From ISTE 2010: EagleNet

Just had a great conversation with Denise Atkinson-Shorey about national broadband. She's from the EagleNet project and they are working on a stimulus grant proposal to bring broadband wi-fi to every school kid in the state of Colorado. EagleNet is a non-profit consortium and wants to work to bring in the infrastructure to help schools, libraries, and public buildings become hubs for wi-fi.

As Scott McLeod piped in: "Broadband wi-fi should be pushed out like water or electricity." And that's absolutely true -- and it seems like it's doable. We dig trenches to build roads and interstates, we've go miles and miles of electricity and telecom already crisscrossing the states. So, how do we (or do we?) latch onto existing infrastructures and make use of public buildings and already-present community resources. Would love to hear from some of you broadband/wi-fi gurus out there, I'm a bit out of my element on the technical side.

Here's part of EagleNet's mission statement:

The mission of EAGLE-Net is to enable access for technology-rich, quality education to every student in all 178 Colorado public school districts via broadband network services, advanced applications, and Internet2 and National LambdaRail connectivity, including those in rural and underserved areas.

This mission is being expanded to include collaborative partnerships with Higher Education, Public Libraries, Museums, Fire/Safety, Healthcare, and other non-profit entities.

Collaborate to link and link to collaborate. It's a great idea... does it have legs?