Citizen Will

Tag: Technology

  • Community Oversight of the Planning Board

    My previous posts tracking requests for information, feedback and general commentary to our Town staff and elected folks seem to be fairly popular. I’m going to continue to post correspondence which might be of public interest. The Town’s Technology Board (now defunct) was the first advisory board I regularly interacted with. The first meeting I […]

  • Tracey Coleman on Rogers Road: Most Popular Video To Date

    At 1460 hits, this video is by and far the most popular one I’ve posted on youTube. No surprise to me as Tracey did an incredibly eloquent presentation on the flawed Solid Waste Advisory Board’s search for a new trash transfer site.

  • Election 2007: The Chamber’s Yes, No and Unsure Questionnaire

    X-Posted from my 2007 Campaign web site. Even though the Chamber made it clear that extended replies where not welcomed in the 2007 questionnaire ( Election 2007: The Chamber’s Yes, No, Unsure – Again!), I took the opportunity to answer each of their questions beyond the constraints of “yes, no, unsure”. The questions are broad, […]

  • Triple the Fun at Shearon-Harris

    Coming on the heels of last month’s $65,000 NRC fine, Progress Energy continues to promote two more reactors at their Shearon-Harris site. There are several unresolved issues involving Shearon-Harris that makes siting further reactors more than problematic. Until waste disposal, security, adequate fire protection, safe storage and a slew of other issues are dealt with, […]

  • Software Freedom Day 2007

    As long time readers know, I’ve been trying to get our Town to adopt free/open source software products for the last 6 years. There’s been some success but not enough. FOSS (free/open source software) is a low cost alternative to the Microsoft Monopoly (the Town could’ve saved between $500-700K by now if it had adopted […]

  • Northern Going South

    Another bad bit of news for RTP’s Northern Telecom. Photo: Telecordia The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has charged four more former Nortel Networks Corp. executives with accounting fraud, alleging they manipulated reserves to change Nortel’s earnings statements on the orders of more senior officers of the Canadian networking equipment maker. The U.S. stocks regulator […]

  • The Climate Heats Up AND The Mayor Has A Website?

    Was looking for some information on October 4th’s National Conversation on Climate Action when I stumbled upon what appears to be the Mayor’s own, new website: www.chapelhillmayorsoffice.com. A quick Google of “www.chapelhillmayorsoffice.com” only turned up the site itself and this reference from today’s Herald-Sun: CHAPEL HILL — The town will be part of the National […]

  • Municipal Networking: AT&T, Another Brick in the Wall

    I’ve been pushing for our local government to invest in community-owned networking as necessary infrastructure for the 21st century. Communities that provide neutral and widely accessible communications infrastructures will reap the benefits of greater economic activity, level the playing field vis-a-vis the digital divide and help create a new Town commons open to all our […]

  • Shearon-Harris: Fire in the Whole

    It appears that Progress Energy has prevailed against local concerns the fire safety and overall security of their Shearon-Harris facility is less than adequate: Progress Energy has cleared a hurdle in its bid to extend the operating license of the Shearon Harris nuclear plant by 20 years. The Raleigh utility persuaded administrative law judges to […]

  • Broadcasting Localism, a People’s Channel Fundraiser

    As many of you know, I have a particular interest in employing technology to boost our citizens’ voices cost-effectively and in ways not otherwise possible. I met a kindred spirit in the The Peoples Channel’s director Chad Johnston many years ago when we both started attending the Town’s now defunct Technology Advisory Board to encourage […]

  • Municipal Networking: Could We Have a Little Less Big Brother?

    Four years ago I suggested we use the scheduled upgrade of our traffic system to fiber to upgrade Chapel Hill’s own communication infrastructure. May 21st, Council is prepared to approve funds. $500,000 to be exact, to move ahead with that tandem upgrade. For a very modest cost, less, I believe, than what Council has set […]

  • Downtown Internet Gets a Little Hotter?

    Ran into Bob Avery, the Town’s IT Director, on Franklin St. today. Turns out he’s surveying Downtown with an eye towards deploying a small pilot program of free Internet hot spots in the near future. The pilot would use Clearwire as the high-speed wireless backhaul. The only resources needed are power and location. I cautioned […]

  • The Carrboro Channel: Streaming Video Tonight

    Carrboro continues to beat lead Chapel Hill in innovation – whether it is Downtown music festivals, freely available Internet access or commitment to hands-on arts. In spite of the long effort by Chapel Hill’s now defunct Technology Board to bring video of public Council, Planning Board, forum, etc. meetings to the accessibility inhibited website, the […]

  • NCWARN to Shearon-Harris: Come on Baby Light My Fire! Not!

    Following up on my Sep. 2006 post “Shearon-Harris Offline: Who tripped over the wire?”, the North Carolina Waste Awareness and Reduction Network (NCWARN) is holding another public hearing Mar. 22nd, 2007 on the 14 years of fire violations at the Shearon-Harris nuclear plant. FIRE VIOLATIONS AT SHEARON HARRIS NUCLEAR PLANT Thursday, March 22nd, 7pm The […]