County of San Mateo: bridging the digital divide Project partners
County of San Mateo: bridging the digital divide Interface Magazine talks to Jon Walton, CIO of the County of San Mateo to see how he is helping to bridge the digital divide
Written by
Andrew Woods
Produced by
Craig Daniels
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S
ocial equity, and the provision of basic human needs, have centered on many things
over the centuries. Food, water, shelter, employment, mobility and healthcare have all been held up as intrinsic to an acceptable life in a modern society. The conversation today, when it comes to equity has pivoted slightly however, although some of those issues still pervade even the most affluent countries. When COVID-19 hit the western world at the start of 2020, it was digital equity that came to the fore, as being the essential liberatore for employees needing to work from home, while also providing those remote learning tools for children and students. The track and trace systems used to fight Coronavirus were also dependent on access to digital. Life as we knew it had largely migrated to the fibres that connect our homes to the outside world and those without the liberating nourishment of digital were in danger of being left behind. Situated between San Francisco and
amplified by COVID-19. Jon Walton is
San Jose is the Californian county of
County Chief Information Officer and
San Mateo. As of the 2010 census, the
it’s his job to keep his beloved county
population of the County of San Mateo
connected during and beyond the current
was 718,451 and although it lies only 48
pandemic. “You know, where we’re at
miles from Silicon Valley itself, the county,
with public WiFi and internet access here
and indeed the US as a whole, has been
in the US is similar to where we proba-
battling a digital divide that was cruelly
bly were a hundred years ago or more
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construction, signage and alignment, and all the things that made the modern transportation system what it is today. That was definitely a journey that we, as a society, had to go through, and think about how to make it efficient for people to operate.” But it’s the delivery of the information superhighway, rather than the physical roads, that occupies Walton’s time as he actively helps to bridge that gap between the haves and have-nots of the digital age. Walton’s 25 years working in tech have with public roads,” he explains. “There
covered the entire birth of the digital
was a time when there wasn’t a really
age. “We went from very slow speeds
standardized approach to road construc-
and mobility to very fast LTE and even
tion. Who even owned the roads? Was
5G now. Everybody has a tablet and a
it the interstate system from the federal
smartphone, probably six or eight devices
government, the state highways, or the
at home if they’re like me. Everything’s
local municipalities? So, it took time to
connected – even your refrigerator’s
think through the standardization of road
connected, right? And what we did 5
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anticipate as we continued to shift all
It was around 2010 that Walton and his
these government services online, is
team started to discuss ways of creat-
that we were inadvertently creating this
ing better connectivity for those that
digital divide, or issues around digital
were digitally impoverished. “When we
equity. Because what it started to do,
looked at the three legs of the stool that
slowly over time, was create a situation
create digital inequity problems, one was
where you had to have an unlimited data
equipment, which... I won’t say it has been
plan, or a really nice iPad, or a super-
solved, but certainly the cost of equip-
fast computer on broadband to have
ment from 25 years ago has come down
instant access to all of this information,
a lot in price. I mean, here in the US, at
and do distance learning, and telehealth
least, they practically give you a smart-
appointments, and run a business from
phone if you sign up for a cell phone plan,
home, and do all these really nice things
right? So, it’s not as hard to get equipment
that we would like to see everyone
anymore.”
doing in the 21st century.”
The second concern of the digital divide
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is the ability and knowledge needed to be able to use the technological tools that open up how the internet works, although technology has become so intuitive now, it didn’t represent a major concern for Walton. “So, we’ve really started to focus on the third leg of the challenge, which is more around connectivity, where there seems to be a big sticking point still. People either live in areas with poor connectivity because there are parts of our County that are very rural and don’t even have cell coverage, or this connectivity issue could be prohibitively expensive data plans here in the US. For example, I pay almost $400 a month for my family’s cell phone plan, for four of us. So, obviously, those types of prices, if you’re working in an industry that doesn’t make a lot of money, can be significant. It can be a choice between paying your rent or having a cell phone plan.” The focus on the digital divide over the last 10 years in San Mateo has been trained on the creation of free public WiFi in public spaces, such as community centers or homework centers and libraries, or downtown areas where people can connect to the public WiFi. In 2014, the County set out to connect the community with free and safe public WiFi based on four goals: to connect underserved communities, support C ou nty Of Sa n Mateo
“ We have over 100,000 students who were at a school or on a campus one day, who were trying to do distance learning online from home, the next” — Jo n Walto n C I O of th e C o unty of San M ate o
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Build Communication for a Better & Safer Tomorrow www.GalaxyWiFi.com
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educational opportunities for students, to
told everyone to shelter at home. So, the
spur economic development and provide
whole theory that everybody would come
greater access to County services.
to these public places and kind of congre-
“Places where you can have a good expe-
gate together to use the public Internet
rience and not worry about having to pay
went by the wayside. And we had to start
for a data plan,” Walton enthuses. “And
rethinking how we were going to push
that was working very well. We had over
that service out into the neighborhoods,
a hundred sites set up, and over a million
or into the rural areas where people can
user hours per month.”
get better connectivity while sheltering
COVID-19 has affected virtually every
at home. It became critical for educa-
aspect of human life, and when it hit
tion. We have over 100,000 students who
the US, Walton and his team saw the
were at a school or on a campus one day,
size of their challenges explode. “What
and were trying to do distance learning
we didn’t anticipate of course, was the
online from home, the next. The same
pandemic. And when that happened, we
thing with telehealth. We had over 30
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clinics scattered all over the County, plus
primarily on wireless, and we put it on
a large hospital. Almost overnight, we had
street poles in neighborhoods and things
to shut down all the clinics (not for the
like that. The coverage is similar to cell
critical care), and move the basic day-to-
phone coverage in the sense that the
day appointments online. We had to really
cells... the strength of the signal, varies
rethink how we were going to do that.”
based on how far you are from the site
The County of San Mateo is conscious
and the type of construction your house
of not wanting to compete with the tele-
is, just like your cell phone works some-
communications giants in its endeavors
times better inside or outside the house.
to connect homes to the digital realm.
And that’s what we focused on for the
“We’re not trying to do wired services to
last year.” In fact, partnerships with telcos
people’s homes like Comcast or AT&T
were really key to the roll-out of the
or Verizon,” Walton explains. “We under-
County’s work bridging the digital divide.
stand that that’s their role. We focus
“In government, we tend to at least
“ So, we’ve really started to focus on the third leg of the challenge, which is more around connectivity, where there seemed to be a big sticking point still, where people live in areas with poor connectivity because there are parts of our County that are very rural, and don’t even have cell coverage” — J o n Wal to n C IO of t he C ounty of San Mateo
C ou nty Of Sa n Mateo
focus on the basic necessities of what
project, if you will. So, it was critical that
we need to do to provide services inter-
we picked the right partners to help us.
nally for the government workers to be
Some of the technologies we had to use
able to do their jobs,” Walton reveals.
were from AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and
“And because of that, a lot of times in IT,
T-Mobile. There were times when we
we don’t directly work with the public on
couldn’t put a fixed solution in place, so
public-facing projects. This public inter-
we had to go to them and brainstorm
net project was one of the first times we
about how to get a mobile solution out
had the opportunity to think about how
in the field, or in the hands of the individ-
the work we did would directly impact
ual users. And so those telecommunica-
the public. However, we’re not necessar-
tions companies were a combination of
ily staffed or in possession of the exper-
point solutions for some of our users, or
tise in how to build these systems; this is
for our people that needed healthcare
almost like a telecommunications-grade
or students who required educational
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CATCH THE WAVE!
CONGRATULATIONS TO JON WALTON AND THE COUNTY OF SAN MATEO FOR THEIR VISION AND CONTRIBUTION TO THE COMMUNITY!
SmartWAVE Technologies would like to congratulate SMC and Jon Walton for their dedication and vision to overcome the Digital Divide challenges within the community. At SmartWAVE , we have appreciated the opportunity to work with SMC since 2014 in carrying out this mission. Through our proven methodology for designing and deploying community WiFi networks, we were able to take this vision and turn it into reality, accelerating success and serving the community. Despite Covid related challenges, we are thankful for the County’s trust and confidence in SmartWAVE, allowing us to deploy over 200 radios in 2 weeks.
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services. Plus, they do all the back haul
like mini shoe boxes that we could hang
for us to the internet. So even if we do
from streetlights and put on the sides
some of what we call the middle mile or
of the building,” he says. “They’re very
last mile of activity, all of the traffic ulti-
unobtrusive. They blend in very well and
mately connects to one of their commer-
have very good reliability; you don’t have
cial networks to get out to the internet.
to worry about them going down. They
Their ability to deliver quality internet
connect everyone really well and create
services in a very secure way to the
a kind of a commercial grade service out
public was important. We’re not an ISP or
in the field, which is needed to create that
a service provider in government per se,
quality connection for the students and
so that was an important partnership.”
the families.”
There were two types of technol-
Aruba Technologies provided similar
ogy the County primarily focused on
technology, primarily for use in build-
with regards to connectivity in the field.
ings to connect staff and the equipment.
One product was from CommScope/
Walton and his team worked with Aruba
RUCKUS. “We used a lot of their equip-
to reconfigure that. “So, anywhere there
ment to do connectivity in the field. They
is a public building, and we have over 200
create these access points that look
facilities in the County where we have
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WHAT MAKES HPE (ARUBA) A
MAGIC QUADRANT LEADER OUR ABILITY TO EXECUTE AND COMPLETENESS OF VISION
Aruba: A Leader in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for WLAN/LAN
Learn how C ou nty Of Sa n Mateo
connectivity for the staff, we are now
came in and helped us collect all the
able to reconfigure that equipment and
data from the libraries, the cities, and the
create connections not just for the staff,
schools to see where people had good
but the public. If you’re nearby, or close to
connections, or where they felt like they
a public building, you could go there and
were challenged and had dead spots, or
have access to the internet. The flexibility
areas of need. We created an end-user,
and configurability of that technology was
data-driven interactive heat-map, and
useful as well because that really enabled
that allowed us to focus our energies
us to quickly expand the type of access
around where we were going to deploy
while almost doubling it overnight.”
new technology and reach the greatest
There are almost 600 square miles in
percentage of people in the limited time
the County that Walton and his team are
we had available. Kaizen also developed a
trying to cover, making it virtually impos-
community portal, using the AWS Cloud,
sible to cover every square foot. To that
so residents could easily find our Public
end, the County hired Kaizen Technology
WiFi, and even avoid sites that were out
Partners, who had already undertaken
of commission; a really functional solution
a lot of data analysis and mapping. “We
that will serve us well beyond this crisis”
have great staff internally, but it’s a func-
There were numerous partners involved
tion of time and staff available,” Walton
in the project, such as SmartWave, who
explains. “Kaizen has good consultants
did a lot of the field work for the County.
that matched up well with our team. They
“They had the bucket trucks, if you will,
“ So, anywhere there is a public building, and we have over 200 facilities in the County where we have connectivity for the staff, we are now able to reconfigure that equipment and create connections not just for the staff, but the public” — J o n Wal to n C IO of t he C o unty of San Mateo
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DELIVERING ENTERPRISE CLOUD SOLUTIONS AND STRATEGIES SO OUR CLIENTS CAN SUCCEED Kaizen Technology Partners is a leading cloud consulting firm. Founded with the vision of unleashing the potential of the cloud, our diverse customer base, global presence, and extensive network of partners and advisors have enabled us to become thought leaders in business transformation.
HOW KAIZEN AND SAN MATEO COUNTY DELIVERED WIFI TO THE UNDERSERVED IN A CRISIS In 2020 SLED leaders were blindsided. In an instant community Internet access evolved from amenity to lifeline. The stakes could not have been higher or results more important. Kaizen enabled county leaders with proven solutions to overcome the challenges. Using our proprietary business intelligence platform for analysis and solution planning, to assistance with grants, procurement, and professional services. Our experience ensured success.
LC ou EA RN HOW nty Of Sa n Mateo
the people with hard hats, and trucks that
called the CARES Act money ($6.3 million
could go out in the field on the weekends
in Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic
and in the evenings. They worked over a
Security Act funding) and it had a very
lot of the holidays to get the equipment
limited timeframe on when it could be
installed.” Meanwhile, IT Management
used,” Walton explains. “So, speed and
Corporation undertook a lot of the design
working around the clock on 24/7 oper-
and back-room engineering of how the
ations was the name of the game to get
system would work. “So, they were really
things done quickly. And they did a good
important to us too.”
job in getting it done for us. Our staff
The work with major partners such
stayed engaged throughout the whole
as Kaizen Technologies was integral to
thing. We didn’t have the people power to
the expansion of the Digital Inclusion
put on it 24/7.”
Initiative as time represented a massive
Another constant challenge to Walton
challenge to the team. “We were using
is simply being able to utilize technology
financing from the federal government
that keeps up with his county’s needs.
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“One of the things in our rural areas is
the locals. The County partnered with
that there are just very few options. And
all the 23 school districts in the County
so, one of the types of technology we’re
and every library as part of the Digital
looking at is satellite technology, to see if
Inclusion Initiative. “We have 16 cities,
the Starlink satellite system that just got
so the last year has been a great expe-
deployed, with these low orbit satellites,
rience, where we just all came together
can provide high quality internet access
and really focused on that. And now we’re
to people in really rural areas, where
two months into 2021, and we’re really
getting a wired connection or something
thinking, ... when the pandemic’s over or
like that just isn’t practical.”
it starts to ease, do we think we’re going
So far, the work undertaken in San Mateo has been very well received by
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to go back to life as it was, or whatever normal looked like before the pandemic?
Or are we at a point of inflection where it’s
of positive feedback from people who
something of a new normal? Maybe we’re
live out in the rural areas, or more dense
going to settle somewhere in the middle
housing apartments and things like that,
of expectations around how much people
who felt we were looking out for them. We
can do online and what the role of govern-
understood what their challenges were
ment is in providing those services.”
and tried to make things better for them.
“A lot of times during pandemics and
They’ve been very appreciative, and that
things like this, because we’re in our own
means a lot to my staff and my team to
homes and dealing with our own stresses
hear that we’re making a positive differ-
and struggles, we sometimes overlook
ence in people’s lives.”
the impact to the greater community or neighborhoods. I know we’ve had a ton
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