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FRIDAY, JUNE 28, 2019
Vol. CXXX, No. 125
OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE CITY OF TACOMA Devoted to the Courts, Real Estate, Finance, Industrial Activities, and Publication of Legal Notices
Published Since 1890
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Althea launches an ‘Altheahood' online community in Tacoma's Hilltop to bring faster, cheaper internet service Althea, a system that enables communities to build and maintain their own decentralized internet infrastructure, today launched an Altheahood community in Hilltop. Neighbors can join together to receive cheaper, faster internet service and/or to become relays to earn money. Althea organizers are seeking 100 pre-registrations to begin deployment. The Altheahood program was driven by organizers in Hilltop seeking an accessible, high-speed, secure internet service. Traditionally, residents in the area have only had a few choices for internet service that resulted in slow speeds and a lack of flexible options based on consumer’s varying needs. “The cost of Internet services has been a huge obstacle for residents in Hilltop, but Althea organizers are joining together to bring neighbors and businesses more affordable options,” said Deborah Simpier, CoFounder of Althea (www.althea.org). “We look forward to building a community-owned internet co-op with faster, but cheaper internet service and helping other neighborhoods collaborate too.” To get started, an Altheahood community is selected by an organizer as a potential deployment. Local
organizers then work together with the Althea team to pre-register people prior to committing to a buildout. For Althea participants, local organizers will install and configure hardware, provide ongoing support and help generate revenue streams with internet equipment. Local businesses and consumers can set up a router to receive internet service and then earn money by selling bandwidth to other users. The goal of the Altheahood program is to help all neighborhoods increase their bandwidth for better information exchange as well as education opportunities. Althea’s technology enables routers to pay each other for bandwidth, making it easy for communities to set up networks which offer a better service than existing internet service provider monopolies. Similar to the Airbnb model, users can both receive the service and make money by becoming a ‘relay’ and providing it to their neighbors. For more about Althea, please visit the following video link. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=cq4mWTQZmnI - Althea
This cat on a Mac could be the next software entrepreneur. Photo: Morf Morford
Makerspaces essential solution to job gap When it comes to finding skilled workers to fill the estimated 7.5 million job openings in the U.S., small businesses are feeling the crunch. In today’s unprecedented booming economy, our region’s small employers are searching for qualified workers to fill the increasing amount of positions currently available. So it’s no surprise the issue of workforce development is a top concern of small business owners. According to the April NFIB Jobs Report, the top items identified as business owners’ single most important business problem were difficulty finding qualified workers and hiring or trying to hire. In fact, 86% of those hiring or trying to hire reported few or no qualified applicants for the positions they were trying to fill. Workforce development is a crucial topic in our country’s business community right now. It’s so important, President Trump established the National Council for the American Worker last year, something of which the SBA is proud to be a member. As our agency meets with small businesses, community partners and local governments to discuss solutions for workforce development, one thing is very clear: collaboration and creativity are essential to solve the job gap. That’s where the SBA sees an opportunity with makerspaces. According to the Nation of Makers, there are
approximately 2,000 makerspaces in the U.S., making them accessible to urban and smaller communities alike. Makerspaces are uniquely positioned to help increase workforce development for a variety of reasons: they focus on new paths for vocational and technical education, generate new apprenticeship opportunities, build new job skills, and boost jobs that provide a pathway into the middle class. And if that weren’t enough, they also fuel independent work and self-employment. I recently had the opportunity to tour a local makerspace, and I saw the collaboration and creativity at work. I also got to see job training, innovation and business needs coming together in the same space. I was inspired to see how a makerspace can bring together all entities in a community to work together toward a shared goal rather than individually striving and wasting resources that go so much further when shared. It is with this in mind that the SBA is proud to launch the Makerspace Training, Collaboration and Hiring (MaTCH) Pilot Competition. This new competition aims to address the job skills and placement gaps faced by local small businesses by helping fund the creation or expansion of makerspace programs that provide jobspecific and soft skills training, including industry or trade certifications.
By awarding up to $1 million in total prizes to fund selected winning proposals, the SBA’s goal is to have all program graduates immediately placed in positions with previously identified small employers that need skilled labor. The MaTCH Pilot Competition reaffirms the SBA’s commitment to supporting new forms of vocational education, developing apprenticeships, promoting independent work, and cultivating access to entrepreneurship. Small businesses create two out of every three net new jobs. We need to come together to do our part to help them fill those jobs. By empowering a stronger connection between the makerspace community and job creation, we will be one step closer to a workforce development solution; and, ultimately provide an added economic boost to communities across our region. - Jeremy Field is the Regional Administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Pacific Northwest Region which serves Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska. The SBA empowers entrepreneurs and small businesses with resources to start, grow, expand or recover.