[sllug-members]: Re: UTOPIA Campaigning: sllug-members Digest, Vol 41, Issue 3

Wed Jan 2 13:56:01 MST 2008

Excellent!  We can collaborate on a good form letter to send out, and work on getting lists of City Council members and State Representatives to send them.  Additionally, we can research some good marketing or education schemes, and see if the folks over at UTOPIA would be interested in assisting with that.

----- Original Message ----
From: "sllug-members-request at sllug.org" <sllug-members-request at sllug.org>
To: sllug-members at sllug.org
Sent: Wednesday, January 2, 2008 12:00:08 PM
Subject: sllug-members Digest, Vol 41, Issue 3

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Today's Topics:

   1. DTV Conveter box coupons are now live!    [Cross-posting to PLUG
      and SLLUG] (Steve)
   2. Re: Re: sllug-members Digest, Vol 41, Issue 1 (u235sentinel)
   3. Re: Re: sllug-members Digest, Vol 41, Issue 1 (Steve)
Hi everyone,

You probably already have a Digital capable television, but chances
are good you know someone who doesn't have one and probably can't
afford to upgrade their TV.
As you probably already know, for people who don't have DTV
capabilities yet the only options they have to recieve television
after Feb 2009 will be to either buy a new box, go to cable, or
purchase a DTV converter box.
If you need a converter box, or you know someone who does, the US
government has a subsidized coupon option that will help you purchase
up to 2 of these boxes.
The coupons are for $40 off each box and are good for any and all
approved models.
But this is a first come, first served basis, and there may not be
enough of these to go around.
You can get a coupon for yourself or a loved one by going to
http://www.dtv2009.gov/ but please only order one if you really need
it, since like I said before according to the budget as I read it,
there really aren't quite enough of these to go around.
The budget is $1.5B which sounds like alot, but if you do the math you
see that there is only enough money to do this for about 10% of
americans, while over 70% still have NTSC only TVs. So if you need
one, or know someone who does, please don't dawdle.

While there you can also find out more about the upcoming switch-over
and possibly get enough information to help answer questions for a
loved one or neighbor.

I hope you find this information helpful.  I am cross-posting this
message to PLUG and SLLUG to get the widest audience possible, so I'm
sorry if you end up getting this message twice, but I believe it's
very important to get the word out so as many people can take
advantage of this service as possible.

Sincerely,
Steve Morrey

-----Inline Message Follows-----

Steve Hildebrand wrote:
> I was corresponding with Dr Black and a West Jordan City Council
 member 
> until a couple of months ago, when the City Council member was not 
> re-elected, and I read in the article that Dr Black and another
 founding 
> member of UTOPIA had left.  I was formulating ideas the other day to
 get 
> the word out, since their take rate was less than half what they 
> expected.  The article did have a good point, however, that until
 some 
> of the medium to larger businesses start installing UTOPIA, it is
 going 
> to continue to limp along.  In order to catch their attention, many
 of 
> the smaller businesses will need to start using UTOPIA to get a 
> competitive advantage.  After that, the larger businesses will start
 to 
> take notice.
> 
> I can try to get some contacts within UTOPIA and see about providing
 a 
> list of City Council members for the SLC Metro and Provo area, if
 anyone 
> is interested in a letter writing campaign.
> 

Sign me up for the letter writing campaign.  I've several printers all 
networked and computers.  I can get letters out pretty fast when 
motivated :-)

Also I'd be interested in whomever we need to bump to help motivate
 them 
along.

The BIGGEST problem IMO with Utopia is a lack of advertising.  People 
simply have no clue and need to be educated.  The rest of the world is 
moving forward with fiber while we ignore it.  A new term I've not
 heard 
before (Internet Brownouts) is becoming commonplace in articles I read 
about our failing infrastructure.  I'm afraid without something like 
Utopia it will become a common term often used.

BTW, what ever happened with the Utopia grassroots group for Salt Lake 
City?  I haven't heard anything for some time and was hoping it was 
still around :-)

West Jordan besides the blog I maintain, I've been sending email's with

news of things I hear happening and who to bug in moving us along the 
right path.

For instance, I'm pushing to get the latest bill from Senator
 Stephenson 
and Rep. Craig Frank killed.  Also pushing for a bill I've been
 tracking 
in D.C. to become law (it would prevent states from messing with 
projects like utopia).

Hopefully people will wake up and stop accepting mediocre as normal.

Steve Hildebrand wrote:
> I was corresponding with Dr Black and a West Jordan City Council
 member 
> until a couple of months ago, when the City Council member was not 
> re-elected, and I read in the article that Dr Black and another
 founding 
> member of UTOPIA had left.  I was formulating ideas the other day to
 get 
> the word out, since their take rate was less than half what they 
> expected.  The article did have a good point, however, that until
 some 
> of the medium to larger businesses start installing UTOPIA, it is
 going 
> to continue to limp along.  In order to catch their attention, many
 of 
> the smaller businesses will need to start using UTOPIA to get a 
> competitive advantage.  After that, the larger businesses will start
 to 
> take notice.
> 
> I can try to get some contacts within UTOPIA and see about providing
 a 
> list of City Council members for the SLC Metro and Provo area, if
 anyone 
> is interested in a letter writing campaign.
> 