W2i Finalizes Program for Digital Cities Convention in Tempe Southwest Program Agenda Provides Training, Thought-Leadership, and Two Dozen Community Case Studies for Broadband-Wireless Stakeholders at All Levels of Planning and Implementation  Boston. 01/24/2007 — Southwest Program Agenda Provides Training, Thought-Leadership, and Two Dozen Community Case Studies for Broadband-Wireless Stakeholders at All Levels of Planning and Implementation Boston, Mass. (January 24, 2007) — To provide local-government technology stakeholders with a firsthand understanding of broadband-wireless infrastructure planning, applications, and services for their communities, the Wireless Internet Institute (W2i) and the City of Tempe, Arizona, co-host the Digital Cities Convention, February 13–14, 2007, at the Tempe Mission Palms Hotel. The conference is co-chaired by Deputy CIO David Heck, a 20-year veteran employee of the City of Tempe. Mr. Heck is the driving force behind the first and largest border-to-border municipal Wi-Fi network in the U.S. Beginning in early 2004, he authored an RFP with no capital outlay on the part of the city, and in November of 2005 was joined by Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman and Senator John McCain in a ceremony to launch Tempe's milestone network. Mayor Hallman will deliver the Keynote Address at the conference on February 14. Industry perspectives will be provided by representatives from IBM, Cisco Systems and Motorola. Plenary Panels In Tempe, the panel Public-Private Partnerships: A Diversity of Communities and Models will be chaired by Martin Levetin, Vice President of Carrier and Municipal Networks, Strix Systems. Bill Beck, Deputy CIO, Minneapolis, will describe the city's landmark public-partnership agreement, which includes an anchor tenancy commitment and a digital-inclusion fund. IT Director Ron Braden will tell how Vail, Colorado, launched an RFP last March and fast-tracked implementation in time for ski season. Dave Heck will review the history of Tempe's public-private partnership and its benefits to the community and local-government workforce. Thomas McQuillan, IT Director, Grand Rapids, Micihigan, will detail the two years of planning leading up to its agreement, announced in December, with Clearwire to offer mobile WiMAX data services. Eric Norenberg, IT Services Leader in Mesa, Arizona, provides a project overview. Mesa is on the cusp of announcing a public-private agreement. Chaired by Bo Larsson, CEO, Firetide Mesh Networks, the panel Technology Roadmap:Wi-Fi, WiMAX, Proprietary & Cellular Networks will explore overlapping network solutions, complementarities, strengths and weaknesses. Phil Belanger, Principal, Novarum will offer test results showing how municipal Wi-Fi networks match up with 2.5G and 3G solutions. Mark Goldstein, Founder, International Research Center, and Secretary of the Arizona Telecommunications & Information Council provides a spectrum overview for local-government officials. Frank Ohrtman, President, WMX Systems, and author of The WiMAX Handbook, presents the WiMAX opportunity for cities and counties. And Glenn Strachan, recently returned from directing the USAID project Macedonia Connects, will provide a case study of a country-wide broadband-wireless digital-inclusion implementation. James Hueser, Sales Executive, Wireless Broadband Americas Group, IBM, chairs a special session on Regional Interoperability and Multi-Jurisdictional Planning, acknowleding the importance of coordinated efforts of small and medium-size cities and counties. Chris Puccio, IT Director, Boulder, and Michele Hovet, IT Director, Arvada, represent Colorado Wireless Communities (CWC). Galen Updike, State Telecommunications Development Manager, will provide an overview of Arizona's CANAMEX Corridor (I-19) project which involved several rural communities. Case Studies Field practitioners from around the United States will present in Tempe on the range of applications enabled by broadband-wireless infrastructure, from public safety to traffic management, community portals and telemedicine. Francisco Leyva, Traffic Engineer, Tucson, provides an overview of his city's Wi-Fi mesh plans and the transportation and emergency-response applications they will enable. Mike Holcomb, Associate Director for Network Architecture, Arizona Telemedicine Program, speak about a telemedicine pilot enabled by the CANAMEX Corridor (I-19) implementation. David Blumenfeld, Vice President, Marketing, JiWire, presents the WAZTempe Portal, and Judith Miller, President, NinthWave Media, explains the design behind PhilaVoice Portal adopted by Wireless Philadelphia. Robert DeSimone, Patrolman, Lakewood Police Department, New Jersey; Paul Hackerson, Director of Security and Management, Housing Authority, Rockford, Illinoiis; and Ben Standifer, CIO, Tohono O'dham Nation (AZ) will report on the public-safety implementations and applications being enabled in their communities. Karrie Rockwell, Southwest Sales Director, SkyPilot Networks, is a session chair. Roundtables One of the most popular features to emerge at the Digital Cities Convention are its invitation-only roundtables hosted by W2i's key industry partners. Berge Ayvazian, Chief Strategy Officer, Yankee Group, and James Farstad, President, rClient, will host the 5th Service Provider Executives and Local-Government CIOs Roundtable, using a dual brainstorm methodology by which cities will articulate the attributes of a successful RFP and Service Provider Executives will identify roadblocks to a prompt contract negotiation, among other issues. Phil Belanger and Ken Biba, co-principals of the consultancy Novarum, co-moderate the inaugural Wireless Networks User Experience Roundtable. "Our perspective is from the user point of view," Mr. Belanger says. "Are these networks really broadband? What’s the experience like? Which service is better — free Wi-Fi or cellular data service? Cities say, 'We’ve done an RFP, now how do we measure and ensure the level of service? How do we validate the performance and compare it to other networks we’ve tested?'" The 3rd Digital Inclusion Roundtable (For Southwest Stakeholders), moderated by K. Anne-Rivers Forcke, IBM WW Human Ability & Accessibility Center, builds off the extraordinary momentum from the Roundtable hosted in Philadelphia on December 5 with an Southwest agenda prepared with help from the office of the Arizona State CIO and the Arizona Telecommunication and Information Council. Participants in Tempe will examine key dimensions of three digital-inclusion projects — Macedonia Connects, PhilaVoice, Connect Kentucky — and compare and contrast them with digital-inclusion opportunities and roadblocks in Arizona and the Southwest. Practical Training Interactive Nuts-and-Bolts seminars in the Technology Showcase Area will be hosted by Mark Ansboury, Chief Operating Officer, OneCommunity, who will set the stage for citywide Wi-Fi beginners. Dave Evertsen, Principal, Municipal Solutions, will cover key questions behind RFP concept and design. Ryan McCaigue, Senior Technical Project Manager, EarthLink Municipal Networks will update participants on permitting, pole attachments and rights-of-way issues. And Michael Paddock, CEO, Grants Office, will outline grant and funding opportunities for municipal wireless infrastructure. Scott Akrie, President, and Eric DaVersa, Vice President, Business Development of NetLogix, another W2i partner, co-host the day-long Municipal Wireless Networks & Technology Training Seminar exploring municipal wireless models, city strategies, technologies, system capabilities, and the applications these networks empower. NetLogix, the leading consulting, engineering and training services firm, provides attendees with hands-on community and solution exercises designed to jumpstart the planning and deployment of a broadband-wireless infrastructure. Please visit the conference Web site for complete details. Private-Sector Endorsements In addition to ongoing cooperation agreements with international-development organizations, such as the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and CIFAL Atlanta, the W2i Digital Cities Convention is endorsed by the WiMAX Forum and has secured the sponsorship of Motorola as well as EarthLink, Firetide, LastMile Communications, Nortel Networks, Packethop, Simdesk Technologies, SkyPilot Networks, and Strix Systems. About the W2i Digital Cities Series The Wireless Internet Institute (W2i) is an independent forum bringing together stakeholders around the world to accelerate the adoption of wireless Internet in support of social and economic development and better managed cities, communities and regions. Held annually in three to four regions of the world, the W2i Digital Cities Convention includes a thought-leadership conference exploring the planning and deployment of broadband-wireless infrastructure, applications and services; practical training for local authorities; roundtables for wireless service-provider executives and digital-inclusion stakeholders; the annual Wireless Communities Best-Practices Awards; and a Technology Showcase produced in partnership with the public sector, private sector, and international development institutions. Building on conventions in Philadelphia, Shanghai, San Francisco, Bilbão, Houston, Rio, and Los Angeles, London, and Tempe, planning is in final stages for Chicago (May 22-23, 2007). Contact: Peter Orne Editorial Director Wireless Internet Institute (617) 439-5400 back Cover An Event! Sign up to receive W2i's latest announcements: Journalist's e-mail Powered by VerticalResponse