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President’s Report, December 10, 2024

astronaut in the woods

Does anyone love the scenery here in December?  I’m not a fan of the gray trees and branches.  Our big oak is the last to dump its brown leaves like it’s making a brave stand against the cold.  I’m thankful my heat is working this month, and I live no further north.  Snuggle up and see what trouble we have been causing this month.

Chatham Tech Talk

We had a Video Game Night at HAVOC and kids and adults got to mess around with Unreal Engine and play some games.  The best thing was meeting several people living in Chatham with fascinating stories.   I also met one family with a student who had made some computer games and told their parent about the Congressional App Challenge and how easy it would be for the student to enter.

A big THANKS to NC Esports Acadamy, who hosted the evening for us.   Caleb and Vinny Smith own and operate the business and live in Chatham.  NC Esports Academy made it so easy for us and is available to hire for events like this one.  They have a location in Cary, too. 

If you know of an underprivileged group that would benefit from a few hours of video gaming learning and fun, let me know, and maybe we can make something happen for them.

Video game night 1
Video game night at HAVOC

 

 

Video game night 2
Video game night 

Video game night 3
Video game night 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Digital Inclusion

Chatham County Digital Inclusion Plan

ALMOST THERE!  This is the plan we started creating in August 2021, and completed the first draft that year.  Since then, the Brenton Hart with Chatham County picked it up and massively improved it together with some in put from ourselves and other nonprofits.  The final version of the plan will be presented to the Chatham County Board of Commissioners for adoption on Monday, December 16, 2024, during their night meeting, which begins at 6:00 PM at the Chatham County Historic Courthouse.  Yay! 

 

Digital Champions Grant

We attended a meeting to advised some of the organizations where they might offer digital literacy courses.  They will offer some courses for beginners and some for job-seekers.  We found out that the grant will cover relatively shallow 4- hour courses and are concerned that the least savvy folks might find these courses too short. 

 

Free Public WiFi in Siler City

Although we got the ‘go ahead’ from the Siler City Board of Commissioners last month, we still have some more paperwork to do before we can help, apparently.

We have now made a formal proposal in writing to help Siler City with the design, procurement, equipment, and installation of a downtown public WiFi system.  After that, we will have to contract with them (for zero $$) and return to the Board of Commissioners for approval.  The glaciers of government take a long time to melt.  Wish us luck.

In the meantime, we may have found a way to save a significant portion of money by going through a different internet provider.  We will see.

Siler City WiFi diagram
Siler City WiFi diagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hotspots for School Children

This month, we have helped 2 more families with students who were without a way to connect to the internet by providing them hotspots.  

We still have five hotspots remaining if you know any children that don’t have internet access for schoolwork at home.  

Burney’s Brightspeed Fiber Adventure

You might be interested in a story about my internet access in Chatham.  I live in Henrys Ridge, off 64, near Mt. Gilead Rd.  When we moved here in 2010, we only had CenturyLink, which gave us a phone line and basic internet.  It was sufficient at the time. 

A few years later, Time Warner supplied cable TV and internet to the neighborhood, and we got that and dropped CenturyLink.  The speed was about 100 Mbps.  Later, the service was re-branded as Spectrum, and a couple of years ago, they upgraded me to 300 Mbps (in reality, about 250 Mbps). 

In the fall (October?), Brightspeed Fiber started marking lines in Henrys Ridge and quickly installed 2″ orange plastic fiber conduit.  They used a machine resembling a horizontal drilling rig to drill/wash in the conduit.  They were done in only a few days with the conduit.  They came back and ran the conduit under the road in a few places to connect people on the other side of Henrys Ridge Rd. 

They installed a white, fiberglass service box in front of my house, pulled the fiber through the conduit, installed a crazy-looking fiber junction device, and then trenched in a tiny fiber line (~1/8″ x 1/16″) through the trees up to my house.  They were so fast, I never saw that machine.  I think the wire is only about 6″ below ground.  The fiber line is so tiny and unprotected-looking.  No more landscaping work in that area, I guess.  Some weeks before they installed my line, they installed another line to my neighbor’s house by running it down my driveway and through the woods, somehow working it between trees that look too close together for any automated equipment.  I’m not sure how they did that. 

Did they have an easement for this and all the other work?  Apparently they do because they bought CenturyLink, and I guess part of that deal was the easements and former customers.  

Brightspeed Fiber’s business case in our neighborhood is probably OK.  With less than half of our 40 houses (I’m guessing) signing up, that is still 20 houses within a mile or so, just off 64, where I assume Brightspeed has some main runs of fiber. 

I’m getting 1 Gbps (in reality, about 850 Mb/s, perhaps due to my equipment).  Brightspeed is undercutting Spectrum’s price by ~10% while providing triple or more the bandwidth.   

The technician told me that my invisible, infrared, laser signal is not multiplexed together but runs through several connection devices starting behind Elizabeth’s Pizza in Pittsboro.  In this location, they have racks of interface boards with 24 customers on each.   The junction box in front of my house has terminations for about 12 different fibers and looks like this.  The tech unplugged one port which didn’t work, before finding one that was working.  There were probably less than 12 fibers inside the box at this end of the neighborhood.

The tiny fiber line (which looked a bit like this) is trenched just under the ground, and then it comes up to a junction box at my house.  Another fiber line is connected to this under the house and runs to an optical-to-ethernet converter box.  The ethernet then connected to Brightspeed’s modem/router.  Both of these devices need power.  I have my router downstream, which sends signals around my house.  I just unplugged the Spectrum ethernet from my router and connected the Brightspeed ethernet wire in its place.

If you read the Chatham Chat list, the folks still using the old copper CenturyLink equipment are getting very little service or maintenance from Brightspeed, leaving those customers without service for long periods.  Brightspeed Fiber is supposed to be independent, and I was promised the service would be provided by a separate group from Brightspeed that handles the legacy CenturyLink equipment.

I don’t know how all this will work out.  If there is more news (I hope not!), I will let you know.

I wish Brightspeed had connected some folks with zero internet service instead of running it to my house.  Three times during this process, I tried to connect with Brightspeed’s management so we could have a conversation with the County about plans for Chatham, but I had no success.

STEM Education

Science and Engineering Fairs

The county Science Fair at Jordan Matthews was December 10th.  Don Kallgren and Burney Waring encouraged the young scientists and engineers and helped judge the winners.  The winners this year were an investigation of gravity and orbital velocity (elementary grades), the true temperature of beehives, disputing published information (middle school), and solving a jigsaw puzzle with software (high school).

The 2025 Regional North Carolina Science & Engineering Fair will be held in March.  You can register here if you would like to help judge.

STEM Help for Kids

Erin Denniston worked with Horton Middle School as they’ve started planning for a Makerspace. Erin consulted with them about the space, the furniture needs and the tools/materials they might need to fill the space.  She also offered to do professional development with their staff on topics like Problem-Based Learning, Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) which are now part of the new NC Standard Course of Study in Science, and how to use a makerspace.  They are waiting on furniture and plan to start some after-school enrichment programming in the new year.  Erin is hoping to help with that, too.

Erin has done a series of free STEM programs at Wren Library in Siler City and we’re doing a second round in February.  This time, she hopes to work with Tych to help us connect better with families at Siler City Elementary and Virginia Cross Elem.

Erin met with the folks from NC Esports last week and we’re working together to write a grant.  The grant will allow them to provide enrichment opportunities for middle school students for whom other opportunities are out of reach due to cost, timing, or transportation.  They are deciding on which model of program delivery would work for them (after school, Saturdays, or summer camps), and we’ll go from there.

Erin has also reached out to the principals of Horton and Pollard about submitting a grant to the same agency to help beef up (or start, really) their STEM programming.  Waiting on their decision.

Volunteer Opportunities

We are always interested in having additional volunteers.  In most cases, we prioritize opportunities based on volunteer interest.  So, let me know if you would like to help with any of these things, or you can suggest possibilities for us to help:

  • We would like to have some events to teach or demonstrate skills. Skills could be practical or artful.  Please let me know if you have ideas about what you want to learn or if you know someone who might want to teach or demonstrate.
  • Technical topic presentation – we need topic and presenter suggestions for Tech Talk
  • Tech Career Fairs – we always need a list of people to describe and discuss their tech careers at various high schools.
  • Science Fairs Judges – needed for fall and spring to judge science and engineering projects while encouraging kids
  • Congressional App Challenge – we would like to help middle and high schoolers build their simple software app to submit for recognition in a contest.  
  • Search engine optimization help, and social media help

Please let me know, and we can chat further about your interests.

You are very welcome to share this newsletter with anyone you like.

If you enjoy being part of the Innovate Chatham community, please consider submitting an annual membership contribution of $25 for 2024. 

Not a member?  If you like our work at Innovate Chatham, please consider joining us as a paid member, which helps us cover the expenses of running a nonprofit.

Burney Waring
Innovate Chatham President
warings@gmail.com

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