NYC Broadband Advisory Committee

In 2005, Local Law 126 passed the City Council and was signed by the Mayor, and it created a Citywide Broadband Advisory Committee (NYCBAC) to get public input on this issue as well as advise the Mayor and the City Council on how bring affordable broadband to all New York City residents, nonprofit organizations and businesses.[1]

A series of public hearings in each borough are now underway. A blog has been set up at http://nycbroadband.blogspot.com/

New York City Broadband Advisory Committee

The committee is comprised of 15 members, seven Council appointees and eight Mayoral appointees.

The Council appointees are:

• David Birdsell, Dean, Baruch College Graduate School of Public Affairs, City University of New York
• Neil Pariser, Senior Vice President, South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation (SoBRO)
• Andrew Rasiej, Founder of Personal Democracy Forum and MOUSE
• Jose Rodriguez, President and Founder, Hispanic Information and Telecommunications Network (HITN)
• Elisabeth Stock, President and Co-Founder, Computers for Youth (CFY)
• Nicholas Thompson, Senior Editor, WIRED Magazine
• David Wicks, Founding Partner, Alwyn Group, Former Cablevision executive

The Mayoral appointees are:

• Mitchel Ahlbaum, General Counsel and Deputy Commissioner for Telecommunications Services, New York City Department of Information Technologies and Telecommunications (DoITT)
• Shaun M. Belle, President and CEO, Mount Hope Housing Company
• Thomas Dunne, Vice President of Public Affairs, Policy and Communications, Verizon New York
• Avi Duvdevani, Chief Information Officer / Deputy General Manager, New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA)
• John J. Gilbert III, Executive Vice President / Chief Operating Officer, Rudin Management Company
• Wendy Lader, Vice President Telecommunications Policy, New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC)
• Howard Szarfarc, President, Time Warner Cable of New York and New Jersey
• Anthony Townsend, Research Director, Institute for the Future

Bios are available here.

Public Hearings

Bronx Public Hearing - Mar 30 2007

• Audio of the hearing. mp3
• Kat Aaron's comments on WBAI mp3

• Testimony from Gary Axelbank, Director of Public Relations at Monroe College
• Testimony from Joshua Breitbart, Policy Director for People's Production House (PPH)

More

• Mar 1 2006: Gale Brewer - 'What Price New York City Wireless: The Politics of Technology' ISOC-NY webcast
• Feb 24 2007: John Lui spoke about the NYCBAC at the NYC Grass Roots Media Conference mp3
• Apr 6 2007: [Comments http://nycbroadband.blogspot.com/2007/04/word-from-older-adults-technology.html] from Older Adults Technology Services (OATS)