Region 8 Project Nomination Form

 Name of person(s) nominating this priority:  James W. Romlein Sr. P.E.

 Briefly describe your priority broadband project.

Develop an information infrastructure model that supports a common holistic vision of the key regional economic asset sector requirements in the year 2030.  This model will serve as a template for the design, development, and implementation of broadband infrastructure for geographic land use areas in the region where these sector members are located.

 Initial opportunities include; advanced manufacturing, agriculture, health care, education, retail, and water-quality sectors.

 The project objective is to establish a test-bed infrastructure that will support innovation and synergistic business opportunities within and between the sector members.

 

What region‐wide need does this priority address?

 For each of our key regional assets and sectors, this project will:

·       Identify the infrastructure attribute requirements

·       Map the infrastructure attributes to test bed geographic regions

·       Define the regions network architecture components needed to provide the required network service attributes

·       Develop an implementation plan for each land use region

 Examples of region-wide needs by land use designation and possible solutions.

 

Rural Needs

 Work from Home Access - 40% of the Jefferson County work force commute out of the county. Jefferson is strategically located between Milwaukee, Madison, and the Northern Chicago region.  Residents gladly make the short travel to live in one of the 12 communities that provide the relaxed atmosphere of South Central Wisconsin.  These commuters typically live in land use areas where the population density does not offer a viable economic model for broadband wireline services.

Business-grade Access - The agriculture sector is a key regional asset and a growing trend in the consumer market is the focus on locally grown food. Broadband services for daily farm management business applications will be needed in the agricultural land use regions where farming and food product enterprises are located.  Here are two examples:

 

Hoffman Honey Sales of W3408 Beryl Drive in the Watertown Township is a family business with a very loyal client base.  The primary sales channels are the Watertown and Oconomowoc Farmers Market.  Marge has resisted invitations to expand the operation. She sites her unspoken commitment to support her loyal client base that provides a year round revenue stream and does not want to tax her production teams.  I believe that she is, in fact, on a first name basis with all of her Hive Queens and many of the Drones! Marge can foresee a time, especially in the Wisconsin Winter, when the sales-payment- delivery process could be on completely on line in the cloud. 

 

Jelli’s Market of N5648 S. Farmington Rd. in Hellenville is a family business with a growing local grown agricultural business. The primary sales channels for Jody and Steve Knoebel are; U-pick, five area farmers markets, on farm produce stands and the soon to open Country Farm Store.  The web site, www.jellismarket.com  is hosted off site and provides a comprehensive listing of the farm’s offerings. In developing a vision of the farm’s operations in 2030, Jody really likes the U-pick model where the customer has complete freedom of choice and provides all the tender loving care in the picking, packing and transporting process.  She can envision a cloud based web site where a just-in-time application can notify, schedule, and accept payment for the harvest from 25,000 newly planted strawberries.  Steve can see a time when the web site could include a produce gateway where their clients can make a produce selection with a when-to-pick option.   The selected produce would then be scheduled for harvest to the pick specification, customer notified by email of the scheduled harvest date and time, produce packaged, picked up by USP and delivered. Delivery options could include; pick-up at the USP store in town, pick-up at the local supermarket where you may buy other items, or delivered to your door.  And of course all shipments would be tracked with customer email or automated phone notification.

 

 Possible Solution 

 A Cooperative Venture model where the farming and commuting communities establish a coop and enter into an agreement with a wireless service provider like NetwurX to meet the demands of farm operations and remote workplace connectivity where:

Members provide - capital, right of way, and a client base

NetwurX provides – engineering, implementation, and operational services

 Urban Needs

 In 2030, a regional income producer will require specific information infrastructure attributes to support their mission critical business operations.   These larger enterprises are generally located in land use areas where broadband access is available.

 Access however is not the only network attribute that will be required by the innovation developer we want to attract.  In government, advanced manufacturing and healthcare, where private and public cloud business models are proving to be the most advantageous for the global competitive businesses, reliability and security are essential business network service requirements.  Often the complexities of managing a level five redundant access network, where no two network elements are exposed to the same threat, is a prohibitive challenge to all but a select group of organizations.

 

Possible Solution 

 A Geographic Area Network (GAN) serving interest communities with levels of service tailored to the requirements of the interest community.  This GAN would have several access service providers, each with different peering points and transport technologies.

The GAN would provide the physical layer access appropriate for the interest community and tailored to the geographic constraints. 

 

 Why is this project realistic and doable? If funding is required, approximately how much would be needed and how likely is it that the necessary funding can obtained?

An ideal geographic area is available in Jefferson County, rich in initial opportunities that include: government, advanced manufacturing, critical infrastructure elements, transportation hubs, educational innovators, water-quality research facilities, and both retail organizations and the supporting main street programs.

 Although funding requirements have not been addressed, the individual members of the interest communities have been supportive of viable programs that will provide a return for the investment.  It is believed that this project will provide remarkable returns and will be easily funded by many channels. 

 Briefly describe desired outcomes for your priority project nomination. What measures will indicate success?

 A pilot GAN will be established with both public and private partners.  It will serve both urban and rural geographic areas.  Network services will be provided to sector members that support the business requirements of the sector.  Service rates will be established that meet the objectives of the GAN partners.

 Success will be measured by the number of geographic areas that want to join or duplicate the pilot GAN.

 This project complements other economic development initiatives that focus on the traditional regional assets.

  

What existing leadership capacities or existing efforts in the region can support this project?

 The Jefferson County Economic Development Consortium (JCEDC) http://www.jcedc.net/ has been established to foster and encourage responsible, economic development activities that result in job creation, retention, increased tax base and an improved sustainability and quality of life for the citizens of Jefferson County.

 The JCEDC has established a broadband committee that could serve as the enabling catalyst for this project.

 Project due: March 7, 2011

Return completed nomination form as e‐mail attachment to:

Lisa LaBorde

lisa@researchfirst.com