Open Fiber: Introduction and Jim Baller

This session was a series of presentations moderated by Jim Baller, who advocates for a United States national broadband strategy.

There were a number of participants. Dirk van der Woude works as program manager of Amsterdam's world-leading fiber to the home offer. John St. Julien is a grassroots champion of Lafayette, Louisiana's, fiber to the home network. Adam Peake serves as executive research fellow for GLOCOM, the Center for Global Communications of the International University of Japan. And Tim Nulty was formerly chief economist for the House and Senate commerce committees, and is a fiber to the home activist. Any errors are my own, and I welcome amendments and corrections.

Jim Baller: Let me begin by observing what these folks have in common. Each one has a hand in some of the most advanced efforts in the world in terms of fiber connectivity. Lafayette, Louisiana, decided it wanted to be one of the most progressive fiber cities in a state that was not. John will tell you about that project. Tim Nulty has an incredible background that I can't begin to summarize. Tom started a fiber project in Burlington, Vermont. His philsophy was do it conservatively step by step and those steps resulted in a coalition of 20-25 towns that want to do it as a group. Next over, we have Adam Peake, who has a catbird seat in Tokyo where he is with the International University of Japan. He's here to tell us how the Japanese have achieved their miraculous assent to being one of the leading countries in the world in communications. And a special hero of mine, Dirk van der Woude from the city of Amsterdam.

The other remarks will follow in a series of posts.