Participant/becca-vargo daggett

I'm Becca Vargo Daggett, and I was, until June, the director of the Telecommunications as Commons Initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. I have been a stubborn and vocal advocate for public, and specifically municipally owned information networks since my hometown, Minneapolis, announced its plan for a citywide wireless franchise.

I would like to see see the the US (all my work has been domestic) embrace a model for Net infrastructre that combines the federal highway/county and local road system with water/sewer systems, public libraries, and entrepreneurism.

To get there I think we have to move away from assumptions that those with money rely on the market, and government provides for those who can't afford it. We have to start thinking of networks as public infrastructure, with components at the national, regional and local levels, that are vital to our public (as citizens and workers) and private lives. This model would hold infrastructre as a common public asset.

I think the result would be a shift away from the current separation between "digital inclusion" and commercial operations, particularly at the local level. The tjrrsts to incumbent infrastructur owners go without saying.

I am no longer with ILSR, though their work on building th information commons continues, and it remains a a part of my life. I am now with UBS, learning something of the world of finance. I can be reached at:

Bx@mac.com 763.656.3982