Community + Broadband by Design

New America Foundation's Media Policy Fellow Sean McLaughlin presents Congressman Mike Thompson (CA-1) with a copy of the Knight Commission report in Eureka, Calif., on Sept. 2, 2010. Photo courtesy of New America Foundation.

Sean McLaughlin is a man with a plan for bringing universal broadband to communities in northern California’s Humboldt County. If he has his way, Humboldt County will also have a plan — a new General Plan that includes policies to develop a local communications infrastructure and services that meet the information needs of its residents.

McLaughlin is the executive director of Access Humboldt, a non-profit community media center and public access television station located in Eureka, California, that has long been an advocate for healthy, vibrant and inclusive local media. He is also a Knight Media Policy Fellow at the New America Foundation, working to implement the recommendations of the Knight Commission.

McLaughlin is among a group of local visionaries who have been working with local community leaders and city planners to bring high-speed broadband to all communities in California’s North Coast region as part of the Digital Redwoods initiative.  Earlier this month, Access Humboldt briefed Representative Mike Thompson on this initiative and presented the congressman with a copy of the Knight Commission’s Informing Communities report to provide the context and rationale for their work.

The Humboldt County Planning Commission is considering the inclusion of a Communications Element that for the first time would incorporate a universal broadband provision in the county’s General Plan. The Commission has directed a Broadband Working Group to develop policies covering access to telecommunications services. McLaughlin is a member of the Working Group.

Earlier this year, the Planning Commission posted a summary of key issues and alternatives which are under consideration for addressing broadband internet and telephone service in the General Plan. One alternative would encourage the provision of broadband telecommunications services throughout the county through advocacy, coordinated utility, government agency and community planning, and through right of way planning and subdivision design.

The Working Group’s language was presented at the Aug. 26 Planning Commission meeting. During this meeting, McLaughlin made the case that relying on the private sector alone to bring high-speed Internet service to the small communities along the North Coast  wouldn’t work because there is no profit in providing broadband to rural areas.

According to the Redwood Times, McLaughlin made the point that “the free market system doesn’t work for telecommunications because there’s no profit in providing it in rural areas. He said it’s like the phone system that has to be subsidized in rural areas where there aren’t enough subscribers to make it profitable.”

With a well planned policy framework for deploying and supporting broadband infrastructure county-wide, Humboldt County would be on a path to achieving the objectives for community information health identified by the Knight Commission in its Informing Communities report. In particular, a comprehensive planning approach that includes a communications element responds well to several Knight Commission recommendations, including recommendation #8 on universal broadband, recommendation #10 to reach audiences through all forms of media, and recommendation #14 to emphasize community information flow in community design. Importantly, it is the foundation that makes possible the realization of the other Knight Commission recommendations as well.

We’d like to know: What other communities are leading the way through comprehensive community planning to develop local communications infrastructure and services to meet local community needs?