Beta of Broadband for Joe

iwb · 09-12-2003 11:26pm #1

Hi All,
I have been working on this forever it seems ( I started it in March I think). It's harder to do when it is done whenever I have a minute.
There are many rough edges and as a general statement, it is a fledgling site with lots of potential. Most of that will come from Joe Public though.
The biggest single deficiency on the site is the pricing page as it needs to be done as a database and I am still working on that. It is also far from comprehensive but I will add to it fairly quickly.
Please take a look and let me know what you think. Be gentle as I am a sensitive soul:)
www.broadbandforjoe.com

oeNeo · 09-12-2003 11:38pm

Looks good, the link to Ireland Offline on the main page is broken though, for me at least.

sceptre · 09-12-2003 11:40pm

iwb, that's a great looking site. I kept on meaning to do some kind of FAQ for the forum (with the acronyms and so on) but I've been putting it off for ages. You've just made it possible for me to forget about it - and more besides. I doff my hat to you.

iwb · 09-12-2003 11:45pm

I know about the broken links but I am not an HTML guy. Someone is helping me with it. I have a few other small things to fix aswell. I will be happy to have you guys point them out though as I have probably missed some.
Thanks Sceptre, i'm glad you like the site.

Moriarty · 10-12-2003 12:50am

Very good iwb

Easy on the eyes and it gets the info across well.

BigEejit · 10-12-2003 9:10am

Good information .... dunno about the bricks

... I know it is a very difficult question to answer but do you have any information about how community networks could get some decent backhaul? (read: not satellite) ... are you stuck with €ircon for a leased line? ... I suppose the answer will be easier to answer when all the FWA companies that got spectrum recently start business and might be persuaded to set up a point to point for ya....(if you are outside anyones normal coverage area, or behind a mountain)

iwb · 10-12-2003 9:43am

I will change the look of the site from time to time so the bricks will go at some stage. I am more concerned with content and the message at the moment.
Inexpensive backhaul is coming in my opinion. One route is the MSE. If and when it is decided, the winner may be able to facilitate this from the nineteen towns to begin with. As the towns are fairly well dispersed throughout the country, it gives a hell of a lot of communities more options.
The other route is through ESB Telecom. Reading between the lines based on recent press, it seems that they are more open to selling smaller chunks of bandwidth than they were before. Also, aggregation projects have been mentioned which may meet the ESB half way. A few adjacent communities may get together and buy a chunk of bandwidth to share. It is a great way to get the ball rolling.

Señor Juárez · 10-12-2003 9:45am

I like the way there is every broadband possibility with pricing in a table, but it could possibly do with a bit of tidying up?

iwb · 10-12-2003 10:47am

Yes, I fully agree. As I said above, the pricing needs to be presented in a user friendly way. When I can get the database in place, it will look a lot better. I will also be adding many more providers to the list, as right now it is fairly thin.

Señor Juárez · 11-12-2003 6:04pm

you havent really missed that much, I saw most of the available stuff on the site.

MarkR · 12-12-2003 2:43pm

Site looks great, well done.

iwb · 12-12-2003 11:41pm

Thanks for all the positive comments. The next thing I need from you guys is some content and ideas for areas which are lacking. I will be acting on the future stuff on the site. Other than that, what else is needed?

Señor Juárez · 14-12-2003 4:54am

perhaps for each service, people could submit their situation (location, etc) along with their ping times while idle.

Beta of Broadband for Joe

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