Committee Hearing, March 30, 2006

COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA JOINT COMMITTEES ON TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATION SERVICES AND PUBLIC PROPERTY AND PUBLIC WORKS - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Thursday, March 30, 2006 4:15 p.m. - - - PRESENT: COUNCILMAN BRIAN J. O'NEILL COUNCILMAN DARRELL L. CLARKE COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED MILLER COUNCILWOMAN BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO BILL 060160 - An ordinance for the purpose of creating a citywide wireless broadband Internet access system, to bridge the digital divide, to increase the efficiency and reduce costs of government... - - - V A R A L L O Incorporated Litigation Support Services Eleven Penn Center 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 215.561.2220 215.567.2670 2

Can I have your attention, please. We're ready to rock and roll and light up the board. This is the continued hearing from March 10th of the joint Committees on Technology and Information Systems and Public Property and Public Works. Chairman of Public Property, Darrell Clarke, is here. Vice-Chair of Technology, who is going to eventually be chairing most of this meeting and who requested it, and I congratulate her for that. Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown wanted a separate hearing late in the day for public testimony only. So this is basically the Councilwoman's hearing. Councilman Rizzo, who sat through the entire hearing on six hours on March 10th, is here. And I'd like to get started. We have a list of somewhere around 19 witnesses that have been already supplied to the Councilwoman's office. Anyone else who would like to 3 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 testify that's not sure they're on the list or would like to get added and knows they're not on the list, Joe Meade -- Joe, could you raise your hand -- from Councilwoman Reynolds Brown's staff will be adding names to the list as we go along. We just ask you one thing, one rule here. If you have prepared testimony, please submit it and summarize, if you can. If you don't have prepared testimony, please be as brief as possible. And with that, I'll turn the mike over to Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown and let her begin calling the list of witnesses. The Committee will be in recess until Monday, April 3rd at 11 o'clock, which has already been advertised, when the Administration will be back again, and hopefully there won't be too many more of those kind of hearings, but everyone is welcome to that as well. 4 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon. As Chairman O'Neill indicated, we specifically requested a hearing for public testimony to give those of us who work 9:00 to 5:00 an opportunity to come down, register their comments, recommendations, suggestions, sentiments about this major unprecedented public policy. So therein lies the reason. We need to make sure we have an opportunity for citizens who cannot get here during normal work hours. With that, we will bring up the first panel, and they are as follows. Forgive me if I butcher your name. Team Children.com, Robert Toporek, please come forward. You will be joined by Ed Schwartz, Institute for Civil Values, and a private citizen, Faye Deckter. Please come to the witness table. Forgive me. I see also here a fourth member of this panel, Closed Networks, represented by Tom Christie. 5 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 Please come to the witness table. Please proceed, Team Children.com, and pronounce your full name for our stenographer. SPEAKER: Team Children is not here.

Thank you very, very much. Therein, we'll move to Institute for Civic Values, Ed Schwartz. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. Thank you, Councilwoman. It is good to be here as always, and I'll just start by making a short comment. I believe Councilman O'Neill was the only one who was here. You may recall that I brought a computer to City Council in that table, first to do it, and after my colleagues saw what I was doing with it, within four months everybody had one, and I helped install Ann Verna's software. So I've been around the horn on this. That's 1984. I want to make five points 6 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 related to this about Wireless Philadelphia to kind of get this started. First, I think Wireless Philadelphia is about the City of Philadelphia, the entire City. In my judgment, it is a project that makes a major step in moving from the manufacturing economy of the past to the global information economy of the future. We are ahead in this case of the curve, and we are recognized worldwide for being ahead of the curve. The excitement that has greeted this project all over the country and the world, ranging from activists, to the Wall Street Journal, to Squawk Box, a business show where Mayor Rizzo -- sorry; Mayor Street appeared three days after the announcement, is unparalleled really in any economic development venture that I can remember in the last 30, 35 years in Philadelphia that I've been here, and I think we ought to think about that. For the first time, we have managed to set the pace and this project will set 7 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 the pace for the economic future of the City. Secondly, it's important to understand and remember that this is an infrastructure project. We're not setting up a business here. We are in fact authorizing a non-profit corporation and a company called EarthLink to put antennae all over the City on various City-owned poles. It's an infrastructure project. And it's no different from what City Council did in the 1980s when I was here in authorizing a group of cable companies to do precisely that to provide cable television, but there is an important difference between what's going on here and what went on then, because we authorize companies to set up their antennae and then to have a virtual monopoly on the offering of cable service within those districts. What this project is doing is keeping, in effect, the authority over these antennae in the hands of the non-profit group and 8 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 EarthLink that is required to provide open source access to this network by every computer company and ISP that wants to use it. Some people have said that this is stifling competition. As I see it, this is creating and stimulating competition by opening the door to a large number of groups that might not have the resources to set up the whole wireless network of Philadelphia, but could become content providers on such a network if it were provided. Third, in creating a non-profit, Wireless Philadelphia, we have created an organization in the City whose function and purpose and mission will be to bridge the digital divide. There's been too much emphasis on looking simply at the network and then bridging the digital divide as if that's the only thing going on. It's not. What you got is an organization where people are going to get up and say, What am I doing today 9 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 to bridge the digital divide? And that's an organization that can raise foundation money, money from other levels of government, money from other kinds of projects and for them, and I predict to you that when this thing is finally established, you're going to see foundations and other governments flock to give this support. This is a hot project and they want to be part of it, and that's really important. There's never been a corporation like that in Philadelphia.

The closest that we came to it was the Liberty Network that helped the Institute for the Study of Civic Values and I get into business back in the 1990s that had no support from the City of Philadelphia whatsoever. Wireless Philadelphia, in my view, offers terrific benefits to small business, and I'm going to give you a little example. There's a fellow named Greg Williams who runs a little bookstore 10 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 called Walk a Crooked Mile out of the Mount Airy Train Station across the street from where I live. He does it right out of this train station. Now, there's no way you can make enough money in a bookstore at the Mount Airy Train Station just by selling books there. So how does he survive? Well, he's on the Internet. And there are two or three rare book networks on the Internet that permits him to sell his books all over the world. So the Internet is making it possible for this micro business to sit there at the Mount Airy Train Station and serve us as well as there. By doing this and creating this City-wide, we make it possible for any small, big, whatever -- but the small business is the one being left out -- to be located anywhere and sell whatever they're selling everywhere, and that's a huge opportunity. I've seen that operate in other parts of the country. It needs 11 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 to operate here. Wireless Philadelphia, needless to say, offers terrific benefits to the neighborhoods, and I would define them in every way. We've seen in fact what's happened in Norris Square and in Belmont where the People's Emergency Center and Strawberry Mansion in some of the areas around Project HOME that are pioneering and providing access to low-income people to the Internet. The Institute at this point, even ten years ago, was running the biggest, and still is, access point for block captains and civic activists to get information that they need and to connect with public agencies and elected officials and get resources that are important to their development. But we are only right now touching part of the City of Philadelphia, and I'm not talking about geographically. Wireless Philadelphia creates a context in which it becomes 12 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 appropriate for every civic activist, every block captain, every member of Town Watch, every human service group to be on the Internet connecting with each other, connecting with the places that need to give them support. These are the five reasons that I think it's really critical that we move forward with this project. And I do understand that City Council on a project of this magnitude has to perform due diligence, which is what you're doing, but once you do that, move forward. In the 1980s when I was here, City Council approved a Convention Center where there was massive public opposition, where we had to move 300 existing businesses out of Center City into some other part of the City because they were in the location where we built the Convention Center, and we did it because it made sense, and it's worked. There's massive public support for this project, minimal opposition. 13 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 Nobody has to be moved out of the way. Quite the opposite. Wireless Philadelphia empowers people and empowers businesses and empowers ultimately all of us who work in government and related to it. So I'm pleased to have a chance to be here. I was pleased to be part of the planning committee for this project, and I am very, very excited about the fact that Philadelphia, for the first time since I've been doing this over the last 15, years, has jumped ahead of 15 the curve for the first time and set an 16 example that really cities all over the 17 United States are now scrambling to 18 imitate. 19 Thank you. 20

Thank you, Ed Schwartz. I do have a couple of follow-up questions, but procedure will be, we will hear from the entire panel and then members of this Committee will pose questions. 14 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 Please, Ms. Faye Deckter with the Historic City Gardens.

May I stand up, because the desk is --

Whatever is comfortable for you.

My name is Faye Deckter. I have been a long-term consultant in marketing market research with 30 professional consulting projects in the telecommunications industry. I produced two documents, one on the health and safety of electromagnetic and radiofrequency radiation and another on that topic, historic preservation and potential public policy impact. In 2000, I founded an organization called Historic City Gardens. This is a City-wide horticultural project. We currently have a database of 200 volunteers. Last summer, we worked on five gardens in the Brewerytown section. Our goal is the establishment of a unique 15 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 community-based historical botanical garden at Lemon Hill and Porter's House properties in Fairmount Park. Just a little background. Lemon Hill and Porter's House properties are some of the most historically horticulturally significant properties in the United States. At one time, these properties were part of William Penn's Springettsbury Estate, which, to the best of my knowledge, had the first documented greenhouse on the continent. They also were owned by Robert Morris, signer of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, who created gardens and a magnificent greenhouse once considered the best on the continent. If I may show you, this is a picture that was done by Woodstock just post Robert Morris time. This is the historic greenhouse. You can see that. It's almost larger than the mansion. Robert Morris also was one of the founders of the first agricultural 16 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 societies in the nation. Lemon Hill and Porter's House properties were the first properties to become our Fairmount Park. Upon the founding of Fairmount Park, John Price Wetherill said, Health and cheerful spirits and the welfare of our children are of more importance than money. Our project became involved in the topic of electromagnetic and radiofrequency radiation in April of 2002 after noticing a cell phone tower being erected across from the Zoo. This led me to write a letter to the Daily News questioning its safety. From there, I began investigating the safety of existing and emerging technologies. In regard to plants, the research of Dr. Wolfgang Volkrodt, a retired Siemens engineer, attributed the deforestation of the German, Swiss and Austrian forests to electromagnetic radiation. His conclusion was supported by Dr. Ehrlich Hertoff's research on the 17 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 damage to forest sectors near burned Switzerland. Additionally, according to Professor of Biology at the University of Vermont, Bernard Heinrich, radiofrequency and electromagnetic absorption dramatically affects survival mechanisms and mortality rates of insects. Raymond Kasevich in a public speech on the effects of electromagnetic fields on the environment refer to studies demonstrating retarded development of 65 percent of bird chicks. Birds, bees and butterflies are all necessary for pollination. More research is needed. However, please understand that historic, exotic and rare plants, which would be present at our botanical garden that's set to get national attention and bring millions of dollars into the City of Philadelphia, simply may not be able to take this level of radiation. There is a precedence by the 18 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 FCC in a ruling against a cell phone tower company at a national historic conservation site. We request the City of Philadelphia work with our project for the removal of all cell towers and antennae in the range of Lemon Hill and Porter's House properties under historic preservation laws. Under no 10 circumstances should WiFi technology be placed at or near Lemon Hill or Porter's House properties. Additionally, implications for humans: The current federal guidelines for radiofrequency radiation are based on thermal effects, not lower level non-thermal effects.

What that means, folks, is that when they were establishing the guidelines, everybody knew that heating of cells was dangerous, but they didn't really know the effects at lower levels. S. guidelines. According to an op-ed written for Litchfield, Connecticut County Times by Blake Levitt, a noted science writer, included in who is who in science and engineering and who is who in the world, these negative biological effects -- please. Excuse me. Excuse me. I've done two years of work on this. Could you please.

Forgive me. I was conferring with the Chairman of this Committee. That's why there's --

I'd like to tell you that when we do this, we can talk to each other and listen.

Maybe I'm not familiar.

I can assure you of that.

Okay. -- (continued) who has been included in who is who in science and engineering and who is who in the world, 20 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 these negative biological effects based on non-thermal effects range from cancers, immune system suppression, learning deficits, sleep disorders, neurological disorders, skin rashes, heart palpitation, diabetes, blood disorders, hypertension, et cetera. Others have also included in this list effect on the blood barrier of the brain, which holds out toxins, efflux of calcium from cells, including from the heart, and effects on sex drive and impact on asthma. However, one might wonder why some studies show no effects, and that's yet another speech. The telecommunication industry continues to say that we are safe. Nevertheless, it is important to note that due to the lack of funding, only under rare instances does the FCC monitor radiation levels for safety despite many co-located installations, and the FCC, as they will readily tell you, is not a health organization. 21 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 At present, no internationally accepted standards exist. In fact, the United States standards allow for exposures 100 times greater than Russia, Switzerland and some eastern European countries. Many countries continue to call for precautionary principle regarding this technology, including the UK, as noted in the most recent Stewart Report of 2005. The 1998 Wingspread Conference on Precautionary Principle held in Racine, Wisconsin considers precautionary principle as such: When an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment, precautionary measures should be taken, even if some cause-and-effect relationships are not fully established scientifically. Say that again. Even if not fully established scientifically. And I continue. In this context, the proponent of an activity, and in this case it's the telecommunications industry, rather than 22 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 the public should bear the burden of proof. The process of applying the precautionary principle must be open, informed and democratic and must include potentially affected parties. It must also involve an examination of the full range of alternatives, including no 10 action. Councilmen and women, 3,000 physicians worldwide have signed the Interdisciplinary Association for Environmental Medicine's Freeburger appeal. This appeal notes increased appearance of severe and chronic diseases among patients near high frequency microwave radiation and that these long-term diseases and afflictions improve or disappear upon reduction or elimination of this radiation from the patient's environment. Other appeals put forth by scientists have included the Vienna EMF resolution of 1998, the Catania, Italy 23 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 resolution of 2002 and, most recently, the Helsinki appeal of 2005. Councilmen and Councilwomen, I am worried about our children, who may be more affected by this radiation, whose cells and nervous systems are developing and whose heads may absorb more radiation. Current standards are based on an average male's height and weight, plus safety margins. They do not consider children, women, pregnant women, the elderly or the infirm and their physiologies. I am concerned also because, to the best of my knowledge, Philadelphia has not been a leader in the research of electromagnetic and radiofrequency technology. This is another company from another city who wants to come in and put this here. We have not been a leader. Have we even produced one study on its health and safety? As far as I know, not a one. I am concerned that the health and safety studies have not adequately 24 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 been reviewed. Even the City's Project Manager for wireless is not familiar with them.

To the best of my knowledge, the hundreds of articles on the growing condition called electro hypersensitivity recognized by the World Health Organization have not been compiled, analyzed and considered here. Dr. Magda Havas of the Environmental and Resource Studies of Trent University, Ontario, Canada in a document prepared for Mayor Tom Barrett and City Aldermen from Milwaukee regarding WiFi tells us that electro hypersensitivity symptoms include cognitive distance in regard to memory, concentration, problem solving, balance, dizziness and vertigo, facial flushing, skin rash, chest pressure, rapid heartbeat, depression, anxiety, irritability, frustration, temper, fatigue, poor sleep, body aches, headaches, ringing in the ears and is 25 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 consistent with chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. The World Health Organization's international seminar and working group on EMF -- that's electromagnetic fields -- hypersensitivity in Prague in October 2004 purported that persons affected by electro hypersensitivity, their exposures are generally several orders of magnitude under the limits of internationally accepted standards. This condition already has been recognized in Sweden and the UK. So already we are seeing symptoms and we are yet to know what the long-range effects of this technology is. So, in short, Councilmen and Councilwomen, I feel we are rushing to implementation when we would be much better served by Philadelphia mounting a scientific campaign spearheaded by the Franklin Institute, the Academy of Natural Sciences and the College of Physicians utilizing scientists who have 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 no stake in the outcome from multiple disciplines from our universities, biology, botany, horticulture, physiology, physics and engineering departments, from the research facilities of our medical schools and hospitals and from the University of Pennsylvania's Veterinary School. The studies in regard to health and safety should be led by scientists from the living sciences, such as biology, rather than the hard sciences, like physics and engineering, and should be jointly funded by industry and independent sources. In this way, we can ensure that this technology introduced to the public is safe. In this way, we could dignify both William Penn and Benjamin Franklin. As Benjamin Franklin once said, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Thank you.

Thank you, 27 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 Ms. Deckter, of the Historic City Gardens. Please, Mr. Tom Christie of Closed Networks.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

My name is Tom Christie. I work with Closed Networks. I'm joined today by Ed Vea, who is the President of our company and also our CTO. We're located on 525 South Fourth Street in Philadelphia. Closed Networks already provides wireless broadband Internet services to residential and small business customers in a 50-square mile area of Philadelphia.

Mr. Christie, let me rudely interrupt you and pose a question here. How many pages of testimony?

Just four.

And you're 28 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 going to read all four pages?

Yes. Is that okay?

Okay. I'll restate the rules after you finish. Go ahead.

We're a small but growing privately held company headquartered in Philadelphia. We're committed to an economically successful and vibrant City. I'm here to testify about the proposed contracts with EarthLink to provide wireless broadband access to Philadelphia. We believe Wireless Philadelphia has made great strides in the arrangements it has made with EarthLink. By keeping ownership and responsibility for the wireless network infrastructure in the hands of EarthLink, Wireless Philadelphia can focus on the critical task of providing training and equipment to the less fortunate residents in Philadelphia. But we're still 29 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 concerned that EarthLink's network doesn't actually bridge the digital divide. In fact, in a few years, the plan as published will make it substantially wider. Data access speeds in the wireless space are doubling approximately every two years, and the standard today is about seven megabits per second. In the two years it's going to take EarthLink to build and commence service across the City, the standard is more likely to be 14 megabits a second. At that time, the EarthLink network will be one megabit per second, substantially below what other networks will be able to offer. To give some idea of speeds, that will take about nine seconds on EarthLink's network to load a digital image across the Internet compared to about six seconds with cable modem and five seconds on our network. That's going to get worse with time. 30 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 The proposed contract contains no material obligation for EarthLink to ever upgrade the network. Typically, contracts require equipment upgrades and technology upgrades every five to eight years. This is a serious deficiency in the contract. There are also dozens, maybe even hundreds, of networks in operation in the City already using the identical spectrum that's proposed by EarthLink. For that reason, we see no way that the service proposed by EarthLink can be delivered using the equipment and installation plans specified in the contract. The proposed EarthLink network will create interference with all of these networks and other wireless equipment deployed in the City. Despite our best efforts to contact Wireless Philadelphia and EarthLink about this problem, they have ignored us. They know full well that there's not a tried and tested technical 31 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 solution to this problem. If they're to honor their contractual commitments, they cannot ignore it. Closed Networks is only one of many entities using the same spectrum as EarthLink. Interference in the unlicensed wireless spectrum -- that's the spectrum for which the FCC does not grant a license to operators -- is widely known and understood, and I'm submitting for the record a major article on the subject that appeared in The Economist this month. Typically, before deploying a wireless network, the vendor will carry out Spectrum Utilization Tests. These provide the basis for designing and engineering the network to deliver the required performance. Such tests should be required as a pre-condition to any contract. We believe that until EarthLink has demonstrated it can resolve these interoperability issues, the Council should defer action on these 32 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 relevant contracts, and once a technologically sound solution is developed, it should formally be incorporated into the contracts. Here's a bit about our business. We've been in operation for about three years. We're headquartered here in Philadelphia. Within the next three years, we plan to employ more than 60 staff in the center of the City. Currently half of our staff resides in the City, and we expect that ratio to grow. We make and will continue to make substantial contribution to the City economy. We'll be contributing more than $160,000 annually in City wage taxes as we grow.

No matter what the City decides to do with the EarthLink contract, we're prepared to pay Wireless Philadelphia $2 a month for any customer referred to Closed Networks by Wireless Philadelphia. That represents ten percent of each monthly contract. Unlike EarthLink, we 33 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 would not cap the amount we would contribute to Wireless Philadelphia. Closed Networks wants the City's WiFi initiative to succeed. As currently structured, it won't deliver the promised results. It will not provide Wireless Philadelphia with the revenue stream to repay its loan, and more importantly, it will fail to assist underprivileged residents to climb up the digital broadband ladder. Thanks for this opportunity to testify. The article that I've attached is a very good article explaining the pros and cons and some of the potential pitfalls of wireless networking, things that need to be addressed and in a manner that can be readily understood by virtually anybody.

Okay. Thank you very much for your testimony. Any questions, comments from members of the Committee? (No response.) 34 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160

Mr. Ed Schwartz, you said that you believe foundations will, and I quote, "flock to give support to the digital divide component of this unprecedented initiative." Briefly explain why you believe that.

I think that there has been some interest in general in foundations over the last two decades in bridging the digital divide. This project already has attracted support, for example, from Hewlett Packard, which showed up at Norris Square last year, last summer and put computers all over the Norris Square Park. Intel has contributed to it. And I read the foundation journals and whatever because it's necessary to my own work, and there's a lot of interest in this and there's been a lot of discussion about it. Often a foundation doesn't really know how to go about doing 35 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 something because they don't know whether it's going to work and what the center of action will be, but Wireless Philadelphia creates a non-profit corporation that wakes up in the morning and asks, What's in the public interest? That's the core of this. And all other discussions about the particulars of a contract or even the environmental issues can then be debated and constructed by this kind of cooperation in relation to the public interest. And unless there is that, the public interest will never be the primary consideration in making any decision, and I think foundations and other levels of government are going to see that. And you will see as soon as this thing is allowed to move forward, I think you're going to see some examples of what I'm talking about.

Your second observation you made is that you believe it will create competition. Briefly explain why you believe that. 36 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160

Well, EarthLink was not really a factor in the City's economy at all. Now suddenly they're a major player. EarthLink is in fact using a similar role in these kind of municipal wireless networks as its own strategy to survive in this new era of broadband access. So they weren't a player at all. At night, I watch, as I think we all do, the battle of Comcast versus Verizon for this stuff. I've never heard of this company as a matter of -- despite how busy I've been in this area. Wireless Philadelphia has suddenly given this company an opportunity to get enormous visibility and explain to all of us the work that they're doing. And so by creating an open-access structure for signing up for the network and placing the responsibility of building the network in essentially one hand, not 30, I think you make it possible for companies that otherwise would not necessarily be known 37 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 or be able to be in this game to compete. Otherwise, it will be just one or two major companies that will dominate the entire field and no one else will be able to get in.

Okay, then. Thank you for your testimony.

Thank you.

One question for Mr. Christie. You state on the last page of your testimony, the last paragraph, which says, "It will fail to assist underprivileged residents to climb up the digital broadband ladder." Briefly explain why you believe that.

If you look at how people connect to the Internet, and it's all about how you connect to the Internet, and how you do it in a way that makes it both fun and adds value to your life, when you look at connecting to the Internet one megabit per second compared to seven megabits per second, if you're a child downloading or uploading 38 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 information onto the Internet, it takes longer. So you're at a disadvantage. If you look at the bookstore that Mr. Schwartz was talking about, being able to have data-rich information that people can upload and download from your shop makes that experience much better. It makes your website more attractive to people who use it. So that's the key difference. So if you're in an area where you can only access the Internet one megabit per second compared to being in an area where you have a seven-megabit or a 14-megabit-per-second service, you're going to get a much richer experience. You're going to have a much better product offering. If you got a bookstore connected at one megabit compared to a bookstore connected at 14 megabits, more people will visit the 14 megabit site.

At the end of the day, what matters more, given a 39 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 low-income or moderate-income citizen who has no access to the Internet, what matters more, some access or the speed to which they get access to a different alternative? At the bottom line, at the end of the day, what matters more?

I think what matters more is economics. There's been lots of studies looking at connections to the Internet, and what drives it is the actual economics of the cost of the connection.

And for those who have no economics, what matters more?

I agree, the basic connection.

Thank you very much for your testimony. And then, finally, Ms. Deckter, if I had to summarize your testimony in one word, do you support this initiative or not, in one word?

No. I don't 40 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 think we've done our homework.

Okay. And I thank you very, very much. You more than --

We haven't done our homework here and we're not leaders here. We have another company coming in and putting this on us, and if it goes wrong, we're stuck with it. Why aren't they doing it in Atlanta --

Ms. Deckter?

Why aren't they doing it --

Ms. Deckter, I thank you very, very much for your testimony where you, in a very comprehensive fashion, laid out your position. I just wanted to be clear on where I believe your position was. I thank you very, very much for your testimony.

May I explain one other thing? 41 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160

Let me say this: We have citizens who are here 4 to participate and another 25 here who 5 are here to listen. We have to give them 6 the courtesy and an opportunity as well 7 to register their opinion. So I'd be 8 happy to have a side-bar with you after I 9 get through this testifier list. Thank 10 you very much. 11

Okay. Thank you. 12

Next up 13 will be Panel No. 2, Pat Renzulli, who is 14 the Chief Information Officer for the 15 School District of Philadelphia; Kate 16 Leader, teacher with Grover Elementary 17 School; Jay Cohen, who is the Parent 18 Outreach Manager for the School District 19 of Philadelphia; and Edison Freire, 20 F-R-E-I-R-E, with the School District of 21 Philadelphia Workforce Development. 22 Please, joining this panel will 23 be Corey Robinson of the People's 24 Emergency Center. 25 Let me just state, if I will, 42 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 what the procedures are and what the rules are. We have persons we want to 4 hear from. If your testimony is more 5 than two typewritten pages, then you must 6 summarize, or else you'll force me to 7 interrupt you. Are we clear? Thank you 8 very, very much. 9 Okay. Please proceed. 10

Thank you, 11 Councilwoman Brown. And I think you'll 12 find each of us, our testimonies are very 13 brief for the reasons that you cited. 14 I am not here to provide more 15 testimony. I had been here at the prior 16 Council and talked about the reasons why 17 the School District supports this effort. 18 On behalf of the School District and the 19 90,000 families that we support, we 20 believe this to be a very critical 21 project, as we've made it a very critical 22 part of our strategy to deliver 23 information to our families to further 24 engage them in the education of their 25 children and have closer community ties. 43 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 So that said, my purpose is really to introduce my colleagues who have different perspectives as they participate in the efforts to engage our families, and each of them are in support of the criticality of this as well.

I thank you. State your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.

Hi. My name is Jay Cohen. I am the Parent Outreach Manager for Educational Technology in the School District of Philadelphia. I am also the proud parent of two daughters in the Philadelphia public school system that have -- and I'm proud to say that they're in the School District and they're in Philadelphia. Concerning the City's wireless program, there are two things that I know for sure. One is that if you increase the amount of Internet access existing in families in the City and you work with 44 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 the School District of Philadelphia, you will dramatically increase student educational achievement. The other thing that I know for sure is that if you give Internet access to families or provide more Internet access to families around the City, you will find that parents and families will start helping themselves and helping each other. S. Department of Education project called the Education Connection Project at WHYY Public Television. The project studied how computers and Internet access in homes could be used to improve educational performance. The result of this project was that in only one year's time we saw more than a 30 percent increase in mathematics achievement, as compared to a control group that did not have Internet access in their homes. I feel that this is important because I don't know how many times it's been stated that it will 45 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 definitely increase academic achievement. The other thing that may be even more important than academic achievement is that after working with 6 classrooms of students and over 500 7 families, I saw and the teachers in the 8 project saw a cultural change that when 9 you provided Internet access to families, 10 they started helping each other and 11 helping themselves more than any 12 individual institution could do, more than I could do from WHYY or the School District or the City. So I'm counting on the City and the School District in working together to get Internet access to families, because if the School District and the City can work together, then I can do my job and work with families as the Parent Outreach Coordinator to make sure that the families know that they can work together and do more than either of those institutions. So I want to just briefly say 46 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 the five areas that have already started in the School District in helping parents help themselves. The first area is that we're actively working with parents to find good deals on computer equipment. Right now we are able to offer parents a used computer, a quality used computer, for $150. But parents are going to find better deals than that, and I want them to talk to each other. That's why we found the second area, which is list serves. We're creating a list serve that parents can use to talk to each other. When they find good deals on Internet access or computers, they can share with other parents. And so there's a list serve that we're creating. No. 3, we're creating a telephone help line that involves parent volunteers taking messages from other parents all over the district, and the parent volunteers can pick up the messages via a web-based interface. Of 47 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 course, you can't do that unless there's Internet access all over the City. Fourth, computer support. I'm working with an organization called Non-Profit Technology Resources, which I think you've heard from in the past, with a "Bring Your Computer - Ask a Question" workshop. This program helps people fix their own computer for only a nominal fee. Again, it's about letting parents help themselves. So the fifth and final area is the online resources. We're going all over the School District to tell parents about online programs, especially licensed by the District for parents of the District.

These programs will allow parents and students to look at their grades, take online classes, search for educational information and find online educational activities specifically geared to their own child's abilities. There's more, but the point is this, that parents having access to 48 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 technology and information will help them help themselves and each other. S.

As the what captain?

Blog. It's a web blog. And Wireless Philadelphia has already had a positive impact by bringing people and organizations together. If we do Wireless Philadelphia right, the changes that we see will be historic and beneficial for our children, our families and our City. Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony. Please state your name for the record.

My name is Kate Leader and I am a teacher in one of the schools in the School District of Philadelphia, Grover Washington Middle 49 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 School. I'm also very involved in the community surrounding my school as a member of the Board for the Fisher Park Community Alliance and some other things that are centralized to that location. Much of what I wanted to share has been briefly touched on, but I'd just like to reiterate that the academic achievement and the impact of having this technology on our students in our school system, there's nothing that I can equate this event to. I've watched in my own classroom as my students have used actively on a daily basis the system that was briefly described that does allow me as a teacher to differentiate and individualize instruction. Students of mine that have access to computers from home can continue to work on their weaknesses, the things that they need to work towards getting at reaching proficiency. And we all know that there's a lot going on in the District, and this does nothing but support the 50 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 kids. It's the missing link in terms of parent and teacher communication. It allows parents to really see what their child is doing in terms of tests and seeing it in realtime. So I can't even begin to express how important having this technology in place would be for the children of the School District.

Thank you. Please, sir, state your name for the record.

I would like to give you copies.

Councilwoman Brown, I failed to mention Bessy Anas'san is substituting for Edison Freire.

Very well. Proceed with your testimony.

Like was mentioned, I'm speaking on behalf of Edison Freire, who is the Manager of the Digital Service Fellows and the Computer Support Specialist Initiative with the 51 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 School District of Philadelphia and communities in schools. Briefly, the Digital Service Fellows program was designed to provide just in time technical computer support to schools and communities in Philadelphia. In the last three years, the Digital Service Fellows, which is the apprenticeship, it's like the entry-level -- they're mentored by computer technicians in the School District in all the regions. And the Computer Support Specialists, which is the senior position, they are mainly graduates from the Digital Service Fellows program hired by one school to be full-time technology director. They've grown to be 50 members, 50 members strong and 50 members of inspiring young people who are giving back to their communities in an incredible win-win situation. The mission is to create workforce opportunities for youth, as well as 52 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 opportunities to use the IT skills to build communities. We've collaborated with Philadelphia organizations to provide tech support in their events in the past, like the Anti-Violence Conference. Because of the educational certification trainings received and in progress, our team is shaping itself to be able to work with upcoming City-wide projects. In fact, we are planning to implement a new Wireless and Cyber Security Certification Program at the Community College of Philadelphia in collaboration with the Department of Community and Economic Development so that we're prepared. So we're creating a new program for our members. When it comes to technological advancements like Wireless Philadelphia, the troubleshooting and trainings come into the picture. So the Digital Service Fellows and the Computer Support Specialists are committing to support 53 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 Wireless Philadelphia, because our goal is to bridge the digital divide. With the Wireless Philadelphia project in place, countless jobs and new business prospects will be available, plus senior Computer Support Specialist members can create IT companies to support the wireless infrastructure and serve neighborhood families. So by providing free wireless, it won't automatically bridge the digital divide, because many people are interested but few are able to understand. So when you empower children, youth, adults and businesses, you're going to form a community within Philadelphia. And so that's embracing technology to rebuild Philadelphia's communities. So after completing the Digital Service Fellows program, I was hired as a Computer Support Specialist at Hunter Elementary School, where each classroom has an interactive White Board that 54 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 connects the students and the teachers to an online curriculum. Since I started with technology through an after-school program at Olney High School, I continue to have after-school programs for youth. Currently, I'm having a Computer College, which is pretty much like Digital's Miracles Project, every student is able to build their own machine and take it home, and Young Movie Makers Academy where they learn basics about moving making and make their own. Three friends and I our own business to provide affordable multi-media services to Philadelphia, like video and web design. As a young businesswoman, I feel ready and as a Philadelphia citizen minority, I feel excited about Wireless Philadelphia, because it will connect and enhance my business, the schools, families and the City. Thank you.

Thank you 55 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 for your testimony. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony. I do not have a copy. Is it two pages?

Yeah, but it's not going to be two pages.

Thank you very much.

Good afternoon, City Council. I'm Corey Robinson, Digital Inclusion Manager for People's Emergency Center. I'm actually giving the testimony on behalf of Gloria Guard, our President.

Surely.

In February 2003, People's Emergency Center Community Development Corporation began the Digital Inclusion Program, which is designed to increase the technology literacy of low-income families and increase their access to relevant human service information and tools. When families are connected to the Internet through 56 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 personal computers, they use their resources to pursue educational opportunities, search for employment, identify readiness programs and help their children with homework. Through partnering with United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania Teaming for Technology, T4T, and Philadelphia Neighborhood Development Collaborative, PNDC, AchieveAbility and One Economy, People's Emergency Center Community Development Corporation has offered the Digital Inclusion Program to over 170 people. The Digital Inclusion Program uses a four-pronged strategy to advance technology literacy. Part 1, computer distribution and wireless access. PECCDC sells affordable recycled computers for $120 and provides wireless access for $5 a month for the trial and initial year. Point 2, training. Participants learn how to operate 57 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 computers, use e-mail, navigate through the Internet and are introduced to Word and Excel applications. Point 3, content. Through our partnership with One Economy, participants use this one-stop resource center, which provides links to government, social services and local community-based resources. Point 4, technical support. PECCDC provides ongoing technical support to our participants. By providing service, training and technical support, as well as increasing access to electronic information and distributing computers, the Digital Inclusion Program builds self-reliance and strengthening opportunities for advancement. Due to the success of this innovative program, the Mayor's Office of Information Systems recently selected PECCDC's Digital Inclusion Program and neighborhood to be part of the pilot for the City's wireless 58 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 program.

Thank you for your testimony. Mr. Cohen, you say that if this is done right, it will be a wonderful thing. So if you had to ID two essential factors that would help it being done right, what would they be?

I can think of one immediate thing, and that's that the School District needs and other educational organizations need to take advantage and actually have to integrate it into the curriculum, the use of the Internet access at home. And I think that on some level, it's already -- as far as the Wireless Philadelphia is concerned, it may already being done right, because it's already driven down prices. And as you decrease prices around the City for Internet access, I think you also allow parents to at least get on board for the first time. So I think it's already started 59 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 to create more competition.

So back to your initial statement, your first criteria, the digital divide is the big picture bridge, but if we want to be serious about making sure that happens, then you're recommending that there be some integration, was the word you used, of making sure parents at home know how to manipulate.

Absolutely.

And make that a part of the curriculum, because then you really are talking about bridging the digital divide with different generations.

Yes. And also in the community centers. I think that that's important, not to overlook the actual community centers and recognize that they should be integrating this resource into their curriculum.

So as an example or analogy, to multiply 60 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 exponentially the work that's being done by the People's Emergency Center.

Yes. Yes.

Thank you all very, very much for your testimony. Panel No. 3, Kris Berger, Chief Growth Officer with Computers for Youth; Shelton Mercer, Director of DVAEYC Computer Solutions; Wayne Lutz, President of Tech Access Pennsylvania; Herbert E. Sharp with the Liquor and Bill Licenses Bought and Sold; Etienne Phipps. SPEAKER: I don't think Shelton is here yet, and Etienne has an appointment, so could she join your panel?

Shelton is actually not up next. I wanted to accommodate Dr. Etienne Phipps. Thank you for your presence and we'll proceed with your testimony. State your name for the record.

My name is Herbert Sharp. I'm here as an individual. 61 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 However, I am a volunteer for Non-Profit Technology Resources. I do not speak for them, but I heard their name mentioned in the testimony a few minutes ago. Non-Profit Technology Resources is a company which operates basically with the help of volunteers who refurnish computers that are donated to Non-Profit, and they, in turn, see that these computers go to persons who are sponsored by non-profits to schools, to churches that are non-profits, and given instruction in the use of the computer, both from a mechanical standpoint and operational standpoint. Now I speak for myself. I am personally a desktop operator. I do not have a laptop. I am very seriously interested in wireless. I would like to point out that Philadelphia is a university city, many universities, and most of the universities require that their students have laptops. It's an essential today. 62 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 I would also like to point out that I am aware that City Council has a balancing act. I am aware that the Internet service providers, such as Comcast, Verizon and many others, have a stake in Philadelphia, both from a standpoint of the space they occupy, of the rents that they pay, of the people that they employ and of the taxes that are generated by these non-profits. I am also aware that we have a lot of low-income people in Philadelphia who cannot afford the ever-increasing costs of Internet provider services. I understand that the wireless has been activated as an experiment and that there are areas in Philadelphia where wireless is actively used. Now, I think that it's important to note that these students and the people of Philadelphia are the electors who have elected Council to represent them. I think Council has a more important duty to the electors of 63 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 Philadelphia, to low-income people, to the students who are voters and who will soon be voters to represent them, as well as look to the interests of the commercial organizations. I think that wireless is essential. I think that if Philadelphia does not follow the lead of other municipalities that have instituted wireless, that we're going to be left behind. I am appalled at the absence of the Councilmen at this meeting. I would like to see the hands raised of any Councilmen that are here so I know how many people are interested in this wireless situation. Please raise your hands. (Councilwoman Brown raises her hand.)

So that these people who have come here to be represented and to point out their views are talking to one Councilperson. I hope 64 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 that there are aides of the Councilmen who are also present who will bring the message to the Councilmen who vote. Thank you.

Mr. Sharp, will you be able to stay to hear the other members of your panel or do you have to rush out?

Excuse me. I don't hear too well.

It's not a problem. Will you be able to stay to hear the other members of the panel? If not, I'd simply like to comment on the --

Yes, I can stay.

Please allow the members of --

I'll wait until everybody is through.

Please, and then I'd simply like to comment on your testimony.

Thank you. 65 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160

You're welcome. Please, sir.

My name is Wayne Lutz. I'm the President of Tech Access PA, which is a non-profit charity. I founded this charity about a year and a half ago, and we were incorporated for the expressed purpose of helping people specifically in the area of the City that I'm involved with right now, which is Olney, to close the digital divide. Initially our focus was hardware. Our idea was to do what a lot of other people are doing, and some of them are represented here tonight, to help lower income families get computers in their homes by refurbishing old computers and machines, taking donations, things of that nature. We very quickly learned that the real interest in -- computers are easy to come by. If somebody really wants a computer, there are all kinds of 66 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 ways to get one. The real intense interest was in education and support. As it happens, the building that houses my non-profit, Tech Access, which is St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Olney, also happens to be directly and literally in the shadow of the Olney pilot program for Wireless Philadelphia. It was just at the same time that we started to get underway and build our computer lab that the wireless pilot program came to be last summer. We had that big roll-out there on the streets of Olney and Fifth Street. It was a very hot day. And it turned out to be a real boom. I'm glad to be able to testify tonight because I can tell you from hard experience and from direct experience with the people who I work with that the Wireless Philadelphia initiative most certainly does benefit directly the people who most need it, underprivileged people. 67 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 Olney happens to be one of the most diverse areas of the City in terms of ethnicities, nationalities, socioeconomic status, and the people there, I have found, are intensely interested in the existence of Wireless Philadelphia, and they really -- those who are not already on board really want to get on board. And what we're doing is, we've developed ways to teach them how to do that. We're giving classes to people, daytime classes, evening classes, on how -- right now we're concentrating on very basic Internet classes, teaching people -- some of whom have computers at home, but don't really use them. Maybe the kids use them. Others who have never touched a mouse before -- how to use a personal computer and then, more importantly, how to get onto the Internet and access and research the incredible sea of resources that are available to people through the Internet. 68 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 The existence of the Wireless Philadelphia network over our heads right now allows a lot of people to do that who otherwise don't have any access. I took a little antennae and I put it in the bell tower of the church and I ran wires throughout the church, and using overlapping access points, the entire building is now wired for Internet because of Wireless Philadelphia. We house Lutheran Children and Family Services in that building, which is a huge social service agency. We have used the Wireless Philadelphia connection to train foster care workers. They have laptops that they can take out and take into the homes of their clients for data entry and data transfer using the Internet where it's available, which right now is not very much. We have trained after-school workers. Lutheran Children and Family Services has a large after-school program. I've trained 50 people on how to use their laptops, to 69 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 access content for the kids that they work with after school using the laptops, those who have access to wireless Internet where they are. I have trained immigrants, refugees, victims of torture, just plain people who -- a lot of senior citizens, by the way. There's a lot of interest among senior citizens in the Internet. We're teaching them how to stay in contact with their family members.

We're teaching them how to access healthcare information and other social service information and how to print greeting cards. Just the interest is incredible. Without the Wireless Philadelphia network, we wouldn't be anywhere near as close to doing what we've done as we are right now. I've seen the faces of the people who have come through my classes. To date, since October when we really started, I built a classroom out of nothing, out of donated computers, and I 70 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 put them together and I patched them, I cannibalized them. We now have 4 stations and a projector where we put 5 people through this basic computer class. 6 We've now graduated 70 people. These are 7 people who have used the wireless network 8 to get their own e-mail addresses through 9 the Olney portal page that was developed 10 by Ninth Wave Media, and we developed our 11 curriculum because of the existence of 12 the wireless pilot program. The final 13 two entire classes of our curriculum are 14 devoted specifically to wireless Internet in general and Wireless Philadelphia in particular, teaching people how to access the network, what kind of equipment they need and the benefits of the network to them, what they're going to be able to do if they don't already live in Olney, what they're going to be able to do when the umbrella finally does come over their heads wherever they may be in Philadelphia.

Thank you 71 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 very, very much for your testimony, sir. Please, complete the panel.

Hi. My name is Kris Berger. Thank you so much for having me here today. I'm really pleased to make remarks. I represent Computers for Youth, a national non-profit organization based in New York City. We are dedicated to closing the learning gap between low-income children and the more affluent peers by improving their learning environment at home and connecting their learning to the classroom. We train parents, families, students, teachers in schools to work together to improve educational outcomes and achievement, and we, like Jay Cohen spoke about earlier, believe it's critical to really raising achievement for the students who really need that most. Our methods is that we partner with middle schools in high-need areas to provide every sixth-grade student and 72 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 their families with a free home computer, along with training, high-quality educational software, initial Internet access, ongoing technical support, follow-up workshops and more. We believe the Wireless Philadelphia initiative is incredibly valuable because of what it can mean for low-income families and because of the opportunity it presents for every Philadelphia resident to cross the digital divide. It is for this reason that we're here today. Last September, my colleague, Elisabeth Stock, Computer for Youth's Founder and President, mentioned that CFY was actively looking for cities where we might work to expand technology access and to bring our model to, and we've been following with great interest what's been happening here in Philadelphia. On behalf of my entire staff and my entire colleagues at CFY, we are actually pleased to announce that after talking 73 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 with many, many cities, we've decided that Philadelphia should and will be our first expansion site.

Well, we thank you.

You're welcome. We are inspired by Wireless Philadelphia's commitment; in fact, the whole City's commitment, to digital inclusion and to what we've observed as the City-wide commitment to creatively putting technology to use for the public good. We've seen the commitment of the School District of Philadelphia. We've seen the commitment of the Mayor's office and the Wireless Philadelphia Board. We've seen the commitment in the non-profit community and in nearly everyone we've spoken with, and we feel that we are among friends here. Starting this June, we are going to work with approximately 200 sixth-grade students and their families. Each will receive a Computers for Youth 74 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 home computer loaded with educational software. Each will attend a half-day training and then receive ongoing technical support. And looking ahead, we truly hope to serve many more Philadelphia students and families in the years to come. What difference will this make? We actually know that our program will have positive outcomes for Philadelphia students. We know that parents will become better learning partners for their children and students will work harder in school and do better in school, and we know this because since 1999 and when we were founded in New York City, we made the commitment to use research to really prove what we do and to prove what we've seen. We look forward to working here in Philadelphia to ensure that the CFY program advances and enhances School District priorities like mentioned before, such as enabling all parents to 75 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 access their children's academic achievement information online, provide students and families with access to high-quality online enrichment material and enabling students to gain the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in today's workforce. What we know about our research -- I want to just tell you a couple of things before I close -- is that we do know that our program has a consistent impact on students. Looking at our data from the last academic year, we found that more than 80 percent of students indicated that having a home computer helps them do better in school. More than 70 percent report that having a home computer helps them feel more confident. And since student reports are not the entire story, we have been able to show a direct statistical relationship between home computer, trying harder in school, meaning student motivation, and 76 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 actually doing better in school as measured by their teachers and their tests. What does this mean? Students that receive home computers through our program try harder in school and their efforts pay off. Their teachers rate their efforts that their performance has improved. We are thrilled to begin our work with Philadelphia students and families and excited at the opportunity at hand. We believe that Philadelphia is serious about making sure that all of its citizens can enjoy the benefits of the digital age and we are eager to help make your incredible vision a reality. Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony. Thank you very much. Are you testifying?

Yes, I am.

Please, move to the witness table. 77 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160

Good evening. My name is Etienne Phipps. I'm from Albert Einstein Healthcare Network. I'm very pleased to be here. We are very excited about the Philadelphia WiFi project. Albert Einstein Healthcare Network is a multi-facility network. Our primary flagship is located at Broad and Olney, and we serve a multi-cultural community. Twenty-five percent are in the poverty level. And we are very supportive of this idea of bridging the digital divide through the WiFi project. I'm also the founding Director of the Einstein Center for Urban Health Policy and Research. We are an applied research and demonstration program center that is focused on issues of urban health, and one of the areas that we do work in is the digital divide, and I'd just like to tell you briefly about one of our projects. Obviously the ability to access the Internet for patients is a major 78 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 benefit in terms of promoting patient autonomy. We hear the word "empowerment," but really increasing the knowledge and skill level of patients to be able to interact effectively with their doctors. And one of our projects is called Health on the Web. As has been mentioned, it's very important that individuals know just the basics about how to get onto the Internet, and we've done some pilot work and some preliminary group projects to try to teach people just the basics about what is a mouse, what is a keyboard, like my colleague here is talking about, just the easy, kind of how do you get onto the Internet. From that, we developed a series of four modules to teach people how to search for health information on the web. As you probably know, there's quite a lot of erroneous and even dangerous health-related information that people can access if they don't know what 79 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 they're doing, and so our instructional interactive program, which is on the Internet, teaches people how to search, how to assess health sites for quality information using standardized criteria. And what we have done with Health on the Web has been to also use physicians to help screen and recommend certain websites that are of particular interest to our patient population, and right now those are diabetes Type 1 and 2, asthma, prenatal care and pregnancy. So there are a series of websites that we feel comfortable telling patients to access for additional information. In addition to teaching patients how to get onto the Internet, there are quite a few exciting areas that we see being more possible with the Philadelphia WiFi, and that includes one of the emerging areas of telemarketing. And, for example, in the area of diabetes, we're looking to see whether or not we can pilot some programs that will 80 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 allow patients who have diabetes to do home monitoring and to allow both the input and the receipt of data regarding their glucose levels to help monitor patients who have trouble with diabetes. So we are very excited about seeing the capability of teaching patients of all ages how to use the Internet to improve their healthcare. Thank you.

Very exciting. Thank you for your testimony. Let me commend the important work you're doing in Olney as just one small example of what it could mean at the end of the day with this initiative, and as a former teacher, I'm extremely excited, really excited, when I hear the work that you all are doing in New York City. Please tell me who the 600 lucky kids that will be in the program this summer? How did you identify them?

I will be able to 81 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 let you know specifically in about a week. We're actually still talking with Jay and other folks at the School District to make sure that we have a great group of kids.

I would ask that you forward to the Chair of both Committees who those schools are so that we know the young people that are being -- they're lucky to have this kind of opportunity.

Absolutely, and we hope that there will be many more in the future.

To Mr. Sharp, let me thank you, first of all, for your testimony, and allow me to say on behalf of my colleagues, a lack of absence does not mean lack of interest. We have what are called -- not boom boxes but voice boxes in our offices that allow us to hear testimony even when we're not here. So if we're not on the committee, we can still tune in and hear what is 82 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 happening down here on the floor. So you should be aware of that. And then, secondly, we're actually competing against a major event being hosted by the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. So I say again, their lack of absence does not mean lack of interest. This is our second of a series of public hearings that we'll be having, and it was my request and expectation that we have a public hearing for public testimony in the evening to accommodate folk who simply can't get here during the day.

Thank you, and I understand. I did mention that I hope that the administrative assistants of the various Councilmen that are present would carry the messages from the people who are testifying, because I understand that the Councilmen can't be present here at all times, but they're represented by aides.

83 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 Absolutely.

I might also mention to you that it is very important to understand that you are representing the people of Philadelphia, that the people of Philadelphia expect you to represent them to the best of their interest and not to the interest of the commercial enterprises, whom I also mentioned are important to consider. Please think of the young children growing up who are becoming computer literate, those who have laptops, those who are outside. Laptops are the big coming thing. Please understand that you're disseminating information to thousands of people at one time by benefiting from wireless and the use of the laptops to pick up the wireless at low or no cost to them. There might even be cost to them in the end. They're going to have to watch a lot of advertising, because they're getting it free, but somehow it 84 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 has to be paid for. Thank you.

Well, I have to comment. I appreciate you for being a voice for kids. So often in these proceedings no one is speaking up for children, who are ultimately going to be either positively or negatively affected by the decisions we make here. It's a delicate balance between looking out for children and citizens and seniors who don't have access and yet being responsible and sensitive to the corporate members of our City who have an important role as well. So it's a delicate balance that we have to strike on this side of the table. So let me thank you for your testimony. Thank you all very, very much. The next panel, Panel No. 4, Judy Youn, the Career Development Director for the Korean Community Development Center; Howard Bilofsky, Ph.D., Board Chair with the Mount Airy 85 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 Community Computer Center; Beverly Harper of Germantown Settlement; Linda Waters-Richardson, President of the Uptown Entertainment and Development Corporation. Please move to the witness table. SPEAKER: I guess Judy Youn couldn't make it today, so she sent written testimony, which I'm handing you.

I thank you very much. Good afternoon, everyone. I thought I saw Linda -- oh, wonderful; Linda Waters-Richardson, the President of the Uptown Entertainment District. Thank you very much. Good afternoon. Have a seat. Mr. Sharp, allow me to state one other thing for the record. The beauty of this process is that all members of Council get copies of testimony. We have a transcriber. For those who are not in the building at all, we can always request copies of 86 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 testimony. So there are a number of check points, if you will, to make sure that Councilmembers are in touch and informed about these proceedings. So thanks again. Please proceed. State your name for the record, and we will start first with Mount Airy Community Computer Center. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. My name is Howard Bilofsky. I want to thank the Councilwoman for holding these meetings and for this opportunity to offer testimony in support of Philadelphia's innovative and forward-looking WiFi initiative. You do have my testimony. It's three pages, but I won't read it all.

Thank you.

I'm privileged to chair the Board of the Mount Airy Community Computer Center, whose mission is to close the digital divide between advantaged and disadvantaged citizens. 87 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 We believe our mission is, at its core, a fundamental issue of social justice. I'm also on the Board of the West Mount Airy Neighbors. Professionally, I'm a Senior Fellow in computer science and bioinformatics at the University of Pennsylvania, recently retired from GlaxoSmithKline. I spent over three decades helping all sorts of people to use computers in order to make a positive difference in their lives. This experience is relevant here, I think, for a number of reasons. First, I can appreciate the challenges of this new WiFi initiative, but even more so, I can appreciate the potential positive impact for individual citizens. S. and in Europe, I've been pleasantly surprised by how awareness of the WiFi initiative has grown amongst high tech 88 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 professionals and everyday people and how it's enhancing Philadelphia's image as an innovative, visionary, concerned and energetic city, in the best spirit of Ben Franklin on his 300th birthday. But, more importantly, I'm here because of my commitment to the Mount Airy Community Computer Center, which we call by the acronym MACCC, M-A-C-C-C. The commitment stems from my long interest in making the benefits of the digital age, which many of us take for granted, available to all citizens. This afternoon I'd like to speak briefly about three related issues: Some of the important work that MACCC does in Northwest Philly, why we think this WiFi initiative is so important, and why we look forward to working with Wireless Philadelphia. MACCC was formed in 1998. We operate two technology centers, one in Germantown and one in Mount Airy. We serve multiple constituencies as we seek 89 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 to close the digital divide. We are not aware of any other technology center in the Northwest that provides the same range of opportunities for disadvantaged citizens. Since June of 2005, we have worked with ex-offenders from the Philadelphia Prison System and their school-age children and families to provide computer training and to raise their awareness of how computers can help them and their families survive and live better lives. Upon completion of our program, a new computer and printer are installed in the family's home. In August 2005, we completed our first training contract with Center in the Park, a strong and vibrant Northwest agency serving older adults. We're now preparing a second larger training program. We've just completed an eight-week training program with Interim House, a Germantown non-profit halfway 90 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 house serving women in recovery. A new program will begin shortly. And in April, we'll begin our first ever project with home-schooled students and their parents. We also work with Mount Airy Learning Tree, business associations and the faith-based community. Older adults, ex-offenders, students, women in recovery, children, our constituents are many and diverse just like our neighborhood. We continue to learn much from our work. I would underscore just two learnings here that bear directly on the future and our potential involvement with Wireless Philadelphia. First, there's a recognized need; in fact, a hunger, amongst our less advantaged neighbors to be included in our new digital world. Secondly, whatever this new WiFi experiment can do to make computers, the Internet and, more importantly, 91 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 computer education and awareness available will be most enthusiastically received by our citizens. From MACCC's perspective in working with less advantaged citizens, moving forward on the WiFi initiative could not be more timely.

Just a year ago, the Brookings Institute reported that low-income households in Philadelphia are particularly hurt by lack of basic market and financial information available on the Internet to those of us on the privileged side of the digital divide. As a result, the poor pay more, as much as thousands of dollars a year, for basic goods and services, such as insurance, loans, autos, appliances, furniture. And this gap is exacerbated because of their lack of knowledge, time and access, which also makes it harder for them to deal with the complexities of the system, such as managing their money, repairing their credit ratings and knowing their rights 92 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 and benefits. We have witnessed firsthand how the computer can become a significant source of empowerment. We've seen older adults get excited as they access critical health information. We've seen students smiling proudly at showing off their first graphics creations to their parents. We've seen ex-offenders gaining confidence in preparing for the job market. We've seen job seekers confidently navigating complex, hopelessly complex, online application forms required even for minimum-wage jobs in our neighborhoods. We've seen elementary school children, using a program called First in Math, improving their math skills because they were able to learn at their own pace outside the classroom. Finally, MACCC looks forward to the day, soon we hope, when WiFi will be rolled out. We've been encouraged in our discussions with the WiFi consulting 93 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 staff who have clearly articulated the Wireless Philadelphia inclusion strategy, which is both forward-looking and neighborhood-sensitive and fully in tune with our own experience and future strategy. The strong and fundamental values of the inclusion strategy will position Wireless Philadelphia to work effectively throughout the City with a diversity of groups and institutions. We at MACCC applaud the Mayor, this Council and all who have worked so hard to develop the WiFi initiative. We look forward to being a partner with Wireless Philadelphia in the Northwest. And, of course, we want to extend an invitation to you and all of your colleagues to visit us in the Northwest and see what bridging the digital divide is all about in our view. Thank you for your time and attention.

Thank you 94 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 very, very much for your testimony. Your enthusiasm is clear. We thank you. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.

Beverly Harper, and I'm from Germantown Settlement. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

I have submitted a five-page testimony for you to read. My remarks will be just an enhancement of that.

I thank you.

One of the things that I would like to say most importantly is that most people in Philadelphia have heard of the Settlement before. We offer a wide range of intergenerational programs for youth through seniors. Part of what we do or some of the things of what we do are dealing with the elderly. We are presently entering into 95 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 a contract with IBM that will be web adaptation technology, which will help our elders learn how to use the computer, but it will enhance the screen and the voice tones in the computer and it will help them to use the mouse less often. So for those people who are arthritic, this is crucial for them. We also service AIDS residents. They need to have this initiative passed in order to help them to get medical information to make better informed medical decisions. It will enhance a myriad of our programs. We see this as basically an elastic band to stretch those taxpayer dollars that are already in play. Most of our programs are state and federally funded, so this is just another way to stretch that dollar and to make it support the families that we serve. And we do serve over 120,000 families in Northwest Philadelphia. Thank you very much. 96 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160

Thank you for your testimony. We have been further enlightened on why this makes good public policy.

It does.

That's a very biased statement I'll say for the record. Please proceed with your testimony.

Good afternoon. My name is Linda Waters-Richardson and I'm the President of the Uptown Entertainment and Development Corporation. I'm going to briefly talk about the work of our organization, describe the community and make some recommendations on the legislation, proposed legislation. The Uptown Entertainment and Development Corporation is a 501(c)(3) community development corporation located at 2227 North Broad Street. Our programs consist of community planning, youth 97 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 training, art and culture entertainment. Our largest project to date is the renovation of the historic Uptown Theatre to be utilized as a technology and entertainment center. Our community represents a 2.2-mile area within the boundaries of West Susquehanna to West Lehigh, from 13th to 19th Streets. The population is 8,646. In describing the terminology "digital divide," we have to look at what those communities really look like. The median income is $15,308, compared with the City's $30,746 and the Commonwealth's $40,106. Forty-four percent are living below the poverty level. There is a two percent college graduation rate, compared with 18 percent City-wide and percent 21 state-wide. 22 The neighborhood has commercial assets located off the Broad Street subway line. The Uptown Theatre is one of the historic assets in the area, and 98 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 when completed, the Theatre renovation and the community revitalization efforts will produce 200 jobs for the community. The City's proposed program to offer reduced cost WiFi capabilities and due to its height, the Uptown Theatre is an ideal Internet hub. The Uptown Theatre could also be used as a signal transfer unit to extend the wireless network into our area. Through its technology center programs, the Uptown also provides computer literacy classes, access to e-commerce, and provide an economic stimulus to inspire educational and economic opportunities that low-cost wireless Internet service represents. This can be accomplished and all that has been talked about this afternoon in terms of what we think is a real positive move if the City of Philadelphia, partners such as my organization, and EarthLink provide necessary structural agreements that 99 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 truly will make this a success. We must have strategies and benchmarks with the legislation that ensures low-cost access to Wireless Philadelphia. I hope that City Council takes into consideration the goals, guidelines and implementation programs to make this an opportunity truly for those that we serve. Thank you.

You're welcome. I thank all of you for your testimony. One, Dr. Bilofsky, you've spoken to the beauty of this for women in shelters. Beverly Harper has given us a profile of patients, including AIDS patients, who can benefit, and Linda Waters-Richardson has presented a profile of the low and moderate-income citizen who can benefit from this initiative. So we thank you for your enlightening testimony, and I would encourage you to seize the moment and 100 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 connect now, if you have not already, with members of EarthLink and WiFi Philadelphia that are here. Thank you very, very much. Next up, Aimee Kosta, Project Manager for Greater Philadelphia Cares; Kimberly Davis with the Greater Philadelphia Cares Volunteer; Rebecca Sapolsky, Technology Program Coordinator with the Caring People Alliance; Dr. -- this doctor is the Associate Professor of MIS with the Department of Management for Drexel University, and you can tell us your name when you come to the witness table. Then we have the remaining two testifiers, Media Tank and Action Without Borders, Broadcaster. You'll be up next following this panel. Good afternoon. SPEAKER: I just wanted to let you know that Aimee Kosta couldn't make it, but that Kimberly Davis will talk about Philadelphia Cares and her work there. 101 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160

Very well. SPEAKER: And Dr. Murugan also couldn't make it. I'm sorry. He was on an early list of mine. He's going to be working with us hopefully to develop some metrics and measuring techniques. So that will come later.

Very well. Well, then Joshua Breitbart of Media Tank, if you could join the other witnesses here, and Chantee Lans Sturtevant, Action Without Borders, Broadcaster. Please come to the witness table. I want to thank you all. If you have testimony, please present it. If it's more than three pages, please summarize. And we ask you to proceed. Please.

Good evening. Thanks for having me. My name is Kimberly Davis. I've been in the information technology industry for about ten years. I'm an SAP consultant during 102 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 the day, but --

As a what consultant?

SAP, it's enterprise-wide software for Fortune 500 companies.

I see.

Not quite as fulfilling as what I do in my free time, which is volunteer with Philadelphia Cares. Philadelphia Cares is Philadelphia's number one volunteer organization, boasting a 14,000 member base and having a very large presence within the Philadelphia community. I'm a Project Leader for Philadelphia Cares in their digital inclusion initiative, and we share the initiative of Philadelphia Wireless. It's challenging when we work with these economically challenged folks who get this box, this machine that we help refurbish and provide to them for free. 103 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 I think in the back of our minds while we're there, we know that they need more, and pretty much what I wanted to say today has already been said, so what I want to stress is that I think Philadelphia Wireless has it right in that they're not just providing nodes or Internet access, but they actually, if you read through the documentation, they've got a plan. They've got a plan with training, with citizen workshops, the hardware. It's not just access to the Internet. It's the whole education and plan that Philadelphia Wireless project is providing. It's something that Philadelphia Cares can't provide on its own or that Wayne might not be able to provide on his own, but with all of us non-profits and volunteers with the same agenda working together, the plan that Philadelphia Wireless is putting forward with its all-encompassing initiative, again training, hardware, citizen engagement, it would just be a great way 104 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 to move forward together. Thank you.

Do you have written testimony?

I do.

We'd love to have it. Thank you very much.

Sure.

Please proceed. State your name for the record.

My name is Rebecca Sapolsky. I'm the Technology Program Coordinator for Caring People Alliance. As we all know, I think everybody here understands the importance of wireless access within Philadelphia, getting the technology to people, showing them how to use it and showing them how to master it and integrate it into their lives. And I have personally seen the impact the digital divide can have on any age range, from 5 years old to 80 years old. I've seen children and teens unable 105 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 to compete at school because they do not have access at home. I have seen adults unable to get quality jobs because of lack of training and limited job hunting because of lack of Internet access. I've also seen older adults who cannot access vital info such as healthcare or communicate with family members far away because they do not have access to Internet. So I'm very excited and I know my organization, Caring People Alliance, is very excited about affordable and integrated Internet access for everyone, because it is our mission to bridge the digital divide in South Philadelphia, West Philadelphia and North Philadelphia where our three community centers are located. I think the one issue that has not been raised here today has been safety, Internet safety. And when I talk about Internet safety, I talk about two different things. I talk about 106 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 technology safety, which is anti-virus software, anti-spyware, anti-adware, protecting our computers at home and in schools and in businesses, protecting the actual hardware. But, more importantly, I talk about personal safety, educating adults and especially children about how to stay safe on the Internet. We work with the Boys and Girls Club of America, and they have a wonderful program called NetSmartz, which it's a fun little interactive tool to teach children how to keep their personal information safe and yet still have fun and still learn something from the Internet. Boys and Girls Club has a few facts. They say that 45 percent of children in the United States, more than 30 million of these younger than 18, use the Internet. It is important for parents and educators to know that the wonderful new technologies associated with the Internet can also introduce new 107 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 dangers for children. Accessing the Internet creates a link with millions of people and is like posting information in any public place. Unfortunately, there are people who use the Internet for selfish purposes or to do illegal and malicious things, such as child pornography, online stalking, sexual predation and cyber bullying. It is important to approach this new technology with safety in mind. Because of the trusting nature of most children, they do not understand that the person on the Internet is like a stranger on the street and could be lying to them about their age or their photos, attempting to get them to meet them outside of their home or school and potentially do harm. As a member of Boys and Girls Club, we do employ this NetSmartz technology in each of our centers. We teach the children how to enhance their 108 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 ability to recognize dangers on the Internet, enhance their ability to understand that people they first meet on the Internet should never be considered their friend, encourage children of reported victimization to a trusted adult, such as a member of our community center or a parent or guardian, support and enhance community education efforts and increase communication between adults and children about online safety. And if anybody has followed the news in the past few months, I think people are aware of the problems that have been shown with My Space and other online blogging tools where children will post a lot of information and photos about themselves and people are able to follow them home, follow them to their schools and abduct them.

I have personally seen the results of NetSmartz in the children that I teach. Several have followed the correct procedures when encountering 109 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 inappropriate content, such as photos or language, by shutting off the monitor and informing myself or another trusted adult. This program could easily be assimilated into the schools and communities through the four NetSmartz assemblies geared for youth in grades K through 2, youth in grades 3 through 6, middle school and high school and parents and community members. I have access to and reviewed these assemblies. They are a fun and interactive way to engage youth and adults into learning about the rules of Internet safety. And I hope that our organization, Caring People Alliance, can help with this not only education about the Internet and enhancement, enrichment of the Internet, but also to inform people about the dangers and to keep our kids very safe. Thank you.

Thank you 110 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 for your testimony. Do you have a written copy of your testimony that talks about NetSmartz?

Yes, I do.

Okay. If you would please make sure we get that.

I will.

Good evening. Please state your name for the record.

Thank you for this opportunity to read my written comments into the record.

You're welcome.

My name is Joshua Breitbart. I am the Communications Director for Media Tank, which is a small non-profit that is dedicated to working for a more democratic media here in Philadelphia. I come before you humbly. We do not have a massive membership base that we can use to swing elections. We 111 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 do not provide direct service to anyone. But we are vigilant watchdogs of the media, both local and national. We look beyond the content of the news and entertainment to see the structure of the media: Who owns it, who profits from it, who is served by it and who is shut out of it, and I bring that perspective to you today. I want to thank the Mayor, Ms. Neff, Ms. Robinson and Mr. Pew for the tremendous vision and energy they have brought to this venture. I have great respect for everyone involved and for all of the people that have come before this Committee today and on the 10th to speak about the great potential of Wireless Philadelphia. I, too, am excited about the possibilities of a Philadelphia with tens of thousands more residents connected to the Internet and to each other. The deal that Wireless Philadelphia has struck with EarthLink is 112 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 the envy of our peers across the country looking at potential wireless networks in their cities. " However, I have concerns about this deal, and I would like to share them with you today at this important juncture in the Wireless Philadelphia project and in the future of our City. Here's the second part of Mr. " I think EarthLink is a good company. I have been a customer of theirs on and off since 1999. They stood 113 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 up to the FBI's malicious and invasive Carnivore system in 2000. But they are a for-profit corporation, and if you do the math, considering that Wireless Philadelphia expects their five percent to total $1 million and EarthLink expects to spend $22 million on building and maintaining the network, EarthLink stands to make more than $150 million out of this deal in the first ten years. And with the five-year renewal options, it seems that you're actually signing essentially a 20-year deal for the lampposts. At the last hearing on the 10th, Mr. Pew disclosed a complicated arrangement between EarthLink and Wireless Philadelphia whereby Wireless Philadelphia would cover half of EarthLink's PECO bill, up to half of their digital inclusion revenue. Personally, I've lived in a house with roommates before and I know how complicated it can be to divide up a 114 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 utility bill, but that particular deal seems like sleight of hand to me. If half of the five percent from EarthLink is going back to EarthLink, they should call it two and a half percent. With that remaining two and a half percent, Wireless Philadelphia has agreed to be the local publicity arm for EarthLink. They have agreed to raise awareness about this new service. This venture aims to provide service primarily to people who cannot currently afford broadband access, poor folks. And these agents of the City and all of these non-profit organizations, some of whom you've heard from today, are rolling a bandwagon through the streets saying get on board. What if EarthLink underperforms? What if the wireless network doesn't work? What if EarthLink finds it makes much more money off of the fewer wealthy downtown customers with a laptop than it does off of the households 115 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 in Kensington with refurbished desktop computers? As I told the Philadelphia Inquirer when this deal was announced, "What's not clear is how the people of Philadelphia are going to be able to hold their communications providers accountable. We have a hard enough time doing it with Comcast, with whom the City has a direct contract. " My concerns were only heightened by Ms. Neff's response that was published in that article. " Maybe that will be enough.

It certainly is helpful that the network is open access so we will be able to have multiple Internet service providers. It 116 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 certainly benefits us, as Chairman O'Neill pointed out at the last hearing, that EarthLink's business plan and reputation are tied to the success of this particular pilot project. But I do not like to be told to trust market forces with something as critical as our communications infrastructure. I understand that there are service-level agreements in the contract between Wireless Philadelphia and EarthLink, but does Wireless Philadelphia have the teeth to enforce those agreements? Wireless Philadelphia plans to raise funds from private and corporate donors. How will that impact their oversight position? I recognize that I may be painting a doom's day scenario, but these are valid questions that need to be addressed. Media Tank is very protective of our community's human right to communication and we will point out whenever we see that at risk. So far 117 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 with this wireless plan, we have been given pep rallies in place of oversight. I should say that I think this Committee did an excellent job questioning the relevant dealmakers on March 10th when this measure was first brought before the Council, but right now is the most responsive you can ever expect them all to be. After you pass this measure, you will have your pulpit and you'll have the indirect budgetary oversight of the office of the CIO, which influences but does not control Wireless Philadelphia. But the deal will be done. Wireless Philadelphia has said it plans to establish a citizen advisory board. That is good, but limited. I am told that Comcast has a local advisory board, but I spent a week on the phone and never found out who was on it or what their role is. City Council should establish a true Citizen Oversight Board for all of our local communications networks. 118 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 Practically speaking, I understand that the City may not want to fund such a thing, but a Citizen Oversight Board for Communications that was directly accountable to the people of Philadelphia, that had power of subpoena or otherwise had access to critical business information, that had the authority to hold regular public hearings throughout the City, that could advise City Council when appropriate, and that could serve as a megaphone for the needs of all of the City's residents would help ensure that the potential of this project and of this great City is fully realized. Thank you for your time this afternoon and for your critical attention to this amazing and innovative project and particularly for holding an evening hearing for people to speak at. Thank you.

Well, I want to thank all of you for your testimony. It's clear that one common 119 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 thread is that of the varying layers of ways in which we can bridge the digital divide. I would say that your testimony comes at a ripe, R-I-P-E, time. The questions you've raised are thoughtful, provocative, yet valid, and you can count on them being walked through or talked through going forward. So we want to thank everyone for coming and being able to stay. Know that the testimony will be carefully reviewed, and questions that have been raised will be heard again by the stakeholders and the leaders on the front end of this unprecedented initiative. So I want to thank Dianah Neff and her staff, Mr. Bright and his team, as well as the EarthLink representative, for coming and staying. Are we done? SPEAKER: No. We do have Proyecto Sinfros Clases (ph).

That's a new one. 120 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 SPEAKER: Well, yes. They're on the late list, but we have an entire class trip of radio broadcasters.

Okay. SPEAKER: But only one speaker.

That we can handle. Quickly move to the witness table, whoever is going to represent. SPEAKER: One speaker with company, her students.

Media Tank, did you provide us with copies of your testimony?

Yes, I did.

Okay, then. Thank you very, very much. Good evening, young people. The procedure is that you will state your name for the record and then we will give each one of you two minutes to share with us your perspective about Wireless Philadelphia and the Internet. Is that understood? 121 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160

Yes.

Hello? Say yes.

Yes.

So state your name for the record and proceed with what is called your testimony. You have two minutes. Please.

My name is Chantee Lans, and I'm one of the instructors for Youth Radio Project. It's a class offered by a non-profit organization called Open Borders Project. It's located on 6th and Venango in North Philadelphia, the Kensington area. And the class has been going on since October of last year, and the focus of the class is to produce a radio show and have it streaming through the Internet. It gives the students an opportunity, ages 12 to 17, junior high and high school students, the opportunity to learn how to write scrips, write lyrics to songs. It's an after-school program. 122 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 It's free. And they get to produce it, and right now we're in the process of learning how to stream it on the Internet. Wireless Philly comes into play because it would give the students more exposure, and it's also something that they could learn more about on the technological side. Sitting next to me is Miguel and Luis. They're brothers. They're from Venezuela. They were born there, and they're living in Philadelphia right now. They're kind of shy, but if they could just tell a little bit about the project and what goes on. It will just be brief.

Sure. We'd be remiss not to give you gentlemen a chance to speak. Please pull the mike towards you, and if you will push the red button, give us your full name and then tell us why you like what you do related to the Internet and Wireless Philadelphia 123 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 in three paragraphs. LUIS HERNANDEZ: My name is Luis Hernandez and I'm from Youth Radio Project.

Talk louder. LUIS HERNANDEZ: And what we really do in Youth Radio is write scripts. We make music shows. We also learn how to record and edit information. We also record our own music shows, and we also have talk shows, hosting, and they also teach us about how to be a talk show host and stuff.

Well, thank you very, very much. LUIS HERNANDEZ: You're welcome.

And your name, young man? (No response.)

You have to tell us your name. We cannot hear you. Full name. 124 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 (No response.)

Help him out, big brother. Your full name is? Give us your first and last name. MIGUEL HERNANDEZ: My name is Miguel Hernandez.

Thank you very, very much for coming. Your presence indicates that you care about this issue, and we salute young people who step forward to voice your opinion. We want to thank you very, very much. Good afternoon, gentlemen. LUIS HERNANDEZ: Thank you.

Thank you. (Applause.)

This concludes the hearing for public testimony on Bill No. 060160. We are recessed, with reconvening of the joint Committees on Technology and Information Services this Monday, April 3rd, 11 o'clock a.m. 125 3/30/06 - TECHNOLOGY - BILL 060160 Thank you all very, very much. (Joint Committees on Technology and Information Services and Public Property and Public Works adjourned at 6:10 p.m.) - - - 126 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on March 30, 2006, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. ______________________________ MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)