Monopolistic Utility Companies Suppress the Use of Customer Data — Episode 155 of Local Energy Rules

Date: 27 Apr 2022 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

For this episode of the Local Energy Rules Podcast, a rebroadcast from the Building Local Power Podcast, host John Farrell and guest Michael Murray discuss how utilities resist data portability, even though customers have a right to their data.… Read More

When You Can’t Trust the Data, Flaws in the Federal Communications Commission’s Broadband Forms

Date: 2 May 2018 | posted in: MuniNetworks | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

At the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, we analyze data and explore public policies to empower local communities. Our initiative staff work on varied issues from composting to broadband, but all these issues affect our daily lives and our communities. In the Community Broadband Networks Initiative, we often analyze high-speed Internet service availability using the best data that is publicly available. Some of this data, however, is inaccurate, outdated, and misconstrued.… Read More

Picks: Nebraska Warms to Immigrants; Chicago’s Filthy Privatized Schools; Municipal Public Housing; a Data Bill of Rights; and more (3rd Edition)

Date: 30 Apr 2018 | posted in: From the Desk of David Morris | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Privatization is impacting the United States in nearly every sector, as ILSR co-founder David Morris indicates in this week’s Weekly Picks: Michigan’s prison food, Chicago’s public school sanitation, and Iowa’s Medicaid privatization is an example of the kinds of things that happen when you take the public incentive away from doing adequate work. Much more inside…… Read More

Picks: Privatizing the VA; Regulations Promote Growth; Facebook and the Future of News, and more (2nd Edition)

Date: 23 Apr 2018 | posted in: From the Desk of David Morris | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

The latest issue of the Weekly Picks from the Desk of David Morris details the future of our conversations on Big Data; how our Founding Fathers thought about the accumulation of wealth; corporate complaints about their tax “burden;” and local policy impact on public health.… Read More

Pricing Report From Berkman Klein Center: Municipal Broadband Subscribers Get Better Rates

Date: 10 Jan 2018 | posted in: MuniNetworks | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

New research from the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard finds that “publicly owned networks offer the best all around value for the communities that make the investment.” This landmark report dismantles an argument foes of municipal broadband often make — and turns the tables on incumbent monopolies in Internet service.… Read More