Sustaining Civic Networks: A Blueprint for Community Use of Technology

Why a community-owned network? Over a long period of time, we have come to understand that there are certain resources that must be managed for the public good, like water and sanitary sewer systems, roads, libraries, and parks. Can anyone imagine a situation where all the roads in a community are owned by a single corporation? When we talk about the information highway, this is indeed the situation we have today--in most communities, one or two companies (typically the telephone company and the cable television company) have monopoly control over the digital roads in the community.