Kandiyohi Provides Residential and Business Internet Training

Another great story from another Get Broadband community comes from the West Central Tribune (Training program aims to boost countywide use of high-speed Internet).

Kandiyohi is offering a series of classes, starting in February, to teach basic skills ranging from e-mail and Internet browsing for the general public. For business they are running classes that will show small-business owners how to set up a basic Web site, optimize the use of their Web site and venture into e-commerce to increase sales.

For those who participate, grants will be available to help underwrite 50 percent of the cost of creating or upgrading their business Web site.

The goal is to stimulate 20 new Web sites and 20 new ventures into e-commerce by local small-business owners.

Kandiyohi was gracious enough to share electronic versions of the fliers and ads for the Blandin Foundation web site.

City of Monticello moves forward with city-wide fiber optics

I am gathering local Minnesota broadband stories for the upcoming eNews, Lynne Dahl-Fleming was kind enough to send me the following update from Monticello.

Monticello, MN is moving forward with a city-wide fiber optic network. The fiber network will be financed with revenue bonds, not a tax levy. The cost for the entire project is estimated between $20 to $25 million and completion of the fiber network will take approximately 18 months.

A referendum passed by 74% in September showing that the residents of Monticello were in favor of having telephone, Internet and cable TV services offered by the City over the fiber optic network. The name of the business entity will be FiberNet Monticello.

In mid-November, the city council authorized a contract with Michels Communications for the installation of the co-locate fiber system and conduit, which includes a connection to the co-locate equipment at city hall. City officials and interested residents showed up for a groundbreaking ceremony on November 27 to kick of the project. Currently, the City is securing revenue bonds and is in the process of selecting an engineering firm for the design/build portion of the project.

“It’s a great opportunity for current and future Monticello business and industries to utilize this fiber technology. It will also create some very good jobs in our city,” Mayor Herbst said.

The first customers of the fiber optic network could receive service by spring and early summer of 2009.

For more information visit the website: www.MonticelloFiber.com

Internet Outages Across the Middle East

Thanks to Ann Higgins for the update on the Internet outages in the Middle East (Damaged undersea cable causes Internet outages across Middle East).

Apparently two undersea cables in the Mediterranean were damaged yesterday. Emergency teams are trying to find alternative routes for traffic – including satellite. It’s is expected to day takes to repair the situation. Right now, TeleGeography, a U.S. research group that tracks submarine cables around the world, estimated that the severed lines account for 75 percent of the capacity connecting Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries to Europe.

At this point no one knows what happened. Apparently cables get cut like this pretty frequently, but this is the first time that two have been cut and that has obviously upped the ante. The cables were about a half a mile apart from each other and somewhere between Alexandria, Egypt, and Palermo, Italy.

Updated, informal MN broadband map

A month or so ago I posted an earlier draft broadband map and asked folks for help confirming or denying fiber locations. I heard from a number of people and wanted to create an updated map.

Also I want to thank Geoff Daily for his heads up on the new and improved access to Google Maps for mashups.  

Key:
Green - unconfirmed fiber
Blue - confirmed fiber
Purple - fiber in the loop (not FTTH)
Yellow - they are working on fiber

View Larger Map

Light Speed Project Update

Home and Community Options, Inc, Winona, Minnesota  Peter Walsh, Project Coordinator. 

First the good news:  We have a FTTH connection at our main office!  This blog is being posted at “Light Speed”!  We are trying to be patient waiting for additional sites to be hooked up but the weather just has not helped.  The severe cold has caused all kinds of headaches for HBCI and their technicians have been busy keeping customers connected.  Our project is too far down the triage list to expect priority treatment.  So we are learning to be patient.

 

So this begins our lesson in barriers.  We knew going in that there would be barriers but we didn’t know what they would be.  Of course if we knew what they were going to be we could have anticipated them and been a bit proactive.  But that is the nature of many barriers; they crop up when you least expect them.  We were somewhat surprised to learn that a fair number of our staff are not ready to implement some of the advanced uses of Outlook and Excel and that we needed to offer some additional training for them.  Then we were surprised how much that training was going to cost, so we hunted around and found an independent Microsoft Trainer who is willing work with us.  Now we are endeavoring to put together a training room that we will not have to tear down after every class.  A tenant has just moved out of some of our space and we are commandeering that until it is rented.  This will enable us to set up a formal training center that we can use for a month or so to provide hands-on-training for our staff.

 

We are making good headway with our Remote Monitoring project and have begun wiring our first house.  We hope to begin installing cameras and security sensors next week.  Then it will be an extended period of testing and monitoring the reliability of the system. And, I’m sure we will encounter a few new barriers to overcome. (See blog entry “Obstacles to Remote Monitoring” by Dennis Theede, Executive Director, Home and Community Options, Inc.)

Obstacles to the use of Remote Monitoring Technology

Dennis Theede, Executive Director

Home and Community Options, Inc. 

Home and Community Options, Inc. is participating in a statewide discussion with the Minnesota Department of Human Services, advocates, consumers and providers to discuss the uses of technology to support persons who have disabilities.  Through discussions about service innovation, sponsored in our State, there has been excitement about using technology to support persons who are elderly or disabled and in need of support.  But with the excitement come obstacles to progressing with technology applications.  There are licensing barriers interpreted to require direct on site supervision.  Others in the field site their concerns about the reliability of technology and the fail safe measures required to insure people are kept safe when they use technology as a means of support.  Others express concerns about this technology misused to violate privacy.

 

These barriers cannot be ignored and must be carefully discussed with all stakeholders.  Careful measures need to be incorporated into any applications of technology to support others.  With that said, our society must be responsive to the looming demographic and resource crisis in human services.  The system must be flexible in allowing opportunities for technology to be tried and tested.  Research and data must be attained to validate appropriate applications and prevent uses that put persons in danger.  There must be reasonable allowances to try technology so that along with others in society, technology can be a means of becoming more efficient and enhancing quality of life for those who choose to use it.  Our fear of change and failure to balance dignity of risk with safety should not detour us from using technology to help others.

RUS Community Connect Grant Program Deadline March 28, 2008

Thanks to Bernadine Joselyn for sending the heads up on the latest Rural Utilities Service Grants. (It was just posted yesterday.)

Here are the fast facts from the announcement. Good luck!

Deadline: Mar 28, 2008
Expected Number of Awards: 27
Estimated Total Program Funding: $13,405,500
Award Ceiling: $1,000,000
Award Floor: $50,000

Eligible Applicants: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, For profit organizations other than small businesses, and Small businesses

Description: The Community-Oriented Connectivity Broadband Grant Program is designed to provide financial assistance to furnish broadband service in rural, economically-challenged communities where such service does not currently exist. Grant funds may be utilized to deploy broadband transmission service to critical community facilities, rural residents, and rural businesses and to construct, acquire, or expand, equip, and operate a community center that provides free access to broadband services to community residents for at least two years. Grants will be awarded, on a competitive basis, to entities serving communities of up to 20,000 inhabitants to ensure rural consumers enjoy the same quality and range of telecommunications service as are available in urban and suburban communities.

Minnesota Draft Bill for Broadband Map

Christopher Mitchell (from Institute for Local Self-Reliance) and I have been emailing and eventually talking via Skype about the meeting last week with Rep. Al Juhnke and Rep. Sheldon Johnson on the ‘Connect Minnesota’ telecommunications mapping proposal. As I reported earlier, Brent Legg of Connected Nation presented.

I wasn’t able to attend – but John Reich (from the Commerce and Labor Committee Telecom Regulation & Infrastructure Division) was kind enough to send me a draft version of the bill they are proposing – it’s a very draft version. (Broadband Mapping Draft Bill ) And Christopher was kind enough to send me his notes to share.

My boring factual synopsis:
The bill is for a grant from the Commissioner of Commerce to do a statewide inventory of broadband service. The inventory will include:

1. Residential and business use of broadband, computer, and related technology
2. Barriers to broadband and computer use
3. Demographic analysis of info

Next they’re going to create a map of served and un-served areas using data gathered from broadband providers.

Christopher’s interesting and passionate take on it:

They are talking about millions of dollars over 3 years to develop a map of where broadband is. This does not seem especially helpful at this point. In 3 years, we are going to start encouraging companies to build DSL to rural areas???

Yes, they need connectivity as fast as possible but this plan does not solve the problem as fast as possible and offers the worst possible upgrade path. This is not a means to making rural areas competitive, it is a way to give them crumbs and forget about them. Slow DSL speeds are not going to help economic development.

If this was 1998, I can see how that might seem like a solution. In 2008, this strikes me as waving a white flag and telling the rest of the world, the U.S. is more interested in propping up old monopolist telecom firms than it is in being globally competitive.

I may be wrong about this — and Blandin folks probably know better than most! — but I have to believe that most people in the state who do not have broadband now do understand why it is better than dial-up.

This plan is based on the idea that people need to first be “hooked” on broadband (he frequently used terminology reminiscent of a low-level drug dealer) and then we will figure out how to give them better “broadband” (above 896/256 kbps, it seems).

Sigh. I think the legislature is just frustrated that this is a problem and they can find no good solutions. I think many across the country are in a similar position, so they move forward with a Connected Nation
(ConnectKentucky) approach because they see no better alternative and lack the vision/courage to try something more ambitious.

That said, I think a lot of their success is smoke and mirrors. They brag about how many tech jobs have been created but neglect to mention that nearly all of them are in the cities and not in the rural areas - where this is supposed to be creating them (from what I have read – for all the money they have spent tracking stats, I don’t find much of it very persuasive).

I’m happy to add Christopher’s comments as food for thought for the decision makers.

Overview of Broadband Economics: a presentation from Digital Cities

Thanks to Steven Glapa from Zhone for giving us permission to post a PDF(Zhone Presentation) and MP3 (Seeing Optical with Clarity Zhone Digital City Expo 2008) of his presentation from the Digital Cities Expo in Arizona last week.

He presented a nice background on the different types of broadband. Bill Coleman attended the session and though it would be a big help for blog readers. I looked through the material too. Steve spent time working in telecommunications with Japan, Korea, Europe and so it’s interesting to hear his perspective. One thing he points out is the difference in policy.

Vermont Fiber Network for Rural Areas

Thanks to David Russell for passing on a recent article from the Burlington Free Press (Rural towns bundling a blueprint for broadband). It tracks the process of East Central Vermont Community Fiber Network, a group of 22 rural communities in Vermont and their goal to get fiber.

To take a step back – Tim Nulty, is the chief consultant to the East Central Vermont Group. He spoke at the Blandin Broadband conference about his success developing and deploying broadband in Burlington Vermont. He recently left Burlington Telecom and is using some of the same strategies with the East Central Group.

According to the article the Group has “an agreement between towns; an agreement to design, build and operate the network; and a capital financing lease.” They presented to the board meeting of the Vermont Telecommunications Authority last week. The presenters made no funding requests but asked the state board for support with credit and regulatory hurdles.