Lesson Learned, and Shared, Through Our Advocacy for WiscNet

Battling for Broadband in the Statehouses. (Daily Yonder, 7/20/2011)

Excerpt:   Broadband supporters in Wisconsin and elsewhere are passing on lessons to communities to help them in the inevitable political battles that lie ahead. “You need to find one person in every community who sees broadband’s possibilities for constituents and can pull others together with unified messaging,” Alvarez-Stroud observes. “Our message was, with this network we can get what we need, it will cost less and we’ll have more say in how the network is run.”

Communities have to find institutions with influential constituencies that can carry the message to legislators, groups like libraries, chambers of commerce and homeowner associations. Jay Ovittore, Legislative Representative for the SouthEast Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors, has challenged North Carolina’s legislators for four years. “I cannot stress enough the importance of building relationships here. Don’t expect to just walk up in the legislature and have a meeting, or get your point heard.”

Ovittore also observes that, if legislators are hearing only the industry lobbyists, then they are only getting half the story. Communities have to educate legislators about the applications for community broadband and to highlight the success stories in their state. He continues, “You are going to be up against a machine that will plug legislators’ ears with distortions and industry spin. Emphasize you’re fighting for improved medical applications, better educational tools and most importantly an economic development tool to attract jobs and increase business solutions. Home use is always secondary.”

[Emphasis added in 1st and 2nd paragraphs.]