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Consultant will run telecom council John Irwin of Central Point volunteers to chair effort to bring broadband high-speed Internet technology to rural Oregon By JOHN DARLING for the Mail Tribune With a goal toward making every Oregon business accessible to world markets, John Irwin, a Central Point information technology consultant, has taken the reins of the new Oregon Telecommunications Coordinating Council. The council's job is to research and recommend to the governor and Legislature ways to bring broadband high-speed Internet technology to all parts of Oregon - especially more remote rural areas. It is also charged with coordinating telecommunications investments that will best facilitate partnerships between public and private sectors and state and local governments. The Legislature created the OTCC for a two-year stint without funding. Irwin will volunteer his time to serve as chairman. Irwin, 55, is a board member of Southern Oregon Telecommunications and Technology Council (SOTTC). He heads up the council's efforts to bring broadband to the less urban areas of the seven-county southwestern Oregon region. "This mission is very important to the economy and quality of life here and all over Oregon," he said. "It boosts our economy by facilitating communication with the outside world. That expands our business offerings, creates jobs and raises wages. It improves quality of life with much improved access to all manner of research and information, such as tele-med (for diagnoses) and tele-health (for patient information)." Irwin has worked 25 years in information technology for retail and catalog marketing, federal and county government, financial services, healthcare and other industries. He helped develop telemedicine for health-care providers and chaired the Josephine County Telecommunications and Technology Strategic Planning Committee. The OTCC will make recommendations on incentives for broadband growth, including tax write-offs, bonds, grants, federal funding and venture capital to further state-local and public-private partnerships. "The funding can arrive from a lot of different sources. It's pioneering work - new ground - and we're going to be studying a lot of new alternatives," Irwin said. Irwin said the promise of expanded commerce offered by a pervasive broadband net will open rural areas of Oregon to the world community. "Today, we see a fair amount of advanced communications ability in denser urban centers, but as you go out it gets spottier," he said. "Oregon has to be right up there with the rest of the country. A digital infrastructure is becoming as crucial as roads." Irwin's appointment as chairman of the OTCC will help make Southern Oregon more prominent in the evolution of the state's telecommunications network, he said, "so our work gets recognition and the map of Oregon won't just stop at Eugene." Another SOTTC board member, Richard Ryan of Hunter Communications, was also named to a state board - the Public Utilities Commission Advisory Board. On the Net: www.ortcc.org John Darling is a free-lance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at [email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.