Lauren-Glenn Davitian is Executive Director of CCTV Center for Media & Democracy) based in Burlington Vermont. For more than twenty years she has worked to secure free speech and public access for Vermont communities through the start up and protection of 43 public access TV channels across the state. In an effort to protect public access to all technologies of the information age, she worked to establish the state's first community technology center (1995) and is now actively involved in state and national policy efforts--including the subject of today's presentation: why and how local communities can secure their broadband future. In the past year she edited the People's Guide to the Telecommunications Act of 2006--a national handbook for local communities and access organizers. In additional to local efforts, Lauren-Glenn serves on the Board of the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN) and the newly formed Media & Democracy Coalition—which includes 20 regional and national organizations working to ensure that local communities maintain control of the airwaves and public rights of way that belong to them.

Session: Free and Low Cost Wireless: Beyond Coffee House Loitering