Category Archives: Website

It seems that part of the biggest problem with advocating for UTOPIA is that supporters don't really know each other. Most of the people I've met who are enthusiastic about UTOPIA have been contacts through this site and at various government meetings, though I'm sure that just scratches the surface. Just today, I stumbled across Woods Cross UTOPIA, a site supporting UTOPIA in Woods Cross. (They also have a handy, dandy list of which council members are in favor of joining.) I managed to find the Pro-UTOPIA mailing list by total accident when a message got cross-posted to Pete Ashdown's UT Politech list. While I appreciate happy accidents, we really need a better way of finding each other.

It's also hard to keep on top of meetings that concern UTOPIA. I usually find out that a city has been considering membership long after they've held public hearings and starting taking down the votes. The legislative subcommittee responsible for UTOPIA-related legislation changes every year (both name and membership). Mainstream news sources often miss reporting on these matters until days after they've happened if at all. This is despite tracking several dozen RSS feeds and getting e-mail alerts from Google on a regular basis.

What I need is your help. If you know UTOPIA supporters, if you know about upcoming meetings concerning UTOPIA, if you know about a movement in your city to get UTOPIA, I want to know! Drop me an e-mail and I'm happy to help out in any way I can. I'll create and conduct presentations, I'll do a brain dump on the knowledge I have, I'll attend upcoming meetings and hearings. Qwest and Comcast each put on their own united front; it's time we do the same.

All of the feeds on the site have been updated to use FeedBurner now instead of the built-in WordPress feeds. This should resolve some feed compatibility issues that have popped up in the past. If you aren't getting updated items anymore, you might want to re-subscribe with your RSS reader using the new feed.

Being linked from Slashdot sends a lot of ripples in its wake. Frank over at Comcast Issue was recently mentioned in a story there and some of that success spilled over to here. Frank's been trying to get UTOPIA service out to West Jordan for along time with a renewed push after Comcast shut off his service unexpected for violating some unknown cap on usage. (You know, because "unlimited" doesn't really mean "unlimited".) What does that have to do with FreeUTOPIA? That linkage spilled over to here from an article Frank posted on the White City ComCo meeting he attended. An average of 80-something visits a day spiked to nearly 400 yesterday.

Congrats to Frank for shining the light on the dark recesses of Comcast's shady practices and getting some props.

If you’re seeing this, welcome to the new webserver! Due to traffic demands on the old server, I’ve relocated FreeUTOPIA.org to Slicehost. This should mean a definite increase in both speed and availability. Be sure to let me know if you experience any oddities.

As a side note, I’ve also migrated to WordPress 2.1 to improve security and the features available. It takes a lot of work to get that accomplished (especially since botched database installs are a common complaint), though I think I have everything worked out now.

Due to the excessive amount of incoming spam in the last few days, I've turned on the Bad Behavior plugin to try and limit it. This might cause some legitimate access to be blocked, but I've not had any reports of problems on other blogs I've used it on. It seems most of them are trying to exploit trackbacks to accomplish this, so I might turn them off at a later date as an extra measure.

I've added a new category of links for other websites promoting the benefits of municipal fiber projects. So far, I have advocates from Palo Alta, CA; Lafayette, LA; and St. Charles, IL linked as well as the FTTH Council, an organization whose municipal and corporate members all provide fiber services to the home.

Know of someone I missed? Let me know so I can get them added. 

We experienced downtime for most of the day due to a malfunctioning router. One power cycle later, things are right as rain again.

One day, I decided to find out what I needed to do to get UTOPIA service at my home in White City. To my chagrin, state law prohibits unincorporated areas of Utah from participating in the UTOPIA project, and the e-mail response I got advised me to contact my elected officials to get the law changed so that I could get service in my area. I decided to go one better: start this website to not only advocate the change in the law, but act as an advocate for municipal broadband in general.

My purpose is to make sure elected officials know that there are 180,000 residents in Salt Lake County alone that are ineligible for UTOPIA or other municipal broadband projects unless they change this law. As unincorporated areas of Utah continue to grow at incredible rates, more and more people will be shut out from participating in the best competition to the local cable and telephone companies.

Want to get UTOPIA in your area? Check to see if you're in one of the participating cities. If you live in a city, write to your city council and mayor. If you're stuck in an unservicable area like I am, petition your county and state leaders to take action and get UTOPIA to your home now!