Podcasts about community broadband networks

The plan is to electrify the economy. Reduce the combustion of fossil fuels for heating and transportation by replacing it with electricity from a grid powered by low-carbon sources like solar, wind, hydro, and nuclear. These are the basics of the energy transition but, there are two competing visions for how we accomplish it. The first vision is to extend the current utility business model to build the new fleet of generation and transmission in the image of the old, using the same ownership structure, regulatory paradigm, and relationship to ratepayers. The competing vision is a grid optimized for distributed energy resources (DERs). Comparing the two development pathways leads to some pretty clear conclusions. The first scenario, business as usual, may be the quickest to implement (it's what we've always done and it's what the utility lobby wants) and it's by far the most expensive. The second scenario, DER optimized, is more affordable, more resilient, and creates more jobs. However, it involves consumers as stakeholders and decision-makers in the energy system. In this episode, Nick Hylla and Katie Kienbaum discuss the promise of DERs in the energy transition and the policy actions needed to ensure that everyone has access to the social and environmental benefits provided by a DER optimized system. Host: Nick Hylla, MREA Executive Director  Guest: Katie Kienbaum, Research Associate - Institute for Local Self-Reliance  -About Katie Kienbaum: Katie is a Senior Researcher with ILSR's Energy Democracy initiative, where she researches and writes about equitable and decentralized clean energy and its impact on communities across the country. Before joining the Energy Democracy initiative, she was a Research Associate with the Community Broadband Networks initiative.     Katie Kienbaum - Live Event at The Energy Fair: Catch Katie at the Rise Up Live Event at The 2023 Energy Fair on Saturday, June 24th at 12p.m. Get your tickets at theenergyfair.org/tickets. 

Host Jess Del Fiacco is joined by members of ILSR's Community Broadband Networks team: Ry Marcattilio-McCracken, Sean Gonsalves, and Christine Parker. They discuss the importance of mapping for building broadband networks.… Read More

On this episode of the Building Local Power podcast, host Jess Del Fiacco is joined by two members of ILSR's Community Broadband Networks initiative: Sean Gonsalves and Emma Gautier. They discuss new research the team has been working on, including tracking how communities are spending federal infrastructure money on broadband projects and explaining why shopping for a new Internet service is such a frustrating process. Highlights of their conversation include: Why and how ILSR decided to create a “Big List” of local broadband projects supported by American Rescue Plan funding — which now includes more than 100 communities! How states compare when it comes to spending on community broadband projects. Interesting local election results related to broadband issues in New Jersey, Maine, and elsewhere. ILSR's new report that grades Internet Service Providers' (ISPs) transparency — or lack thereof — around the Internet service packages they offer. “This problem, providers not being transparent, might kind of seem like something that's annoying or inconvenient, but it's actually a really big problem beyond that because we know, especially in the context of the pandemic, that broadband is a very important thing to a household. So a household or a person's ability to make informed decisions about what kind of service they're going to subscribe to is really important.” “When a community network is built and operated and maintained by the people in your community, that in and of itself brings a level of accountability that is unmatched. You're bumping into those people in the grocery store. Your kids play sports together… And one of the things that is tough to quantify, but I hear anecdotally all the time in talking to folks in various communities, is the difference between before they had a municipal network and they had to rely on the monopoly provider, and then after they got one is the difference in the customer service experience. And that is hard to quantify, but it's something that's huge for people.”   Related Resources Transcript Jess Del Fiacco: Hello, and welcome to Building Local Power, a podcast dedicated to thought provoking conversations about how we can challenge corporate monopolies and expand the power of people to shape their own future. I'm Jess Del Fiacco, the host of Building Local Power and communications manager here at The Institute for Local Self Reliance. For more than 45 years, ILSR has worked to build thriving, equitable communities where power, wealth, and accountability remain in local hands. Jess Del Fiacco: Hello, everybody. Today I am joined by two of my colleagues, both from ILSR's community broadband initiative. We've got Sean Gonsalves, you've heard on the show before, he's a reporter and editor with the team, as well as a newbie to Building Local Power, it's Emma Gotye, and she is on the community broadband team. Welcome to the show, guys. Sean Gonsalves: Top of the morning. How are you doing? Emma Gautier : Good to be here. Thanks, Jess. Jess Del Fiacco: Yeah. As you all might expect, we're going to be talking about community broadband today. And per usual, there's a lot going on. We're going to talk about how communities are using new federal funding. We're also going to take a look at a new scorecard we've put together that grades different internet service providers based on how transparent they are about the services that they offer. But we're going to start with a question for Sean, which is something the whole team's been working on, but I know you've done a lot of work on this specifically. Looking at what communities are doing with American Rescue Plan funding to invest that in community broadband projects. Basically first, why'd you guys decide to track this information? Sean Gonsalves: Yeah, no. That's a great question. I mean, we're tracking it because the American Rescue Plan funding is really an unprecedented massive federal investment being made available.

On this episode of the Building Local Power podcast, host Jess Del Fiacco is joined by two members of ILSR's Community Broadband Networks initiative: Sean Gonsalves and Emma Gautier. They discuss new research they've been working on, including tracking how communities are spending federal infrastructure money on broadband projects and why shopping for a new Internet service is such a frustrating process. … Read More

Grants kick off a five-year plan for statewide fiber internet; Senate Republicans block Leahy's John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act; Burlington School Board votes to build new high school next to old building on Institute Road.

This show streamed live on October 7, 2021. This week, don't miss a very special episode of the Connect This! Show, streaming live from the Minneapolis headquarters of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance for the very first time!  Co-hosts Christopher and Travis Carter (USI Fiber) will be broadcasting with most of the Community Broadband Networks […]

In this episode of the Broadband Bunch, we speak with Christopher Mitchell, Director of Community Broadband Networks at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Chris has been been staunch advocate and in the trenches since 2007 stressing the importance of local communities taking control of their broadband service. Chris is also the host of the Broadband Bits podcast and has recently launched an industry-focused video podcast called Connect This! Click now to listen. Also, be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode of the Broadband Bunch!

On this episode of Building Local Power, Christopher Mitchell, Director of ILSR's Community Broadband Networks initiative, interviews Rebecca Woodbury, San Rafael's Director of Digital Services and Open Government, and Air Gallegos, Director of Education and Career for Canal Alliance. Rebecca and Air helped lead a local effort to build a Wi-Fi mesh network to connect residents in the Canal neighborhood of San Rafael, Calif. Christopher, Air, and Rebecca discuss: How the mobilization of local volunteers, combined with the efforts and expertise of the city and Canal Alliance, allowed them to quickly develop and implement a solution. The impacts they've seen so far in the community. The many issues they took into consideration as they planned the network, including power outages, digital literacy barriers, housing inequities, and language barriers, in order to ensure that it works for as many residents as possible both now and in the future. What other communities can learn from San Rafael's success. Learn more about San Rafael and other communities working to connect residents to high quality Internet access on MuniNetworks.org and ILSR's Community Broadband Bits podcast. “One of the things that's been wonderful about this project is we've been living with deep inequities in the Canal for a very long time. And I think what's interesting about COVID is they're giving us an opportunity to build something new and build something different. It's allowing a space for productivity and creativity to really happen, so that in some ways has been a really big blessing of everyone coming together… we live in a very crazy world and we have to be willing to try everything.”   Related Resources Connecting A Neighborhood in Need in San Rafael, California – Community Broadband Bits Podcast Episode 427 Transcript Jess Del Fiacco: Hello, and welcome to Building Local Power, a podcast dedicated to thought provoking conversations about how we can challenge corporate monopolies and expand the power of people to shape their own future. I'm Jess Del Fiacco, the host of Building Local Power and communications manager here at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. For 45 years, ILSR has worked to build thriving equitable communities where power, wealth, and accountability remain in local hands. Jess Del Fiacco: For today's episode, we have an interview with two women who are helping to lead a very cool project to connect a neighborhood in the Bay Area of California to internet access. But first I'm here with Christopher Mitchell, who's the Director of ILSR's Community Broadband initiative to give us a little context for their story. So, Chris, could you give us a very brief overview of the project? Christopher Mitchell: Yeah, I feel duty bound to actually start instead by commenting on the visualization I had in my head as you were reading the intro of ILSR being like a person throwing pottery and shaping their future, so I just wanted to… I wanted to give the listeners the visual. Jess Del Fiacco: It's not exactly what we're going for there. Christopher Mitchell: This WiFi Mesh Network is very interesting. It's very inspiring. It's a reminder of the fact that we should all take charge. We should take responsibility, take action and even if we're not clear on how to do it, stepping up can really get other people excited about stepping up as well. Jess Del Fiacco: They're not going into people's homes and giving them routers and running fiber, this is outside, right? On the street, although it reaches into apartment buildings, people's individual homes, right? The WiFi? Christopher Mitchell: Yes, for people who may live just off of the street, they may have a signal that's strong enough to get into their homes. I think a lot of people will probably be using it outside. It's easier to do that in California than Minnesota depending on the season. And the important part in my mind is that we have people who have gone from having subopt...

This week on the Community Broadband Bits podcast we flip the microphones around. Christopher gets interviewed by Isfandiyar Shaheen, also known as Asfi, an experienced thinker on all Internet-related issues around the world and longtime friend of the Community Broadband Networks initiative.   Asfi and Christopher have a wide-ranging discussion, including how Christopher first got involved … Continue reading "The Man Behind the Mask: Christopher Mitchell Reflects on Twelve Years of Progress in Broadband — Community Broadband Bits Podcast Episode 418"

The Community Broadband Networks team had to say a difficult goodbye recently to longtime Senior Researcher Lisa Gonzalez, who accepted a new position with the State of Minnesota. Before she left, Lisa sat down with Christopher to reflect on the end of an era. Despite some bittersweet feelings, she expresses confidence that she’s leaving the … Continue reading "Lisa Gonzalez Leaves Us With a Sense of Hope – Community Broadband Bits Episode 401"

It’s the end of the year once again, which means the Community Broadband Networks team takes their places in front of the mic for the predictions show. In addition to offering our expectations for 2020, we review what happened this past year and compare it to the predictions we made at this time last year. … Continue reading "Predictions for 2020, Reviewing 2019 – Community Broadband Bits Podcast 388"

L-R: Christopher Mitchell, Stacy Mitchell, and John Farrell If you've been a fan of our site for any amount of time, you might have noticed that we feature a number of policies and projects from Vermont as paradigms of local self-reliance. That's why we had three of our policy experts sit down and discuss what is going right in the Green Mountain State. How did Vermont come to have more small businesses and fewer big-box stores per capita than any other state? Why does it have a much higher rate of rooftop solar installation than many sunnier regions? And how has Vermont become a leader in developing community-based Internet access solutions? In this episode of the Building Local Power podcast, host and Community Broadband Networks initiative director Christopher Mitchell sits down with co-director and Community-Scaled Economy initiative director Stacy Mitchell and Energy Democracy initiative director John Farrell to answer those questions. The three all note the high level of civic engagement in Vermont and the way that it contributes to an environment conducive to strong local economies. “[T]his has been bottom up and it's not that there's something magical about [Vermont's] state government being enlightened so much as it is that citizens have really driven this process… It speaks to the importance of hands-on democracy and the role that we all have in that,” argues Stacy Mitchell of the myriad pro-local economy policies happening in the Green Mountain State. Related Resources Throughout the conversation, Stacy, John, and Chris all mention research and reporting on the exciting ways that Vermont is enabling local self-reliance: Vermont's Act 250 Policy — This policy, which Stacy mentions as enabling responsible economic development, ensures local and regional review for any large-scale development project. Are Lightly Regulated States Really More Friendly to Small Businesses? — Our 2012 takedown of a popular ranking of “business friendliness,” complete with maps! Shining Cities 2018: How Smart Local Policies Are Expanding Solar Power in America, Environment America — The Burlington metropolitan area gets some love in this report from Environment America for how much rooftop solar capacity per capita there is. The 2018 Community Power State Scorecard — In the recent update to our Community Power Map, we pulled the information for all of the states at how best they enable local renewable energy. Vermont's score is referenced in this conversation. Podcast: Why Local Self-Reliance (Episode 22) — David Morris talks with Christopher Mitchell, Director of ILSR's Community Broadband Networks initiative about why the message of local self-reliance is as relevant today as it was when ILSR opened its doors in 1974. This wide-ranging conversation examines the rising concentration of economic power and cities' responses. Local Energy Rules: Mountains Beyond Mountains: How Green Mountain Power Became More Than An Electric Utility — John interviews Green Mountain Power's CEO Mary Powell about why the utility has moved to a benefit corporation structure that ensures that their investments benefit the local economy. MuniNetworks.org Tag: Vermont — As Christopher mentions, MuniNetworks.org's coverage of all the different projects in Vermont are covered very well on our blog including the history of Burlington Telecom, EC Fiber, and a number of small-scale Internet access projects. Reading & Watching Recommendations The group recommend a number of items for our audience, including: Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America by Nancy MacLean, available at your local independent bookstore from IndieBound. Stacy also recommends a talk at the University of Southern Maine regarding Democracy in Chains from the author, Nancy MacLean. Embedded below: Christopher recommends both the book series and Netflix show, Altered Carbon. Book series available at your local independent bookstore from Indie...

The Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) move to repeal Net Neutrality and classification of Broadband Internet as a Title II Telecommunications Service could have significant impact on rural America, where the digital divide is already the largest. In this edition of Mountain Talk, host Mimi Pickering explores potential impacts with economist Roberto Gallardo from Mississippi State University Extension Services and Christopher Mitchell, Director of Community Broadband Networks at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. We also hear from a 2015 interview with Edyael Casaperalta, representing the Rural Broadband Working Group of the National Rural Assembly, on the 2015 reclassification of broadband as a Title II Telecommunications Service and its potential to reduce the digital divide, increase competition, and protect consumers. Finally, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn talks about her work on the FCC to increase access and affordability for people of color, low income, and rural communities. Her term at the FCC will soon end but she promises to continue to speak for those who are not typically represented and calls on all individuals and organizations to make their voices heard at the FCC at every opportunity.

The Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) move to repeal Net Neutrality and classification of Broadband Internet as a Title II Telecommunications Service could have significant impact on rural America, where the digital divide is already the largest. In this edition of Mountain Talk, host Mimi Pickering explores potential impacts with economist Roberto Gallardo from Mississippi State University Extension Services and Christopher Mitchell, Director of Community Broadband Networks at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. We also hear from a 2015 interview with Edyael Casaperalta, representing the Rural Broadband Working Group of the National Rural Assembly, on the 2015 reclassification of broadband as a Title II Telecommunications Service and its potential to reduce the digital divide, increase competition, and protect consumers. Finally, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn talks about her work on the FCC to increase access and affordability for people of color, low income, and rural communities. Her term at the FCC will soon end but she promises to continue to speak for those who are not typically represented and calls on all individuals and organizations to make their voices heard at the FCC at every opportunity.

David Morris talks with Christopher Mitchell, Director of ILSR’s Community Broadband Networks initiative about why the message of local self-reliance is as relevant today as it was when ILSR opened its doors in 1974. This wide-ranging conversation examines the rising concentration of economic power and cities’ responses. … Read More

In this episode of Building Local Power, host Christopher Mitchell, of our Community Broadband Networks initiative, interviews ILSR co-founder David Morris about the history of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and why the message of local self-reliance is as relevant today as it was in the 1970s. This wide-ranging conversation takes in the role that new communications technology is facilitating concentration and how cities are rising to the moment by exerting their own power. No matter whether you're a conservative or a radical, you hate your utility company, and you hate your utility company because it's a monopoly, and it's remote, and it's not responsive, and for a whole bunch of reasons. So when you're starting to talk about energy that can be harnessed at the local level, and the rooftop level, and the neighborhood level, and the metropolitan level, people are extremely enthusiastic. That cuts across ideologies, and it's that political, I think, as well as environmental dynamic that's the most important of all. — David Morris Reading Recommendations Get caught up with the latest work from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance on fighting monopoly power across a variety of sectors: From Christopher Mitchell: Available here: https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2011/10/benkler. From David Morris: Available here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51306.Mutual_Aid. Transcript Christopher Mitchell: David, when I tell people that I work for the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, they'll often say, “Who could be against that?” So let me ask you, in 43 years of experience, who is against local self-reliance? David Morris: Well, in one respect, no one's against local self-reliance if you define it as communities, you define it as mutual aid, you define it as self-help, so in that sense, both conservatives and liberals and radicals are all in favor of local self-reliance, but if you define it as the exercise of collective authority at the local level in order to make rules that can establish a firm wealth-producing economy, then you do tend to get a difference of opinion. Christopher Mitchell: You start to make enemies. David Morris: You start to make enemies. Conservatives are all for decentralization of political authority, as long as it's not an exercise of political authority. Liberals would like a centralization or have, traditionally until very recently, wanted the federal government to exercise significant authority because they thought communities were parochial and racist and xenophobic, so both of them subscribe to the concept of local self-reliance, but they are very different when you're talking about the exercise of authority and power. Christopher Mitchell: And this is what we're going to be talking about today, local self-reliance, what does it mean? Where does it come from? Where are we going? Those sorts of things. I'm Chris Mitchell with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. I direct our broadband work, and David Morris, one of the co-founders of the organization is back with us for, I believe, a third episode of Building Local Power. David Morris: Thanks, Chris, for having me on for a third episode. Christopher Mitchell: Well, many more are on the way, I have no doubt. So let's explore this, and maybe we'll start at the beginning, a time in which there was a polarizing president, discussion of horrible corruption at the federal level, a president under attack, 1974, not the modern era, so you get together with a couple of friends and decide you're going to create the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. What did you have in mind, in terms of what was the idea of what local self-reliance meant then? David Morris: Well, local self-reliance in 1974 and in 2017 means a focus on cities, and a focus on cities for a number of different reasons. One is that historically, cities are the basis of innovation. That goes back hundreds and even a thousand years.

Welcome to episode fifteen of the Building Local Power podcast. In this episode, Christopher Mitchell, the director of ILSR’s Community Broadband Networks initiative, interviews John Farrell and Karlee Weinmann, researchers for ILSR’s Energy Democracy initiative on the prospects of renewable energy … Read More

Welcome to episode thirteen of the Building Local Power podcast. In this episode, Christopher Mitchell, the director of ILSR's Community Broadband Networks initiative, interviews Stacy Mitchell, co-director of the ILSR and director of the Community-Scaled Economies initiative. The two discuss the environment for small businesses in the United States, especially noting the fact that the rate of small business creation is at one of its lowest rates since the early 1970s. Additionally, Stacy and Chris talk about how the issue of small businesses and incentivizing their creation is a bipartisan issue that greatly benefits local economies. “The economy has grown very concentrated, in a lot of industries, there are just two or three huge firms that control most of the market,” says Stacy Mitchell of the current dismal rate of small business creation. “There's evidence that [these firms] use that power to actually exclude and block smaller businesses from being able to get to market, to have a fair opportunity to compete.”   Related Resources For the report that Stacy referred to this week, check out our report, Monopoly Power and the Decline of Small Business from August 2016. Report: Monopoly Power and the Decline of Small Business Reading Recommendations From Stacy: Yale Law Review Journal's “Amazon's Antitrust Paradox” by Lina Khan   The Economic Innovation Group's “Dynamism in Retreat: Consequences for Regions, Markets, and Workers“                             From Chris: “Anansi Boys” by Neil Gaiman Available from an independent retailer here: http://www.neilgaiman.com/works/Books/Anansi+Boys/. Transcript Chris Mitchell: Hey, Stacy. I hear that Americans aren't creating new businesses anymore. What's going on? Stacy Mitchell: The rate of new startup businesses in this country is half of what it was in the late 1970's. We think of ourselves as a nation of startups, but we really aren't anymore. Chris Mitchell: Well, that's actually pretty disturbing that it's late 1970's, because that was when I was born, but also, I associate it with a period of economic stagnation in fact. Stacy Mitchell: Exactly. There are a lot of ways in which I think today's economy creates this kind of illusion of dynamism and competition, when in fact if we peel back and look a little closer, there's much less competition than there used to be. It's harder and harder for ordinary Americans to start and grow a business. Chris Mitchell: It's very disturbing. That's what we're going to be talking about for this show. You just heard the voice of Stacy Mitchell with our Independent Business Program at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. She's coming out of Portland, Maine. I'm Chris Mitchell in Minneapolis. I work on our broadband work. Today, we're going to be talking about basically what's hurting local business and small business formation. Let me just ask you to remember to rate our program, the Building Local Power podcast, on iTunes or wherever you find it. Tell your friends to blog, tweet, do Facebook posts, tumble with it. Do whatever you need to do to get the message out there, please, to share this discuss. Now, Stacy. Let's get back into this. Why aren't new firms being created? Stacy Mitchell: Well, there's one reason that a lot of people are looking at, which is that the economy has grown very concentrated. That is that in a lot of industries, there are just two or three huge firms that control most of the market, and there's evidence that they use that power to actually exclude and block smaller businesses from being able to get to market, to having a fair opportunity to compete. We've seen this in lots of different industries where we see big businesses doing this and just making it harder for small businesses to actually get their products to market or be able to compete. Chris Mitchell: Stacy, you wrote a paper that was published last summer, “Monopoly Power and the Decline of Small Business: The Case for Restoring...

In this episode, Christopher Mitchell, the director of ILSR’s Community Broadband Networks initiative, interviews Hannah Trostle and Karlee Weinmann, Research Associates for the Community Broadband Networks and Energy Democracy initiatives, respectively. The three discuss the cooperative model of ownership and how this model can enable investment in gigabit Internet connections for their member-owners, but also how they are subject to a low participation rates in their elections.… Read More

In this episode, Christopher Mitchell, the director of ILSR's Community Broadband Networks initiative, interviews Brenda Platt, ILSR co-director and director of our Waste to Wealth initiative. The two discuss the history of ILSR's Zero Waste work and how the conversation around composting and waste has changed in her 30 years at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.… Read More

In this episode, John Farrell, the director of ILSR's Energy Democracy initiative, interviews Christopher Mitchell (our usual podcast host) and Lisa Gonzalez of our Community Broadband Networks initiative. The three discuss the power of municipal broadband networks, how the power held in cities is integral to these projects, and the barriers put in place by cable monopolies to prevent these networks.… Read More

In this episode, Chris Mitchell, the director of our Community Broadband Networks initiative, interviews David Morris, a co-founder of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and the director of the Public Good initiative. The two discuss the climate surrounding privatization in our economy and how the incoming Trump administration will bolster these efforts nationwide. Morris delves deep into the history of public infrastructure including explanations of how our language around the subject has changed over the years, privatization in other countries, and hope for the future.… Read More

In this episode, Chris Mitchell, the director of our Community Broadband Networks initiative, interviews a roundtable of ILSR staff members. Participants are: Olivia LaVecchia of the Community-Scaled Economies initiative, Karlee Weinmann of the Energy Democracy initiative, and Nick Stumo-Langer, ILSR's Communication Manager.… Read More

In this episode, Chris Mitchell, the director of our Community Broadband Networks initiative, interviews Linda Bilsens, Project Manager of ILSR's Neighborhood Soil Rebuilders Program. … Read More

Welcome to episode six of the Building Local Power podcast. In this episode, Chris Mitchell, the director of our Community Broadband Networks initiative, interviews Stacy Mitchell (no relation) ILSR Co-Director and Senior Researcher for the Community-Scaled Economies initiative about their latest report: Amazon's Stranglehold: How the Company's Tightening Grip is Stifling Competition, Eroding Jobs, and Threatening Communities. Mitchell details the main points from the recent report including the startling fact that nearly $1 of every $2 spent online are spent on Amazon. Chris and Stacy discuss how Amazon's impact is not only being felt by other online retailers, but it's growing stranglehold over manufacturing, shipping and receiving, and online retail platform is harming workers, local communities, and the general health of our country's economy. Read the report here: New Report: How Amazon's Tightening Grip on the Economy Is Stifling Competition, Eroding Jobs, and Threatening Communities It has become the gatekeeper to online commerce,” says Mitchell of Amazon's overwhelming online market dominance. “All these other business all have to play by Amazon's rules, they all have to be dictated to by Amazon. Related Resource Here's an image from the report, detailing Amazon's growing monolithic presence: For more information on the issues that Stacy and Chris discussed, read the Amazon report here. You can follow the work of our Community-Scaled Economy initiative by following Olivia LaVecchia and Stacy Mitchell. Transcript Stacy Mitchell: It has become the gatekeeper to online commerce and so all these other businesses all have to play by Amazon's rules. They all now have to be dictated to by Amazon.   Chris Mitchell: Stacy, welcome to Building Local Power.   Stacy Mitchell: It's great to be here. Thanks, Chris.   Chris Mitchell: I've been really, really, really excited to talk with you about Amazon in this report. It builds on what Olivia and I had spoken about in what I think was the first episode of Building Local Power. It's right before Black Friday which is to say it's right before Thanksgiving, the best holiday. As you can tell from my voice, I'm very enthusiastic.   Stacy Mitchell: That's great. We are too. We're eager to release this big piece of research.   Chris Mitchell: Yeah, we're going to talk about Amazon today and particularly about your program's reaction to Amazon and trying to get people to wrestle with what Amazon is. Stacy, remind us who you are.   Stacy Mitchell: Well, I'm Stacy Mitchell and I direct the community scaled economy initiative at ILSR.   Chris Mitchell: I'm Chris Mitchell, the second Mitchell at ILSR, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. With no relation. We don't have any family overlap from what we can tell although we both shop at the Redding Outlet Stores in our youth in Pennsylvania which was a pretty odd coincidence.   Stacy Mitchell: That's right.   Chris Mitchell: I run the community broadband networks program here. I've been the host so far on this Building Local Power where we focus on local businesses, local approaches to making sure that we have political and economic power at home. Stacy, one other thing I wanted to mention, you wrote Big Box Window, a book that at this point is totally irrelevant, right?   Stacy Mitchell: Well, I wouldn't go that far. But Big Box Window really charge the rise of big retailers and retailers as the power players in our economy. Amazon is a new iteration of that and in many ways, much more alarming, I would argue, iteration of that. It's an extension of Walmart. Big Box Window is the foundation for what we're now talking about in some ways.   Chris Mitchell: We're going to be talking about this report on Amazon that you've just released, just releasing two days ago from [inaudible 02:22] podcast there so people can go to ILSR.org to read. One of the things that first hit me was half of all Americans are members of A...

In this episode, Chris Mitchell, the director of our Community Broadband Networks initiative, interviews Stacy Mitchell (no relation) ILSR Co-Director and Senior Researcher for the Community-Scaled Economies initiative about their latest report: Amazon’s Stranglehold: How the Company’s Tightening Grip is Stifling Competition, Eroding Jobs, and Threatening Communities. Mitchell details the main points from the recent report including the startling fact that nearly $1 of every $2 spent online are spent on Amazon.… Read More

In this episode, Chris Mitchell, the director of our Community Broadband Networks initiative, interviews Lisa Gonzalez, Senior Researcher for the Community Broadband Networks initiative about the recent election and what it means for municipal broadband networks across the nation. In this podcast, Gonzalez delves into the election results coming out of Colorado regarding the two dozen communities who voted to reclaim their broadband connectivity future. 26 additional Colorado cities and counties opted out of a restrictive, cable monopoly-supported state law, passed in 2005, that prevents these entities from providing service or partnering with the private sector.… Read More

Welcome to the fourth episode of the Building Local Power podcast. In this episode, Chris Mitchell, the director of our Community Broadband Networks initiative, interviews David Morris, the co-founder of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and the director of the Public Good initiative about the history behind North Dakota's Non-Partisan League. In this podcast, Morris goes into detail on the League's political influence and how their policies set North Dakota on a trajectory of local ownership and a tradition of fighting concentrated economic power. He also notes that North Dakotans are still fending off challenges from major banks and pharmaceutical chains, and that the tradition of local ownership is strong throughout the state. “This is an example of effective organizing that had an impact,” says Morris. “There are much more examples of that than there are top-down, ‘somebody created a great idea somewhere in Congress or the White House' and they implemented it. It's almost always pressure from the grassroots level that moves us forward.” For more information on the issues that David and Chris discussed, read his piece on the Non-Partisan League: How to Make a Political Revolution, and our report on North Dakota's independent pharmacy law: North Dakota's Pharmacy Ownership Law Leads to Better Pharmacy Care. If you missed the first couple episodes of our podcast you can find those conversations with Olivia LaVecchia here, Neil Seldman here, and John Farrell here. Also to see all of our episodes make sure to bookmark our Building Local Power Podcast Homepage. Transcript David Morris: This was an investment that they were making. It wasn't a contribution to the betterment of the world. This was a personal investment.   Chris Mitchell: What are you going to have for lunch?   David Morris: I don't know what I'm going to have for lunch. Probably a caesar salad, but I may splurge and have a hamburger, I have to ponder that.   Chris Mitchell: Today, I'm excited to be talking to David Morris, the co-founder of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. The guy who makes us all honest, in the office, otherwise I would be totally dishonest without your presence, I have to admit. Welcome to Building Local Power.   David Morris: Thank you, Chris, and thanks for the introduction.   Chris Mitchell: No problem. I just wanted to say that for people who are not familiar with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, it's almost forty-three years, now. You're a co-founder of it. I'm Chris Mitchell, I run the internet related work for the Institute. When I started here almost ten years ago, I didn't really have a sense of what it would be like to work in an environment like this, but I am very impressed with how seriously you take empirical research, and the truth over just ideology. It's something that I've been inspired by.   David Morris: Thank you. I believe in evidence based ideology.   Chris Mitchell: Right. Today, we're going to talk, it's election season. We're going to talk today about this populist uprising in North Dakota, and the reason that I find it very interesting is not just that it's led to almost a hundred years of change, and set the tone for North Dakota, but that people don't really know about it. Stacy Mitchell, one of our colleagues, incredible mind, here, she believes that the reason people aren't familiar with it is that liberals don't want to talk about North Dakota, and that conservatives don't like the reforms, because they involve the government doing good things. That's why we're going to talk about it. What is your interest in talking about this? How would you describe it?   David Morris: My interest is that it came out of a certain period of American history, which in some ways is being repeated, in some ways it's not, because it was a hundred and twenty years ago, but nevertheless, it was a time where people were not only concerned about inequality, but were tackling it,

In this episode, Chris Mitchell, the director of our Community Broadband Networks initiative, interviews David Morris, the co-founder of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and the director of the Public Good initiative about the history behind North Dakota's Non-Partisan League. In this podcast, Morris goes into detail on the League's political influence and how their policies set North Dakota on a trajectory of local ownership and a tradition of fighting concentrated economic power. He also notes that North Dakotans are still fending off challenges from major banks and pharmaceutical chains, and that the tradition of local ownership is strong throughout the state.… Read More

In this episode, Chris Mitchell, the director of our Community Broadband Networks initiative, interviews John Farrell, the director of our Energy Democracy initiative about the concept of energy democracy and about his latest report, Is Bigger Best in Renewable Energy? John specifically outlines some of the key concepts that make up the principles of energy democracy and how locally-owned renewable energy continues to shape our electric grid in new and exciting ways.… Read More

People say, “broadband is just like electricity in the 1920s. That’s why electric co-ops were formed, and why they need to build community broadband.” But why not build a co-op specifically for broadband? In Minnesota several communities recently started a broadband co-op. Are more on the way? Chris Mitchell, Director of Community Broadband Networks at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), makes the case that more rural communities need to create broadband co-ops to address the lack of sufficient highspeed Internet access. ILSR and Next Century Cities just released a report that examines Minnesota’s broadband co-op, “RS Fiber: Fertile Fields for New Rural Internet Cooperative.” Mitchell delves into why: The co-op model makes sense for communities;Hybrid wired and wireless infrastructure makes financial sense;Broadband co-ops blends the best of public and private worlds;We should expect more broadband co-op to form.

Slow internet stinks. It kills business growth, hinders education, impedes health care services, and generally just makes life a little less enjoyable. But what can you do? Aren’t we all just stuck with the service we’ve got? What if there was a solution that offered fast, affordable and reliable internet service, while benefiting your community and your economy? This, my friend, is what Community Broadband Networks have to offer. On this CommunityMatters® conference call, Christopher Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and Billy Ray of Glasgow Electric Plant Board join us to talk about Community Broadband Networks, publicly-owned providers of high-speed internet. Listen to the recording to learn about the benefits of community broadband along with tips for getting started with a network in your city or town. Find the notes for this call at http://bit.ly/1nUflvd. Photo credit: Sebastiaan ter Burg Flickr Creative Commons License http://flickr.com/photos/ter-burg/8823162570

Geoff Daily is an old friend of ours at Community Broadband Networks and he joins us for our 15th installment of the Community Broadband [no-glossary]Bits[/no-glossary] audio show. He created a nonprofit organization, FiberCorps in Lafayette, Louisiana, to maximize usage of the LUS Fiber network owned by the community. Geoff and I discuss the importance of … Continue reading "Community Broadband Bits 15 – Geoff Daily – FiberCorps" ★ Support this podcast ★