Date: 11/30/2004 5:23:46 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: bruce.lai@council.nyc.ny.us
To: Reysmont
Sent from the Internet (Details)
Hello,
I am informing all of you of the upcoming hearings that the Committee on Technology in Government of the New York City Council is holding. If you can, please join us. All events are open to the general public. No RSVP is necessary.
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On Thursday, December 9th, 2004 at 1 PM in the 16th Floor Hearing, 250 Broadway, the Committee on Technology in Government, chaired by Council Member Gale A. Brewer, will hold a hearing on Int. No. 17 and Int. No. 27.
Int. No. 17 is a local law “to amend the New York city charter, in relation to requiring that the department of information technology and telecommunications produce an annual technology strategy and that mayoral agencies submit annual technology plans to the department of information technology and telecommunications for publication as an addendum to the department’s annual technology strategy.” Here’s a link to the full text of this piece of legislation:
http://webdocs.nyccouncil.info/textfiles/Int 0017-2004.htm?CFID=196969&CFTOKEN=27966919
Int. No. 27 is a “local law to amend the New York city charter, in relation to requiring that the department of information technology and telecommunications produce a five-year information technology and telecommunications plan for the city of New York every three years.” Here’s a link to the text of this piece of legislation:
http://webdocs.nyccouncil.info/textfiles/Int 0017-2004.htm?CFID=196969&CFTOKEN=27966919
The previously scheduled joint hearing with the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce on the subject of broadband in the borough of Brooklyn has been postponed to January 2005. Details forthcoming.
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The Center for an Urban Future has just released their report on broadband in New York City. Thanks to Jonathan Bowles and the rest of the CUF staff for their insight and hard work.
http://www.nycfuture.org/images_pdfs/pdfs/NY_Broadband_Gap.pdf
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The Committee has a web page now.
http://www.nyccouncil.info/issues/committee.cfm?committee_id=106
All briefing papers from the current session (beginning in January 2004) are available.
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If you know of people who would be interested in the Committee on Technology in Government’s activities, please feel free to forward this e-mail to them. If you know of anyone who would like to receive these e-mails, just have them e-mail me, and I will be put them on the list. Finally, feel free to post this information on any listserve you may belong to or on any website you are affiliated with.
Thank you. I look forward to seeing you at one of our hearings.
Regards,
Bruce Lai
Legislative Policy Analyst
Committee on Technology in Government
New York City Council
250 Broadway, 14th Floor
New York, NY 10007
bruce.lai@council.nyc.ny.us
2 comments:
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GIFF'S PHANTOM MENACE
By ADAM BRODSKY
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November 28, 2004 -- DON'T look now, but a new social "blight" is threaten ing the city.
It's called: "The Digital Divide."
Never fear, Gothamites — your City Council is on the case.
What exactly is "The Digital Divide"?
Beats me.
Indeed, it's a term so bizarre that a council media advisory hailing the body's efforts to "fight" this "scourge" put it in quotes: the "Digital Divide."
It must have just landed from Planet Xenon.
Luckily, Capt. Gifford Miller — the council's speaker — has flown to the rescue.
"City Council Closes Digital Divide," the council advisory assures.
(Whew — that was a close one. Citizens can now safely return to their homes.)
What exactly did the council do? It held a hearing, which unearthed a shocking fact: Some people, it seems, don't have — horrors! — computers.
And not just computers, but . . . Internet access.
And not just Internet access, but. . . high-speed, broadband Internet access.
Imagine that: A society that "denies" its less fortunate members download speeds said to be even faster than DSL.
Just wait 'til some study identifies the "root causes" — you know, old standbys like racism, economic inequality or a vast right-wing conspiracy to deny the poor their birthrights.
Oh, didn't you know?
Web access is a staple of human existence — and, thus, an entitlement.
No need to work for it and spend your own money: You're entitled to the Internet — free.
Or so the council thinks, anyway: Its Resolution 669 calls for service that is "free" or "less than $10 per month."
And who can argue with that?
Unless, of course, you make more than 80 percent of the median income for the area.
In that case, you don't get free service, under the council's plan.
But you do get to foot the bill for everyone else.
Surely, these are strange ideas.
Taxpayers are to buy things for folks who don't think they're worth buying — except with someone else's money.
And, the less you work and earn, the more you deserve a gift — even if you wind up with more stuff than those who work and earn more than you.
OK, it's easy to poke fun at socialistic council members, whose minds are corrupted by the radical Working Families Party. But that party and its views enjoy broad sympathy here.
Plus, the guy who runs the council — Capt. Giff — may be elected mayor next year, longshot though it may be.
(Watch for campaign donations from Internet providers.)
What the leftists forget, of course, is that computers are already available today to everyone, regardless of creed or color.
Don't have the cash for broadband? Then give up your potato chips or cable TV. (Road Runner online runs about $1.50 a day.)
Work two hours more a week.
Or get (slower) dial-up.
Use the public library's free Internet service.
Here's a radical suggestion: Borrow a book from the library.
And read it.
Which brings up another truth about the 'Net: Not having it is not why kids can't read. Nor why poorly educated, work-resistant grown-ups (most of whom went to school before the 'Net arrived) can't afford it.
Life is about choices.
Do New Yorkers really want the City Council to make those choices for them? And if so, how long before councilmen decry "The Plasma TV Divide" or the "The Great Yacht Divide"?
At that rate, of course, New York will be broke long before then.
E-mail: abrodsky@nypost.com
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DODGING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
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December 1, 2004 --
Adam Brodsky slams the City Council's proposal to help residents of affordable housing connect to the Internet ("Giff's Phantom Menace," Opinion, Nov. 28.)
But shouldn't we cheer a program that would help low-income New Yorkers enter the economic mainstream?
It's time our leaders thought creatively about how to foster self-sufficiency and independence among the neediest.
That means making it possible for people to enter the workforce and participate in the financial system.
And the Internet isn't just helpful in that regard — it's indispensable.
Mark Levine
Manhattan
The Internet is a tool to access the sum of our collective knowledge.
I suppose Brodsky would have had the same opinion a century ago when there was an "electricity divide" and a "plumbing divide."
Kevin Donovan
Manhattan
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