🚀 go-pugleaf

                       CALLING ALL ON-LINE CITIZENS
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                           Please Relay:
Reaching every e-mail address in Austin with a community service notice
like this would be a practical demonstration in itself of the potential of
this new technology for enhancing citizen participation in public policy
formation.
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   CABLE TV AND THE INTERACTIVE MULTIMEDIA FUTURE

                 Opportunity Knocks

  By merely showing up for your three minutes at a public hearing and
representing that you heard it on the on-line grapevine, you could have
an impact on the local foundation of telecommunications public policy for
the 21st Century.

When:      March 13 or March 27 at 7:30 pm

Where:     North Loop Branch Library, 2210 Hancock Dr on March 13
           Little Walnut Creek branch,  835 W Rundberg on March 27

  These hearings will be cablecast live on Channel 6 to generate public
awareness of the issues.

  More public hearings by the Austin Telecommunications Commission will
be scheduled later on in different parts of Austin.

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*Background Clutter* Because the City of Austin's rights-of-way are needed
for the wires and boxes that will bring powerful new fiber optic systems
and services to home and business addresses, the cable television
franchise renewal and other telecommunications system issues have recently
precipitated an avalanche of public policy concerns.  To be organized
about it, and because of a whole tangle of legal complexities, the city
will try to deal (publicly) with one issue at a time; however, all issues
are interconnected.
   Citizens may speak as they wish at any public hearing.

*Basis for Hearings* The City must ascertain what community needs are in
the cable franchise renewal (The Time Warner--Austin CableVision--current
fifteen-year franchise is up July 15, 1996, but it could conceivably be
renewed at any time the City Council and TW are ready to sign). Under
rules written by Congress, the City must back its position up with such
evidence as testimony from citizens at these hearings, perhaps in Federal
Court, if the City decides TW isn't meeting community needs in its
proposal. (This renewal process is providing the time frame for all other
telecommunication issues.)

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*Questions for the On-Line Citizen*
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1. Is there a community need for a higher channel capacity from a
   fiber-optic system--not for more shopping channels, but for interactive,
   multimedia broadband services?  What sort of services can anyone out
   there realistically project?

2. Is there a community need for an *open network* (i.e., individual or
   small-business innovators allowed to provide electronic multimedia
   services to consumers using the Time Warner system)?  This will be
   controversial and legally complicated, but is there a need? Is it worth
   pressing?

3. There is an Institutional Network in place, as a part of the cable
   system, that serves various City of Austin departments, as well as
   AISD, ACC, Travis County, the Unversity of Texas, and other
   jurisdictions. Channel 6 comes upstream out of the Council Chambers on
   this I-Net. A variety of uses save taxpayers money, promote cooperation
   between local government entities, and provide a window on government.
   Should we continue to build public service purposes into this system in
   return for the rights-of-way?

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*Food for Thought*    What is really on the table here is whether the media
status quo (the cable and television industry model) will ultimately prevail
over the Internet model.

  A fiber optic system that is in 165,000 Austin households (63% of all
those with TVs) could be viewed as a huge milking machine attached to
consumer's wallets, utilizing public property for only that purpose; or,
alternatively, it could be viewed as a system capable of interoperability
with other systems, providing a powerful range of services beyond
television as we have known it for fifty years.

  Time Warner's actions are already beginning to speak.  Silicon Graphics,
apparently inspired by TW's infomercials touting the interactive future,
was in the process of designing a TV set top box for the Orlando, Florida
tryout of TW's *Full Service Network*. It was a 586 equivalent with an
upstream connection for computer users. However, when the TW chief
engineer found out, he reportedly nixed the interactive upstream function.

*Calling All On-Line Citizens* Strongly successful, citizen-driven
policies at the local level will have a multiplier effect beyond that on
our own future. Policy makers in other cities and at other levels already
look at Austin as a nationally prominent model in telecommunications.
   Your participation at this stage is vital, especially since the City
Council would be largely surprised at the extent of Austin's online
community.

*For More Information* The City has just established an Internet homepage,
and the Office of Cable and Regulatory Affairs will be posting items of
interest. This is the general address:

                   http://www.ci.austin.tx.us

The Office of Cable and Regulatory Affairs
Phone: 499-2422
e-mail:  cableofc@bga.com

From: Stuart Heady, member, Austin Telecommunications Commission
      (speaking as an individual)
Phone:  447-6332; e-mail c/o the cable office:  cableofc@bga.com