schools, health-care organizations and
others in 51 of the state's 67 counties, including some in unserved and
underserved regions.
Reading
Area Community College, Penn State Berks, Kutztown University and the borough
of Pottstown are KINBER subscribers.
To
understand what this network does, think in terms of cars and bridges.
If a
million cars, each one representing bits and bytes of data, needed to cross a
bridge to get to a giant parking lot, it would take longer to get them all
there if only one or two cars at a time were allowed to enter or exit the
bridge.
PennREN
is the million-lane bridge. Access to it can serve as the backbone for various
smart technologies.
Schools,
libraries and other entities all over the state subscribe to it. According to
KINBER President and CEO Wendy Huntoon, there's plenty of room for more.
When
cities or schools connect to the network, they do so through what are called
"last-mile connections," which are to network technology what
branches are to a tree trunk.
"We'll
find out their requirements, then come up with a design for them," Huntoon
said. "We'll try to work with them with their last-mile provider."
Bane
believes cities have to modernize to survive.
"If
Reading doesn't become a smart city with a focus on flourishing, it doesn't
have a future," he said.
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior Manager @
Knowledge Repository
Khaitan
& Co
Upcoming Lecture | ACTREC - BOSLA Annual lecture series (125th birth anniversary of father of library
science, Padmashree Dr. S. R. Ranganathan) on Saturday, 12th August 2017 at Advanced Centre for Treatment,
Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC), Kharghar, Navi Mumbai. (Theme | 'MakerSpace')
No comments:
Post a Comment