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01/31/2007WinstonNet Vision Expands with Wireless
In October 2006, the WinstonNet Wireless Initiative committee announced that a collaboration of Azulstar Networks, Cisco Systems and IBM would build and operate “Wireless Winston,” a community wireless network spanning the City of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and eventually the outlying communities in Forsyth County. At the W2i Digital Cities Convention in Philadelphia (Dec. 5–6, 2006), Lynda Goff, WinstonNet’s Executive Director, talked about the initiative on a panel called “The Role of Nonprofit Organizations.” In an interview, she traces the history of WinstonNet and its wireless expansion.
Q: What were are the origins of WinstonNet, and how did Wireless Winston come about?
A: WinstonNet is a 501(c)3 that started back in the mid-nineties to address connectivity issues between the Wake Forest University undergraduate campus and the medical school and hospital. Fiber was a big thing back then — connecting and getting a good connection — and the university had some extra fiber. So, in 1996 and 1997, it built a 26-mile ring around the City of Winston-Salem.
Q: How has the network expanded?
A: After connecting the campuses, we wanted share that with other educational institutions so they could have access to the North Carolina Research and Education Network. Today, about four other universities are involved, as well as the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School System, the community college, the city and county governments, and the chamber of commerce. About 10 organizations make up WinstonNet. A membership formed, and they’re paying a fee to connect up to that fiber ring.
Q: Once you had the ring, how did you think about further using it?
A: We looked at digital inclusion issues. Our first step was to develop community access labs. From 2003, over the next 18 months, we developed 33 community centers, with about 400 computers, that are used in a thin-client model to deliver up-to-date applications to computer labs, mostly in the inner cities, in digital-divide and low and moderate income areas. It’s in city rec centers, community libraries, traditional African-American churches downtown, and YMCAs. The community can walk over to get access to computers. As we know in digital inclusion, that’s one of the problems — access to hardware. It’s free, it’s high speed, with free e-mail accounts and free file storage space.
After that, we looked at content. We partnered with OneEconomy and their Beehive Web portal, launching a local community resource guide behind their national Web portal in November of this year. We collaborated with 25 nonprofits and all the members of WinstonNet to launch that portal.
Q: And Wireless Winston evolved out of all this.
A: At the end of 2005, access was what we really needed to look at, and Wireless Winston is what we decided on. It really came out of a strategic planning initiative we had with the 10-member organization, including a CEO, the presidents of the universities, the managers of the city and the county, where we asked, What is the driver here? What do we want to do in technology?
What they said was: We need wireless. We need mobility. And as you look at county government, mobile workers, and public safety, that was one of the big draws. Economic development is another big issue in our community as we move from textile manufacturing and tobacco to biotech and high-tech logistics, and transportation in our city. Access to affordable broadband was one of the big considerations.
Q: How did you arrive at your chosen model and vendor selection?
A: It took us eight to nine months to draft an RFP and select a vendor — a partnership with IBM, Cisco and Azulstar (out of Michigan) — to build out the infrastructure. This is a private-public network. WinstonNet is facilitating the conversation, the contract, and looking at anchor tenancy and what our membership might be able to provide there, especially as it relates to the city and county public-safety issues, our assets at the university level, and businesses in the community. Moreover, some of the larger corporations and their CEOs have committed an MOU for this project. So we’ve collaborated with businesses as well. We are in negotiations right now, looking at a pilot program.
Q: How was local government involved in the planning, and how will it benefit?
A: The CIO of the City of Winston-Salem has been a great leader in this effort and has really sold the city on what we’re doing. I think part of it is an education piece for public works and public safety. They already have in place some technology that works pretty well for them, so what they want to do is put a 4.9 GHz application out there. I can’t speak specifically, but that’s one of the big movers — also for city and county workers in their field inspections, for social workers, and so forth.
It’s a slower process. You’re not just moving a city and its workers, you’re moving a whole community into getting behind an initiative. And when it’s delivered, I think you have a real solid foundation to work on.
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