Chief Information Officer for the Carroll County Public Schools Gary Davis joins me to explain why the Carroll County Government, Public Schools, Public Library, and Community College partnered to build their own fiber optic network. He is also the Chairman of the resulting Carroll County Public Network (CCPN) of Maryland.
The story starts the same as many others – the community anchors were paying too much and did not have access to the connectivity they needed. The telephone and cable companies (both massive international corporations) found higher returns on investment elsewhere and therefore could not justify improvements absent significant subsidy.
Gary explains the savings generated by the network and how it has benefited students attending the local schools. We recently covered the CCPN and its incredible savings for the community in a post here.
We also cover some basics of what some community anchor institutions need to ensure they can take advantage of modern technology.
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Listen to previous episodes here. You can can download this Mp3 file directly from here.
Thanks to Mount Carmel for the music, licensed using Creative Commons.