NATOA is pleased to announce the eNATOA topics for 2008
eNATOA seminars offer independent information about community broadband networking, municipal next generation networks, local government rights-of-way management and consumer protection, and government content production.
eNATOA seminars are offered via teleconference and supplemented with electronic learning booklets that are distributed to participants in advance. eNATOA is designed to offer a high-quality learning experience to NATOA members and supporters, including those with limited technology access. All sessions last one hour and are offered at 2 pm eastern/ 11 am pacific time. Registration for each session closes at 12:00 pm EDT on the Thursday preceeding the session.
January 14 — Primary Preview: Where Do the Candidates Stand on Communications Issues?
Just weeks before the first primaries and caucuses, most of the viable presidential candidates have little or no official position on issues related to local interests in broadband, ROW protection, franchising, and communications taxes. This panel will address what we do know of the candidates’ perspectives on these crucial local issues and how local jurisdictions might fare.
February 11 — Tower Siting: Getting to Win/Win for Localities and for Carriers
Local governments have traditionally held some regulatory authority over siting of wireless facilities by carriers in their communities. What are the limits on that authority? How can it responsibly and effectively be used to benefit local communities and facilitate deployment of wireless services? This panel will describe the parameters of the authority, analyze some of the related issues, and recommend processes for exercising this authority.
March 10 — Public Safety Training Over Your I-Net or PEG Channel
Many community networks, closed channels, and PEG channels have been used for public safety training for as long as they have been in existence. These technologies enable first responders to remain on-site – where they may be needed in event of emergency – rather than travel to a distant training facility. In this session, learn about the new technologies, applications, and practices that facilitate public safety training over your network or channel.
April 14 — Understanding Unlicensed Spectrum and White Spaces: What do They Mean for Localities and Consumers?
Unlicensed spectrum is generally credited for the explosive transformative growth of WiFi, informal wireless networking, and community wireless. “White spaces” have the potential to add to this growth by making available unused broadcast spectrum. In this session, learn about how unlicensed spectrum works, learn about its pluses and minuses for networking, and learn about the prospects for the FCC to make available “white space” spectrum and to designate more spectrum as unlicensed. This session will also include a summary survey of technologies that operate in unlicensed spectrum, including WiFi, WiMax, Bluetooth, and Ultra WideBand.
May 12 — Outcome of the 700 MHz Auction
The auction of the 700 MHz spectrum has been one of the hottest communications topics in Washington for more than a year. The outcome of the auction could potentially facilitate a range of changes to the communications landscape, including enabling open access and competition. Our panel of experts will assess the outcome of the auction in light of such issues as open access, broadband competition, community broadband, and national public safety interoperability.
June 9 — Protecting Your Community in the DTV Transition
A wide range of consumer protection issues have arisen as broadcasters prepare for the move to digital in early 2009. Register for this session to learn about consumer education efforts associated with the DTV transition and about how you can educate your local consumers regarding how to use the Federal coupon program, how to select appropriate equipment for viewing DTV, and how to recognize sales pitches for unnecessary equipment and services.
July 14 — Media Consolidation
The pace of consolidation in all media has dramatically increased in recent years. Why does this matter? How does it affect local communities and PEG operators? Why has this consolidation proved so controversial? Why and how has the FCC facilitated and encouraged it? This session will attempt to address all these questions, and to project whether consolidation is likely to continue or reverse in a new administration.
August 11 — Marketing Your Channel in a Competitive Environment
We live in an era in which consumers have access to many more sources of information than they did at the birth of PEG. In this environment, how has the marketing of PEG programming changed? And how can PEG operators market and demonstrate their key role in providing high-quality local content to their communities?
August 25 — Broadband and Economic Development
Economic development is the key driver behind most community broadband projects. Existing academic studies recognize a direct relationship between broadband and economic development, but the data are still limited and conclusions preliminary. In this session, our panel of experts will assess the existing literature on how broadband stimulates economic development and will suggest strategies for evaluating and quantifying the potential economic impact of broadband in your community.
October 20 — New Technologies and Programming
In the era of YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook, what is the role of a PEG operator? How should PEG evolve to incorporate new media technologies and user-generated content? This session will explore potential strategic directions for PEG (beyond one-way video) that incorporate user-generated video, social networking, and emerging technologies.
November 10 — Community Broadband: Where Are We Now?
Three years after Comcast and Verizon successfully pushed through a preemption bill in Pennsylvania, community broadband has come a long way, facing both difficulties and triumphs. This session will update attendees as to the state of federal and state law, and will provide an independent assessment of the status of both fiber and wireless projects underway across the country—free of vendor hype and media confusion.
December 8 — 2008 Retrospective; 2009 Preview: Hot Issues in Communications
As local governments around the country look back on 2008 and prepare for the upcoming year, our panel of experts will assess how 2008 affected policy and practice on key communications issues (including franchising, community broadband, spectrum allocation, and national broadband planning) and will provide their views of what may be coming in 2009—and how local governments can prepare.
The cost for each one-hour seminar is $45 for members, $80 for non-members.
Or, register for a series:
- Three seminars: $130 (members) $230 (non-members)
- Five seminars: $200 (members) $360 (non-members)
- Nine seminars: $345 (members) $615 (non-members)
- Twelve seminars: $430 (members) $770 (non-members)
For questions regarding registration and payment, please contact NATOA Headquarters at info@natoa.org or (703) 519-8035.