Brown-Out, Blackout Blues

The thrill is gone.

Can you hear it?

The thrill is gone.

Can you feel it?

The strum and twang and thump of my soul's invisible guitar?

The hoarse, even course, misery-laden voice of one who's been done oh, so wrong?

Yep, that's me.

Begging, borrowing, not-yet-stealing connectivity.

I've got them "brown out done caused a week-long internet blackout blues."

And I feel so bad.

So downright sad.

Oh, yes I do.

Them brown-out-blackout-blues.

Only in Alaska?

My phone rang around 5:30 this afternoon. On the other end of the line, I heard a recorded message from Senator Mark Begich of Alaska. Like most people, I absolutely detest telephone solicitations, especially political ones, but, before I could make a move to hang up, I heard him say something about discussing the health care bill.

Now that caught my attention.

For weeks, I've been reading online articles and listening to online radio broadcasts in an effort to understand what in the world is going on with Obama's health care reform efforts. I'm all for reform where reform is needed, but I must admit that much of what I've read and heard has me rather concerned. So I was more than happy to hear what the new Senator from Alaska had to say.

Within a few seconds, I realized that Senator Begich was not soliciting anything or even giving a prepared speech. In fact, the phone call was actually part of a statewide "Tele-Town Hall Meeting."

Say, what???

All across the state, telephones rang with an invitation to talk with Senator Begich (personally!) about health care reform. I have no idea how many people were home to answer their telephones or how many took the senator up on his offer, but for about 30-40 minutes participants from all corners of Alaska called in and were free to ask questions.

Living in a bush village, away from the action and access of important cities, it's easy to feel voiceless and unheard. Today was the first time I've ever felt connected to my government apart from the occasional privilege of casting my vote.

I have no clue whether this "Tele-Town Meeting" thing is a new idea or has been happening for years, but I just want to go on record as saying that I appreciate having that opportunity. I applaud Senator Begich for taking the time to reach out to those he represents in a practical and tangible way. It was a great connection!

And those aren't so easy to come by in Alaska...or anywhere else.

Off Slope: A little work...a little play

It feels a little crazy.  

I'm sitting in a conference room in Anchorage and have actually received a mandate from the presenter to update my blog!  How amazing is that? 

An explanation is probably in order.

I am attending the ASTE conference through Wednesday.  This particular session is called Using Technology to Combat Teacher Isolation in Rural Schools.  The leader of this session is the author of Rural Water Cooler, a cool space dedicated to providing a sense of community for teachers of rural Alaska.

Our first assignment this morning was to create a Blogger blog.  A few of us already have one, so we're supposed to update!  Yahoo!

In addition to creating a blog, the presenter has also (thus far) discussed...

Wiki Spot

Skype
Moodle
Ning

Now she's onto a discussion of long-distance collaboration strategies and I can't tell you what her last four sentences were.

I guess I should refocus.

What a great day of work!

That's the Way the Cookies Crumble

For literally months now, my internet connection has ranged from sketchy to non-existent and, at times, the frustration has worn my patience uncomfortably thin. I've spent quite a bit of time on the phone with my internet service provider. In the process, I have become intimately acquainted with the hierarchy of personnel dedicated to "handling" customers in need of technical support.

The first tier consists of individuals armed with a scripted manual from which they are forbidden to stray. The manual tells them exactly what to say and exactly how many technical hoops the customer must jump through before they may be passed along to a tier-two guy.

Tier-two guys are the real techno-wizards. Seriously, they are. Through a series of "ping tests" (think, The Hunt for Red October, but digital) they can determine whether the problem being experienced is the fault of your computer or their equipment. These guys know things that tier-one guys have only seen in movies. They know exactly how many "packets" of information are being lost between your computer, their satellite dish, and the actual satellite orbiting the planet. They even know when and from what location that satellite was launched and about how long it will accommodate the customer load that is increasingly being oversold. Yes, I said oversold. Anyway, these are smart guys and I'm thankful they're on my side.

The only problem with the tier-two guys is that they are usually parked in an office about 800 miles away and are not really able to do very much about the problems they diagnose, but they can talk about it and sympathize with your plight. While that may not sound like much, sometimes it's just comforting enough to keep you from disconnecting your service altogether. Hmm.

Then there are the tier-three guys (see photo). Tier-three guys know everything that the tier-two guys know, but they actually have guns, will travel. Well, not guns, but techno-wizardry stuff. And, as you see in the photo, they do it all under rather challenging circumstances. These guys travel from village to village, sleeping bags in tow, not knowing when or where they will lay their heads for weeks at a time. I appreciate that. Really...I do.



All those boxes in the photo look impressive, don't they? I was certainly impressed. In fact, I was thrilled! I thought surely my internet woes were coming to an end. Surely, with of all those boxes, a techno-wizard would be able to work some digital magic and...POOF!...my connection would be decent again. Visions of checking email without hitting "refresh" six or seven times swirled through my mind. I was practically giddy with anticipation.

What wasn't initially apparent was that those boxes had nothing to do with residential internet connections. And, although the tier-three guys were aware of the problems occurring with residential service throughout the village, they didn't have a work order to address those problems at this time. No work order, no work. No exceptions.

So it turns out the problem with tier-three guys is that they have to have permission to do stuff. Just knowing what needs to be done and how to do it and being in the actual location where it should be done isn't enough. Someone has to say, "Do it" like a director on a movie set. The props are all in place. The actors all know their lines and cues, but no one makes a move until the director says, "action." I guess that would take a tier-four guy. I haven't had the pleasure of speaking with one of those and it's not very likely that I ever will.

I have no doubt that the tier-four guy stays very busy...busy not writing work orders...maybe even busy enjoying a reliable internet connection...like the one his customers pay for every month, but still don't have.