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Fast, affordable Internet access for all.
"Lafayette Pro Fiber Blog" Lives On!
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In January, our friend John St. Julien from Lafayette, Louisiana, passed away. Without John to help organize the people of Lafayette, the LUS Fiber network would not have had the strong grassroots support that made the project a success.
One of the ways John helped get the project going and spread the word about the many benefits of a municipal fiber network was through the Lafayette Pro Fiber Blog. The blog was a collection of resources, writings, and comment fights that shed light on the local issues that affected, and were affected by, Lafayette's previously poor connectivity and the municipal fiber network project.
The blog is a walk through one community's historical record as they took the initiative to invest in their future.
Even though John St. Julien has passed on and the fight for LUS Fiber is over, we want to preserve the record as an important historical document. We have obtained permission from John's loved ones to keep the blog archived online. Those who are new to the story of Lafayette, LUS Fiber, and John St. Julien, now have access to the stories that helped the community make the smart choice and move forward. The blog and its posts are archived here. Unfortunately, we only have stories from the beginning of the blog until 2011.
As an educator, John knew that teaching people on the front lines was the best way to garner support for a movement to improve local connectivity. He used the blog to raise awareness about a range of matters from basic telecommunications terminology to the shady astroturf techniques meant to misinform voters. For a decade, John used the Lafayette Pro Fiber blog to set the record straight on incumbent lawsuits, strategic delays, and twisted criticisms. The resulting LUS Fiber network has brought jobs to the community, inspired affordable Internet access for all, and saved public dollars.
In order to celebrate John, his family has established a fund with the long-term goal of establishing an endowed chair in the education department at the University of Louisiana Lafayette, with connections to work involving educational technology.
In the words of his family:
We envision a professorship being awarded to someone with extensive work in technology, who will promote cross-discipline work by the university, i.e. involving the computer science department, the Moving Image Interdisciplinary Group, our high school technology academy, etc.
You can donate to the fund online or via mail at UL Lafayette Foundation, P.O. Drawer 44290, Lafayette, LA 70504-4290. Contributions should be marked for the "John St. Julien Endowed Fund for the School of Education." Checks should be payable to UL Lafayette Foundation.
Be sure to check out our stories on Lafayette and don't miss Chris's interviews with John about community organizing during Episode #94 and Episode #19 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast.
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