The Mt. Hood Cable Regulatory Commission Community...

The Mt. Hood Cable Regulatory Commission Community Communications Technology Needs

Ascertainment

Part of the

Initiative

Prepared for the MHCRC by:

CBG Communications, Inc. Tom Robinson, President

Dick Nielsen, Sr. Engineer

In Association with

Riley Research Associates &

Connie Book, Ph.D., Elon University

March 2010

CBG Communications, Inc.

Table of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................ 1 SUMMARY OF KEY FINDINGS........................................................................................................... 10 STUDY PROCESS AND METHODOLOGY ......................................................................................... 23 FINDINGS................................................................................................................................................ 32

ACCESS TO TECHNOLOGY..................................................................................................... 32 CONTENT.................................................................................................................................... 48 SYSTEM CAPACITY.................................................................................................................. 64 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT................................................................................................... 75 CIVIC/COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT..................................................................................... 83 REGULATION IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST............................................................................ 87

CONCLUSION......................................................................................................................................... 93 ATTACHMENTS Attachment 1 - Summary of Workshop, Focus Groups and Interview Findings Attachment 1.A - Workshop and Focus Groups Notes Attachment 1.B - Interview Notes Attachment 2 - Residential Telephone Survey Report Attachment 2.A - Residential Telephone Survey Mark-Up (Crosstabs) Attachment 2.B - Residential Telephone Survey Open Codes (Verbatims) Attachment 3 - Public On-line Survey Report Attachment 3.A - Public On-line Survey Mark-Up (Crosstabs) Attachment 3.B - Public On-line Survey Open Codes (Verbatims) Attachment 4 - On-line Media Producers Survey Report Attachment 4.A - On-line Media Producers Survey Mark-Up (Crosstabs) Attachment 4.B - On-line Media Producers Survey Open Codes (Verbatims) Attachment 5 - Communities of Interest On-line Survey Reports Attachment 5.A - Communities of Interest Mark-Ups (Crosstabs) and Open Codes (Verbatims)

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Mt. Hood Cable Regulatory Commission (MHCRC or “Commission”), in conjunction with CBG Communications, Inc. (CBG) and its team partners, Riley Research Associates and Dr. Constance Book of Elon University, has conducted an extensive community communications technology, including cable-related, needs and interests ascertainment covering a wide variety of Communities of Interest (Communities) within the jurisdictions that are members of the MHCRC (Cities of Fairview, Gresham, Portland, Troutdale and Wood Village and Multnomah County, Oregon). The term “Communications Technology” was broadly defined and included infrastructure, services, service platforms, end-user devices and applications. An emphasis was also placed on cable communications-related needs and interests since the MHCRC is currently engaged in the cable franchise renewal process, which requires an understanding of such needs and interests as part of the overall ascertainment. The Communities ascertained were broad-based and covered a variety of components and sectors of large communities such as residential, government, education, non-profits, community media, immigrant and refugee, ethnic and cultural, business and others. A variety of ascertainment methodologies were utilized , including a statistically valid telephone survey, a variety of on-line surveys, focused discussions (from small group to workshop), interviews and review of a wealth of related studies, technology plans, and other materials and research. At a high level, the MHCRC wanted to gather information that would help answer six communications technology-related questions, as they pertained to the Communities in Multnomah County. These questions were:

1) What is the level of communications technology in our communities today? 2) What are our communities' immediate (up to 3 years) communications technology needs? 3) What are our communities' future (3-15 years) communications technology needs? 4) What are the differences in communications technology needs and interests among our communities? 5) What is the role of local government in meeting the communications technology related needs of our community?

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6) What has been the impact within our communities of existing public benefit requirements of the cable communications franchise agreement?

It was determined that the key questions could best be answered by focusing on six major categories of ascertainment. These categories are:

♦ Access to Technology ♦ Content ♦ System Capacity ♦ Economic Development ♦ Civic/Community Engagement ♦ Regulation in the Public Interest

These categories and the elements that comprise them became the major focus of the Communications Technology Ascertainment Study. Below are some of the most critical findings that came out of the Study: ♦ Access to Technology

Access to communications technology in Multnomah County was explored from a variety of perspectives including: the level and type of technology access; who does and doesn’t have access from both a demographic and geographic perspective; the characteristics of technology adoption and lack of adoption, including issues like affordability and technology literacy; and where a digital divide exists, ways that can promote digital inclusion. Critical findings under this category include: Finding: Multnomah County residents face equity issues in access to communications technology similar to other communities across the country – Consistent with nation-wide trends noted by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in recent studies, the lower the household income, education level and perceived value of communications technologies, the lower the adoption rate of such technologies. Seniors, women, non-caucasian and non-english speaking households also tended to have lower adoption rates. The inequities noted caused a significant divide among school age children and reduced technology access also results in reduced economic opportunity. Finding: Public libraries continue to play a key role in providing technology access throughout the geographic area – Twenty percent (20%) of respondents to the residential telephone survey, both with access at home and those without, indicated that they access the internet at a public library. Multnomah County libraries public access computers are in use 90+% of the time across all locations.

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Finding: Affordability is the single biggest factor across Communities of Interest concerning whether they are able to access the communications technologies that they need – One in four residents are not able to access the communications technologies that they need. The primary reason (60%) was affordability. Consistent with this, one in six cable subscribers indicate affordability as the reason that they choose a basic cable service package. Similarly, organizational communities indicated significant challenges in overcoming affordability issues related to access to communications technology for both their organization and their constituencies that they serve. Finding: The affordability of the network bandwidth provided on the Institutional Network (I-Net) has enabled schools, libraries and local governments to expand related network services – I-Net users indicated that use of the network must remain affordable to publically funded organizations as bandwidth capacity will need to expand to provide for the increasing demands from their constituencies. Finding: Community media producers and nonprofits identified PCM and Metro East as an affordable way to access multimedia communications technology – There is significant value to the affordable (no or low cost) assistance that PCM and MetroEast provide multiple communities of interest concerning access to video production and multimedia technology and distribution of content over the cable channels and the internet. This value further extends to the constituencies that these communities serve. Finding: Technology literacy and training opportunities and outreach must increase in order to increase communications technology adoption in Multnomah County – Such an increase would especially be helpful to older populations, immigrants and refugees and non-english speaking households. Finding: Many Communities of Interest expressed the need for a common understanding about communications technology literacy standards – Such standards would be helpful to have a common understanding when someone has achieved communications technology literacy. Such standards could also be set as basic requirements to meet in school, thus contributing to an increase in overall technology literacy in the community. Finding: There is a significant need to increase the capacity of residential internet access networks to provide higher connection speeds – One in six respondents to the public on-line survey indicated that they were not satisfied with their speed. These respondents indicated a wide range of current needs spanning up to 15 Gigabits per second (Gbps). Residents indicated that they did not have such speeds now because their provider doesn’t offer them or the speed they need is too expensive. Finding: The use of mobile devices and technology is high and on the rise in Multnomah County – Residents report a high ownership of mobile devices, with the highest being cell phones. It was indicated by many communities that mobile phones and

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their related data capabilities provide an affordable “access point” to communications technology for many in Multnomah County. Finding: It will take the continued and increased work of multiple communities to expand digital inclusion in Multnomah County – For example, local government must continue their critical role in fostering public access to the internet, such as through the public library as well as providing support for other organizations that provide public internet access. Educational entities need to continue to push for equity in access, including providing expanded capabilities at school and perhaps keeping schools open in the evening in order to provide an environment where students could continue to have access and continue to learn beyond the regular school day. Community groups and non-profits need to continue their work to promote digital inclusion, including providing access to technology and increasing the literacy skills of underserved populations. Additionally, the Community Access Capital Grant program should be continued and expanded because grantees indicate that the funding that they received has helped overcome factors that create inequities in access to and use of communications technology. ♦ Content

Populations within Multnomah County desire to access and use communications technology to send and receive content. Accordingly, it is important to understand how that content is created, distributed and accessed, as well as the roles that relevancy, localism and the interactive nature of the content play in the need for varying types of content. Finding: Lack of perceived relevancy is the second largest factor contributing to non-adoption of communications technology in Multnomah County – Just over 1 in four Multnomah County residents indicated that they do not have internet access at home. After cost, the next most frequent reason was don’t need or want. Relevancy, though, is defined differently by various populations, which means that specific strategies to boost relevant content for particular segments of the population are needed. For example, the development of relevant content in the Spanish language would be one way to address significantly low levels of internet adoption by Hispanic populations in Multnomah County. Additionally, relevant on-line content for older populations would also help increase their relatively low level of internet adoption. Finding: Local community media, local community programming and other local content is seen as highly important across Communities of Interest, especially by and for marginalized and underserved populations – Seventy-two percent (72%) of cable subscribers watch local community channels. It is notable that high viewers include Latinos, seniors, the disabled, and those with low income, showing the importance of local community media to those segments of the population. Additionally, non-profit organizations indicated the high value of community media to their

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organizations. Moreover, ethnic and cultural representative organizations indicated that funding, training and technology provided to diverse populations is facilitating development of diverse local content. Finding: Critical local emergency communications content is facilitated by the cable system and the institutional network – Local government and educational entities indicated that the current use of the cable and institutional networks were helping to supply emergency communications. This needs to continue to be maintained and updated, including providing capabilities to facilitate delivery of reverse 911 information. Finding: Access to content operates along a continuum of users and technologies – Because of the broad spectrum of levels of communications technology usage and adoption, content providers in Multnomah County must be prepared to provide everything from traditional and basic services and content to content in formats and over platforms that appeal to high-end, ground-breaking users. This enables the content provider to remain technologically relevant and facilitates meeting the needs and interests of all types of content recipients. Finding: Cloud computing will be increasingly utilized to access content in the future – By making software and applications a centralized resource, they can be provided more efficiently and accessed by those that can’t otherwise afford them on an individual basis. It will also expand the reach of variety of computing resources. Finding: Local community media channels need to be displayed and be able to be accessed on the cable system through the on-screen menu system – This will enable subscribers to easily access the channel programming information and the channels’ content. The majority of residents indicated that the digital on-screen menu guide along with their remote is the preferred way that they utilize to find out when a show is on and to be able to access it. Finding: PCM and MetroEast provide the facilities, training and assistance needed to successfully create content – The vast majority of individual community media producers are either “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with MetroEast’s and PCM’s operations, including the training and education and facilitation assistance that they have received. In order to continue to fulfill this critical content creation assistance role, PCM and MetroEast and other community media providers will need a significant investment in capital equipment and advanced technologies. Finding: Video is increasingly used by multiple communities to distribute content - There were numerous examples of the rapidly growing use of video. This includes school districts for both classroom and staff training use; city and County use for outreach and training; immigrant and refugee and multicultural communities for outreach, storytelling, community engagement and civic participation and the non-profit and small business community for both internal and constituent service operations.

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Finding: Capacity for local community access is needed across multiple distribution platforms – Community media producers, providers and viewers all indicated the importance of ensuring that distribution platforms for community media are able to advance with technology. This includes expanding on-line, streaming and on-demand distribution. In fact, cable based video on-demand viewership of local community programs has more than doubled in the past year. It also means the need for high definition distribution of local community programs and use of other emerging distribution platforms in the future. Finding: The interactive component is increasing for communications both on the internet and through television – The internet is increasingly being used for high capacity downloads and uploads and television is moving to integrate interactive applications. It will be important for local community media organizations to incorporate interactive television (iTV) applications as their audience migrates viewing preferences to iTV content. ♦ System Capacity

The exploration of system capacity focused on the capacity that communications systems in Multnomah County currently have as well as the system capacity that is necessary for the future in order to meet the needs of Multnomah County residents and organizations. This included a review of: emerging technologies; bandwidth capacity and management; universal coverage; connectivity; mobility; and transport systems. Finding: Four key emerging and evolving technologies are most likely to drive increased system capacity in the near and long term - This includes expanded video use in all of its forms, in-home services accessed remotely; evolution and rapid growth of applications for portable mobile devices; and collaborative, real-time, high capacity applications. Finding: Emerging technologies will positively impact several key network attributes – This includes ease of use; highly scalable bandwidth; centralized data storage and network reliability and redundancy. Finding: Communications networks need substantial increases in bandwidth capacity to handle the current and future applications demonstrated/documented by Multnomah County populations – This includes exponential expansion in bandwidth requirements for networks in general, as much as ten to 100 times what capacity is now, as well as specific growth for:

• Wired backhaul networks to support wireless network growth • A higher capacity institutional network for users whose data transport

requirements are nearly doubling every 18 months

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The predominant need is for symmetrical bandwidth versus the current dominant provision of asymmetrical bandwidth. Finding: Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) is the current and future infrastructure which is able to meet the full range of demonstrable needs of the community in terms of interactive, scalable, network capacity – Because of the exponential growth forecast by residential, business, non-profit and institutional users of the internet for multiple, interactive, basic and advanced services, the highest capacity technology, FTTP, will be needed to meet the needs demonstrated. Regarding residential fiber-to-the-home infrastructure (FTTH), currently this type of capacity is generally not available in Multnomah County, except in certain East County areas where Verizon provides FIOS. Finding: Local government should spur development of, or expansion of existing, high capacity communications systems in order to help pursue universal coverage – Many communities expressed a desire for local governments to be involved in efforts to expand and develop higher capacity communications systems at an affordable cost for their constituencies, including everything from developing robust public infrastructure to creating an environment that would be attractive to capital investors that would, in turn, stimulate more competition. Finding: The Institutional Network has provided the network connectivity that school districts and government locations need to facilitate both administrative operations and services to students, residents, businesses and customers – The current network provides reliable stable connectivity that will facilitate current public entity applications related to video , voice and data systems and access to the internet. It is further seen as a highly reliable transport system. I-Net users also note that key factors contributing to reliable stable transport include regular maintenance and upgrades to the network, and a stable cost for service. ♦ Economic Development

Communications technology capability and use have a significant impact on local, as well as national and global, economic development. Here it was important to explore: multimedia literacy skills; local workforce development; new IT business development; local economy and employment; and private sector contributions and partnerships. Finding: The current insufficient level of skills to use communications technology effectively, commensurate with the level of need, is problematic for job seekers, employees and employers – This insufficiency relates to lack of technology literacy and access, and must be addressed or it will impede the ability of the Multnomah County community to stay competitive.

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Finding: The Community Access Capital Grant program is helping to increase multimedia skills – The large majority of grantees indicated that the funds that they received have helped to develop multimedia skills for both clients and employees. Finding: Multiple communities are utilizing communications technologies to contribute to workforce development – This includes classroom instruction at all levels of education, distance learning for health care training, increased training and associated bicultural and bilingual capability development by those representing diverse populations and access to on-line resources for businesses. Finding: Communications technologies are very important to the operation of a home-based business – Residents that operate a home-based business indicate that communications technologies are very important. These residents constitute over 1 in 5 of all residents in Multnomah County with an internet connection. Finding: More than half of Multnomah County residents (57%) with internet access use the internet for activities related to work or employment services – This is slightly higher than the national average reported by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

♦ Civic/Community Engagement

Increased and enhanced civic and community engagement is an outgrowth of increased access and use of communications technology. In this category, civic participation, open government, community building and sustainability were explored as they pertained to communications technology. Finding: Communications technologies and systems are increasingly used by local government to engage the community and encourage civic participation – This includes everything from web-based services to video to assistive technologies such as closed captioning, language translation and texting. Finding: Local community media has contributed to community building in a variety of ways - For both Portland Community Media and MetroEast community engagement and community building is at the core of their missions. This includes extensive outreach, working with diverse organizations and individuals that utilize their equipment and facilities and facilitating the development of diverse community programming that is beneficial to both target audiences as well as the community at large.

♦ Regulation in the Public Interest

Governmental regulation, policy making and initiatives, especially at the local level, play key roles in various aspects of communications technologies, services and infrastructure.

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Findings here were centered on: the role of local government; the value of a local franchise; consumer protection and neighborhood aesthetics. Finding: The public believes that local government has a critical role in consumer protection – Residents in Multnomah County have significant consumer protection concerns and they want local government involved in addressing them. This includes everything from cable customer service standards to protections against the sale or sharing of personal information. Finding: Local government has a local planning role in order to meet the community’s communications technology needs - More than ¾ of public on-line survey respondents indicated that the local government should help plan for the local community’s communications technology future. Finding: The high value of the franchise is well documented by its impact on the multiple communities who receive, or are the beneficiaries of, the public benefits under the franchise – These communities want to ensure that local government continues to require provision of the I-Net, local community media organizations and channels and funding for the Community Access Capital Grant program. Finding: Certain cable franchise customer service standards are not being met – Cable subscribers indicated problems with service response, telephone response time and system outages. Finding: There is a level of concern about the visual impact of communications technology infrastructure – A little over 40% of on-line survey respondents indicated that they were concerned about the visual impact of communications technology infrastructure in local neighborhoods. Overall, the Community Communications Technology Needs Ascertainment that follows has determined a wealth of information that provides a solid foundation for developing initiatives and activities by the MHCRC and its partners concerning future communications technology planning to meet community needs, as well as demonstration of cable-related community needs and interests to be discussed and met as part of cable franchise renewal.

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SUMMARY OF KEY FINDINGS All the key findings included in the report that follows are listed below, organized by category and the elements within each category. ACCESS TO TECHNOLOGY Equity

Multnomah County residents face equity issues in access to communications technology similar to other communities across the country

Inequities in communications technology access causes a significant divide among school-aged children

Inequities in communications technology access reduce economic

opportunity Geographic Accessibility

The variances in access to technology within Multnomah County appear to be driven by the characteristics of the populations within any given area rather than the availability of communications technology within a geographic area

Communities increasingly access the internet in a wide range of places

Public libraries continue to play a key role in providing technology access throughout the geographic area

Affordability

Affordability is the single biggest factor across Communities of Interest concerning whether they are able to access the communications technologies that they need

Organizational communities indicated the significant challenges they face in

overcoming affordability issues related to access to communications technology for both their organization and the constituencies they serve

Schools, libraries and local governments have been able to expand services

because of the affordability of the network bandwidth provided by the Institutional Network

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Community media producers and nonprofits identified PCM and Metro East as an

affordable way to access multimedia communications technology

There is a continuing need for a low cost, basic cable service

There is a continuing need for free cable service drops for schools Adoption/Literacy

In order to increase communications technology adoption for the oldest segments of Multnomah County, technology literacy and training opportunities and outreach must increase

For younger generations, technology literacy is significantly less of an adoption

barrier than access to needed technology

Disparities in technology literacy are evident among teachers and staff in the various school districts

Many Communities of Interest expressed the need for a common understanding

about communications technology literacy standards

Nonprofits, educators, local governments and multicultural groups expressed the continuing and increasing need for community media organizations that focus on multimedia training, literacy and education

Capacity/Speed

Public agencies, schools and libraries continually need access to higher network capacity

Private Service providers are seeing increasing demands on their network capacity

There is a significant need to increase the capacity of residential internet access

networks to provide higher connection speeds Mobility

The use of mobile devices and technology is high and on the rise in Multnomah County

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Mobile phones and their related portable data capabilities provide an “access point” to communications technology for many in Multnomah County

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Digital Inclusion

Promoting digital inclusion requires an understanding of the gradations in the digital divide in Multnomah County and developing a variety of effective responses

Local government should continue its critical role in working to overcome inequities in access to communications technology

Educational entities need to expand their role in helping resolve equity issues

Community groups and non-profits also need to continue to work for digital

inclusion, but need increased support to fulfill that role

Community Access Capital Grantees indicate that the funding they received has helped resolve inequities

CONTENT Relevancy

Lack of perceived relevancy is the second largest factor contributing to non-adoption of communications technology in Multnomah County

Relevant content is a key issue to address significantly low levels of internet adoption by Hispanic populations in Multnomah County

Relevant online content needs to be enhanced for older populations in Multnomah County in order to increase internet adoption

Work to reduce barriers to content adoption is being conducted by non-profits, local governments and other agencies across Multnomah County. Representatives of these agencies indicated that the MHCRC could be a dissemination point for information as to how to access these programs

Localism

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Local community media, local community programming and other local content is seen as highly important across Communities of Interest, especially by and for marginalized and underserved populations

Local content needs to be on all platforms that people utilize, in consideration of the target audience, for it to be adequately accessible.

Providing funding, training and technology to diverse populations will facilitate development of more diverse local content

Critical local emergency communications content is facilitated by the cable system and the institutional network

PCM and MetroEast contribute greatly to the development of local content Access

Access to content operates along a continuum of users and technologies, with some still not having adopted the internet and others on the opposite end of the continuum seeking content through multiple technologies and high capacity systems

A broad amount of content is accessed on-line

Most Multnomah County residents still access video entertainment through television but online, web-based viewing is rapidly increasing

The types of activities that Multnomah County Communities access on the internet are largely consistent with national trends, except for watching TV programs and accessing health and medical information

Cloud computing will be increasingly utilized to access content in the future

Local community media channels need to be displayed and be able to be accessed on the cable system through the on-screen menu system in order for subscribers to easily access the channel, programming information and the channel’s content

Creation

PCM and MetroEast provide the facilities, training and assistance needed to successfully create content

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Multnomah County communities are creating a great amount of content, nearly

24/7 for a variety of different purposes

Emerging small, portable technologies are enhancing/increasing content creation in many, but not all cases

Community media providers will need significant investment in capital equipment and advanced technologies to successfully continue facilitation of content creation

Distribution

Multnomah County communities are delivering content in an ever increasing number of ways through an ever increasing number of technologies

Residents in Multnomah County are increasingly providing content online for others to access

Nonprofit organizations deliver content and services in a variety of ways to the constituencies they serve

Video is increasingly used by multiple communities to distribute content -

The local community access channels are primary outlets for distribution of content relevant to underserved communities

Multnomah County residents strongly support the need for and availability of local Community Access Channels on cable TV programming tiers

Capacity for local community access is needed across multiple distribution platforms

The points of channel origination for critical PEG programming distribution, including live origination that are needed by PEG providers, are those in place now as well as additional locations in the future

Institutional communities distribute content in a variety of increasingly web-based ways to best meet their mission, often within limited budgets

Interactivity

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The interactive component is increasing for communications that have largely been one way in the past

Local community media organizations will need to incorporate iTV applications as the audience migrates viewing preferences to iTV content

SYSTEM CAPACITY Emerging Technologies

Four key emerging and evolving technologies are most likely to drive increased system capacity in the near and long term: video; in-home services accessed via the internet; portable mobile devices; and collaborative, real-time online applications

Emerging technologies will positively impact several key network attributes: ease of use; scalable bandwidth; centralized data storage and applications; and network reliability

Healthcare and education sectors have and will significantly benefit from opportunities created by emerging technologies and technology convergence

Bandwidth Capacity and Management

Communications networks need substantial increases in bandwidth and capacity to handle current and future applications demonstrated/documented by Multnomah County populations

The predominant need is for symmetrical bandwidth versus the currently dominant provision of asymmetrical bandwidth

Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) is the current and future infrastructure which is able to meet the full range of demonstrable needs of the community in terms of interactive, scalable, network capacity

Failure to keep pace with necessary bandwidth expansion will negatively impact Multnomah County, especially in the areas of economic development, education and healthcare

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The management structure of the I-Net has positively contributed to the affordability and the reliability of network services for local schools, libraries and local governments

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Universal Coverage

State of the Art, Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) capacity is generally not available in Multnomah County, except in certain East county areas where Verizon has built its FIOS system

High speed data and internet services are not universally available to all businesses in Multnomah County

Local government should spur development of, or expansion of existing, high capacity communications systems in order to help pursue universal coverage

Connectivity

The Institutional Network has provided the network connectivity that school districts and government locations need to facilitate both administrative operations and services to students, residents, businesses and customers

The I-Net interconnect with the IRNE network has, and needs to continue to provide, valuable and cost effective network redundancy, access to critical public sites not on the I-Net and connectivity with ISPs for public agencies

The I-Net interconnection capacity is currently meeting public user needs, but increasing network use will subsequently drive demand for higher interconnection bandwidth and connections with other networks

Mobility

Growth in portable, mobile computing will continue to increase demand for ubiquitous, high capacity wireless networks

Public institutions anticipate significant increases in their mobility needs in the future

Transport Systems

The quality and reliability of the I-Net as a transport system is good

The useful life of the underlying physical I-Net infrastructure has a long term outlook as opposed to the life of the transport system electronics

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Key factors contributing to the I-Net being a stable transport system for public

stakeholder users include regular maintenance and upgrades to the network, continued high reliability and stable costs for service

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Multimedia Literacy Skills

A current insufficient level of skills to use communications technology effectively, commensurate with the level of need, is problematic for job seekers, employees and employers

Some resources are available within Multnomah County to gain a sufficient level of multimedia skills

The disparity in the level of multimedia literacy and technology in the business, nonprofit and institutional sectors may impede the ability of the Multnomah County community to stay competitive

The Community Access Capital Grant program is helping to increase multimedia skills

A higher level of promotion is needed concerning places to receive multimedia training

Local Workforce Development

Communications technology has significantly aided economic and workforce development locally

Conversely, predominant reliance on communications technologies for workforce development and employment activities can work to hinder certain populations unless they have the knowledge to utilize such technologies

Multiple communities ascertained are utilizing communications technologies to contribute to workforce development

Resources available under the franchises have contributed to Multnomah County’s economic development

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Continued efforts to push for digital inclusion will have a positive impact on

workforce and economic development New IT Business Development

Technology stimulates IT and creative sector entrepreneurialism Local Economy and Employment

Communications technology has a significant impact on the local economic development of certain sectors, especially those that must compete in a global economy

MHCRC Community Access Capital Grants have contributed to local employment

Communications technologies are very important to the operation of a home-based business

More than half of Multnomah County residents (57%) with internet access use the internet for activities related to work or employment services

Private Sector Contributions & Partnerships

Service providers and businesses indicate that they can contribute to greater economic development with a more fair, competitive communications technology marketplace

Partnerships with the private sector are seen as important to continue to advance the communications technology environment in Multnomah County –

CIVIC/COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Civic Participation

Communications technologies and systems are increasingly used by local government to engage the community and encourage civic participation

Local community media has contributed to community building in a variety of ways

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Existing public benefit resources available through the cable services franchises

have contributed to civic participation and community engagement

The majority of Community Access Capital Grant recipients’ projects stimulated civic participation

Greater use of assistive technologies is needed to enable broader civic participation

Multnomah County residents use their online connection to participate in advocacy issues

Open Government

Communications technology has and can play a role in supporting transparency in government

Community Building

Communications technology is a critical tool in building community relationships and partnerships

Local community media has contributed to community building in a variety of ways

Sustainability

The Community Access Capital Grant program helps build sustainable operations

REGULATION IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST Role of Local Government

As further detailed in the Consumer Protection subsection below, the public believes that local government has a critical role in consumer protection

Local government has a role in facilitating a competitive communications market

Local government has a role in facilitating access to information and other communications technology-related resources

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Local government has a local planning role in order to meet the community’s

communications technology needs Value of Local Franchise

The high value of the franchise is well documented by its impact on the multiple communities who receive, or are the beneficiaries of, the public benefits under the franchise

The franchise has provided critical funding for robust development of local community programming and the I-Net and future funding must be flexible to respond to changing technology and community needs over the next 10-15 years

Consumer Protection

The residents of Multnomah County have significant consumer protection concerns and want local government to be involved in addressing these concerns

Certain cable franchise customer service standards are not being met concerning service response and telephone response time

Cable subscribers report a significant number of system outages

Neighborhood Aesthetics

There is a level of concern about the visual impact of communications technology infrastructure

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STUDY PROCESS AND METHODOLOGY

Background and Process The Mt. Hood Cable Regulatory Commission (‘MHCRC’ or ‘Commission’), in mid-2008, began planning for an initiative to ascertain the local community’s current and future use of communications technology and community media. The MHCRC saw a need for such an initiative for a variety of reasons:

▸ Current local and regional planning processes do not consider communications infrastructure and services in planning efforts – even though the importance of communications technology is vital to the health and livability of the community;

▸ Many public agencies are spending resources on communications technology but

haven’t had the ability to collect local, relevant data on which to make decisions; ▸ The Comcast cable franchises expire in December 2010. The franchises provide

significant technology resources in Multnomah County communities - for schools and libraries data connectivity needs, community media centers, access television, and many others - and solid, local data will provide a basis for updated benefits in any renewed franchise agreements.

The geographic area for the ascertainment was the MHCRC’s service area, which includes the cities of Portland, Gresham, Fairview, Troutdale and Wood Village, and unincorporated Multnomah County (‘County’). In June 2009, the MHCRC selected CBG Communications, Inc. (‘CBG’) to assist the Commission in designing and conducting an ascertainment that would:

• Provide a thorough and realistic ascertainment of the community’s current and future communications technology needs and interests.

• Engage and reflect the broad and diverse voices of multiple communities. • Build greater awareness of existing cable-related public benefits and

communications technology opportunities. • Document and evaluate the impact of past cable-related public benefits (grants, I-

Net, community access, consumer protection, etc.) and, • Provide local data and related trending and data analysis.

Study Design This initial design process, led by a subcommittee of the MHCRC and MHCRC staff, resulted in the development of:

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♦ Key questions to be answered by the ascertainment; ♦ Categories for ascertainment; ♦ Elements to be addressed in each category; and ♦ Lead questions that would provide data under each category.

The design process also used a “mindmap” to gain consensus and an understanding of the relationship among and between the key questions, categories and elements.

KEY QUESTIONS

1) What is the level of communications technology in our communities today?

2) What are our communities' immediate (up to 3 years) communications technology needs?

3) What are our communities' future (3-15 years) communications technology needs?

4) What are the differences in communications technology needs and interests among our communities?

5) What is the role of local government in meeting the communications technology

related needs of our community?

6) What has been the impact within our communities of existing public benefit requirements of the cable communications franchise agreement?

The six key questions provided overarching guidance about what would be examined in each of the ascertainment categories.

The key questions were supported by six categories that reflect the critical areas of focus for the ascertainment. Categories

Access to Technology

Content

System Capacity

Economic Development

Civic/Community

Engagement

Regulation in the Public Interest

The topics to be covered in each category were established through associated elements and lead questions. For example, the Access to Technology category included the following elements: equity; geographic accessibility; affordability; adoption/literacy; capacity/speed; mobility; and digital inclusion. This upfront distillation of thoughts and ideas on what the Commission wanted to ascertain laid a solid framework for developing and implementing the process for gathering

information and data and engaging the community. In addition, CBG consulted with the Commission to pre-define the ascertainment “Communities of Interest (Communities)” and “Communications Technology.”

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Gathering Community Voices The “Gathering Community Voices” phase of the ascertainment focused primarily on implementing strategies and methods to engage the broad and diverse voices of the Communities in the local data collection. This phase also included building greater awareness of existing cable-related public benefits and communications technology opportunities and documenting and evaluating the impact of past cable-related public benefits (capital grants, the Institutional Network (I-Net), community access, consumer protection, franchise fees, etc.).

Communications Technology Ascertainment Phases Discovery and Inspiration November 2008 - May 2009 Choices and Priorities June – September 2009 Gathering Community Voices October-December 2009 Documenting the Community’s Needs and Interests January 2010 - March 2010

. Engagement Strategies The engagement effort was branded the YourVoice – Our Communications Technology initiative, and through a collaborative relationship with a local nonprofit organization, MHCRC staff developed a ‘visual center’ for the ascertainment to use in outreach and engagement throughout the initiative. This thematic representation was used to foster recognition of the initiative by anyone regardless of how or by whom they were approached to participate.

As part of an overall engagement strategy, the MHCRC utilized emerging technologies to engage the community. The visual center elements were utilized in the creation of a website which explained the project, encouraged participation and provided links, times and dates to efforts associated with the ascertainment.

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The primary focus of the general outreach was to bring people to the website to take the online survey. Once the website launched, MHCRC staff used some traditional outreach methods, such as news releases, press coverage and email lists. Additionally, the social networking site Twitter was used to provide quick links to the project and to engage participation. Public service announcements, encouraging participation, were developed in partnership with MetroEast Community Media and ran on the community access channels in addition to the website. Key message points used throughout the initiative included:

1. Empowerment – empowering people to determine the continuing evolution of communications technologies in the area; taking control and not allowing

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technology to “happen to us” but having influence on the direction of these technologies in the future and make them adapt to where we want to be.

2. Timing – the immediacy of the opportunity to participate and having “Your Voice” heard now; the opportunity would not come again soon (regarding cable communications, it may not come again for 15 years).

3. Impact – thinking about how much influence and impact that communications technologies have on our lives today and how we’ve had to adapt to them in many areas of our lives (laptops, video, internet, cell phones, portable and mobile devices, texting, social networks, etc.). To understand this, it was important for participants to first think about how different their lives are now from 15 years ago…then think about how they envision the communications technology environment over the next 15 years and the potential impacts.

Data Collection Strategies The major data collection activities included:

♦ Scientific Phone Survey A 116-question, random-sample telephone survey of area residents, including a sampling of cable subscribers, conducted by CBG Communications’ partner, Riley Research Associates (RRA), reached 672 members of the public. To encourage broad participation, RRA had Spanish language interviewers available and included non-landline (cell phone only) households. Data was assessed by age, gender, ethnicity, geographic location, home ownership and education based on US Census Bureau data in order to best reflect the demographics of the County as a whole.

♦ Online Individual (General Public) Survey

An online survey that engaged nearly 1,700 community participants in a deep analysis of their current and future communications technology needs. Respondents’ completed surveys were considered if they lived and/or worked in Multnomah County, or if they indicated they were a community media user of PCM or MetroEast who did not reside or work in Multnomah County. Certain key audiences such as youth, seniors, the disabled, technology users and home-based businesses, also answered some specific questions, along with the overall survey questions.

♦ Online Targeted Surveys

Targeted surveys for non-profits, community media users and those that have utilized the public benefits of the existing cable franchise (institutional network [I-Net] users and recipients of MHCRC grants). o Non-Profit Organizations: A broad spectrum of non-profit organizations

located in Multnomah County were asked to participate in the survey. A total of 38 completed surveys were received.

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o Media Producers: Individual survey respondents that identified as media

producers who have or currently utilize Portland Community Media (PCM) or MetroEast Community Media (MetroEast) were asked 84 community media-specific questions. A total of 219 responses were collected.

o I-Net Stakeholders: Public agencies in Multnomah County such as schools,

non-profits, libraries, and city and county government who utilize or qualify to use the Institutional Network, a fiber-based communications network, were asked to take a 68-question online survey directed at assessing current and future needs. Responses were received from 16 agencies.

o Grantees: Recipients of 36 “closed” grants, awarded between 2001 and 2008,

were asked to respond to a 29-question online survey designed to assess and document the impact of the Community Access Capital Grant program in certain areas. Responses were received from 19 of the 36 grant projects.

♦ Targeted Focus Groups

Focused discussions (6-20 participants per group) with:

o Portland Public School District’s Technology Innovators Cadre: A focused discussion with teachers, library/media specialists, technology coordinators and other school-based technology “innovators” from a variety of Portland public schools.

o Portland Public School District: A focused discussion with information

technology and curriculum staff from the district level. o Six School Districts and Multnomah Education Service District: A

focused discussion with school districts within Multnomah County and served by the Multnomah Education Service District, including Riverdale, Parkrose, Corbett, Gresham-Barlow, David Douglas, Centennial and MESD district staff.

o City of Portland: A focused discussion with Portland city bureau

representatives, such as the Bureau of Technology Services (BTS), the Water Bureau, Office of Neighborhood Involvement (ONI), the Police Bureau and the Office of Management and Finance.

o East County Cities: A focused discussion with representatives from

Gresham, Troutdale and Wood Village, and a follow-up interview with Fairview. Agencies represented included communications, executive administration, information technology and human resources.

o Multnomah County (including Library staff): A focused discussion with

County representatives, including the Patient Services Division of the

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Mental Health Department, the Library, the Department of Community Justice, the Department of Public Affairs, the Health Department, and the County Chair’s office.

o Youth: Youth, aged 14-24, were engaged in a focused discussion. o Community Media and Technology Training Organizations: A focused

discussion with nonprofit organizations whose mission includes media and technology training.

♦ Workshop for Non-Profit Organizations

A half-day workshop that engaged 32 non-profit organizations in a discussion about the role that communications technology plays concerning an organization’s capacity to fulfill its mission and serve its targeted constituency.

♦ Individual Interviews

18 face-to-face, hour-long interviews with community members who provided a diversity of perspective and experience from various sectors, including:

o Immigrant and Refugee o Latino o African American o Small Business o Large Business o Telecommunications and Internet Service Provider o Health o Creative Industries o State of Oregon – Telecommunications, Film and Video o Elected Official o Community Media o Civic Engagement

♦ Community Media Review

Because of its high level of importance in the communications technology area, especially as it applies to localism, a focus was also placed on ascertainment of local community access channel needs and interests. As indicated above, this included a survey of community media producers and users, a review of viewer’s perceptions concerning community media, a focused discussion with community media and technology training organizations and interviews with community media principals. Additionally, over the course of the study a review was made of the four major providers of local community channels within the MHCRC’s jurisdiction. These included Portland Community Media (PCM), MetroEast Community Media (MetroEast), Portland Public Schools (PPS) Channel 28, and Portland Community College Channel 27 (PCC-TV). A focus on these four entities was undertaken

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including tours of the facilities and equipment at PPS Channel 28, PCC-TV and MetroEast (CBG was significantly familiar with PCM’s physical facilities and equipment from an extensive prior review, as well as analysis of documentation received since that time). A wealth of information was also requested and reviewed regarding the following:

o Annual production statistics for the channels, including original programming, imported programming for the current, preceding and projected years (including annual reports where available).

o If they stream or provide on-demand access to some of their programming, then website usage statistics, including unique visitors and hits for on-demand, streaming and other relevant pages.

o A description of existing facilities and equipment that they utilize and any planned upgrades including budgetary projections.

o Staffing levels and descriptions. o Operating budgets and projections. o Program schedule for the channel, including any planned additions or

changes (or link to a pertinent web URL).

♦ Existing Data CBG reviewed a wealth of related local and national studies, technology plans, statistics, trends, projections and other research. This research is noted throughout the report.

Overall, the needs ascertainment, conducted by the MHCRC and the CBG team on current and future communications technology needs and interests, involved thousands of area residents and community stakeholders. It provided the Multnomah County communities with the opportunity to consider and reflect on the significant role of communications technology in their lives. From this, we have created a wealth of information for the community to consider as it moves forward with communications technology planning, policy creation and franchise renewal.

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FINDINGS

After analysis of all the data gathered and reflected in the Appendices, using the process described in the preceding section, the activities conducted in the YourVo!ce, Our Communications Technology, Community Communications Technology Needs Ascertainment have identified the following Key Findings. These Key Findings are grouped under the six (6) categories of ascertainment that were developed in order to obtain information that would provide a comprehensive picture of the communications technology environment in Multnomah County (County). Multiple elements were explored within each category. ACCESS TO TECHNOLOGY The ascertainment category pertaining to Access to Technology is characterized by seven interwoven elements:

• Equity • Geographic Accessibility • Affordability • Adoption/Literacy • Capacity/Speed • Mobility • Digital Inclusion

The findings related to each of these elements are discussed below. Equity Finding: Multnomah County residents face equity issues in access to communications technology similar to other communities across the country - It is instructive to consider equity issues by considering a profile of those who have not adopted internet access at home (28% of residents). An analysis of the data collected via a random telephone study in Multnomah County finds the characteristics of those who do not have internet access are similar to the trends being reported nationally. These characteristics and the equity issues they raise are discussed below.

Household income: Residents without internet access in Multnomah County are more likely to report that their household earns less than $30,000 annually. Forty-seven percent (47%) of these residents reported not having internet access at home versus just 5% of County residents that reported earning more than $60,000 annually. Clearly, affordability of communications technology is a key barrier to equity in the County. A recent study issued by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) similarly found that a wide gap exists in household incomes

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related to broadband adoption. In their nationwide study, 60% of households that earned less than $20,000 reported not having broadband versus those that earned more than $50,000 annually with just 13% reported that they had not adopted broadband.1 A recent study by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) also found that low household income has continued to be a significant barrier to broadband adoption.2 This is shown in Graph 1 below. Graph 1

Source – NTIA February, 2010 Perceived value: Multnomah County residents without internet access are less likely to consider “communications tools important” (31% saying they were “not at all” important). In other words, having internet access increases the perceived value of it. This creates a significant challenge in creating demand among those who have opted not to subscribe to internet services. If perceived value of the service is low, there is less likelihood that the service will be adopted. In the same recent FCC study, 19% of those without broadband nationwide indicated that the service had little relevance to them (relevance is discussed in the Content section later in this report). This fell behind cost as a main barrier to adoption

1 Horrigan, J. (released February 23, 2010). OBI Working Paper Series No. 1. “Broadband Adoption and Use in America.” Retrieved on February 23, 2010 from http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-296442A1.pdf. 2 NTIA (released February, 2010). Digital Nation: 21st Century America’s Progress Toward Universal Broadband Internet Access. Retrieved from http://www.ntia.doc.gov/reports/2010/NTIA_internet_use_report_Feb2010.pdf.

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(36% cited cost as the primary reason for lack of adoption) and digital literacy (reported by 22%). Multnomah County residents without internet access at home are also more likely to be “basic” cable only subscribers (43% v. 34% of subscribers overall). This finding suggests that there are those that are interested in being connected via only the most basic of communications technologies. The FCC has recently dubbed this group the “digitally distant.” (Horrigan, page 6).3 Education: The residents of Multnomah County with less education are also less likely to adopt the internet at home (17% of residents without high school degrees v. just 7% of those with high school or college degrees). Nationwide, 46% of adults with only a high school degree adopt broadband versus those with more than that level of education at 82% (Horrigan, page 3). Language and Ethnicity: In Multnomah County, Spanish speaking only households are twice as likely not to have adopted the internet at home (9% of the total without internet access at home versus 5% of the total with internet access at home). This finding was also found in the recent FCC study where Latinos who took the survey in Spanish reported a 20% broadband adoption rate versus Latinos who took the survey in English which reported a 65% broadband adoption rate (Horrigan, page 1). This points to the power of English as a Second Language initiatives in collapsing a significant barrier to internet adoption.

3 Horrigan, J. (released February 23, 2010). OBI Working Paper Series No. 1. “Broadband Adoption and Use in America.” Retrieved on February 23, 2010 from http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-296442A1.pdf. page 6.

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The NTIA study also demonstrates the disparities and changes over time related to race and broadband adoption. The data regarding Hispanic residents is illustrated below on the national level (NTIA, page 6).

Graph 2

Source – NTIA, February 2010 Age: Older residents in Multnomah County are less likely to have adopted internet services at home (39% of those without internet access at home are over 65 years of age). This is a nationwide trend reported by the Pew Internet and American Life project, as well as the FCC in its recent study. The FCC data found 52% of persons over 65 report not using the internet. When asked why, cost was a key issue, but also the content and services provided by the internet were not seen as important to them. Gender: Non-users of the internet in Multnomah County are more likely to be women (67% of the total without internet access at home). The Pew Internet and American Life project reported in January that for the first time the gender usage nationwide had closed with both sexes reporting a 74% internet adoption rate4. Overall, women report a 64% adoption rate in Multnomah County, or significantly behind the national average.

Finding: Inequities in communications technology access causes a significant divide among school-aged children – Typically there is a higher emphasis placed on communications technology in homes with children. For example, households with 4Rainie, Lee (January 5, 2010). Internet, broadband and cell phone statistics. Retrieved online from http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Internet-broadband-and-cell-phone-statistics.aspx.

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children in the home in Multnomah County are more likely to report having internet access than the population at large (74% v. 72%). Nationwide, the FCC found that parents with minor children at home were more likely to have broadband at home (75% versus 65%). Additionally, the majority of households with children have a working computer (87%). This means that there is an even greater disparity among school age children who arguably need access to communications technology to keep up with their peers, than there is in the population as a whole. Adding to this, other data indicates that the disparity may be even larger. Specifically, while not consistent with the data found in the residential telephone study, Portland Public Schools in a recent study they conducted found only 52% of students reported having internet access at home. Overall, the statistics indicate a clear need to pursue measures to heighten digital inclusion for school age children in Multnomah County (as further discussed in the Digital Inclusion subsection, later in this section). Nationwide, households with children, but without internet access are more likely to report “cost” as the key barrier to adoption and cite the monthly fee (Horrigan, page 7). In Multnomah County, when residents without internet service were queried about their interest in paying for desired communications technologies, such as the internet, residents were most likely to indicate a willingness to pay $10 to $20 a month, which is below the threshold for broadband access. Finding: Inequities in communications technology access reduce economic opportunity - Without internet access, Multnomah County residents are less likely to report operating a business out of their home (6% of those without internet access at home operate a home based business v. 22% of those with internet access at home). This suggests that online connectivity enhances entrepreneurial opportunity and activity in the County. The varied nature of the equity profile indicates that a number of companion efforts are needed to heighten access to communications technology. These strategic efforts are discussed in the Digital Inclusion subsection later in this section. Geographic Accessibility Finding: The variances in access to technology within Multnomah County appear to be driven by the characteristics of the populations within any given area rather than the availability of communications technology within a geographic area - Portland residents have a higher degree of internet access at home than East County residents – Overall, the residential telephone survey indicates that 72% of residents have internet access at home. 5 Portland respondents indicate access of 73% while East County respondents indicate 69% internet access at home. However, analysis indicates that this is not related to geographic availability of technology, but rather to the characteristics of populations who do not have internet access and the relative number and type of those populations residing in a given area. 5 See Attachment 2, P. 2-9 and 15.

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For example, as described in the Equity section above, the following demographic groups are generally the least likely to access the Internet:

• Spanish language / Hispanic ethnicity • Lower income • High school or less education • No children at home • Ages 65+ • Neither employed nor seeking employment

A review of survey respondent demographics then shows, for example, that the East County area has a larger percentage of some of these population groups, including Latinos and those with less than some college education. Finding: Communities increasingly access the internet in a wide range of places - While home is still the most popular place to access the internet, followed by work, the increasing prevalence of wireless 3G and 4G networks, Wi-Fi hotspots and free public access internet locations, has fostered an “access anywhere” environment.

Those residential telephone survey6 respondents who indicated they had home internet access, also indicated they accessed the internet at the following locations:

Chart 1 Locations for accessing the Internet Total Percentage Work/Employer 22 Public library/Other public 20 Home only 19 Mobile/Cell phone 11 Friend or family 9 Restaurant/Café 6 Wireless Broadband 5 School 4 Through someone else’s service 3 Miscellaneous 2

6 See Attachment 2, p. 2-44.

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Similarly, respondents to the public online survey7 also indicated many places (with home being number one) where they access the internet. Chart 2

Places Accessed Internet Last 30 Days % Home 87 Work 80 Everywhere, I have a portable internet device 25 A cafe, retail shop or other business with wireless internet services 23 Someone else's home in the community 21 Public Library 14 Non-profit organization location 8 School 7 Community Center 3 Cell phone/Device 1 Hotel/airport/traveling 1

Finding: Public libraries continue to play a key role in providing technology access throughout the geographic area - Twenty percent (20%) of respondents to the residential telephone survey8, both those with access at home and those without, indicated that they access the internet at a public library, comparable to those accessing the internet at work (22%). Multnomah County Library’s public access computers are in use 90+% of the time across all locations9 and additional patrons access the wireless internet services at each library with their own equipment. Further, they are pursuing implementation of patron check out of netbooks to take even greater advantage of this wireless service. Affordability Finding: Affordability is the single biggest factor across Communities of Interest concerning whether they are able to access the communications technologies that they need - One in four residents are not able to access communications technology they desire ( residential telephone survey10 ). The missing technology most often cited was high speed internet and the primary reason (60%) was affordability.

The focused discussions and other quantitative assessments also demonstrated that the primary barrier for residents in Multnomah County concerning access remains the affordability of communications technologies. For example, representatives from community media and ethnic and cultural organizations indicated a significant need to

7 See Attachment 3, p. 3-2. 8 See Attachment 2, p. 2-6 and 44. 9 See Attachment 1.A, p. 1.A-12. 10 See Attachment 2, p. 2-5 and 41.

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address economic issues and the affordability of communications technologies concerning the residents that they serve.11 From analysis of the data provided in the residential telephone and public online studies, it is clear that those with the financial means are more engaged with communications technologies and described them as important. Those with less financial means are less likely to describe them as important. However, when asked what communications technologies they would like access to, beyond high speed internet access as noted above, computers and mobile phones are both indicated as desirable. These respondents noted on average that between $10 and $20 per month is their affordability threshold for procuring technologies that they need.12 Finding: Organizational communities indicated the significant challenges they face in overcoming affordability issues related to access to communications technology for both their organization and the constituencies they serve - In focused discussions and targeted online surveys, organizational constituencies often described the barriers associated with the cost of communications technologies. For example, small business representatives talked about the cost of technology making it unavailable to portions of the small business community.13 Ethnic and cultural organizational representatives indicated that the cost of communications technology was a significant issue for them in order to stay current with their needs and provide necessary services to their constituencies.14 Community media organizations also indicated that cost can be a significant barrier to the acquisition and use of necessary technologies.15 Recipients of Community Access Capital Grants found that the funding they received helps make access to communications technologies affordable. Sixty-one (61%) of respondents to the Community Access Capital Grantee survey (Grantee survey)16 indicated that the grant they received contributed to overcoming affordability issues for their targeted community. Several grant recipients described the difference funding has made in closing the affordability gap for disadvantaged youth in Multnomah County. The grant funded projects created access to communications technologies that provided self-esteem building and workforce development skills in youth and allowing the community to see narrative stories of diverse youth in the community that would otherwise remain invisible.

Finding: Schools, libraries and local governments have been able to expand services because of the affordability of the network bandwidth provided by the Institutional Network - For example, Portland Public School District indicated that without the affordable connectivity available through the I-Net, it would have not been able to implement a Voice over IP system to 85 sites, providing in-classroom telephones to all

11 See Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-22, 39-40 and 51. 12 See Attachment 2, p. 2-5 and 2.A, p. 2.A-11 and 12 13 See Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-27, 35 and 37. 14 See Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-3 and 44. 15 See Attachment 1.A, p. 1.A-43, 49 and 50. 16 See Attachment 5, p. 5-2.

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teachers. PPS also indicated that its VoIP adoption has set the stage for future initiatives such as unified communications, web conferencing and other services (I-Net survey response17).

For Multnomah County Library, the I-Net provides the connectivity that allows the public libraries to provide critical and affordable (free) access points for residents who do not have their own technology or internet access. Overall, the I-Net users view the current I-Net fee structure as affordable. I-Net users also indicated that the fees must remain affordable to publicly funded organizations as bandwidth capacity is expanded to provide for increasing demands from their constituencies. Finding: Community media producers and nonprofits identified PCM and Metro East as an affordable way to access multimedia communications technology. Various Communities of Interest indicated the significant value of the affordable (no or low cost) assistance that PCM and MetroEast provide concerning access to video production and multimedia technology and distribution of content over the cable channels and the internet. These Communities of Interest also noted assistance in developing video that provides information on a wide range of topics important to residents, clients, nonprofits, parents and students and many other activities that otherwise are not affordable to these organizations. Finding: There is a continuing need for a low cost, basic cable service -Over half (57%) of cable subscribers in the residential telephone survey who consider their subscription to be a “Basic Package,” cited affordability as the reason for that level of service. Overall, this would equate to 1 in 6 cable subscribers.

Finding: There is a continuing need for free cable service drops for schools – Such connections continue to be utilized by schools for access to certain types of programs, particularly event programming. Based on current and projected budgetary situations, the use of the cable system by the schools would not be viable without the free service cost. For example, many would like to expand the use of the cable connections to individual classrooms, like they had before the recent cable system digital transition, but cannot afford the upgrades in televisions, and/or the cost of additional set-tops in order to facilitate this. Accordingly, programming is now either viewed or distributed from single, master drop locations, such as the library. Adoption/Literacy As discussed above, there are a number of factors that affect adoption of a variety of communications technologies. Affordability is a significant issue in this regard. Technology literacy is also another major factor, as is relevancy of the content accessed through such communications technology (relevancy is further discussed in the Content section). 17 See Attachment 5.A, p. 5.A-62.

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Finding: In order to increase communications technology adoption for the oldest segments of Multnomah County, technology literacy and training opportunities and outreach must increase – Diverse, older residents have not grown up with these technologies and are facing a significant literacy problem. Accordingly, the provision of literacy education and training as well as outreach to garner participation, is critical with older segments of the population. Finding: For younger generations, technology literacy is significantly less of an adoption barrier than access to needed technology - The younger generations, even in immigrant and refugee homes and other populations that struggle for access, are learning the use of communications technologies at school, through friends, web-based tutorials, at public access internet locations even if they don’t have the internet at home and at other places. For these populations, the ability to gain access to the technology is of greater significance than learning how to use them once they are available. Finding: Disparities in technology literacy are evident among teachers and staff in the various school districts - A significant disparity in technology literacy, for example, is evident within school districts and within schools. It was noted in various focus groups18 that sometimes technology goes unused because instructors are unfamiliar with the use of the technology, or it is not used as effectively as it could be. In other cases, technically savvy students are enlisted to assist teachers, as well as other students. Then again, some younger teachers come in expecting the use of a wide range of technologies and would be able to use such technologies, but they are not available within a particular school or school district. Finding: Many Communities of Interest expressed the need for a common understanding about communications technology literacy standards - One thing that was mentioned across many communities was the need for a common understanding of when someone has achieved “communications technology literacy”. Of course this would vary based on the technology that needs to be utilized. Others mentioned the need for standards that, for example, students should be required to meet in school, related to overall technology literacy. Finding: Nonprofits, educators, local governments and multicultural groups expressed the continuing and increasing need for community media organizations that focus on multimedia training, literacy and education - As further discussed below, the support for PCM and MetroEast in the franchise significantly contributed to the abilities of the public and organizations to be trained on, and access, technology, including many sectors that PCM and MetroEast partner with (nonprofits, multicultural organizations, educational entities, local government, etc.). Overall, it is clear that while multiple communities are pushing for higher levels of knowledge and skills and more support for training, there is a significant distance to go for all of the Communities of Interest to reach high levels throughout. As many 18 See Attachment 1.A, p. 1.A-20 and 21, 1.A-28 and 1.A-33.

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ascertainment participants noted, to get there will take a significant amount of resources: money, people, time and available technology. Capacity/Speed Finding: Public agencies, schools and libraries continually need access to higher network capacity – I-Net users indicate that they need, within the next 3 years, to increase their bandwidth because their needs are “doubling every 18 months” or they’re experiencing a “continued exponential growth in the use of bandwidth.”19 Finding: Private Service providers are seeing increasing demands on their network capacity - Interviews with service providers echo the above by indicating that demands have “tripled in the last 16 months” and the forecast is for even greater growth.20 Access to necessary network capacity and individual connection speeds were issues that were raised continually by multiple Communities of Interest. Finding: There is a significant need to increase the capacity of residential internet access networks to provide higher connection speeds – One in six respondents to the public online survey21 indicated that they were not satisfied with their speed. It is notable also that such satisfaction tends to decrease with age. The dissatisfied respondents indicated a wide range of current needs spanning from higher than the 256 Kbps DSL circuit they have now to multi-megabit speeds to 15 Gbps. Public online survey respondents indicated a variety of reasons why they didn’t have the speed they needed now (their provider doesn’t offer it or the speed they need is offered but it’s too expensive, being the most predominant). Overall, it is evident that the need for increases in speed and bandwidth are continual, in that as entities attain a higher level, they quickly add applications that utilize available bandwidth and create a need to again add to their speed of connection. Mobility Finding: The use of mobile devices and technology is high and on the rise in Multnomah County – Analysis of all the data gathered indicates an increasing need for mobility concerning access to communications technology. Public online survey respondents report a high ownership of mobile devices, with the highest being cell phones (on average more than one).22 Others include laptops, wireless home internet networks and other wireless devices such as a Blackberry. The chart below shows these in comparison with additional technologies that are owned.

19 See Attachment 5.A, p. 5.A-76. 20 See Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-29. 21 See Attachment 3, p. 3-2 and 3.B, p. -7 through 15. 22 See Attachment 3, p. 3-1.

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Chart 3

Q14

Mean Number of Communication Technologies Owned

Total

Public

Media Producers

A Cell phones 1.27 1.29 1.15 C Desktop computer(s) 1.19 1.18 1.23 D Laptop computer(s) 1.02 1.03 0.94 I Other technologies 0.88 0.94 0.54 E Wireless home Internet network (router) 0.85 0.86 0.78 H Standalone digital video camera(s) 0.66 0.65 0.75 B Other wireless devices (PDA/iPhone,

Blackberry etc.) 0.61 0.62 0.56

G Home server (Connects multiple PCS to central comp)

0.30 0.31 0.27

F Netbook(s) 0.13 0.13 0.10 Finding: Mobile phones and their related portable data capabilities provide an “access point” to communications technology for many in Multnomah County - For example, interviewees representing small businesses, non-profits, immigrant and refugee and multicultural communities indicated that the cell phone and its portable data capabilities constitute the most affordable, ubiquitous access device in the world. The cell phone also, because of its relative user-friendliness, begins to meet the criteria for near universal adoption, because it provides an access device that’s “as easy to use as a standard telephone.” A review of responses to both the residential telephone and the public online survey indicates, though, that the most frequent users of mobile technologies and wireless communications are more likely to be in the age range of 25-44 (42% of the population in the Multnomah County as of the 2000 US Census) and to have a higher income. This means that affordability is playing a key role in whether Multnomah County residents are able to access more advanced types of mobile technology. More information on Mobility can be found in the subsection in the System Capacity section of the Report. Digital Inclusion The difference between those with no or very limited access to communications technology and those in the higher access categories is often described as the “digital divide”. Attempting to create an environment to counteract the divide is often known as “digital inclusion”. Finding: Promoting digital inclusion requires an understanding of the gradations in the digital divide in Multnomah County and developing a variety of effective responses - A recent FCC study finds when it comes to overcoming barriers to Internet adoption and broadband and creating an environment of digital inclusion, the data suggests that the non-adopter (35% of the general population) has one of four

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philosophical dispositions about information and access to communications technologies (ICTs) (Horrigan, pages 6-7). Arguably, all four groups would need to be addressed as part of any digital inclusion effort in Multnomah County. The first group, which the FCC says make up 10% of the general population are the digitally distant. These typically include population segments like those over 65 who report a lack of internet relevance or digital literacy. This group often reports “not needing” or “not wanting” the internet. The second group is the digital hopefuls. This group makes up 8% of the general population that is not online in the United States. This group would be online if they had the adequate financial resources, and consequently cite cost as the primary barrier to adoption. They also typically report some digital literacy issues. The third group is called the digitally uncomfortable and make up 7% of the general population. This group does not have internet access, even though they have the means to pay for computers and internet. This group reports a variety of barriers—primarily lack of availability and low relevant content. These issues also lead to other adoption barriers such as low digital literacy. The FCC also finds a fourth group called near converts that make up 10% of the population. They have similar characteristics to those that have already adopted broadband. More than half are still on dial-up (roughly 60% of the group) and cite cost as the key barrier to broadband adoption. Multiple Communities discussed ways in which they are continuing to work to resolve equity issues discussed earlier in this report and promote digital inclusion. Finding: Local government should continue its critical role in working to overcome inequities in access to communications technology – Multiple communities indicated the need for local government to continue its current central role in providing public access to communications technology and the internet, such as through the Public Library. Without this type of access, many in the community would have no, or much more limited, access. Companion actions needed include:

• Enhancements to backbone systems that support organizations like the Public Library who indicate, “Given the role of the library in providing access to technology and the Internet to underserved populations in the County, we are heavily reliant on the I-Net and likely not able to easily afford to continue to serve our users or to accommodate the continued expansion of digital services without it.”23

23 See Attachment 5.A, p. 5.A-79.

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• Providing more public access by expanding publicly-sponsored wireless

infrastructure.

Finding: Educational entities need to expand their role in helping resolve equity issues – For example, School District representatives in focus groups indicated that they continue to push for equity in access, and can provide access to high speed internet while students are at school (although there are limitations in available equipment). However, many students, especially in lower socioeconomic households do not have such access at home. These students then utilize public libraries or friends, relatives or neighbors that do have access. Portland Public Schools representatives indicated that there should be a push to keep schools open into the evening in order to provide an environment where students could continue to have access and continue learning beyond the regular school day. Students, district staff and teachers also expressed the desire to allow students to bring personal computers and other devices to use for educational purposes at school but the inability of schools to provide equitable access for those students without the technology creates a barrier for classroom integration of such technology. Finding: Community groups and non-profits also need to continue to work for digital inclusion, but need increased support to fulfill that role – For example, representatives of immigrant and refugee organizations talked about the value of public access at government locations like libraries. They also indicated, though, that the assistance of governmental entities in supporting the public access that their organization provides is very valuable, because the populations that they serve felt more comfortable in an environment that was more focused on facilitating their culture.24 These groups also need to have greater support to increase literacy skills in underserved populations to use equipment and the internet effectively for essential services, such as education, employment, civic engagement, cultural participation and healthcare. Additional support is needed for immigrant and refugee and multicultural organizations to enhance the provision of communications technology access that would not only include the technology, but support for staff and increased bandwidth.

24 See Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-40.

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Finding: Community Access Capital Grantees indicate that the funding they received has helped resolve inequities - Specifically, the majority of grantee survey respondents indicated that their grant impacted “equity in access and use of technology” (66.7%), followed by “affordability of technology” (61.1%) and then “geographical accessibility to technology” (55.6%).25 This is detailed in the graph below for the community that they served. Percentage of Community Access Capital Grants that Positively Impacted Various Access to Technology Elements (Graph 3)


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Also, pertaining to increasing digital inclusion, the wide majority of Community Access Capital Grant recipients described the grant as being “very important” in helping the community they serve access technology (68%) and “very important” in helping their organization access technology (79%). Importance of Community Access Capital Grants in Increasing Access to Technology (Graph 4)

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CONTENT When ascertaining communications technology needs of the community, and various Communities of Interest within the broader community, it is important to look at why various populations desire to access and use technology. This section explores issues related to the content created, delivered and accessed through communications technologies. The elements that are reviewed as part of this exploration of content include:

• Relevancy • Localism • Access • Creation • Distribution • Interactivity

The findings related to each of these elements are discussed below. Relevancy Finding: Lack of perceived relevancy is the second largest factor contributing to non-adoption of communications technology in Multnomah County - Twenty-eight percent (28%) of Multnomah County residents indicated, that they did not have internet access at home. While the cost remained the primary reason for not having internet access (54%), the next most frequent reason was “don’t need or want.” This indicates that many who don’t have internet access perceive it as not relevant to them. As described further below, though, relevancy is defined differently by various populations, which in turn requires specific strategies to boost relevant content for particular segments of the population. Finding: Relevant content is a key issue to address significantly low levels of internet adoption by Hispanic populations in Multnomah County – The Hispanic population exhibits significantly more households without internet access (41%) than the Multnomah County population as a whole (28%). Hispanic households where Spanish is the primary language constitute an even larger number of households without internet access (52% v. 27% of English-speaking households).26 This is a larger issue, percentage-wise, for residents in East County that are more likely to live in a Spanish-speaking household than their Portland neighbors.27 This high lack of home internet access for Latinos in Multnomah County is also higher than that shown in nationwide data provided by Pew in 2008 that reports 36% of Latinos had not adopted the internet. The graph below illustrates how Latino adoption differs from White and African American adoption of the internet at home in the United States. 26 See Attachment 2.A, p. 2.A-6. 27 See Attachment 2.A, p. 2.A-1.

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Latino Internet Adoption as Compared to White and African American Internet Adoption (Graph 5)

When considering driving factors for internet adoption, the key issues here are lack of relevant content, education and proficiency with the English language. Because internet content continues to be dominated by the English language and culture, creating relevant content for Spanish-speaking households, especially local content, would help overcome a current clear barrier to adoption. Organizations which provide services to the Spanish language community indicated that more educational opportunities needed to be offered in their native language so that more Latinos in the area would desire to access and effectively use the internet.28 Finding: Relevant online content needs to be enhanced for older populations in Multnomah County in order to increase internet adoption - A wide disparity also exists in internet adoption among those over 65 years of age. In Multnomah County, 39% of people without internet were residents over the age of 65. According to Pew, this number is also high nationwide at 38%. Pew finds that with the elderly population the key issues with non-adoption of the internet are “demand side”, meaning that the over 65 age group reports lacking a compelling reason to adopt the internet at home. While cost was still the biggest reason for not accessing the internet, demand side issues were also prevalent for seniors in Multnomah County. Specifically, older populations without internet service were likely to say they “don’t need” or “don’t want” the internet at home. Demand side equity issues are more likely to be resolved when the value of internet based-content is made relevant to the disconnected population. Additionally, as more of one’s peers are connected, the greater value one finds in joining the group, as was the 28 See Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-47.

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case historically with the telephone’s deployment. In other words, as senior-oriented groups in Multnomah County make headway in addressing elderly internet use, it will serve to drive a cohort of users online. Finding: Work to reduce barriers to content adoption is being conducted by non-profits, local governments and other agencies across Multnomah County. Representatives of these agencies indicated that the MHCRC could be a dissemination point for information as to how to access these programs - Study participants asked the MHCRC to consider a wide variety of means to support access to technology and content, as well as content development so that it becomes more meaningful to their specific audience. For example, those without internet access and hardware in the Community Access Capital Grant recipient community and the non-profit community asked the MHCRC to become a central information point about hardware and literacy programs that would provide free computers, low-cost multimedia and computer training, and training in multiple languages. This training was perceived as being valuable to the creation of content that would be of high, relevant value and that would share the stories of diversity within the Multnomah County population. Localism Finding: Local community media, local community programming and other local content is seen as highly important across Communities of Interest, especially by and for marginalized and underserved populations - Specifically, regarding residential viewership of local community channels, 72% (of cable subscribers) watch local community channels. Of those, 16% watch local community channels daily and 19% watch weekly. Just 28% never watch the channels.29 This compares very favorably with results of local community channel viewing studies in other locations. Viewership is similar among public online survey respondents with a 74% total viewership.30 Notable is the attraction that local programming has for various sectors of the residential community. Specifically, according to the public online survey, the most likely to have watched local community channels are the unemployed, those with a disability, seniors and those with an income under $30,000. Multnomah County residents believe it is important for local community programming to be available to all area residents, with 35% considering it very important, 27% saying important and 21% saying somewhat important. Only 13% indicated that local community programming is not at all important.31 Importance levels are even slightly higher for respondents to the public online survey. Again, notable are the community segments that are most likely to think the value of community media to all residents is very important. This includes media producers as one would anticipate, but also Latinos, the unemployed, retired, those with an income less than $30,000 and the disabled. Non-

29 See Attachment 2, p. 2-7. 30 See Attachment 3, p. 3-8. 31 See Attachment 2, p. 2-7.

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profit organizations in both a workshop and survey responses also indicated the high importance of community media to their organizations.32 Finding: Local content needs to be on all platforms that people utilize, in consideration of the target audience, for it to be adequately accessible. – One interesting paradigm indentified in the ascertainment is that communities currently seek local content in the same ways that they seek nonlocal content. Essentially, people use the same devices to access local content and content from around the world. Accordingly, people access local content through the internet, cell phones, television and other means. This has two significant impacts. First, it means local content must use platforms that the target audience utilizes. For example, local content aimed at youth may be best provided over a social network, by texting, and as the youth representatives in the focus group indicated, traditional means such as radio.33 Second, local content, even if it is highly relevant, is competing with global content for a recipient’s attention. Accordingly, it has to be highly promoted, again in consideration of the target audience. Finding: Providing funding, training and technology to diverse populations will facilitate development of more diverse local content - For example, the Center for Intercultural Organizing indicated that with increased equipment, training, staff and associated funding of these, its diverse cultural members would provide more culturally specific programming for local access channels and other outlets. Programming development opportunities, for example, like that which enabled a member of the Somali community to develop local Somali-oriented community content, could be expanded on and increased for a number of diverse communities, but would take training, staff and equipment to support more diverse community involvement and interest.34

Similar to this, community media and technology trainers indicated the important role of PCM, MetroEast and other community media organizations in overcoming these barriers by putting communications technologies in the hands of those that could not otherwise afford it. With these tools, the content created brings to life the diversity of people in the local community.

Finding: Critical local emergency communications content is facilitated by the cable system and the institutional network – Local government and educational entities indicated that current use of the cable and institutional networks for supplying emergency communications (such as backbone communications for public safety information, distribution of emergency, weather related and school closing information on cable channels, etc.) needs to continue to be maintained and updated.

The biggest growth area that entities such as local governments and school districts see related to local emergency communications, is the need for a significant amount of “reverse 911” information sent out to the populous at large. This need was also echoed through discussions with immigrant and refugee organizations and others that further

32 See Attachments 1, p. 1-34 and 35; Attachment 5.A, p. 5.A-38. 33 See Attachment 1.A, p. 1.A-26, 28, 29, 38 and 39. 34 See Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-41.

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provide such information to their constituencies, Most indicated that “reverse 911” information needed to utilize multiplatform delivery (i.e., by phone, text, broadcast e-mail, cable channel distribution, emergency alert systems, AM radio and others). This means that future development of cable television distribution systems and the I-Net should incorporate capabilities to help facilitate delivery of reverse 911 information. Finding: PCM and MetroEast contribute greatly to the development of local content – Through their facilitation of local community media producers, as well as distribution of local programming produced in other venues and development of staff produced programming, PCM and MetroEast foster a significant amount of local programming for the Multnomah County community. For example, MetroEast averages well over 6,800 hours of total programming distributed through its local channels. This equates to over 4,000 individual programs, with approximately 2/3rds of those locally generated and the other 1/3 imported from other areas but locally distributed. PCM reports over 4,000 hours of programming per channel with more than half of the programming locally produced by PCM staff or independent producers. Access Finding: Access to content operates along a continuum of users and technologies, with some still not having adopted the internet and others on the opposite end of the continuum seeking content through multiple technologies and high capacity systems - Multnomah County communities need to prepare to address all levels of usage and adoption. One can see the different demands around how content is accessed when respondents were asked what communications technology they had an interest in receiving. For example, residents that had internet access expressed a strong desire for higher speeds and that such speeds would be used for greater access to content. Additionally, when asked what communications technologies residents thought were important, but they did not have, the most frequent request was for high speed internet (8% of respondents); in other words again asking for more robust connections. Both the residential telephone and public online surveys indicate that many area residents are highly engaged with accessing content and using the internet for key activities like education, training and working from home. They strongly desire a robust and reliable network. This same need was also discovered in focused discussions and interviews with area businesses, youth, non-profits and community media and technology trainers.

However, the second most often mentioned communications technology that one didn’t have, but needed was a basic cable subscription. This was mentioned by 5% of the population. In other words, one group desirous of higher-speed internet access and one group desirous of very basic cable service, each desiring to access content but representing two ends of the spectrum.

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This concept was articulated by Chris Anderson in an article in Wired magazine in 200435 as the “Long Tail” theory. Graph 6

While primarily a media economics theory, the concept has been embraced because of its explanatory power in understanding the widespread nature and diversity of the current communications technology environment. As a result of the long tail, those that provide content must be prepared to operate at both ends of the spectrum of communications technology users —providing the traditional and basic services and content to some while also providing content that appeals to high end, ground-breaking users. The argument is that in order for a content provider to remain technologically relevant, it must provide support and facilitate meeting the needs and interests of all types of content recipients. The end result is a broad-based, technology healthy community. During focused discussions with educators and agencies that serve the non-profit community, evidence of the long tail theory surfaced. For example, one non-profit that provides support to children with parents in prison described the dilemma of trying to create e-mail access so that prisoners, who are not allowed to make phone calls, can remain in touch with their children using online resources. However, both the prisoner and the child, who is often in the foster care system, do not have access to computers or the internet. On the other end of the long tail, another non-profit described the need to establish a ubiquitous, wireless public infrastructure for area residents so that they could launch robust online applications such as the ability to move video using personal digital assistants. Additionally, educators often described the differences in how well individual schools were equipped to engage the diversity of students in each of the districts and their varying levels of access to content. Finding: A broad amount of content is accessed on-line - Information ascertained from the communities, indicates that a wide amount of content in many forms (written text,

35 Chris Anderson would later publish a book in 2006 called, The Long Tail: Why the future of business is selling less for more. New York: Hyperion.

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audio, video, other multimedia and graphics, etc.) for a variety of purposes (entertainment, news and information, education, medical information, business related purposes, etc.) is being accessed in an on-line fashion. As an example, the public online survey indicates that respondents, in high numbers, access the internet for a wide range of activities36, including:

Chart 4

Use % Respondents indicating Yes

Keep in touch with family/friends 96 Get local news 93 Visit local government website 87 Research retail prices/product information 85 Online banking 83 Share photos 80 Retrieve local business information 79 Do activities for work 79 Retrieve health/medical Information 75 Purchase goods/services 74 Use a social networking site 70

This means that access to the internet is critical. In fact, across all communities, each believed that sufficient access to the internet (sufficient was defined differently by different communities) was critical for its constituencies. Finding: Most Multnomah County residents still access video entertainment through television but online, web-based viewing is rapidly increasing - Fifty-six percent (56%) of public on-line survey respondents indicated being cable service subscribers with an additional 14% subscribing to a satellite television service, equating to 8 out of 10 of the respondents. The primary way that they watch TV is also indicated as cable television (56% indicating cable TV with 40% indicating via the internet). Many respondents, though, further indicated multiple ways of watching television.37 In fact, 62% of public online survey respondents have watched television or other videos over the internet, even if it is not their primary method of TV viewing.38 One service provider believes that the increase in internet-based video distribution will make broadcast television obsolete within a 15 year timeframe. 39 The residential telephone survey, though, which incorporates a significant portion of respondents that are currently not on-line, shows a lower percent of internet video viewership. This is described below in the context of other internet activities.

36 See Attachment 3, p. 3-19 and 20. 37 See Attachment 3, p. 3-25. 38 See Attachment 3, p. 3-20. 39 See Attachment 1.B., p. 1.B-31.

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Finding: The types of activities that Multnomah County Communities access on the internet are largely consistent with national trends, except for watching TV programs and accessing health and medical information - The Pew Internet and American Life Project tracks the type of activity internet users engaged in while online in the last 30 days. The findings in the chart below illustrate the types of internet applications engaged in by Multnomah County residents(residential telephone survey40) in comparison with recent Pew findings nationally.41 Chart 5

Online Activity Multnomah County

National Data Difference

Research, training or educational purposes

63% 57% +6%

Find health or medical information

63% 83% -20%

Visit a local, state or federal government website.

59% 59% Same

Do any activities for work or employment purposes

57% 51% +6%

Use an online social media

44% 47% -3%

Watch video on the internet

33% 62% -29%

Participate in advocacy issues

30% 24%42 +6%

Seek local information on emergencies or disasters

25% -- --

Support a home based business

22% -- --

Upload a video to a video-sharing site

20% 22% -2%

The comparison shows some significant variance in two categories – finding health and medical information and watching video on the internet. The percentages for Multnomah County residents in both of these cases, though, were higher in the online survey and closer to the national Pew data.43

40 See Attachment 2, p. 2-6. 41 Pew Internet and American Life Project. “Internet, broadband and cell phone statistics.” Retrieved online January 4, 2009 from www.pewinternet.org. 42 NTEN’s benchmarking studies estimate 24% of Americans have engaged in online advocacy. Retrieved online from http://www.nten.org/research/2009-enonprofit-benchmarks-study. 43 See Attachment 3, p. 3-19 and 20.

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Finding: Cloud computing will be increasingly utilized to access content in the future – Cloud computing is essentially making software and applications a centralized resource, housed with a service rather than on an individual PC or server location. Telecommunications and internet service providers, business representatives, and institutional representatives saw centralization of applications as a way to boost efficiency, provide applications to those that couldn’t otherwise afford them individually, and expand the reach of given resources.44 While cloud computing is a phenomenon that reaches well beyond Multnomah County, the school district focus group indicated that centralization of certain regional applications45 could be beneficial, much like access to the internet is centralized now for many school districts through MESD. The school districts suggested developing regional technology groups to focus on developing or fostering such centralized applications.

Similar to this, government representatives talked about aggregation of data, that is currently warehoused in different locations within and among local government agencies, so that the data could be provided to residents who could then develop applications for the use of such data. GIS databases were given as a good example of the type of data that could be aggregated and provided.46 Participants in the Youth focus group also talked about the utility and cost-effectiveness of cloud computing and the opportunities afforded by real-time collaboration tools like GoogleWave.47 Finding: Local community media channels need to be displayed and be able to be accessed on the cable system through the on-screen menu system in order for subscribers to easily access the channel, programming information and the channel’s content - A majority of residents indicated that they use the digital on-screen menu guide with their remote to find out when a show is on and to access it.48 It was notable that a portion of those that used both the digital on-screen menu guide and local newspaper listings, were more likely than those who did not use both methods, to be aware of the local community channels, appearing to indicate that they must seek information about community media programming in other venues than the on-screen menu guide.49 Creation Finding: PCM and MetroEast provide the facilities, training and assistance needed to successfully create content - The vast majority of individual community producers are either very satisfied or satisfied with both MetroEast’s (81%) and PCM’s (76%) operations. Community producers also believe that the training and education they’ve

44 See Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-30. 45 See Attachment 1, p. 1-14. 46 See Attachment 1, p. 1-5 47 See Attachment 1.A, p. 1.A-39. 48 See Attachment 2, p. 2-31 49 See Attachment 2, p. 2-4.

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received on development of community media from PCM and MetroEast have met their needs and expectations (88%). They’ve also found the assistance to be very helpful or helpful (MetroEast 92%; PCM 79%), and more than three-quarters indicate that it’s helpful in other ways beyond the focus on a specific production, including being helpful in seeking or gaining employment (27%).50 Beyond this, representatives from non-profits, school districts, immigrant and refugee organizations, multicultural organizations and local governments reinforced the significant value of PCM’s and MetroEast’s assistance in creating and developing video productions and multimedia. This assistance has resulted in productions covering a wide range of topics that are of critical importance to these organizations and their diverse constituencies.51 The list of organizations that use and partner with PCM and MetroEast is both lengthy and diverse. In PCM’s case this includes other media organizations like the Northwest Film Center, ethnic and cultural organizations like the Center for Intercultural Organizing and the Somali Community Services Coalition, youth-oriented organizations such as Portland Youth Builders and the Youth Employment Institute, arts organizations, Portland Public Schools, government agencies and a host of other entities. MetroEast is similar, including relationships with a number of east county school districts, municipalities, ethnic and cultural organizations and other community media entities.

Finding: Multnomah County communities are creating a great amount of content, nearly 24/7 for a variety of different purposes – From local governments to educators, to nonprofits, to representatives of diverse communities, to businesses, there is universally a push to create and distribute more and more content. This is often for outreach purposes to their clients and constituencies, as well as to provide services. It can also be for creative or artistic aspects. It can be for telemedicine purposes, for civic engagement and activism, for distance learning, for social networking, for creating hyper local news, and for entertainment. PCM and MetroEast provide a wide range of program types including a significant number of programs and program hours in categories such as arts and entertainment, community information, education, ethnic, spiritual and inspirational, municipal and government, public affairs, sports and a variety of other subject areas. For MetroEast the current highest amount of programming is centered on the inspiration and community informational categories, while PCM finds similar high levels in these categories and an even higher level in municipal and government-oriented programming. All in all, it is evident that PCM and MetroEast act as true community media centers focusing on a significant amount of public, educational and governmental (PEG) programming for the local community.

50 See Attachment 4, p. 4-9 to 11. 51 See Attachment 1, generally

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An interesting note by all Communities of Interest was that for effective communications with unmistakable intent, face-to-face, in-person communications was still one of the best ways. Finding: Emerging small, portable technologies are enhancing/increasing content creation in many, but not all cases – Smaller, portable, more affordable technologies and applications are continuing to emerge that will enable communities to more readily create and distribute content. This includes cell phone video cameras, Smartphones, “flip” cameras and other similar devices. Local government focus group participants noted though that people expect certain types of content, such as video about critical issues, to be highly, and professionally, produced.52 In this case, such content would be created with high cost, high definition, or high quality video production equipment rather than smaller, more affordable, “flip” cameras. Accordingly, even with the availability of emerging technologies, some messages may require a method that may only be accessible in limited circumstances. Finding: Community media providers will need significant investment in capital equipment and advanced technologies to successfully continue facilitation of content creation - Community media providers not only have on-going capital equipment needs, but also must respond to technology shifts and constituencies’ interests related to content creation. In this vein, the capital projections were reviewed for PCM, MetroEast, Portland Public School District TV Services and the Portland Community College distance learning office. These organizations currently provide, among other things, content creation of programming and playback on the local community access channels. The review included the following functional areas:

• Mobile multi-camera • Remote- individual field cameras • Studio • Studio Control • Master Control / Playback / Headend • Post-production / Editing • General office • Vehicles • Live origination locations • Physical facilities

Through this review, the following average, annual, capital resources related to local community access were estimated for the functional areas over each of the next ten years: PCM: $1.2 million; MetroEast: $500,000; Portland Public School District-TV Services: $100,000; and Portland Community College distance learning office: $100,000.


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Additionally, other community media and technology training organizations noted the high cost of necessary communications technologies. This creates significant hurdles to keeping current with the technologies needed to properly train content producers.53 Distribution Finding: Multnomah County communities are delivering content in an ever increasing number of ways through an ever increasing number of technologies - As described in the above subsections, many communities indicated that while they distribute content through traditional means, they need to keep adding more and more ways of communicating. The most effective ways of communicating are those that provide the right message in the right way to the right audience. For example, an analysis of the public online survey responses indicates that information targeted to young adults might be best provided via text message, Facebook or Twitter and with a high degree of multimedia.54 On the other hand, information provided about a basic service question by a local government to an older constituent might be best provided by telephone.55 Finding: Residents in Multnomah County are increasingly providing content online for others to access – For example, one of five respondents to the residential telephone survey indicated that they upload videos to a video sharing site. This is consistent with national trends denoted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.56 Public online survey respondents indicate an even higher distribution of content, including sharing photos (80% of respondents), contributing to a website, blog or other online forum (56% of respondents), and sharing videos (28% of respondents).57 Finding: Nonprofit organizations deliver content and services in a variety of ways to the constituencies they serve – Information from both the nonprofit workshop and the online nonprofit survey show that the nonprofit community relies on multiple distribution methods for service delivery. Those of highest importance include websites (9.39 out of 10, with 10 being of highest importance); telephones (8.39); video and digital photos (8.32); mobile and portable data (7.88); social media (7.69) and streaming content (6.59).58 Finding: Video is increasingly used by multiple communities to distribute content - For example:

53 See Attachment 1.A, p. 1.A-43. 54 See Attachment 3, p. 3-6. 55 See Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-2. 56 See Attachment 2, p. 2- 6. 57 See Attachment 3, p. 2-1. 58 See Attachment 5, p. 5-13.

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• School district representatives in focus groups indicated a continuing increase in the use of video in the classroom and as part of training (such as webinars) that was placing increasing demands on school district networks.59

• City of Portland representatives indicated a higher degree of potential video use over the next three years. They noted, though, that end user equipment will need to be added in certain locations, based on video applications that are currently under development, to facilitate transport on the I-Net.60

• Representatives from immigrant and refugee and multicultural communities indicated that video was universally understood as a medium for communication by those that they represent. In addition, youth are very interested in communicating by video and are currently doing so through cell phone video, flip cameras and other technologies as those technologies are made available to them, typically through service organizations such as the CIO (Center for Intercultural Organizing).61

• Non-profit and small businesses also see a greater use of video, including videoconferencing via web cams to save on travel time, remote monitoring of patients and other telehealth applications and video outreach through community media outlets.62

Finding: The local community access channels are primary outlets for distribution of content relevant to underserved communities - A strong connection exists among the MHCRC’s Community Access Capital Grant program, the local community access channels and the impact on underserved communities. For example, ninety percent (90%) of respondents to the Grantee survey indicated that their grant resulted in new community content being developed. That content was distributed primarily over the community access channels managed and operated by Portland Community Media and MetroEast Community Media (88%).63

59 See Attachment 1, p. 10 through 14. 60 See Attachment 1, p. 1-4. 61 See Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-41, 44, and 51. 62 See Attachment 1, p. 35 and Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-35. 63 See Attachment 5, p. 5-4.

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Finding: The interactive component is increasing for communications that have largely been one way in the past – Both the internet and television communities indicated that they are more and more moving towards a two-way environment in which they are providing as much content as they are accessing. Regarding the internet, e-mail has always been an interactive function and keeping in touch with family and friends is still the number one use of the internet in Multnomah County (96% of those surveyed in the public online survey). However, in the past, most other activities were primarily focused on accessing content through downloads. Now, though, the internet is increasingly being used interactively (downloading and uploading) for blogs and online forums, education and training, sharing photos and videos, social networking, playing video games, supporting home-based businesses and other real-time interactive purposes. 71 Television is also moving to integrate interactive applications. The cable industry has a big push to develop interactive television (iTV) applications, which currently are largely Java based (similar to the basis for developing the popular iPhone applications). This is anticipated to exponentially spur a wide range of new video content in the future. This increase in interactivity and interactive applications is also driving the need for more symmetrical bandwidth. This need is discussed further in the System Capacity section. Finding: Local community media organizations will need to incorporate iTV applications as the audience migrates viewing preferences to iTV content - Examples of potential iTV applications for local community media organizations include interactive education and distance learning, polling type applications, feedback to officials at city and County public meetings, interactive participation in community forums and accessing multiple information streams along with pertinent video content. In order to be able to integrate such iTV applications, local community media channels will need to be enabled to access the local cable operators’ standards-based Tru2way platform and learn to develop and customize Java-based iTV applications.

71 See Attachment 3, p. 3- 4.

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SYSTEM CAPACITY The Communications Technology Needs Ascertainment category focusing on System Capacity incorporates findings concerning the capacity that communications systems in Multnomah County currently have, as well as the system capacity that is necessary for the future in order to meet the needs of Multnomah County residents and organizations. This category is characterized by six (6) individual, but interwoven, elements:

• Emerging Technologies • Bandwidth Capacity & Management • Universal Coverage • Connectivity • Mobility • Transport Systems

The findings related to each of these elements are discussed below. Emerging Technologies Finding: Four key emerging and evolving technologies are most likely to drive increased system capacity in the near and long term: video; in-home services accessed via the internet; portable mobile devices; and collaborative, real-time online applications.

• Video use, in all of its forms and by all Communities of Interest, will greatly expand, as further described in the Content section

• The public, nonprofit and healthcare sectors expressed their plans to greatly increase use of remote applications via the internet. These applications will provide high quality services in the home while reducing the need for service providers to be physically on-site. For example, OHSU representatives discussed remote in-home healthcare services using both monitoring sensors that send data real-time and interactive video for diagnostic purposes.72

• Evolution in portable, mobile devices will exponentially and rapidly continue

as more fully described in the Mobility subsection below.

• All sectors indicated future use of collaborative, real-time online applications as they are developed. For example, one youth, who participated in the Youth focus group, is a prototype tester of Google Wave. As described on Google’s web site, Google Wave allows people to work together, in close to real-time,


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with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps and more73 In an interview with a local, small business owner, she indicated that these types of collaborative applications will enable her to grow her business nationally and internationally, as her creative design services require real-time discussions with her clients on visual concepts. Currently, travel costs prohibit her from pursuing many potential national and international clients.74

Finding: Emerging technologies will positively impact several key network attributes: ease of use; scalable bandwidth; centralized data storage and applications; and network reliability.

Ease of Use – Advancements in technologies will eventually make technology as easy to use as the landline telephone and, consequently, enable the greatest number of users. For example, assistive and adaptive technologies are being employed to a greater degree to make the on-line environment more accessible by disabled populations. This includes hardware and software that enables websites to be read electronically, as well as virtual visualization systems.75 Highly Scalable Bandwidth – As more fully discussed in the Bandwidth Capacity and Management subsection, much higher network bandwidth than what is available today will be needed in the future (potentially 10 to 100 times what it is today in the near and longer term).76 Even so, the key to maximizing current and future bandwidth is network scalability. Network scalability is the implementation of hardware or software means to provide “just the right amount of bandwidth in just the segment of the network needed” to enable a particular application for a particular user. Properly scaling a network provides the most efficient use of bandwidth to facilitate the greatest possible number of diverse applications. Highly scalable bandwidth will, both today and in the future, best enable, for example: • existing applications that are increasingly utilized more and by greater

numbers of individuals,

• new applications that are constantly developing, where utilization will increase rapidly, and

• higher amounts of bandwidth intensive video and graphics. For example, schools and educators see more and more video and HD video applications becoming part of the standard curriculum. In addition, hard copy books will be replaced by downloadable books onto laptops, PDAs and netbooks.77

73 See http://wave.google.com/about.html 74 See Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-35. 75 See Attachment 1.A, p. 1.A-9. 76 See Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-30 77 See Attachment 1.A, p. 1.A-28 and 29.

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http://wave.google.com/about.html


Technologies evident today that will continue to evolve and are designed to help scale the bandwidth include switched digital video (SDV). This technology allows deployment of niche channels only to customers requesting a program, which frees up bandwidth that would otherwise be taken on a continuous basis for the channel system wide. Additionally, wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) continues to advance which enables the signal carrying capacity of a fiber optic cable to be split into multiple wavelengths, or colors, of light, each with a highly scalable transmission capacity. Centralized Data Storage and Applications – As discussed in the previous Content section, various Communities of Interest believe a more centralized data storage system requiring higher bandwidths to individual sites will be part of network evolution. High Network Reliability and Redundancy - Reliability will come in large part from redundancy on networks. Today, though, many of the I-Net users feel a fully redundant network is either cost prohibitive or not achievable because alternate network providers cannot meet required service levels. Emerging technologies are anticipated to help solve this problem, both for the I-Net and other networks. Such technologies include increased use of backup power equipment, implementation of hot-swappable components, addition of backup servers and other technologies to continue to work to provide redundant components and increase reliability.

Finding: Healthcare and education sectors have and will significantly benefit from opportunities created by emerging technologies and technology convergence - The continual melding and evolution of converged video, voice and data services will provide high resolution, highly interactive services that will be beneficial to many fields but will be greatly felt in telemedicine and distance learning.78 For example, School Districts could not afford to provide teachers with phones through either traditional landline or cell service. However, Multnomah County districts have recently implemented Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phones for teachers in classrooms over their current data capacity provided by the Institutional Network.79

Bandwidth Capacity and Management Finding: Communications networks need substantial increases in bandwidth and capacity to handle current and future applications demonstrated/documented by Multnomah County populations.

78 See Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-7, 8, 29 and 30. 79 See Attachments 1.A, p. 1.A-24 and 5.A, p. 5.A-61.

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• Telecommunications service providers envision that traffic for communications networks will continue to grow exponentially over the next 5 to 10 years, perhaps as much as 10 to 100 times over what capacity is now.80

• Exponential growth in wireless applications (as documented in the Access to Technology and Content sections) will place significantly increased demand on wired backhaul networks The enormous growth in the wireless sector impacts the basic backbone infrastructure that supports these wireless networks. As an example, focus group participants indicated that they are continuing to expand wireless internet access within their facilities which enables more and more users to access the internet but places a significant burden on the backhaul network requiring it to grow commensurately. Additionally, as more data and video intensive applications are being utilized via cell based and other wireless networks, there is an associated pressure on traditional wireless and copper based backhaul technologies, which is creating a bottleneck, that only high capacity systems like fiber optic transport can resolve.

• Institutional Network (I-Net) users indicated that their data transport requirements have nearly doubled every 18 months and will continue to grow exponentially, with needs for at least 1 Gbps backbone connections in the near future.81 Higher capacity on the I-Net will enable users to: o Meet higher demands for applications o Provide more video streaming and high definition video o Support wireless systems attached to the network, especially WiFi and

higher capacity wireless infrastructure, and o Support the use of new IP-based systems

• School District representatives indicated a need for dark fiber that would

provide potentially up to a terabit per second of capacity to accommodate their projected network requirements.82

• As indicated in the Access to Technology section, 1 of 6 public online survey

respondents indentified immediate needs of up to 15 gigabits per second for at home service. If this need exponentially grew as experts predict over the next 3-15 years, the at home capacity required reaches the terabits per second range.83

• Community media providers foresee high definition video being routine

within a three year timeframe. However, according to recent trade press reports, within that same time period, people will be well into 3D television

80 See Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-29, 30 and 32. 81 See Attachment 5.A, p. 5.A-76 and 77. 82 See Attachment 1.A, p. 1.A-37. 83 See Attachment 3, p. 3-2.

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viewing, which currently takes at least twice the capacity of already-bandwidth intensive high definition television.84

Finding: The predominant need is for symmetrical bandwidth versus the currently dominant provision of asymmetrical bandwidth - This is already being demonstrated by users who need as much upstream bandwidth as downstream to communicate interactively and to upload content as fast as they can download. Many current applications already need symmetrical bandwidth, such as telemedicine where high resolution, high quality video needs to be seen on both ends of the connection. These applications take a significant amount of capacity even today.85 Finding: Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) is the current and future infrastructure which is able to meet the full range of demonstrable needs of the community in terms of interactive, scalable, network capacity - As documented throughout this ascertainment, in-home, business, non-profit and institutional use of the internet is growing exponentially. Many sectors are or will soon be providing multiple, interactive services, from the most basic to the most advanced, over the internet. Regarding in-home internet use for example, respondents to the public online survey indicate very high current bandwidth needs of up to 15 Gigabits per second, including many symmetrical applications.86 Also, healthcare community representatives forecast increasing use of interactive, remote monitoring (including video monitoring) of patients and clients in-home as a larger percentage of the population ages in place.87 This means that in order to adequately provide for Multnomah County residents’ needs, networks will require fiber-to-the-home infrastructure. Technologies available to providers utilizing alternative networks such as HFC, are especially limited in upstream network capacity. Today’s FTTP networks, on the other hand, can provide both higher bandwidth in the downstream direction and significantly higher bandwidth in the upstream direction than HFC networks. This is further explained in the Portland Community Fiber Network (PCFN) Staff Report Dated November 15, 2007, Section 1.6.1.88 Finding: Failure to keep pace with necessary bandwidth expansion will negatively impact Multnomah County, especially in the areas of economic development, education and healthcare – Telecommunications service providers, business representatives, state economic development representatives and others expressed significant concern that if the Multnomah County region doesn’t increase its network capacity, it will be left behind the curve. Lack of network capacity will significantly

84 See article in Broadcasting & Cable, January 5, 2010, http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/442459-Discovery_Sony_IMAX_Detail_3D_Plans.php?nid=2228&source=title&rid= 85 See Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-8 and 33. 86 See Attachment 3.B, p. 3.B-7 through 15. 87 See Attachment 1, p. 1-15 and 33. 88 http://www.portlandonline.com/cable/index.cfm?c=45468&a=174628

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http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/442459-Discovery_Sony_IMAX_Detail_3D_Plans.php?nid=2228&source=title&rid

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/442459-Discovery_Sony_IMAX_Detail_3D_Plans.php?nid=2228&source=title&rid

http://www.portlandonline.com/cable/index.cfm?c=45468&a=174628


negatively impact economic development, education and healthcare, which all increasingly rely on necessary access to communications technology applications.89

Finding: The management structure of the I-Net has positively contributed to the affordability and the reliability of network services for local schools, libraries and local governments - Based on the data from the I-Net user survey and discussions at the institutional focus groups, it is clear that the I-Net is a critical infrastructure that provides necessary bandwidth to all of the K-12 schools, libraries, many local governments and some higher education institutions located in Multnomah County. Most I-Net users stated that this network is the only way the organization could get the service level it requires at a price it can continue to afford over time.90 The I-Net users stated a number of times that the way in which the overall I-Net is structured, both for service provision and management, has enabled them to provide critical network services that no commercial provider within Multnomah County has been able to support. One of the key contributing factors to this has been that the overall management of the I-Net is structured as a partnership among the MHCRC, Portland BTS, Comcast and the users. This partnership approach has allowed the users to: share network infrastructure; own the network edge devices at their sites; receive services at cost-based pricing (as opposed to market prices that are considerably higher for less or the same services); increase their bandwidth with no increase in monthly fees; have stable costs over time and; participate in network planning, which in turn has focused network upgrades on their user needs. Multnomah County indicates, for example, “We are generally very satisfied with I-Net services. The I-Net provides a cost-effective high bandwidth network solution for the County.” 91 Similarly, Portland Public Schools indicates, “Costs are advantageous for our urban school district with limited funding for network connectivity. Reliability above average. City of Portland response time to issues has been above average to excellent.” 92 The Multnomah Educational Service District (MESD) indicates, “Satisfaction has been very high. Reliability and performance has been great. Costs are reasonable. Response from BTS has been excellent.” 93 I-Net users report very few issues related to network management. However, two were mentioned that BTS and Comcast could improve upon:

• The protocol in place between BTS and Comcast seems to break down on occasion. “He said/she said” occurs where it is not clear who is responsible for problems that arise.

89 See Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-8, 30 and 38. 90 See Attachment 5, p. 5-21 through 25. 91 See Attachment 5.A, p. 5.A-69. 92 See Attachment 5.A, p. 5.A-69 93 See Attachment 5.A, p. 5.A-69

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• After hours escalation has been an issue at times in that some problems have not been responded to in the same manner as during business hours. This may become more of a problem as organizations increasingly rely on the network for time-critical data transportation.

Universal Coverage Finding: State of the Art, Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) capacity is generally not available in Multnomah County, except in certain East county areas where Verizon has built its FIOS system – Portland residents have been left with “the hole in the donut” when considering the availability of FTTH infrastructure. A number of surrounding communities, including Gresham, Troutdale, Wood Village and Fairview to the east and communities in Washington County to the south, now have fiber-to-the-home available as a result of Verizon significantly upgrading its network within their telephone service area over the past three years. No company has indicated any plans to build or upgrade its infrastructure to include fiber to homes in Portland. Finding: High speed data and internet services are not universally available to all businesses in Multnomah County – Business and service provider representatives indicated that last mile connectivity problems are creating high speed internet availability and affordability problems for businesses in certain areas of Multnomah County. Information on file with the MHCRC indicates that this can affect small businesses that are located in areas where high speed internet service providers do not have available service. In order to provide such service, providers’ systems have to be expanded or rebuilt which requires a capital investment by the provider. This either typically delays the provision of needed services to the small business or is passed on to the small business and creates an affordability issue for them. Finding: Local government should spur development of, or expansion of existing, high capacity communications systems in order to help pursue universal coverage – Many communities expressed a desire for local governments to be involved in efforts to expand and develop higher capacity communications systems at an affordable cost for their constituencies (including non-profits, businesses, immigrant and refugee organizations, multicultural organizations, government and educational organizations [primarily related to the I-Net] and the residential community at large [through some open coded comments]). The ways that they thought local government should be involved, diverged based on the community’s specific focus. For example:

• Representatives from the nonprofit community indicated that they would like

the government to lead the charge for robust public infrastructure to support an expansion of high capacity fiber optics and ubiquitous wireless internet across the community.94


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• Educational and government representatives indicated that they would like local government to pursue dark fiber for their use in some cases, rather than utilization of a service-based I-Net.95

• Business and service provider representatives in interviews largely indicated

that local government’s primary role should be to provide incentives to create an environment that would be attractive to capital investors and would, in-turn, stimulate competition. They further indicated that competition breeds innovation which breeds efficiency and ultimately provides a greater level of services at a more affordable cost.96 At least one service provider representative, though, indicated that he appreciated the City of Portland’s effort in pursuing the greater development of wireless and fiber infrastructure and, at the very least, this provided “a bully pulpit” for moving forward the issue of advancement of infrastructure and universal coverage.97

Connectivity Issues related to Connectivity are discussed throughout the System Capacity section as well as the Access to Technology section, from a variety of perspectives. For this particular subsection, the focus is on connectivity provided through the I-Net. Finding: The Institutional Network has provided the network connectivity that school districts and government locations need to facilitate both administrative operations and services to students, residents, businesses and customers - Specifically, based on the I-Net users survey, users find that the current network provides reliable, stable connectivity that well facilitates their current applications related to video, voice and data systems and access to the Internet. As an example, Corbett School District indicates, “Network connectivity is solely provided by the I-Net. Currently our telephone service runs over the I-Net as well. The I-Net has proved to be exceptionally reliable for us in Corbett.” 98 In both Educational and Government focus groups, it was echoed that without the I-Net, school districts and government agencies would not have the Wide Area Networking connectivity and capabilities that they currently have available to them, find highly useful and at an affordable cost. Finding: The I-Net interconnect with the IRNE network has, and needs to continue to provide, valuable and cost effective network redundancy, access to critical public sites not on the I-Net and connectivity with ISPs for public agencies - Most I-Net users reported having at least one IRNE connection at their primary data center site and users cited several reasons for having IRNE services. The IRNE connection serves as

95 See Attachment 1.A, p. 1.A-4 and 37. 96 See Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-29, 30 and 33. 97 See Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-34. 98 See Attachment 5.A, p. 5.A-48.

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most of these agencies’ connection to the “Internet Hotel” for the area, including Internet 2, which houses the public agency’s ISP. The IRNE connection also provides the ability for agencies to reach multiple important agencies or sites not available on the I-Net. Examples of these include: The Multnomah County Justice Center (houses federal, state & county public safety agency), BOEC (area emergency communications hub), State of Oregon office buildings located in Portland; Port of Portland; and the State of Oregon networks and offices in Salem. Another reason often cited by I-Net users was that the IRNE interconnection with the I-Net has created the ability for several I-Net users to have physical network redundancy for the agency’s key data network sites because of the affordability of this redundancy. Finding: The I-Net interconnection capacity is currently meeting public user needs, but increasing network use will subsequently drive demand for higher interconnection bandwidth and connections with other networks - Based on discussions with BTS and I-Net users, the current I-Net interconnect capacity is adequate to meet current and near-term user needs. However, as has been discussed throughout several sections of this report, additional applications requiring more bandwidth continue to evolve and will become mainstream in very short periods of time. Accordingly, upgrades to higher bandwidths on existing interconnections will need to be proactive rather than reactive. Mobility Mobility issues related to access to mobile devices were discussed in the Access to Technology section. This section focuses on the use of and need for mobile systems. Finding: Growth in portable, mobile computing will continue to increase demand for ubiquitous, high capacity wireless networks – Mobility was identified earlier in this section as one of the key emerging technologies most likely to drive increased system capacity. A consensus among communities was that there would and should be a natural move toward an increase in the use of wireless technologies.99 Factors contributing to this demand include the ability of smaller devices to handle more and more applications (such as the iPhone with thousands of potential applications); and these devices portability and relative affordability. This means that there will be an increasing need for implementation and expansion of high capacity wireless systems (including WiMAX and other 4G or higher capacity mobile data systems). Such implementation and expansion will have a commensurate impact on the need for more wireless infrastructure (primarily for distribution purposes) and wireline infrastructure (to provide the significant backhaul capacity needed as demand increases). Finding: Public institutions anticipate significant increases in their mobility needs in the future - Schools and government are increasingly confronted with offering more mobile access to their networks. From police officers, fire fighters, public works and social workers on the government side to students and faculty on the educational side, portability and mobile access are becoming more critical. 99 See, for example, Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-9, 22, 29, 32, 33 and 49.

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• Police officers and firefighters both require access to updated records while

they are in a mobile environment. This has gone from being a productivity and convenience issue a few short years ago to being a critical necessity.100

• Students and faculty can access wireless networks from their laptops, netbooks, iPhones and iPod Touch-like devices to get the information they require without physically connecting to a wired network.101 As noted by school district representatives in focus groups, small devices like the iPod are easy for students to use and can provide a high level of utility for foreign language instruction, podcasts on different subject matter and can supplant the need for computer labs, when these are otherwise in use for testing and evaluation services and not available for use in the classroom.

Transport Systems Various types of transport systems are discussed throughout this System Capacity section. This subsection focuses on the Institutional Network as a transport system. Finding: The quality and reliability of the I-Net as a transport system is good - The I-Net transport system quality and reliability have improved significantly over the past 2-3 years and respondents are generally satisfied. A future issue that some I-Net users would like to see addressed is Quality of Service (QoS) being managed for the whole network. Organizations that are using the I-Net for VoIP have had some problems related to QoS. For example, the David Douglas School District says overall that VoIP transport is good, but with the I-Net there have been and could be problems because QoS is not programmed or addressed for VoIP. The City of Gresham has also seen drop out on its 100 Mbps sites, while not experiencing this as much on its sites with 400 Mbps connections.102 Finding: The useful life of the underlying physical I-Net infrastructure has a long term outlook as opposed to the life of the transport system electronics - The physical fiber optic infrastructure has a lifespan, by some estimations, of at least 30 years. This means the existing network will provide the base physical infrastructure allowing growth to meet the users’ needs for at least the next 15 years.

The electronic portions of the I-Net have a far lower useful life expectancy. Although this study did not specifically evaluate the I-Net equipment, it can be anticipated, based on industry experience that the electronic equipment may become obsolete long before it breaks down. Equipment must be upgraded in a timely manner to continually meet the bandwidth and reliability needs of the I-Net users.

100 See, for example, Attachments 1.B, p. 1.B-1 and 1.A, p. 1.A-5, 6 and 7. 101 See, for example, Attachment 1.A, p. 1.A-19, 20 and 29 102 See Attachment 5.A, p. 5.A-63

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Finding: Key factors contributing to the I-Net being a stable transport system for public stakeholder users include regular maintenance and upgrades to the network, continued high reliability and stable costs for service - I-Net users repeated these 3 themes concerning the continued stability of the I-Net as an efficient and effective transport system for their use:

• Reliability and redundancy are critical all the time as more functions are performed on the Internet and wide area networks. Increasingly important information is being carried on the networks such as public safety data, school curriculum and VoIP, as well as staff needing network access to successfully perform their jobs.

• Bandwidth will need to increase over time (some respondents said as much as 2-3 times in 18 months) to meet the needs of the increase in users and more data intensive applications.

• Stable pricing must remain in place to insure that organizations can provide

their users with the needed network services going forward.

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ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT A broad range of Communications Technology Ascertainment Study participants in focus groups, interviews and survey responses indicated the impact that communications technology capabilities and use have on local, as well as national and global, economic development. In this section, we provide findings concerning five elements that make up the Economic Development category:

• Multimedia Literacy Skills • Local Workforce Development • New IT Business Development • Local Economy and Employment • Private Sector Contributions & Partnerships

The findings pertaining to these elements are discussed below. Multimedia Literacy Skills Finding: A current insufficient level of skills to use communications technology effectively, commensurate with the level of need, is problematic for job seekers, employees and employers - The word “sufficient” was used by various communities to indicate the level of communications technology and skills needed in the workplace. It was also discussed that sufficiency would be different for different situations. A problematic estimation, though, was that many job seekers and even current employees had insufficient technology skills and access.103 As indicated in the Access to Technology Section, some job seekers don’t have basic computer skills, let alone an understanding of how to fill out online applications and are seeking that assistance from public libraries. Librarians, trained at providing basic know-how on accessing the Internet, are not necessarily knowledgeable about, or have the time to help patrons navigate through employment applications. If this service is to be provided, more resources and training are needed.104 Businesses may have potential employees out in the community, but can’t get to those qualified because of their lack of skill in completing an online application, and so the “insufficiency” can have a negative cascading effect. Finding: Some resources are available within Multnomah County to gain a sufficient level of multimedia skills - Many communities noted that there are places to gain these multimedia, communications technology skills, including:

• Diverse populations’ support organizations105 • Community media training organizations106

103 See Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-24, 28, 31, 32, 36, 43, 48 and 49. 104 See Attachment 1.A, p. 1.A-15. 105 See Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-40, 42 and 43. 106 See Attachment 1.A, p. 1.A-38, 39 and 43.

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• Community colleges107 • Online resources (although a basic level of proficiency is needed in order to

utilize them)108 • Friends and relatives who already have such skills. In fact, in the public

online survey, this was the number one resource that people would use if they needed a higher level of understanding on how to use communications technology.109

Finding: The disparity in the level of multimedia literacy and technology in the business, nonprofit and institutional sectors may impede the ability of the Multnomah County community to stay competitive - In a global economy; the importance of communications technology and allied skills training is significant in keeping the local economy competitive. It was mentioned by a number of study participants that, falling behind, instead of being ahead of the curve would provide significant disadvantages to the local economy.110 Large businesses especially make a high use of technology and will understand its capabilities and utilization, such as videoconferencing.111 Small businesses and non-profits utilize the Internet, websites and e-mail for outreach activities, to network and provide services to clients. Depending on their resources, though, some small businesses and small non-profits are not able to keep up with technology and companion skills in a sufficient way to meet their needs and some, therefore, fall behind. They need greater support in this area, including training, access to technology and services and necessary support once those services are implemented.112 Overall, their first focus must be on their missions and they may not have the resources to focus on necessary technology unless training and support is provided. This “ability to keep up” not only impacts overall economic development, but certain key sectors that help support economic development -- education and healthcare. It was noted by healthcare representatives that the health of the local population contributes significantly to economic development. The health of the population, in turn, is supported by the skilled use of communications technology for telemedicine purposes.113

This is similar for education, in that effective use of communications technology contributes greatly to distance learning, online learning, access to educational resources, continued learning outside of the classroom, etc. An educated population is also one that contributes greatly to economic development.114 Ninety percent (90%) of the youth, age 14-25, who responded to the online survey stated that the understanding of and access to communications technology is very important or important to having a successful career.115 107 See Attachment 3, p. 3-18. 108 See Attachment 3, p. 3-18. 109 See Attachment 3, p. 3-3. 110 See Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-5, 24, 30 and 38. 111 See Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-24. 112 See Attachments 1, p. 1-35; 1.B, p. 1.B-26-28; and 5, p. 5-12. 113 See Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-12. 114 See Attachments 1.A, p. 1.A-19, 20, 32 and 33 and 1.B, p. 1.B-18. 115 See Attachment 3, p. 3-6.

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Finding: The Community Access Capital Grant program is helping to increase multimedia skills - Seventy-four percent (74%) of Community Access Capital Grant recipients indicated that the funds they received had helped develop multimedia skills of client and employees. New skill sets obtained were described as the ability to stream web content, utilize animation software, use new graphics packages and utilize lighting equipment. Other skill sets developed included scriptwriting, producing, project management and interviewing skills.116 Finding: A higher level of promotion is needed concerning places to receive multimedia training - Regarding multimedia training, some Multnomah County residents are aware but many are not aware of the training locations (such as PCM, MetroEast, Northwest Film Center, CIO, etc.) that are available. Also, the public online survey indicated that once people become aware, a certain percentage are interested in pursuing multimedia training.117 Additional promotion of such locations would help increase awareness. Subsequently, though, expansion of those locations and their capabilities may be needed to provide more services. Local Workforce Development Finding: Communications technology has significantly aided economic and workforce development locally - Increasingly, communications technology is interwoven into the economic health of the community. For example, workforce development in training nurses and healthcare professionals in their communities (and fostering their ability to stay and serve their communities once trained) is significantly aided by high resolution, high quality distance learning.118

As another example, immigrant, refugee and other ethnically and culturally diverse communities utilize communications technology to not only train the populations that they represent in the skills needed to effectively enter and maintain employment in the workforce, but also to provide outreach related to job opportunities.119

Community media organizations use communications technology to train students in many facets of communications arts by utilizing the same technology that they will utilize for their careers.120

Educators and students believe that effective knowledge of communications technology and its applications will be critical to the ability for youth to succeed in the workforce of the future.121

116 See Attachment 5.A, p. 5.A-12 and 113. 117 See Attachment 3, p. 3-8. 118 See Attachments 1.B, p. 1.B-7 and 12. 119 See Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-42 and 43, 48 - 50. 120 See Attachment 1.A, p. 1.A-38 and 39. 121 See Attachments 1.A, p. 1.A-23 and 27 and 3, p. 3-6.

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Finding: Conversely, predominant reliance on communications technologies for workforce development and employment activities can work to hinder certain populations unless they have the knowledge to utilize such technologies - Without a sufficient communications technology knowledge base and without appropriate training, many will not succeed in finding adequate employment, which will hurt economic development. The library is an example of where people, needing to find work, but not necessarily understanding how to apply on-line or having access to do so, seek access and facilitation (which, as indicated previously, has also created the need for new skills by librarians who support public access to the Internet -- that of helping patrons apply for jobs). Another compounding problem is that 25% of those seeking employment report having no internet access at home and they are 7% less likely than their employed counterparts to have such access.122 Pew does not provide a comparable data set, but does note job searches as one of the primary activities among internet users last year.123 Knowing this population is seeking employment and does not have internet at home, provides the MHCRC with key data for consideration related to creating more opportunities for access. Finding: Multiple communities ascertained are utilizing communications technologies to contribute to workforce development – Such utilization includes communications technologies that enable: classroom instruction at all levels of education; distance learning for healthcare training; increased training and associated bicultural and bilingual capability development by those representing diverse populations; access to online resources for businesses; use of government resources through collaborations like Portland Online and the Small Business Advisory Council to provide information, especially to small businesses; and others.124 Regarding non-profits, one in three survey respondents (31%) indicated that they were involved in workforce development in some respect and that communications technology played a key role in facilitating their workforce development goals and objectives. Several of the respondents, such as those that work with the youth and media, indicated that they were extensively involved in teaching the tools of the trade. Youth learned to created online and video messages using current software and hardware. Additionally, non-profits provide computers, internet access and cell phone service to provide the tools that can lead to employment. For example, computers and computer lab spaces were described as providing the tools to create effective resumes. The internet provides information for job searching and the cell phone service provides the reliability necessary to apply for employment and then be contacted for interviews. Other non-profits are involved in workforce development through training videos for clients and internally conduct workforce training so that current employees can be repurposed or strengthened with new workplace skills. Further, 74% of all nonprofit respondents to the survey reported that media and technology literacy and training, as well as access to and the use

122 See Attachment 2.A, p. 2.A-6. 123 See Pew Internet &American Life Study, September 2009. 124 See Attachment 1.A, p. 1.A-20 and 26; 1.B, p. 1.B-7, 12, 27 and 36.

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of such technology, was “very important” to their targeted communities’ ability to have successful career options in the future and fully participate in the community. When adding “important” to the finding, the percentage of respondents jumps to 85%.125 It is notable that, in each case, responding communities said that more can be done, but, again, more resources -- money, people, time and technology -- are all needed to increase these efforts. Finding: Resources available under the franchises have contributed to Multnomah County’s economic development - Resources such as the I-Net have provided the high-speed connections between and among locations that have facilitated distribution of the training, education and distance learning that in turn have contributed to workforce development.126 Services available through franchise-enabled resources like PCM and MetroEast, and the collaborations they’ve made with community organizations that provide workforce training, have been effective in boosting workforce development.127 Finding: Continued efforts to push for digital inclusion will have a positive impact on workforce and economic development – Both small and large business representatives in interviews talked about the need for skilled workers that have a high degree of communications technology expertise, especially in today’s information and knowledge driven economy and especially for creative and entrepreneurial fields.128 Notably, school district representatives, as well as the youth themselves, in focus groups and business representatives all indicate that youth must develop these skills and will need to bring them into the workforce, or disparities will persist and economic development will suffer.129 New IT Business Development Finding: Technology stimulates IT and creative sector entrepreneurialism - Especially in the IT and creative sectors, but for small businesses as a whole, where entrepreneurialism takes hold and builds larger concerns, communications technology drives the capability to do more with less, access necessary resources, work from anywhere and outreach to others for collaboration and support.130 Local Economy and Employment Finding: Communications technology has a significant impact on the local economic development of certain sectors, especially those that must compete in a global economy - The local economic impact of communications technology is significantly felt by the information services and technology sectors, as well as the creative sector, because of their use of communications technology to effectively communicate to their clients and

125 See Attachments 5, p. 5-15; 5.A, p. 5.A-34. 126 See Attachment 5, p. 5-22 and 23. 127 See Attachments 1.B, p. 1.B-44 and 5, p. 5-16. 128 See Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-24, 25, 28 and 36. 129 See Attachment 1.A, p. 1.A-20, 27 and 33. 130 See Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-4, 5, 22, 23, 25, 28, 34, 35 and 36.

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work on projects, such as videoconferencing between distributed or collaborative locations.131 It should be noted, though, that any sector that needs to provide effective outreach to its customer and client base, including retail, other service industries, non-profits and others, must effectively understand and utilize communications technology to reach its client base in an increasingly mobile and online society.132 Finding: MHCRC Community Access Capital Grants have contributed to local employment - Forty-two percent (42%) of the Community Access Capital Grant recipients indicated that the grant and its match had led to the employment of area residents and in particular, youth. For example, one group developed 13 paid positions and another group implemented 18 part-time production jobs as a result of their project.133 Finding: Communications technologies are very important to the operation of a home-based business – Multnomah County residents who operate a home-based business indicate that communications technologies are very important.134 Most (83%) survey respondents that indicated that they operate a home-based business have an internet connection and this constitutes over one in five of all residents in Multnomah County with an internet connection, showing a significant segment of the population.135 Those who use the internet to support a home-based business are also more likely than others to access the internet through mobile /cell phones, wireless broadband and through friends or family. They are also more likely than their counterparts to use the internet for multiple activities in the past 30 days,136 again indicating the importance of communications technologies and their applications to this significant business sector. The findings are significant because small and home-based business development in Multnomah County is key to the future economic health of the community. In the Portland MSA, according to the US Census of Business, 88% of the business community is comprised of small businesses. They employ 53% of the total workforce.137 Nationally, the Small Business Administration reports that 52% of all small businesses are operated from the home. These small businesses are responsible for 44% of the United States payroll and have generated more than 64% of net new jobs in the last fifteen years. Additionally, the entrepreneurial spirit of the economy is rooted in small businesses which secure 13 times more patents than large corporations. Additionally, small businesses, and in particular home-based businesses, employ 40% of the high-tech sector.138

131 See Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-4, 5, 23, 24, 35, 37 and 38. 132 See Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-4, 28, 29 and 35. 133 See Attachment 5.A, p. 5.A-13. 134 See Attachment 2, p. 2-8. 135 See Attachment 2.A, p. 2.A-66. 136 See Attachment 2, p. 2-8. 137 See http://www.census.gov/econ/susb/ 138 SBA. Office of Advocacy. What is a small business? www.sba.gov/advo. Frequently asked questions (updated September 2009).

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http://www.census.gov/econ/susb/

http://www.sba.gov/advo


Finding: More than half of Multnomah County residents (57%) with internet access use the internet for activities related to work or employment services – As described below, this is slightly higher than the national average reported by Pew139 and shows a significant reliance on the internet as part of work/employment within Multnomah County. These same respondents are also likely to indicate that communications technologies are very important140 and more likely than others to use the internet for multiple activities in the past 30 days. The Pew Internet and American Life project reports a growing trend among internet users who report researching or seeking information about employment.141 Currently more than half of internet users in the United States (51%) indicate that they had engaged in this specific use of the internet in the last 30 days. Interestingly, in Multnomah County, 60% of residents that did not subscribe to cable television service, but had an internet connection at home, reported working or looking for work online in the last 30 days.142 This creates an awareness of a key value judgment. The internet is a valuable tool when working or looking for work. Since cost was the primary reason for not subscribing to cable television, one can extrapolate from the data that an internet connection was more valuable than a cable television connection when making financially based-decisions about services to the home. Additionally, those that are most likely to “often/always” telecommute are those that reported the highest levels of income, while those that are least likely to “often/always” telecommute report the lowest levels of income and education. Private Sector Contributions & Partnerships Finding: Service providers and businesses indicate that they can contribute to greater economic development with a more fair, competitive communications technology marketplace - Business and telecommunications service provider participants indicated that incentives provided for development of infrastructure and systems would help increase residential, business and organizational access to communications technology and services because it would make the environment more conducive to the private sector providing such access in a ubiquitous, affordable way. In their view, a viable, highly competitive market, breeds efficiency and innovation that will lead to an increase in affordable services which will in turn increase equitable access.143 Finding: Partnerships with the private sector are seen as important to continue to advance the communications technology environment in Multnomah County – School districts, for example, have developed and anticipate developing additional partnerships with private sector companies to help implement additional communications

139 See Attachment 2, p. 2-6. 140 See Attachment 2, p. 2-8. 141 Pew Internet and American Life study on internet use. Released September 2009. www.pewinternet.org. 142 See Attachment 2, p. 2-6. 143 See Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-24, 28 - 30.

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technologies and associated applications in their schools for the benefit of faculty and students.144 Community media organizations also discussed the possibility of partnerships with private sector interests to help acquire new technologies and develop new programs and initiatives that would be beneficial to the clients that they serve.145 As these public/private partnerships develop greater access to and use of communications technology in Multnomah County, they will in turn help boost all of the economic development factors cited above.

144 See Attachment 1.A, p. 1.A-29. 145 See Attachment 1.A, p. 1.A-39 and 40.

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CIVIC/COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Increased and enhanced Civic and Community Engagement is an outgrowth of increased access to and use of communications technology. The Communications Technology Needs Ascertainment focused on four elements of civic and community engagement, including:

• Civic Participation • Open Government • Community Building • Sustainability

The findings pertaining to these elements are discussed below. Civic Participation Finding: Communications technologies and systems are increasingly used by local government to engage the community and encourage civic participation - Government entities indicated that they utilize web-based services increasingly to provide information to citizens, businesses and other Communities of Interest. For example, the Portland Water Bureau has a city-supported blog for engaging city residents. They also have a presence on Facebook and Twitter and solicit comments through their websites. These efforts have helped them better engage residents and obtain community feedback. The use of social networks has especially helped them communicate with residents who are aged 25 to 34.146

As discussed above in the Content section, no one communications technology is predominantly used by everyone. In order to engage their citizenry, the cities and the County use multi-platform methods, meaning they use traditional media, such as print and telephone, as well as new media, such as social networking and texting.

Similar to other Communities of Interest, the cities and County indicated an increased use, and desire to use, if the resources are available, video communications for providing information and outreach to residents and other Communities of Interest.147 For example, Multnomah County used video to provide information and encourage and inspire community involvement regarding the future of the Sellwood Bridge.148 Finding: Existing public benefit resources available through the cable services franchises have contributed to civic participation and community engagement - The I-Net, community access organizations, the Community Access Capital Grant and other 146 See Attachment 1.A, p. 1.A-8 and 9. 147 See Attachments 1.A, p. 1.A-2,4,5,7,9,11,13,15 and 17; 1.B, p. 1.B-2. 148 See Attachment 1.A, p. 1.A-16 and 5.A, p. 5.A-10.

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existing resources have contributed to civic participation and community engagement. For example, the I-Net provides the high-speed connectivity that facilitates public entities’ access to the Internet that then enables their ability to engage the community and encourage civic participation.149 Gresham, for instance, has rebuilt their internet site in the past year to provide more services and seek citizen participation on-line. They have both a Facebook page and a Twitter feed and now have a service called “Ask Gresham” where they provide a response to citizen inquiries within 24 hours.150

The Community Access Capital Grant program has supported organizations in their efforts to engage a broad spectrum of the community and encourage civic participation, as further described in the next finding.151 Finding: The majority of MHCRC Community Access Capital Grant recipients’ projects stimulated civic participation - Seventy-four percent (74%) of respondents to the Community Access Capital Grantee survey indicated that their grant project stimulated civic engagement, participation and conversation.152 When describing these civic engagement activities, grantees with the English as a Second Language program indicated that the region benefitted from new civically-engaged youth, who gained a better command of the English language. Recipients also said that the visual element of their project gave a face and a voice to a disenfranchised group. For example, one group indicated that their grant to engage community members in media production brought several community events to the attention of the public, such as the MLK Boulevard Clean-up. Other groups’ work supported the efforts of several non-profits in the area by producing videos to recruit volunteers and call the community to action. Another group indicated that the visual media supported by grant funds brought to life the issues surrounding music education in the region and increased community support for the goals of their organization. Others indicated using media to engage with the Portland City Council; even a grant to provide cameras and coverage of city councils, at its very core, promotes civic involvement and participation among residents of Multnomah County. Finding: Greater use of assistive technologies is needed to enable broader civic participation - It was evident that communications technology applications being developed are reportedly leaving behind certain sectors of the population. Representatives of local governments in focus groups, as well as representatives of multicultural, immigrant and refugee groups, indicated that certain types of assistive technologies would need to be added to the mix in order to better provide services via communications technology to groups that require them.153 These included such technologies as:

• More closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing community. • Language translation for non-English speaking populations.

149 See Attachments 5.A, p. 5.A-80 and 1.A, p. 1.A-3,9,10,15,16 and 17 150 See Attachment 1.A, p. 1.A-3. 151 See Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-40. 152 See Attachments 5, p. 5-6 and 5.A, p. 5.A-8. 153 See Attachments 1.A, p. 1.A-7 through 9 and 1.B, p. 1.B-40 through 42.

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relationships between and among like groups, share information, collaborate on service provision and share resources.162 Additionally, 79% of Community Access Capital Grant recipients indicated that their work created a stronger sense of community. One example given was the work of a grant recipient that gathered more than 5,000 area youth so they could compose a “Bill of Rights.” These activities were also cablecast on local community media channels.163

Notwithstanding this, another theme that emerged across communities was that it was important not to forget face-to-face, in-person communication. Many believe that this is still the best way to engage others, especially initially, and then communications technology can help build a relationship once established.164 Finding: Local community media has contributed to community building in a variety of ways – For both Portland Community Media and MetroEast, community engagement and community building is at the core of their missions. They demonstrated this through documented outreach efforts, the diverse organizations that utilize their equipment and facilities, and the diverse community programming beneficial to both target audiences as well as the community at large,. This is verified by the response of community media producers in the online survey,165 as well as non-profits that utilize and expressed an interest in utilizing community media facilities,166 community media and technology training organizations that partner with PCM and MetroEast,167 and PCM’s and MetroEast’s facilitation of local government and educational entities in engaging the community with their programming and other content.168 Sustainability Finding: The Community Access Capital Grant program helps build sustainable operations - One hundred percent (100%) of grant recipients also indicated in the Grantee survey that the grant supported capacity building and had moved their organization forward in a sustainable way.169 The grants were described as advancing their capital equipment development to provide more engaging programs and initiatives and deeper technical skills.

162 See Attachment 1.A, p. 1.A- 50 163 See Attachment 5.A, p. 5.A-9 and 10. 164 See Attachment 1.A, p. 1.A-17 and 37. 165 See Attachment 4, p. 4-3. 166 See Attachments 1.A, p. 1.A-43 and 44 and 5.A, p. 5.A-38 and 39. 167 See Attachment 1.A, p. 1.A-49. 168 See Attachment 1.A, p. 1.A-7, 9, 17, 33 and 35. 169 See Attachment 5.A, p. 5.A-11 and 12.

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REGULATION IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST Another category of the Communications Technology Needs Ascertainment is Regulation in the Public Interest. This category focuses on the roles that governmental regulation, policy-making and initiatives, especially at the local level, play in various aspects of communications technologies, services and infrastructure. In determining the impact of regulation in the public interest on these various aspects, four (4) key elements were reviewed:

• Role of Local Government • Value of Local Franchise • Consumer Protection • Neighborhood Aesthetics

The findings pertaining to these elements are discussed below. Role of Local Government The Communications Technology Needs Ascertainment findings indicate that local government plays several important roles related to the capabilities of the populations that it represents concerning communications technologies, services and infrastructure. Several of these were detailed in previous sections including its role in: pursuing and promoting equitable access to communications technologies; providing public access to the internet and associated training and equipment to utilize public internet access; pursuing broadband expansion and universal coverage of communications systems; and fostering the development of networks that expand system capacity at low cost for public institutional users. Additional roles of local government are discussed below. Finding: As further detailed in the Consumer Protection subsection below, the public believes that local government has a critical role in consumer protection - In the residential telephone survey, respondents placed a high level of importance on local government’s role, indicating that their local government should continue to be involved with multiple consumer issues and concerns.170 Finding: Local government has a role in facilitating a competitive communications market - Business and broadband and internet service provider respondents indicated that the proper role of local government is to provide incentives, foster an environment that’s attractive to capital investment and ensure that competition is fair so that competition will thrive. One local internet service provider indicated that it’s important for government to act as a catalyst.171 170 See Attachment 2, p. 2-5. 171 See Attachment 1.B, p. 1.B-29, 30, 31, 33 and 34.

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Finding: Local government has a role in facilitating access to information and other communications technology-related resources – Information provided by non-profit representatives, government agencies and school districts indicated that they see a need for the local government to become a central conversation point for communications technology in the community.172 This could include:

• Acting as a clearinghouse for communications technology-related information

as well as identifying where to access needed resources • Providing online collaborative spaces like a communications technology-

related Wiki • Providing physical space for technology interest groups to meet, • Spurring conversation through development of and/or participation in

roundtables and forums, and • Leading and facilitating local funding opportunities, such as the current

Community Access Capital Grant program and other potential state and federal funding resources.

Finding: Local government has a local planning role in order to meet the community’s communications technology needs – Seventy-six percent (76%) of the public online survey respondents indicated that local government has a role in planning for the local community’s communications technology future. Only 4% responded that local government has no role.173 Value of Local Franchise One of the key roles of local government, especially as it pertains to the MHCRC, is developing and administering local franchises. The value of these local franchises is seen as high by residential populations, institutions and multiple organizations. The findings from the ascertainment of these groups related to the value of the local franchises are detailed below. Finding: The high value of the franchise is well documented by its impact on the multiple communities who receive, or are the beneficiaries of, the public benefits under the franchise – These communities want to ensure that local government continues to require the provision of such benefits because these public benefits have directly and positively impacted them and their constituencies. As more specifically described under other pertinent sections of this report, these public benefits have: supported communities’ abilities to build capacity and sustainable operations; contributed to civic engagement; addressed equity and universal availability as it pertains to communications technology access and use; contributed to workforce development; and created and distributed local content. As examples:

172 See Attachments 1, p. 1-36 and 1.A, p. 1.A-5 and 52. 173 See Attachment 3, p. 3-24.

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• Schools, libraries and other local institutions need local government to ensure the continuation of, and enhancements to, the I-Net174

• Community media providers, trainers, users, producers and general viewers need the local government to ensure the continuation of, and enhancements to, public benefits that support production and distribution of local community media.175

• Two-thirds of Community Access Capital Grant recipient respondents

indicated that they could not have implemented projects, which enhanced the communications technology environment in Multnomah County, without the support of the funds derived from the public benefits in the cable franchises.176 All grant recipients indicated that these grant funds were important to achieving the objectives and outcomes that benefited not only their organizations, but further benefited their constituencies. The level of success achieved and the impact felt would not be possible without the local government ensuring that this public benefit is maintained.

Finding: The franchise has provided critical funding for robust development of local community programming and the I-Net and future funding must be flexible to respond to changing technology and community needs over the next 10-15 years – The ascertainment findings show a need for flexibility within the current and projected capital funding requirements for community media and I-Net costs. Review indicates that the forecast is for both community media centers’ and I-Net stakeholders’ capital costs to increase, as well as related operational costs. Also, this occurs for various entities at different points in time. Accordingly, capital support dollars need the flexibility to fund the most critical needs for any given funding year (infrastructure investment, end user equipment, multimedia production equipment, signal transport equipment, applications-oriented equipment, etc.). Consumer Protection As indicated above, consumer protection is seen as a highly important role of local government by Multnomah County residents, as evidenced in the detailed findings discussed below. Finding: The residents of Multnomah County have significant consumer protection concerns and want local government to be involved in addressing these concerns – Regarding cable service, respondents to the residential telephone survey placed a very high level of importance on the concepts that “local government is able to adjust customer service standards to react to complaints” and “your local government continues to be involved with consumer issues or concerns” (in both cases, nearly an 8 out of 10, with 10 being the highest importance). It is also notable that the highest level of 174 See Attachment 5.A, p. 5.A-41 through 80. 175 See Attachments 1.A, p. 1.A-33, 35, 45 and 49 and Attachment 4, generally 176 See Attachment 5, p. 5-8.

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importance (9.53 out of 10) was given to the issue that “there are protections against sale or sharing of your personal information”. These and other consumer protection issues rated are currently the focus of provisions of local cable franchises. The full ratings are indicated below.177 Chart 7 Q.

Consumer Protection Issues – Mean Importance

Total

Comcast Verizon Non-cable

SubscribersQ10d There are protections against sale

or sharing of your personal information 9.53 9.66 9.92 9.23

Q10f Cable companies adhere to anti-discrimination policies 8.70 8.95 8.00 8.11

Q10e The cable company does not monitor your service without your authorization 8.69 8.98 8.09 8.07

Q10c Local government is able to adjust customer service standards to react to complaints 7.98 8.17 7.92 7.63

Q10b You have a local cable company office with convenient hours to turn to if problems arise 7.97 8.47 9.00 6.58

Q10a Your local government continues to be involved with consumer issues or concerns 7.81 7.89 8.45 7.58

As shown in the chart below, respondents to the public online survey expressed similar concerns regarding their privacy when providing information online, both in general and to a communications service provider. 178 Chart 8 Level of Concern Very

concerned

ConcernedSomewhat concerned

Not at all concerned

Online (general) 54% 25 18 3 Communications Service Provider 45 25 20 6

The online community also placed a high level of importance on local government assistance to the public with communications service provider problems, with 67% saying that it was very important or important, and only 11% saying it wasn’t important at all. This issue was particularly important among the unemployed, retired residents, Latinos, disabled residents and people 56 and older.179 177 See Attachment 2, p. 2-5. 178 See Attachment 3, p. 3-5. 179 See Attachment 3, p. 3-7.

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Finding: Certain cable franchise customer service standards are not being met concerning service response and telephone response time - A variety of current cable television customer service standards and requirements were tested in the scientific residential telephone survey, such as telephone answering standards, management of installations, service calls and outages, notice requirements and billing standards. Cable subscribers reported significant problems in two areas: Service response: The customer service standards require that, with 95% efficiency, service interruptions begin to be resolved by the next business day. Service response was tested and of subscribers who had called their provider regarding a problem or to request a change in services, 50% reported their provider began working on the problem the same day reported, and 18% said they began working on it the next business day. Fifteen percent (15%) indicated they began working on the problem later than the next business day, 3% said the problem was never resolved, and 14% could not recall.180 With 15% indicating that the cable provider began working on the service resolution later than the next business day, the random telephone study finds these cable subscribers did not experience the criteria established in the customer service standards. Telephone answering time: The customer service standards call for 90% effectiveness concerning telephone response and hold/transfer times of no greater than 30 seconds. These attributes were specifically tested. When calling their provider’s office, 12% received a busy signal before getting through, while 72% did not receive a busy signal and 16% could not recall. After requesting to speak to a representative, one-third of subscribers were not connected within 30 seconds (33%), while 40% were connected, 22% could not recall, and 5% did not request to speak with a representative.181 The random telephone study found that among these cable subscribers, the 90% criteria established by the MHCRC as a customer service benchmark is not being met. Finding: Cable subscribers report a significant number of system outages – Approximately 1/3 of subscribers (32%) indicated that they had experienced cable system outages in the past year. On average, these subscribers reported losing their signal three (3) times with 30% saying that they lost the signal three (3) or more times.182 Cable outages and loss of signal also accounted for the largest number of subscribers who had contacted the cable provider, at 34% of calls made.183 Neighborhood Aesthetics The public on-line survey tested concerns about neighborhood aesthetics as they relate to the impact of communications technology infrastructure. Finding: There is a level of concern about the visual impact of communications technology infrastructure - In the public online survey, a little over 4 in 10 indicated

180 See Attachment 2, p. 2-3. 181 See Attachment 2, p. 2-3. 182 See Attachment 2, p. 2-2. 183 See Attachment 2, p. 2-3.

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that they were concerned or very concerned about the visual impact of communications infrastructure in local neighborhoods.184 The highest individual percentage indicated that they were only somewhat concerned, and the level of not at all concerned equaled the level of very concerned (2 in 10). As a comparison, respondents were significantly more concerned about their privacy when providing information online.


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CONCLUSION

The key findings above are well supported, as further exemplified by the extensive data found in the Attachments to this Report. The findings provide a solid foundation for community communications technology planning and ensuring that needs are met in a renewed cable franchise.

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