Collaborative Partnerships:

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• Collaborative Partnerships
• Helping Organizations Achieve Their Strategic
  Objectives
• Conference on Information Technology
• October 13, 2009
• Bay de Noc Community College
• James Lundberg
• Director of Technical Services
• Information Technology
• lundberj_at_baycollege.edu
• www.baycollege.edu

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South Central Upper Peninsula
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South Central U.P. GEO Comm

• Bay de Noc Community College
• Main Campus located in Escanaba, MI on Little Bay
  de Noc/Green Bay.
• West Campus located in Iron Mountain, MI.
• Student Population Fall 2009 2738 Total.
• 1783 Escanaba.
• 782 Bay West.
• 218 on-line only and a small off site location.
• Merit Member since 1995/96.
• A struggle to get high speed bandwidth at an
  affordable price.
• Long-term partnership with the local ISD on
  strands of fiber to tie the college to the K-12s
  for a CATV system. Converted to a gigabit
  ethernet.

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• Delta Schoolcraft ISD
• Composed of 7 school districts and the ISD itself
• Bark River
• Escanaba Area Schools HS MS
• Gladstone Area Schools HS MS
• Mid-Pen Schools
• Rapid River Area Schools
• Big Bay de Noc Area Schools
• Manistique Area Schools
• Tied together with the college with a 1 gigabit
  fiber ethernet backbone

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Escanaba Community
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Escanaba Timeline

• January 22, 2008 Escanaba - Merit Presented an
  overview of GEO Comms in other areas of the state
  and the concepts to a large group of Edu,
  Non-profits and Gov organizations.
• March 28, 2008 A meeting to discuss current
  bandwidth, capacity, connections and projected
  needs. Also to review and locate current fiber
  assets among the meeting attendees. Plan next
  steps.
• Spring/Summer 08 Continued meetings with the
  primary organizations. ISD/K-12s, City, County,
  College, and Hospital.
• September 08 ITV meeting with Merit engineers
  on the possible routes and connections.

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Escanaba Timeline Cont.

• December 08 received news on the feasibility of
  a 100mb CSME circuit.
• January 09 Discussions with the Escanaba
  Schools, City of Escanaba, Delta County and DSISD
  on fiber use and connections.
• April 09 Bay College makes decision to move a
  head with the 100mb CSME circuit.
• May 09 Conduit runs for the CSME circuit
  installed.
• June 09 CSME circuit brought up and passing
  traffic.

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Iron Mountain Community
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Iron Mountain Timeline

• April 23, 2009 Meeting at Bay College West to
  introduce the GEO Comms concept and Merit.
  Similar to the Escanaba start. EDU, Non-profits,
  and GOV organizations.
• June 1, 2009 Meeting with the Merit engineering
  staff and backbone managers for discussion of the
  existing fiber assets and the locations of the
  various entities. Very positive. An unexpected
  outcome was the desire of Iron County to be part
  of the GEO Comm.
• June 29, 2009 Meeting with local CATV coop on a
  fiber lateral build to attach the college to the
  DIISD/K-12 fiber in Iron Mountain.

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Iron Mountain Timeline - Cont.

• Sept. 15, 2009 Meeting with CATV Coop for draft
  proposal for IRUs on use of 2 strands and the
  lateral build to the college.
• Oct. 09 As we speak the agreements are being
  approved and signed. Bay will have a fiber
  connection at the West campus before snow flies.

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So what do we look like today.

• Escanaba Loosely configured consortium
• Bay College
• DSISD/K-12s
• Escanaba Public Library
• Escanaba City
• Delta County
• Others considering the timing of current
  contracts
• Today both formal agreements and handshake
  agreements for right-to-use existing fiber.
  Trying to get all formalized

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So what do we look like today. - cont.

• Dickinson County/Iron Mountain
• Bay College
• DIISD/K-12s
• Dickinson County Public Library
• Local CATV Cooperative
• City and County are giving serious consideration
• Agreements are being worked on.
• Iron County/Crystal Falls
• Iron County
• Crystal Falls Schools are giving serious
  consideration

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What would we like the Future to look like?

• Escanaba
• To have a complete fiber ring around Escanaba
  that will provide redundancy as well as to
  provide better connectivity for future members
• To provide connectivity for the Emergency
  Services sector of Delta County.
• To have a second entry point coming in to the
  Manistique area that would traverse the Bay/DSISD
  fiber.
• To attach the other County buildings that are not
  currently attached.
• Bring in the City of Gladstone and non-profits
  located there.
• To create laterals for the local hospital to gain
  access to the college for their training facility
  and to reach out to their remote clinics.

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What would we like the Future to look like?

• Iron Mountain/Crystal Falls
• To get the City and County to join in on the GEO
  Comms.
• To add other schools that are further out from
  Iron Mountain/Kingsford.
• Norway
• North Dickinson
• West Iron County
• To provide the DIISD connectivity for all their
  schools in their service area. Iron and Dickinson
  Counties.
• To provide the Dickinson County Emergency
  Services sector an opportunity to connect all
  their sites.
• To bring in other gov and non-profits to better
  connect them their remote sites.

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What does it take?

• Lots of meetings
• Trust among the organizations
• Work toward a common goal of connecting your
  remote sites.
• Who are the organizations that may benefit from
  the use of shared assets.
• Some individual or an organization that is a
  respected leader in the community.
• Organizations that are willing to put politics
  aside and work for the betterment of the
  community.
• Remember it will not happen overnight and some
  organizations wait a year or two to see what
  happens before stepping up to the plate.

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• Questions?
• Thank You