The Alberta SuperNet

The Alberta SuperNet (a 13,000-kilometer high-speed network) is currently under construction across the province. As part of the Alberta SuperNet initiative, every school, health facility, library and provincial government office in the province will have access to the high-speed, broadband network (totaling 4,700 facilities in 422 communities). It is providing each of these public facilities (at no charge) with the physical infrastructure required for a connection to the network, along with monthly government access rates. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will further extend The Alberta SuperNet's reach offering competitively priced high-speed Internet to homes and businesses in SuperNet communities across the province. Alberta will soon be the most wired jurisdiction in the world.

The Last 5-Meters

Ultimately, however, it is the networks and devices that plug into this wiring that will bring The Alberta SuperNet to life. Organizations need to have the equipment, software, and maintenance plan to realize the potential of a connection to a high-speed network

"People are beginning to realize that an organization's ability to tap into the utility of the Alberta SuperNet depends in large part on the approach taken in the last 5 meter segment [the workstations and the Local Network that connect users to the high speed network]. The approach taken in this short but essential segment ultimately determines whether the great potential of the network lies untapped." Daniel Griffin, Userful, VP Library Services.

Risks of Public Internet Access

Some Alberta SuperNet facilities will opt to allow the broader community to access the Internet through their high speed connection by opening up PCs within their facilities for Public Access. Providing public Internet access is about the riskiest thing an organization can undertake with a computer. Users will change settings, download viruses, install illegal software, and circumvent attempts at prevention. They may use your network to browse porn, sell drugs, steal credit card numbers, and download copyrighted materials. Children may encounter adult content or sexual predators through your computers, and users will expect their privacy to be protected both from subsequent users and your staff. All this opens up huge risks and complexities for the participating organizations.

Planning for Public Access

"The technology planning alone can be a multi-week undertaking, but this is only a part of what needs to take place. Userful turns the costly and complex undertaking of providing public Internet access into a simple task. In under two hours, you can have six DiscoverStations browsing the Internet including a) a customized click-through usage agreement; b) customized URL filtering; and c) customized "safe portals" to help guide young users and adults to appropriate resources on the Internet. Userful's approach saves weeks of time and thousands of dollars in upfront equipment and consulting costs, but the most significant savings comes in the oncoming months when your DiscoverStations just work, worry- and maintenance-free." Timothy Griffin, President.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO

"When you own a computer you own all the associated headaches. Raising capital for equipment purchases, developing a maintenance plan, diagnosing problems, paying consultants to come in and fix them. Userful doesn't sell computers, we sell access. The equipment and software is our worry. You simply plug it in, turn it on, and tell us how you want the machine to behave."

Public Access computers are vulnerable to abuse, increasing their TCO, and causing erratic month-to-month costs. Many facilities hosting public access computers become frustrated with the time, budget, and IT expenditures required to deal with the day to day headaches of running public access computers; Some rural sites need to bring in IT consultants from outlying areas. Userful's all-inclusive monthly fee takes the mystery out of TCO, and provide comprehensive support regardless of location.

"We provide feature-rich gateways to the Internet, but do it in a way that ensures predictable and sustainable costs over time. Time and time again organizations purchase computers without realizing that the sticker price represents only 1/10th of what that PC is likely to cost them over the next 5 years.  They end up with either a boat anchor or a huge, unplanned, drain on their time and financial resources." Timothy Griffin, President.

Conclusion

The history of computing has been characterized by increasingly convenient, widely distributed network access terminals. Alberta SuperNet will make Alberta one of the most wired jurisdiction in the world, accelerate this trend in our province, and herald a new era in Alberta's growth. But wiring is only part of closing the digital divide between urban and rural Albertans. Maintaining public access computers requires experienced administrators and diligent maintenance. As with any Internet connection, Individual organizations need to make informed decisions about how they connect how they connect to the Internet over any network, including Alberta SuperNet. Powerful, low-maintenance solutions will ultimately be what transforms the wall-plug into a meaningful and useful tool for Albertans.

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