Northbay Uprising - Information for the liberated zones of the San Pablo Bay

2011-12-16 "Grant will help Solano County close its digital divide" by Rachel Raskin-Zrihen from "Vallejo Times-Herald"
[http://www.timesheraldonline.com/ci_19560802]
Solano County will share in a $450,000 grant meant to close the area's technology gap, Solano Economic Development Corporation spokeswoman Sandy Person said.
The California Public Utilities grant, to be distributed over the next three years to the East Bay Broadband Consortium, was approved earlier this month, Person said this week.
The California Advanced Services Fund program is intended "to help close the digital divide and promote innovative solutions to broadband infrastructure deployment, access and adoption needs and opportunities," she said. In other words, the idea is to make sure everyone in the area has Internet access, she said.
The consortium is a collaboration between the Solano Economic Development Corporation, the Contra Costa Economic Partnership, the East Bay Economic Development Alliance and the East Bay Community Foundation.
The first $150,000 will pay for the consortium to develop a broadband infrastructure plan "to make the East Bay a national and global leader," Person said. It also will help establish Get Connected East Bay!, a collaborative effort to provide free or low-cost access to computers and the Internet to all area residents, she said.
"We want to make sure every resident and business in the consortium area has reasonable access," Person said. "It's about creating access to high-speed Internet connection (broadband) and basic digital literacy skills, which is essential to every aspect of life in today's economy," she said. "There are access gaps, and this puts the people in those areas at a disadvantage. There are gaps in this county and this will help identify them."
Work on the plan is expected to start next month, she said.