Badgernet.org

The following guest posting is a copy of a letter from Jonathan Barry to his state representatives. Jonathan is the owner of a small ski hill in Wisconsin, and he is commenting on the proposed “joint and several liability law” that many believe is payback to Governor Doyle for the trial lawyers’ support during the last election. The fact that this liability change was buried in the budget act, and would not be debated on its merits, would seem to support that view.

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Dubuque, Iowa shares its border with both Wisconsin and Illinois. Rather than high taxes and layers of mandates, Dubuque and Iowa encourage cooperation, consensus and joint projects among business owners and government agencies; such cross-fertilization has created a dynamic and growing economic environment that “floats all boats”. This, then is a real life Tale of Two Cities, one in Iowa, and several (take your pick) in Wisconsin.

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One of the problems Wisconsin has experienced in implementing advanced technology infrastructure is that even simple mathematical and scientific concepts were not in the curriculum of our leaders’ education (oh, so long ago). In particular, there is one very important mathematical relation which is necessary for all policymakers to grasp, namely, the relation between Money and Work:

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A long time ago, life was fair and government people did their jobs with the long-term interests of their constituents in mind. Agencies, state employees and affiliated businesses would toil diligently to do the right thing, and to provide a fair hearing for each new idea and vendor that showed potential to improve government services.  In this world, all was green and well in the land, and deficits were non-existent.

Wake up Dorothy - you haven’t been listening to Froggy! You’re not in Kansas any more; you’re in the ossified shell of the once-proud emerald ship of state known as Wisconsin.

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It is tempting to say that an Integrated Network is simply one that demonstrates ease of use features and expansion capabilities that Wisconsin’s  Badgernet platform does not have. However, propriety demands we be more specific. A true integrated statewide network could be used to its full capacity for ANY voice, video or data application without constraints being placed on the amount of bandwidth allocated to each mode.

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Well OK, Froggy has spent a good deal of venting time (and Starbuck’s Ventis) waxing eloquently over what is wrong with BadgerNet. So, lest we adopt the same proclivities as the recent political campaign … let us examine the features of a properly configured State network, and suggest what it should look like.

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If you are in government administration, success means being able to blame someone other than yourself for the failure of major initiatives, and to assure a majority of voters that a DIFFERENT set of taxpayers will be tapped to pay for the resulting socialized losses.

Do you disagree? Post a Comment (see Link below).

How can the Statewide Video Network be Improved?

I. Badgernet – What is it?

Badgernet is a statewide video and data network that has been created by DOA and the Governor primarily to provide a means for PK-12 school districts to distribute and share applications such as video teaching programs and Internet connections. To this end, multi-year contracts are negotiated between the State and a select set of telecom vendors to provide price stability to school districts that sign up for the program.

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