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Wednesday, November 12, 2003
Spanish Moss Project
Action Register
November 5, 2003
New Actions
Action Who Date Assigned Date Due Status
1. Research other WI FI networks, operating agreements, guidelines and resources that have been successfully implemented (Cleveland One project at Case University, City of Roanoke, City of Whistler). Governance Committee members 11/5/03 Ongoing
2. Invite Tony Schopp to next meeting Mark Dana 11/5/03 11/12/03
3. Review City of Savannah Telecommunications Ordinance, BellSouth contract agreement, Comcast agreement Marc Marling 11/5/03 11/12/03
4. Follow up with Doug Frieze, director of sales for the Westin and member of the Legends of Golf Task Force Mark Dana 11/5/03 11/12/03
5. Create a draft Fact Sheet Hope Moorer 11/5/03 11/12/03
6. Invite technology rep to discuss what will be needed to accomplish the network for Phase I Eric Fulcher 11/5/03 11/12/03
Old Actions
Action Who Date Assigned Date Due Status
1. Type up the proposed mission statement and circulate via e-mail to the members. Todd Freesemann 10/22/03 10/31/03 Completed – circulated 11/5/03
2. Create a Project Plan template which includes implementation dates and circulate to the members. Eric Fulcher 10/22/03 10/31/03
3. Circulate via e-mail the Chris Miller white paper on the importance of technology in attracting jobs to the Savannah region. Marc Marling 10/22/03 10/31/03 10/23/03
4. Provide maps of the Historic District to use at next meeting in location identification. Todd Freesemann 10/22/03 11/05/03 OBE
5. Invite Chris Miller, SEDA, to our next meeting to participate as our guest speaker. Marc Marling 10/22/03 ASAP
6. Determine which committee on which you are interested in serving as a member and notify Hope Moorer for the official list. Each committee member 10/22/03 10/31/03
Action Register
November 5, 2003
New Actions
Action Who Date Assigned Date Due Status
1. Research other WI FI networks, operating agreements, guidelines and resources that have been successfully implemented (Cleveland One project at Case University, City of Roanoke, City of Whistler). Governance Committee members 11/5/03 Ongoing
2. Invite Tony Schopp to next meeting Mark Dana 11/5/03 11/12/03
3. Review City of Savannah Telecommunications Ordinance, BellSouth contract agreement, Comcast agreement Marc Marling 11/5/03 11/12/03
4. Follow up with Doug Frieze, director of sales for the Westin and member of the Legends of Golf Task Force Mark Dana 11/5/03 11/12/03
5. Create a draft Fact Sheet Hope Moorer 11/5/03 11/12/03
6. Invite technology rep to discuss what will be needed to accomplish the network for Phase I Eric Fulcher 11/5/03 11/12/03
Old Actions
Action Who Date Assigned Date Due Status
1. Type up the proposed mission statement and circulate via e-mail to the members. Todd Freesemann 10/22/03 10/31/03 Completed – circulated 11/5/03
2. Create a Project Plan template which includes implementation dates and circulate to the members. Eric Fulcher 10/22/03 10/31/03
3. Circulate via e-mail the Chris Miller white paper on the importance of technology in attracting jobs to the Savannah region. Marc Marling 10/22/03 10/31/03 10/23/03
4. Provide maps of the Historic District to use at next meeting in location identification. Todd Freesemann 10/22/03 11/05/03 OBE
5. Invite Chris Miller, SEDA, to our next meeting to participate as our guest speaker. Marc Marling 10/22/03 ASAP
6. Determine which committee on which you are interested in serving as a member and notify Hope Moorer for the official list. Each committee member 10/22/03 10/31/03
Leadership Savannah Technology and Workforce Development Project
Meeting Minutes
November 5, 2002
Attending:
Dave Capallo Marc Marling
Mark Dana Zena McClain-Haymon
Todd Freesemann Hope Moorer
Eric Fulcher Tosca Owens
Stephen Hooten Tanya Scott-Pilcher
Jim Manley Melissa Yao
Marc Marling opened the meeting at 12:05 p.m.
Old Business:
Mission Statement – Todd Freeseman distributed copies of the proposed Mission Statement for the committee as revised during the meeting on October 22. The team made a few minor changes to the wording to read:
The Savannah Spanish Moss Team will implement a WI-FI network in the selected areas prior to the G8 Summit in order to demonstrate Savannah’s commitment to technology and to showcase the technology base that exists in the Savannah area.
The committee decided to review the wording at the end of the meeting, but did not revisit the issue before the end of the meeting.
Governance Committee – Steve Hooten reported that the committee met on Friday, October 31 and defined its focus. Steve said the committee decided that the scope of this project should take the form of a public-private partnership. The committee discussed ownership and future ownership of the project, as well as the principles of implementation. Steve stated that the committee decided to review models of other public-private partnerships to see what had worked elsewhere in an effort not to reinvent the wheel. Jim Manley reported that he had spoken with Wendell Dallas regarding the public-private partnership for the regional workforce development effort. Wendell said that this partnership is mandated by the government, so that it may not be the best model. The Governance committee will continue to research operating agreements, guidelines and resources of other public-private partnerships. Mark Dana suggested researching the Cleveland One project at Case University mentioned at our first meeting by Bill Keith. Marc Marling also offered the City of Roanoke and the City of Whistler as examples. A web site that may be another resource is www.wifinetwoknews.com.
Update re Chamber – Mark Dana reported that he met with the President of the Chamber Bill Hubbard. He stated that Bill had the same concerns that other people have mentioned to him … the ongoing cost of the project and how would the network be maintained in the future. He stated that the Chamber supports our efforts but is not optimistic people will use the technology. Mark said that he needs to generate partnerships with hotel for this project, but needs a fact sheet that he can take and leave behind with the basics of the technology included on the sheet. Mark reiterated that although Bill Hubbard was slightly pessimistic about the project, he thought that Bill would support our efforts and serve as a resource for us in contacting/meeting with others.
Update re: BETA – Steve Hooten reported that the people in BETA are excited about this project. Johathan Lambright, Ph.D. PMP, Assistant Professor of the Department of Engineering and Engineering Technology at Savannah State University (ph 303-1622 e-mail Lambrij@savstate.edu) has even offered a graduate assistant full time to help us if we need it.
Update re CVB – Mark Dana also spoke with Tony Schopp, Director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau. Tony is excited about the project as well, but also had concerns about how it would be funded. Mark said that Tony thinks it’s an excellent idea and that we should certainly go to the success stories to find out what equipment they used and how they did it. The group decided to ask Tony Schopp to attend the next project meeting. Melissa Yao brought up an additional concern that Tony had. One of the goals of the G8 Summit is to have it be one of the most technology-savvy meetings ever. To accomplish this goal, Tony said that BellSouth is apparently looking at a WI FI network to turn on during the G8 and then turn it off after. We don’t know where they will put the technology yet… maybe just inside the trade center. BellSouth doesn’t believe that the users are there yet to justify the ongoing technology. Marc Marling said that Rick Winger, Executive Director of SEDA, has offered to put our group in contact with the BellSouth leader for the G8 project when the time is right.
Update re Savannah State – Tanya Scott-Pilcher said that Eric Fulcher had been in touch with people at Savannah State. Eric said that he could work with Dr. Jonathan Lambright to close the loop on the graduate assistant when it was time. Jim Manley suggested that the group involve Georgia Tech and Georgia Southern with the project. Marc stated that Tech is involved through its relationship with AASU. Marc also stated that we didn’t want to have too many groups involved at this point, but that GSU could be considered in the future.
Update re City – Tosca Owens said that she had spoken with several people at the City regarding the project. She reported that Chris Morrill, Assistant City Manager for Management and Financial Services, said that he was excited about the efforts of our team. Chris said that the City’s WI FI effort was not active and that we should contact him when we know what the City can do to assist us. Tosca said that we should meet with him again once we’ve identified what assistance we might need for the project. Tosca does not know if Chris has mentioned our project to Michael Brown, the City Manager. Tosca also met with Jerry Cornish, the Director of Information Services for the City of Savannah. She reported that Jerry had the same concerns of the Chamber… who will pay for it and who will manage the ongoing effort… but that he is still excited about the project. Tosca has provided copies of the City’s Telecommunications Ordinance, its BellSouth contract agreement and the Comcast agreement to Marc who will review to ensure our efforts are not in conflict with these ordinances and agreements.
Update re SEDA – Marc Marling reported that he had a lengthy conversation with Rick Winger, the Executive Director of the Savannah Economic Development Authority. Rick told Marc about two prior WI FI initiatives in Savannah: one with a company out of NJ to which there is no allegiance, and the second with Bill Dodds out of Atlanta. Rick requested that whatever we do, we invite Bill Dodds to participate if he wants to. Marc said that he has tried to contact Bill Dodds but has only been able to communicate via voice mail thus far. What Marc has learned is that Bill is excited about our efforts, but that he is extremely busy installing a WI FI network for the World Congress Center in Atlanta. Marc said that Rick Winger pledged his support for our project and would push for anything that we needed to assist with the project.
Meeting with Chris Miller – Eric Fulcher reported that Eric, Marc and Steve met with Chris Miller, recently hired by SEDA to lead its high tech efforts, on Tuesday, October 28. Eric said that Chris stressed that we need to learn from other projects. Chris also emphasized that we need to define where we want to go in this project in that this project could go a lot further than what is expected from Leadership Savannah. Eric said that Chris warned about bringing on too many people too soon, and that we should start small in order to be successful and gain support. Chris suggested we develop a fact sheet for marketing the project and telling the story. Chris also said that we need to develop a detailed project plan to lay out strategically what we need and want to do. This is what we would present to the project partners to solicit their support. Eric said that he had put together such plans previously and would start the outline of the plan.
New Business:
Choosing location(s) – Marc Marling then led the group discussion concerning the location of where the team wanted to implement a WI FI network. Marc said that Chris Miller like the idea of the River Street corridor from the Hyatt to the Marriott. The group talked about how this is an area where visitors congregate because of the concentration of restaurants, shops, etc. Mark Dana also offered Johnson Square as a potential location. The team discussed other areas such as City Market and additional squares in the Historic District. In addition, the team discussed that this project may go beyond Leadership Savannah and that team members may want to continue their involvement. The team decided that the project should be done in phases and that Phase I should be River Street and Johnson Square. If this is phase is completed prior to the deadline, perhaps other phases could be looked at then.
Mark Dana reported that the Director of the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf said that the tournament wanted to enable WI FI for Hutchison Island for the event which takes place April 20-27. The team discussed this and decided that we should pursue a possible partnership with Liberty Mutual. Mark Dana will follow up with Doug Frieze (please excuse the spelling), the director of sales for the Westin who is on the Legends of Golf Task Force.
Project Plan – The team then discussed the project plan. The team decided that our target market for the project is visitors to Savannah. The team also emphasized that we would like for this to be an ongoing benefit to Savannah. Tosca suggested securing a sponsor for the project to pay for the costs associated with the service for a period of time, if the service cannot be implemented or provided for free. The group discussed possibly a window of six months beginning in April so that there would be plenty of time to test the network before the Summit, as well as time after the Summit to test the market demand and usage. As far as a partner to sponsor the project, the group discussed potentially approaching Liberty Mutual for funding.
Eric Fulcher told the team he was meeting with the Cisco Representative for the area (Cisco is a WI FI network provider) and Mark Healy to discuss the types of technology that we would need for the identified project area. Eric is also going to find a technology representative to attend our next meeting.
Hope Moorer will work on a fact sheet to distribute at the next meeting for comments.
NEXT MEETING: Noon to 1:30 p.m. on November 12, 2003, at Hunter Maclean Exley & Dunn office. Lunch will be ordered in. Don’t forget your money for lunch.
Meeting Minutes
November 5, 2002
Attending:
Dave Capallo Marc Marling
Mark Dana Zena McClain-Haymon
Todd Freesemann Hope Moorer
Eric Fulcher Tosca Owens
Stephen Hooten Tanya Scott-Pilcher
Jim Manley Melissa Yao
Marc Marling opened the meeting at 12:05 p.m.
Old Business:
Mission Statement – Todd Freeseman distributed copies of the proposed Mission Statement for the committee as revised during the meeting on October 22. The team made a few minor changes to the wording to read:
The Savannah Spanish Moss Team will implement a WI-FI network in the selected areas prior to the G8 Summit in order to demonstrate Savannah’s commitment to technology and to showcase the technology base that exists in the Savannah area.
The committee decided to review the wording at the end of the meeting, but did not revisit the issue before the end of the meeting.
Governance Committee – Steve Hooten reported that the committee met on Friday, October 31 and defined its focus. Steve said the committee decided that the scope of this project should take the form of a public-private partnership. The committee discussed ownership and future ownership of the project, as well as the principles of implementation. Steve stated that the committee decided to review models of other public-private partnerships to see what had worked elsewhere in an effort not to reinvent the wheel. Jim Manley reported that he had spoken with Wendell Dallas regarding the public-private partnership for the regional workforce development effort. Wendell said that this partnership is mandated by the government, so that it may not be the best model. The Governance committee will continue to research operating agreements, guidelines and resources of other public-private partnerships. Mark Dana suggested researching the Cleveland One project at Case University mentioned at our first meeting by Bill Keith. Marc Marling also offered the City of Roanoke and the City of Whistler as examples. A web site that may be another resource is www.wifinetwoknews.com.
Update re Chamber – Mark Dana reported that he met with the President of the Chamber Bill Hubbard. He stated that Bill had the same concerns that other people have mentioned to him … the ongoing cost of the project and how would the network be maintained in the future. He stated that the Chamber supports our efforts but is not optimistic people will use the technology. Mark said that he needs to generate partnerships with hotel for this project, but needs a fact sheet that he can take and leave behind with the basics of the technology included on the sheet. Mark reiterated that although Bill Hubbard was slightly pessimistic about the project, he thought that Bill would support our efforts and serve as a resource for us in contacting/meeting with others.
Update re: BETA – Steve Hooten reported that the people in BETA are excited about this project. Johathan Lambright, Ph.D. PMP, Assistant Professor of the Department of Engineering and Engineering Technology at Savannah State University (ph 303-1622 e-mail Lambrij@savstate.edu) has even offered a graduate assistant full time to help us if we need it.
Update re CVB – Mark Dana also spoke with Tony Schopp, Director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau. Tony is excited about the project as well, but also had concerns about how it would be funded. Mark said that Tony thinks it’s an excellent idea and that we should certainly go to the success stories to find out what equipment they used and how they did it. The group decided to ask Tony Schopp to attend the next project meeting. Melissa Yao brought up an additional concern that Tony had. One of the goals of the G8 Summit is to have it be one of the most technology-savvy meetings ever. To accomplish this goal, Tony said that BellSouth is apparently looking at a WI FI network to turn on during the G8 and then turn it off after. We don’t know where they will put the technology yet… maybe just inside the trade center. BellSouth doesn’t believe that the users are there yet to justify the ongoing technology. Marc Marling said that Rick Winger, Executive Director of SEDA, has offered to put our group in contact with the BellSouth leader for the G8 project when the time is right.
Update re Savannah State – Tanya Scott-Pilcher said that Eric Fulcher had been in touch with people at Savannah State. Eric said that he could work with Dr. Jonathan Lambright to close the loop on the graduate assistant when it was time. Jim Manley suggested that the group involve Georgia Tech and Georgia Southern with the project. Marc stated that Tech is involved through its relationship with AASU. Marc also stated that we didn’t want to have too many groups involved at this point, but that GSU could be considered in the future.
Update re City – Tosca Owens said that she had spoken with several people at the City regarding the project. She reported that Chris Morrill, Assistant City Manager for Management and Financial Services, said that he was excited about the efforts of our team. Chris said that the City’s WI FI effort was not active and that we should contact him when we know what the City can do to assist us. Tosca said that we should meet with him again once we’ve identified what assistance we might need for the project. Tosca does not know if Chris has mentioned our project to Michael Brown, the City Manager. Tosca also met with Jerry Cornish, the Director of Information Services for the City of Savannah. She reported that Jerry had the same concerns of the Chamber… who will pay for it and who will manage the ongoing effort… but that he is still excited about the project. Tosca has provided copies of the City’s Telecommunications Ordinance, its BellSouth contract agreement and the Comcast agreement to Marc who will review to ensure our efforts are not in conflict with these ordinances and agreements.
Update re SEDA – Marc Marling reported that he had a lengthy conversation with Rick Winger, the Executive Director of the Savannah Economic Development Authority. Rick told Marc about two prior WI FI initiatives in Savannah: one with a company out of NJ to which there is no allegiance, and the second with Bill Dodds out of Atlanta. Rick requested that whatever we do, we invite Bill Dodds to participate if he wants to. Marc said that he has tried to contact Bill Dodds but has only been able to communicate via voice mail thus far. What Marc has learned is that Bill is excited about our efforts, but that he is extremely busy installing a WI FI network for the World Congress Center in Atlanta. Marc said that Rick Winger pledged his support for our project and would push for anything that we needed to assist with the project.
Meeting with Chris Miller – Eric Fulcher reported that Eric, Marc and Steve met with Chris Miller, recently hired by SEDA to lead its high tech efforts, on Tuesday, October 28. Eric said that Chris stressed that we need to learn from other projects. Chris also emphasized that we need to define where we want to go in this project in that this project could go a lot further than what is expected from Leadership Savannah. Eric said that Chris warned about bringing on too many people too soon, and that we should start small in order to be successful and gain support. Chris suggested we develop a fact sheet for marketing the project and telling the story. Chris also said that we need to develop a detailed project plan to lay out strategically what we need and want to do. This is what we would present to the project partners to solicit their support. Eric said that he had put together such plans previously and would start the outline of the plan.
New Business:
Choosing location(s) – Marc Marling then led the group discussion concerning the location of where the team wanted to implement a WI FI network. Marc said that Chris Miller like the idea of the River Street corridor from the Hyatt to the Marriott. The group talked about how this is an area where visitors congregate because of the concentration of restaurants, shops, etc. Mark Dana also offered Johnson Square as a potential location. The team discussed other areas such as City Market and additional squares in the Historic District. In addition, the team discussed that this project may go beyond Leadership Savannah and that team members may want to continue their involvement. The team decided that the project should be done in phases and that Phase I should be River Street and Johnson Square. If this is phase is completed prior to the deadline, perhaps other phases could be looked at then.
Mark Dana reported that the Director of the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf said that the tournament wanted to enable WI FI for Hutchison Island for the event which takes place April 20-27. The team discussed this and decided that we should pursue a possible partnership with Liberty Mutual. Mark Dana will follow up with Doug Frieze (please excuse the spelling), the director of sales for the Westin who is on the Legends of Golf Task Force.
Project Plan – The team then discussed the project plan. The team decided that our target market for the project is visitors to Savannah. The team also emphasized that we would like for this to be an ongoing benefit to Savannah. Tosca suggested securing a sponsor for the project to pay for the costs associated with the service for a period of time, if the service cannot be implemented or provided for free. The group discussed possibly a window of six months beginning in April so that there would be plenty of time to test the network before the Summit, as well as time after the Summit to test the market demand and usage. As far as a partner to sponsor the project, the group discussed potentially approaching Liberty Mutual for funding.
Eric Fulcher told the team he was meeting with the Cisco Representative for the area (Cisco is a WI FI network provider) and Mark Healy to discuss the types of technology that we would need for the identified project area. Eric is also going to find a technology representative to attend our next meeting.
Hope Moorer will work on a fact sheet to distribute at the next meeting for comments.
NEXT MEETING: Noon to 1:30 p.m. on November 12, 2003, at Hunter Maclean Exley & Dunn office. Lunch will be ordered in. Don’t forget your money for lunch.
Spanish Moss Project
Action Register
October 22, 2003
1. Type up the proposed mission statement and circulate via e-mail to the members. Todd Freesemann 10/22/03 10/31/03
2. Create a Project Plan template which includes implementation dates and circulate to the members. Eric Fulcher 10/22/03 10/31/03
3. Circulate via e-mail the Chris Miller white paper on the importance of technology in attracting jobs to the Savannah region. Marc Marling 10/22/03 10/31/03 10/23/03
4. Provide maps of the Historic District to use at next meeting in location identification. Todd Freesemann 10/22/03 11/05/03
5. Invite Chris Miller, SEDA, to our next meeting to participate as our guest speaker. Marc Marling 10/22/03 ASAP
6. Determine which committee on which you are interested in serving as a member and notify Hope Moorer for the official list. Each committee member 10/22/03 10/31/03
Action Register
October 22, 2003
1. Type up the proposed mission statement and circulate via e-mail to the members. Todd Freesemann 10/22/03 10/31/03
2. Create a Project Plan template which includes implementation dates and circulate to the members. Eric Fulcher 10/22/03 10/31/03
3. Circulate via e-mail the Chris Miller white paper on the importance of technology in attracting jobs to the Savannah region. Marc Marling 10/22/03 10/31/03 10/23/03
4. Provide maps of the Historic District to use at next meeting in location identification. Todd Freesemann 10/22/03 11/05/03
5. Invite Chris Miller, SEDA, to our next meeting to participate as our guest speaker. Marc Marling 10/22/03 ASAP
6. Determine which committee on which you are interested in serving as a member and notify Hope Moorer for the official list. Each committee member 10/22/03 10/31/03
Leadership Savannah Technology and Workforce Development Project
Meeting Minutes
October 22, 2003
Attending:
Dave Capallo Jim Manley
Mark Dana Marc Marling
Todd Freesemann Hope Moorer
Eric Fulcher Tosca Owens
Stephen Hooten Tanya Scott-Pilcher
Jeff Kole
Marc Marling opened the meeting at 12:10 p.m.
Old Business:
Operating Rules – Todd Freesemann distributed Operating Rules to those who had not received them via e-mail. The group accepted the rules as written with updates to be e-mailed to Todd as necessary.
Mission Statement – Steve Hooten reviewed the Mission Statement that the group discussed at the first meeting. The mission adapted by the group is “To develop the strategy and implementation of a WI FI network in the Savannah Historic District by the G8 Summit to showcase that the community embraces technology.” Todd will type up the mission statement and send out via e-mail to the members.
Membership – Since the meeting, the project has several new members: Melissa Yao, Eric Fulcher and Mark Dana. In addition, Brian Parks is interested in being a member of the group but is now living out of the Savannah area and won’t be able to attend every meeting. Marc Marling said that attendance via telephone will be available at meetings held at HMED offices.
Steve Hooten made a motion to accept Brian Parks as a member of the group and that membership will be closed after the November 5th meeting subject to a vote by the group.
The motion was seconded and unanimously accepted.
Timeline to Completion – The project will need to be completed by June 8th. Eric Fulcher will put together a Project Plan template which includes implementation dates to hold us to our schedule. Eric will send via e-mail to the members.
Update re Discussion with BETA – Steve Hooten has contacted Howard Morrison with BETA. Lots of interest has been shown in bringing WI FI to Savannah. The important questions are who benefits? And who pays for it? Marc Marling stressed the importance of having this service for free, but he’s worried that one government entity has the responsibility for maintaining this service. What if the cost of this gets placed in a line item that’s dropped when the budget gets tight?
Update re Discussion with Chris Miller – Marc Marling and Tosca Owens both spoke with Chris Miller who has been hired by the SEDA as their technology expert. They reported that Chris is very excited about this project. Leadership Savannah can be beneficial to this project by its nature as an independent organization. Tosca distributed several copies of a white paper written by Chris about the importance of technology in attracting jobs. Marc will distribute via e-mail to the group prior to the next meeting.
General Discussion –
Eric Fulcher said that it’s important to identify the market, the customer. Eric reported that it’s critical to involve the city because the City of Savannah owns most of the fiber that has already been laid. Without the city involved, this project may not work.
Marc Marling reported that Georgia Tech and AASU have created a cooperative program that is devoted to wireless technologies. These institutions would like to be involved as well. Their involvement would be beneficial to their program. In addition, SCAD should be approached because of their large number of high band-width users. SCAD currently has 7,500 students, predicted to be 10,000 students soon.
Eric stated that it’s important that we keep to the mission statement when considering the scope of this project. We have a limited timeframe and a lot to accomplish.
The group discussed that it will be important to identify what Hot Zones we want to establish by the G8 Summit… River Street? City Market? Forsyth Park? Johnson Square? Other Squares? Other Corridors? Once we identify what Hot Zones we’ll target, we’ll need to determine what needs to be done to accomplish this project. Todd said that he will bring multiple maps of the Historic District to the next meeting.
The group also decided that whenever anyone makes inroads with an organization, has a meeting with an individual or finds information relevant to the project, that member should notify the entire membership via e-mail so that efforts will not be duplicated and so that these individuals and groups will not be bombarded by every one of us.
New Business:
Guest Speaker – Mark Dana invited Bill Keith, the owner of Savannah Online, to provide the group with an explanation of the basics of WI FI technology and the infrastructure needed to realize a WI FI deployment for the Historic District that is unified, non charge and gives access to the general public. Bill said that there are two basic approaches to accomplish this plan.
The first is a more organic approach and that is to provide Hot Spots around the city. We determine where people travel around the city, and where the system is most likely to be used. The access points that are established generally function for a radius of 500-1,000 feet. The issue is that wireless is omnidirectional, how do you tie this system together so that people can use it reliably? Bill covered the basic technology that would be required to do this and the costs for equipment and installation. Basically you would start with some number of loops and access points and test it. This will determine where access works and where it doesn’t. Then access points could be added to the system until the footprint is what we want.
The second approach is a more commercial application in which WI FI access switches would be used. These switches are stronger (cover radius of 3 miles) and are much more expensive per switch. One of the commercial services would have to be utilized (examples are Vivado.com, Aruba Networks, Airstream). Marc Marling added that he had researched Verizon’s interest in supplying wireless service to Savannah. Verizon told Marc that from a commercial revenue standpoint, the service is 2-3 years out. The Savannah market is not large enough to make it commercially viable for a profit venture at this point.
In Bill’s opinion, he doesn’t see any problems with accomplishing the deployment of a WI FI network in the Historic District… there are no extremely tall buildings and the technology is relatively inexpensive now. The concerns Bill sees include: this is an unlicensed spectrum; there are some issues with WI FI access interfering with other WI FI access; most would tend to want to go with commercial access – a big stick with a large signal; and the universal campus will be interesting and challenging from an engineering standpoint. Bill said that he has been talking about this technology for Savannah with other commercial interests. On his radar, he hasn’t heard of anyone else making a big push. Individual entities such as hotels are moving toward offering access, but not any major commercial interest is planning to offer access at this time.
Committees – Since we have so much to accomplish in such a short time, the group agreed that committees should be established to start to identify key people and entities that need to be involved. The following committees were identified and the following people volunteered for the committees:
Governance Committee – Jim Manley, Tosca Owens, Eric Fulcher, Stephen Hooten
Technology Committee – Marc Marling, Eric Fulcher, Todd Freesemann
Users Committee –
Business Development Committee – Tosca Owens
City/Chamber/SEDA/Waterfront Association – Melissa Yao, Marc Marling, Eric Fulcher
Marketing Committee – David Capallo, Tanya Scott-Pilcher, Hope Moorer
Legal Issues – Marc Marling
Members can be active on more than one committee. Members not present at the meeting or those wanting to change committees (or be added to committees) should notify Hope Moorer and Marc Marling via e-mail on which committees they would like to be involved. Hope will maintain an official list of committee members.
NEXT MEETING: Noon to 1:30 p.m. on November 5, 2003, at Hunter Maclean Exley & Dunn.
MARC OFFERED TO GET A SANDWICH PLATE FROM GANEM’S FOR LUNCH AND EVERYONE CAN CHIP IN TO PAY FOR IT. PLEASE LET MARC KNOW VIA E-MAIL IF THIS IS NOT AGREEABLE TO YOU.
NOVEMBER 5 AGENDA ITEMS:
• Committee Reports
• The group will Identify Key Players – please see page 8 of Chris Miller’s white paper to get started.
• The group will identify the areas we will target for WI FI.
• Guest Speaker – Marc Marling will contact Chris Miller of SEDA to speak at our next meeting.
Meeting Minutes
October 22, 2003
Attending:
Dave Capallo Jim Manley
Mark Dana Marc Marling
Todd Freesemann Hope Moorer
Eric Fulcher Tosca Owens
Stephen Hooten Tanya Scott-Pilcher
Jeff Kole
Marc Marling opened the meeting at 12:10 p.m.
Old Business:
Operating Rules – Todd Freesemann distributed Operating Rules to those who had not received them via e-mail. The group accepted the rules as written with updates to be e-mailed to Todd as necessary.
Mission Statement – Steve Hooten reviewed the Mission Statement that the group discussed at the first meeting. The mission adapted by the group is “To develop the strategy and implementation of a WI FI network in the Savannah Historic District by the G8 Summit to showcase that the community embraces technology.” Todd will type up the mission statement and send out via e-mail to the members.
Membership – Since the meeting, the project has several new members: Melissa Yao, Eric Fulcher and Mark Dana. In addition, Brian Parks is interested in being a member of the group but is now living out of the Savannah area and won’t be able to attend every meeting. Marc Marling said that attendance via telephone will be available at meetings held at HMED offices.
Steve Hooten made a motion to accept Brian Parks as a member of the group and that membership will be closed after the November 5th meeting subject to a vote by the group.
The motion was seconded and unanimously accepted.
Timeline to Completion – The project will need to be completed by June 8th. Eric Fulcher will put together a Project Plan template which includes implementation dates to hold us to our schedule. Eric will send via e-mail to the members.
Update re Discussion with BETA – Steve Hooten has contacted Howard Morrison with BETA. Lots of interest has been shown in bringing WI FI to Savannah. The important questions are who benefits? And who pays for it? Marc Marling stressed the importance of having this service for free, but he’s worried that one government entity has the responsibility for maintaining this service. What if the cost of this gets placed in a line item that’s dropped when the budget gets tight?
Update re Discussion with Chris Miller – Marc Marling and Tosca Owens both spoke with Chris Miller who has been hired by the SEDA as their technology expert. They reported that Chris is very excited about this project. Leadership Savannah can be beneficial to this project by its nature as an independent organization. Tosca distributed several copies of a white paper written by Chris about the importance of technology in attracting jobs. Marc will distribute via e-mail to the group prior to the next meeting.
General Discussion –
Eric Fulcher said that it’s important to identify the market, the customer. Eric reported that it’s critical to involve the city because the City of Savannah owns most of the fiber that has already been laid. Without the city involved, this project may not work.
Marc Marling reported that Georgia Tech and AASU have created a cooperative program that is devoted to wireless technologies. These institutions would like to be involved as well. Their involvement would be beneficial to their program. In addition, SCAD should be approached because of their large number of high band-width users. SCAD currently has 7,500 students, predicted to be 10,000 students soon.
Eric stated that it’s important that we keep to the mission statement when considering the scope of this project. We have a limited timeframe and a lot to accomplish.
The group discussed that it will be important to identify what Hot Zones we want to establish by the G8 Summit… River Street? City Market? Forsyth Park? Johnson Square? Other Squares? Other Corridors? Once we identify what Hot Zones we’ll target, we’ll need to determine what needs to be done to accomplish this project. Todd said that he will bring multiple maps of the Historic District to the next meeting.
The group also decided that whenever anyone makes inroads with an organization, has a meeting with an individual or finds information relevant to the project, that member should notify the entire membership via e-mail so that efforts will not be duplicated and so that these individuals and groups will not be bombarded by every one of us.
New Business:
Guest Speaker – Mark Dana invited Bill Keith, the owner of Savannah Online, to provide the group with an explanation of the basics of WI FI technology and the infrastructure needed to realize a WI FI deployment for the Historic District that is unified, non charge and gives access to the general public. Bill said that there are two basic approaches to accomplish this plan.
The first is a more organic approach and that is to provide Hot Spots around the city. We determine where people travel around the city, and where the system is most likely to be used. The access points that are established generally function for a radius of 500-1,000 feet. The issue is that wireless is omnidirectional, how do you tie this system together so that people can use it reliably? Bill covered the basic technology that would be required to do this and the costs for equipment and installation. Basically you would start with some number of loops and access points and test it. This will determine where access works and where it doesn’t. Then access points could be added to the system until the footprint is what we want.
The second approach is a more commercial application in which WI FI access switches would be used. These switches are stronger (cover radius of 3 miles) and are much more expensive per switch. One of the commercial services would have to be utilized (examples are Vivado.com, Aruba Networks, Airstream). Marc Marling added that he had researched Verizon’s interest in supplying wireless service to Savannah. Verizon told Marc that from a commercial revenue standpoint, the service is 2-3 years out. The Savannah market is not large enough to make it commercially viable for a profit venture at this point.
In Bill’s opinion, he doesn’t see any problems with accomplishing the deployment of a WI FI network in the Historic District… there are no extremely tall buildings and the technology is relatively inexpensive now. The concerns Bill sees include: this is an unlicensed spectrum; there are some issues with WI FI access interfering with other WI FI access; most would tend to want to go with commercial access – a big stick with a large signal; and the universal campus will be interesting and challenging from an engineering standpoint. Bill said that he has been talking about this technology for Savannah with other commercial interests. On his radar, he hasn’t heard of anyone else making a big push. Individual entities such as hotels are moving toward offering access, but not any major commercial interest is planning to offer access at this time.
Committees – Since we have so much to accomplish in such a short time, the group agreed that committees should be established to start to identify key people and entities that need to be involved. The following committees were identified and the following people volunteered for the committees:
Governance Committee – Jim Manley, Tosca Owens, Eric Fulcher, Stephen Hooten
Technology Committee – Marc Marling, Eric Fulcher, Todd Freesemann
Users Committee –
Business Development Committee – Tosca Owens
City/Chamber/SEDA/Waterfront Association – Melissa Yao, Marc Marling, Eric Fulcher
Marketing Committee – David Capallo, Tanya Scott-Pilcher, Hope Moorer
Legal Issues – Marc Marling
Members can be active on more than one committee. Members not present at the meeting or those wanting to change committees (or be added to committees) should notify Hope Moorer and Marc Marling via e-mail on which committees they would like to be involved. Hope will maintain an official list of committee members.
NEXT MEETING: Noon to 1:30 p.m. on November 5, 2003, at Hunter Maclean Exley & Dunn.
MARC OFFERED TO GET A SANDWICH PLATE FROM GANEM’S FOR LUNCH AND EVERYONE CAN CHIP IN TO PAY FOR IT. PLEASE LET MARC KNOW VIA E-MAIL IF THIS IS NOT AGREEABLE TO YOU.
NOVEMBER 5 AGENDA ITEMS:
• Committee Reports
• The group will Identify Key Players – please see page 8 of Chris Miller’s white paper to get started.
• The group will identify the areas we will target for WI FI.
• Guest Speaker – Marc Marling will contact Chris Miller of SEDA to speak at our next meeting.
