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The Technology Committee is the umbrella for all things related to electronic technology at Valverde: shared internet service, electronic communications, file sharing and storage, the TV in the Common House, this website, etc.

Internet Service

We subscribe to internet service through Kit Carson Coop. For $55/month, we get 50 Mbps over optical fiber. The fiber cable enters our Common House in the chair storage room, where a WiFi router hangs on the wall. This router provides WiFi within the Common House and directly feeds several nearby houses via cable. In addition, a WiFi radio and antenna on the Common House roof broadcasts this WiFi signal across the meadow as far as 422 Valverde Commons Dr. In order to use this broadcast signal, you need a repeater, which normally requires an antenna on your roof and a router inside your house.

Our shared internet service is on battery backup, so should not be affected by power outages.

If you have an interruption to your service, call Kit Carson Telecom at (575) 758-4838.

Note that a few houses near the barn are blocked from the WiFi signal by other houses. Also, the wire mesh used to reinforce the stucco on our houses impedes internet and cellular service.

Teleconferencing

We subscribe to a Zoom for online business and community meetings. Valverde members may also use our Zoom account for personal online meetings; please send an email to commoners in advance of your meeting to ensure there’s no conflict with others’ usage. The main advantage of using our Zoom account rather than a free account is that meetings can be of any duration.

To attend a meeting through our Zoom account, use 8194972766 as the meeting ID and 405 as the passcode. If you want to record a meeting, you need to claim host using the host key of 405405.

(We also have access to Google Meet, but we don’t currently use it.)

For hybrid meetings (some participants in person, others remote via Zoom), we use a special camera/microphone and speaker called Meeting Owl. The Owl is set up in the Common House in the center of the circle of onsite participants. It is connected to a portable computer and to the TV, which displays the remote participants to those gathered in the Common House. The portable computer typically hosts the Zoom meeting. The Meeting Owl is stored in the janitor closet.

Email distribution lists

Instead of every Valverde member needing to set up and continually update their own list of email addresses for community members, we maintain distribution lists. Prior to use of these lists, people often missed messages intended for all members.

Email distribution lists are managed as Groups in Google Workspace. Our main groups are Owners (owners@valverdecommons.com) and Commoners (commoners@valverdecommons.com, which includes renters but might exclude absentee owners).

Another small group is info@valverdecommons.com, intended to be used by outsiders asking about our community. We use the “info” group for our subscriptions to cohousing.org and the Foundation of Intentional Communities. The members of the “info” group are Jim Ludden, Justine Greif, and Deb Paczynski, who receive and respond to “info” emails.

All distribution lists are accessible for use by its members.

File sharing and storage

Google Workspace provides us with Google Drive—shared computer file space with a search facility. All Valverde members can create and edit documents (using Google Docs) and spreadsheets (using Google Sheets). The root of the Valverde Commons shared file space is located at https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/0B4PJda8GUKONX0tpMUxMRGJpSUU. 

We also have access to Google Calendar, but we use this website’s calendar for community events instead.

Our Google Workspace is managed by Admin@ValverdeCommons.com. 

Website

ValverdeCommons.com is the hub of current information about our community. (By contrast, Google Drive stores drafts, working documents and internal committee details.) Our website is hosted by SquareSpace, an internet platform providing registration of our domain name, integration with Google Workspace and commercial features such as payment processing. (As a subscriber to Workspace, we could instead be using Google Sites for our website.)

Our website content is maintained by Deb (Webmaster), Leslie (Admin), Beth (Calendar), Chris B. (photos) and Mickey (content editor).

Common House TV

The television in the Common House is a marginally smart TV that is connected to our Valverde WiFi. In addition to using the limited services available directly through the TV, you can also access content through an external device (your computer, or formerly a disc reader) by connecting that device to the TV via HDMI cable. The TV has a Sonos sound bar that you can control through the sound bar or a smartphone app.

Shared phone number

Our Google services include Google Voice, which enables us to use a shared phone number as a general contact for a certain committee or group at Valverde. We used Google Voice during the pandemic as a central emergency contact number (a private “911” for Valverde Commons); community members volunteered to answer calls to this number from their own phone for one month. The service can be configured and administered by admin@ValverdeCommons.com at https://voice.google.com/u/0/settings.

Calls to a Google Voice number are forwarded to one or more “linked numbers.” To link an individual phone number to Google Voice, you receive and confirm a six-digit code, which attests that the linked number is valid and that the owner agrees to take the calls. Google Voice records the date, time, duration and calling number of incoming calls, and filters out scam calls. Callers can leave a message, which is transcribed to text and mailed to our admin account.