When Ft. Wayne, Indiana Mayor Graham Richard took office in 2000, he formed a team dedicated to incorporating technology into the community’s public safety programs.  In a few short years, this task force has created a highly mobile and efficient first responder community. 

Broadband access in Ft. Wayne has led to the establishment of the following public safety initiatives:

• Firehouse College: Firefighters connect with online educational resources while they are in-between response calls.   By educating the firefighters and leveraging their time with training, the community is creating a better prepared and efficient group of first responders.
• Training: A brand new, $27 million high-tech facility was built in Ft. Wayne to coordinate collaborative communication efforts between the 5,000 public safety volunteers in the local five county region.  This coordination center has partnered with similar organizations in the country to create a national public safety community for information and best practice sharing. 
• More secure and efficient ways to store and transmit data: Using remote broadband connections, public safety officials are able to send and receive data in real-time from the scene of the crime.

These initiatives created through the use of broadband technology have lowered crime in the Ft. Wayne area to the lowest level in 27 years.

Since 2001, the community has had a steady decrease in the crime rate.  For 2007, as of the end of October, Ft. Wayne experienced a 5.5% decline.

To listen to our podcast with Mayor Richard, click the link below

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Rich Wonders, Vice President–Marketing and Business Strategy for Alcatel-Lucent recently spent some time with NextGenWeb to talk about what his company is doing to get broadband to underserved areas. He also touches on some of the life-improving applications like e-Health and e-Learning that are associated with access to high-speed Internet.

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NextGenWeb recently spoke with Maria Pallavicini, Dean of Natural Sciences at the University of California Merced, who is spearheading efforts to establish a San Joaquin Valley eHealth Network. The project is made possible due to three grants totaling nearly $1million from the ATT Foundation, the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley , and the California Emerging Technology Fund. The program will improve access to health care and connect underserved communities with advanced communications services. In this interview, Maria highlights the vital role broadband deployment plays in creating the eHealth network, and how the telehealth network will help bridge the digital divide in San Joaquin.

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While attending USTelecom’s Executive Business Forum in San Jose, NextGenWeb had the opportunity to chat with Walter Delph, Director of Content and Programming at Verizon about the relationship between broadband deployment and FIOS. Walter shared his version of “FIOS 101” and touched on the importance of continued broadband deployment for services like FIOS to be delivered to consumers.

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NextGenWeb recently spoke with Dr. Elizabeth Cowboy, medical director of the Via Christi Health System eCare program. Dr. Cowboy is a triple board certified critical care physician (internal medicine, pulmonary and critical care) with 15 years experience in various fields of medicine. Before joining the Via Christi Health System, Dr. Cowboy worked as medical director for iNOVA Health System’s eICU® Envision program in Falls Church, VA.

To listen to Dr. Cowboy’s commentary on telemedicine, click the link below.

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NextGenWeb recently attended the Executive Business Forum hosted by USTelecom in San Jose. The event was attended by leading communications and entertainment companies, including: EMBARQ Communications, Windstream Communications, SureWest and many more. NextGenWeb had the opportunity to catch up with Chris Rice, Chief Technology Officer for AT&T, to discuss the next steps for broadband applications in the video and healthcare industries.

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NextGenWeb sat down recently with David McClure, President of the United States Internet Industry Association, to discuss the role of broadband in eHealth services. McClure recently authored a study for USIIA on eHealth and America’s broadband networks. The study can be accessed by clicking here.

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NextGenWeb.org recently sat down with Robert Litan, Senior Fellow of the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Foundation. Mr. Litan was co-author of the Brookings study titled “The Effects of Broadband Deployment on Output and Employment: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of U.S. Data.”

• Click here to listen to his podcast where he discusses the Brookings study and its importance to the broadband debate.

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