The Schools Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition’s (SHLB) fourth annual conference the first week in May has plenty to offer on issues affecting broadband connectivity and adoption throughout the country, and we are excited that several Quilt members will be representing the R&E community on the agenda.
The annual conference will be held on May 7-9 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in downtown Washington, D.C. The program features several Quilt members and includes updates on E-Rate reform, ConnectED, the Healthcare Connect Fund, Connect America Fund, and several panels around digital inclusion, white spaces, and municipal broadband.
Quilt President and CEO Jen Leasure will be moderating a panel on E-Rate with the discussion focused on the benefits of capital investment in broadband connections for schools and libraries. Learn more about the presentation. Jamie Huber from Cheboygan-Otsego-Presque Isle Education School District (COPESD) in Indian Hills, Mich. (a member of the Quilt member Merit Network) is on the panel.
Other Quilt members participating include CENIC President and CEO Louis Fox, who is listed as a plenary speaker. John Gillispie from MOREnet will serve on a rural broadband panel along with Jon Chambers of the FCC and others. MOREnet was one of 11 R&E networking organizations that submitted an expression of interest for the FCC’s rural broadband experiments under the Connect America Fund. Finally, MCNC Chief Technology Officer Mark Johnson, Jim Stewart from Utah Education Network, and Ken Barber from KINBER will serve as panelists for a Gigabit Cities panel planned for the second day of the conference.
Several other FCC staffers, representatives of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and Obama Administration officials (Tom Power and Richard Culatta) also are scheduled to present.
This annual conference is a great place to network with Quilt members, representatives from community anchor institutions, industry, and policymakers all in one place. Visit this website to view the entire agenda and register.
The day before the SHLB conference begins, the FCC will be holding an E-Rate Modernization Workshop on May 6 in the Commission Meeting Room (TW-C305).
The E-Rate Modernization Workshop will provide an opportunity for the FCC and E-Rate stakeholders to discuss the challenge of delivering high-speed connectivity to and within schools and libraries and highlight successful strategies. Additional details concerning the workshop agenda and panelists will be forthcoming.
The workshop will be free and open to the public, and also will be streamed live here.
Early May is shaping up to be a key time to address some of the hot broadband issues that are front and center on the national networking agenda.