Reporting from the Intelligent Community Forum in NYC…

According to the Intelligent Community Forum, an intelligent community invests in broadband, knowledge workers, innovation, digital inclusion and marketing. Seven communities from around the world will be honored for their efforts and success.

I attended a pre-conference session yesterday. One of the highlights was learning about the regional initiative in NE Ohio. This is a 21 county effort on economic development, education and health care. Some 1500 organizations are connected via fiber. Schools have 2 Gb connections. Over 20 hospitals are working together and sharing costs on an electronic medical record.

It is a competitive world….how are doing in this race in Minnesota?

Broadband 2.0 Manifesto

Thanks to Jim Baller (in his email newsletter) for pointing out the Broadband 2.0 Manifesto. In it from Heavy Reading, a research institute, outlines their manifesto for the next generation of broadband:

1. Abundant bandwidth (100 Mbit/s early on 1 Gbit/s later)
2. A two-way highway
3. Always available (aka always on)
4. Wireless and wireline
5. Open access
6. The channel for video
7. A new communications medium (greater convergence in service)
8. Safe and secure
9. Plug and play
10. Policy-enabled

I wanted to do a quick comparison to this list and the Blandin Foundation principles outlined in the Live at the Speed of Light reports published last year.

1. Ubiquity
2. Symmetry
3. Affordable
4. Competition
5. World Class
6. Collaboration
7. Neutrality
8. Interoperability

It’s not necessarily an apples to apples list. I think World Class could mean Abundant Bandwidth. Open Access could translate into competition. I like Heavy Reading’s addition of Safe and Secure. I like that Blandin has included is affordability.

Service that isn’t affordable really isn’t accessible. Heavy Reading is having a couple of conferences on the Future of the Internet – one was held in NY this week but I don’t see any mention of cost on the agenda.

Third Annual Minnebar

Thanks to Becky LaPlant for the heads up on the MinnPost’s article from Graeme Thickens on Minnebar. Minnesbar is an annual “unconference” for the info tech crowd. It was held at Coffman Union at the University of Minnesota. And it sounds like it was great. (I strongly recommend Thickens’ article.)

I will relay two of his points here: networking is important and we ought to take more risks. Techies ought to take more risks to create solutions; entrepreneurs ought to take more risks supporting ideas/solutions.

Placebloggers conference June 3-4 in Minneapolis

I’m so very sad that I won’t be home for this upcoming conference. But I wanted to make sure that word spread so I’m sharing the whole press release.

Meeting to Explore Journalism, Democracy, Place and Blogs

MINNEAPOLIS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Entrepreneurs, editors and operators of local online news and community websites — placebloggers — will gather June 4-5 in one of the first convenings of its kind, to share the trials and tribulations of a news source growing without paper or printing press.

“New Pamphleteers/New Reporters: Convening Entrepreneurs Who Combine Journalism, Democracy, Place and Blogs,” will take place at the McNamara Alumni Center at the University of Minnesota, immediately before the fourth National Conference on Media Reform, also in Minneapolis on June 6-8.

CISCO – Healthcare BizTech Forum – St. Cloud

I learned Wednesday that health care technology purchases account for over 30% of CISCO’s business revenue. CISCO and its partners provide technology tools that track people, information and equipment, enabling better health care management, and hopefully, better and more affordable health care. The day focused on four related topics – security and compliance, wireless technologies, unified communications and RFID technologies.

Security and compliance – Keeping ahead of HIPPA regulations and electronic payment requirements was a major concern of providers. The key to success is to put a plan in place and to systematically pursue that plan. The emphasis was to show strong and credible efforts to meet the regulations and to address any shortcomings.

Wireless technologies – Vendors were displaying cool “star trek” communicators that allowed hands-free communications throughout the hospital, allowing staff to contact specific people or teams of people, depending on the need.

RFID – These devices enable the hospital to track people, equipment and devices so that they are in the right place at the right time. These devices, tied to GPS technologies, allow staff to be able to find what they need, when they need it.

Unified communications – Bringing all of these systems together is a critical task so that information is not lost or does not have to be re-entered into multiple systems.

I was a bit disappointed that there was very little discussion about home health care devices and practices. Maybe at their next seminar!

Need Help Host Citizen Media Outreach Events in Rural Minnesota

I’ve heard great things about the training and conferences provided by E-Democracy in the Twin Cities. So I am happy to pass on the following request. It is a great opportunity for the right community!

———————————————————–
Wanted: Partners to Help Host Citizen Media Outreach Events in Rural Minnesota (See Examples Below)
———————————————————–

Citizen media projects are springing up across the country and the world. Between now and the end of June 2008, E-Democracy.org is hosting Citizen Media Outreach Events across rural Minnesota to showcase some of these exciting projects, and encourage the launch of similar projects in rural Minnesota.

We are looking for organizations or institutions in rural Minnesota interested in co-sponsoring a Citizen Media Outreach Event in their community.

E-Democracy.Org will provide:
  * Speakers/presenters for each event - either experienced
  E-Democracy.Org presenters or newly identified partners
  who are already engaged in citizen media projects in
  rural Minnesota.

Partners will be responsible for:
  * Organizing a local venue and providing local publicity
  for the event.

Contact : team@e-democracy.org
  For more info : http://pages.e-democracy.org/Rural_Voices

Broadband Meeting in St Paul Tonight

Sorry for the last minute notice but there’s a Broadband meeting at St Kate’s (my alma mater) tonight. I’ll post the details below. This is part of the Monday Night for library students and librarians meetings – but it’s not just for librarians. Everyone really is welcome. Just make sure you are legally parked if you opt for street parking. I used to live nearby and I know the cops there are sticklers.

If you do go – please let me know how it goes. Times like these I were a lot closer to home.

Reminder: Tonight at 7 pm
Broadband for Minnesota

Become informed! This is an important issue for libraries & information centers and each of us as citizens.

April 14, 2008, 7-8 pm
Coeur de Catherine Student Center, Room 362,
College of St. Catherine, 2004 Randolph Avenue, St. Paul

Rick King, Chief Operations Officer at Thomson West, will discuss the High Speed Minnesota Bill addressing broadband access in Minnesota. Go to GIG Group website www.giggroup.org to learn more.

This event is sponsored by the Special Libraries Association (SLA) Student Group at St. Kate’s.

Please contact Margaret Ostrander at margaretostrander@hotmail.com with questions. No RSVP is necessary, and everyone is welcome.

Unconference for Online Community Practitioners June 18

Thanks to Bernadine at the Blandin Foundation for the heads up on this conference. Oh I wish I were closer to Mountainview…

The Online Community Unconference is a gathering of online community practitioners — managers, developers, strategists, tools providers, VCs — to discuss experience and strategies in the development and growth of online communities. Those involved in online community development (and social software in general) share many common challenges: community management, platform selection, metrics, marketing, business models, legal issues. The best source of information on all of these challenges is other knowledgeable practitioners.

TO REGISTER:
http://ocu2008.eventbrite.com

The Online Community Unconference is inspired by the emerging “open space” conference format. Last year’s Unconference was a huge success, and we expect this year’s to be even better. We expect to have at least 35 sessions which will be decided at the start of the day. There will also be plenty of time for networking. To see examples of last year’s Unconference sessions, as well as an overview of organizations that attended, check out the 2007 Unconference wiki:
http://www.socialtext.net/ocu2007/

The Unconference is held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, which is a unique venue with plenty of parking and WiFi. Lunch and snacks will be provided, and the Museum exhibits will be open to the group during the breaks.

The event is June 18th. The price is $195 ($175 before May 18). We have reserved the first 25 tickets at a “Super Early Bird” rate of $75. Fee is fully refundable prior to May 18, not refundable after (but is transferable). We also have several tickets reserved at a scholarship rate for students and those who can’t pay full fare. Please email me directly for details: bjohnston@forumone.com

We’re really looking forward to this event and hope to see you there. Tell your colleagues (this event is open to all)!

Again, more details and registration information can be found at:
http://ocu2008.eventbrite.com

Tech Policy Summit 2008

The Tech Policy Summit 2008 was held March 26-28 in Hollywood. I wasn’t there but I thought I’d virtually lurk by checking out the Summit site, blogs and news articles on the event – but then I found the Tech Policy Central site that has done the job for me.
Here are quickie highlights taken from there or from resources cited there:

1. The theme this year was Markets in Transition: Collaborating to Drive Technology Innovation and Adoption.
   Tech Talent Drain One Of The ‘Scariest’ Trends In US, Says Qualcomm Chief – I thought this was interesting as I just listened to a radio program in Ireland about incentives they are creating to encourage more students to study math. The point here was a little different and focused on students from abroad who are educated in the US and then can’t (or don’t) get work here. But building a homegrown interest in math wouldn’t hurt. (Here’s another related article - Congress is holding H-1B boost ‘hostage,’ says Oracle lobbyist.)

   It makes about as much sense as Minnesota feeding and training the farm team for the Yankees.

1. Comcast & BitTorrent are friends. I reported on this earlier – but the timing of the announcement coincided with the conference; c|net posted a nice Q&A with Comcast on the new partnership. (Here’s FCC Commissioner McDowell’s take on it.)
2. I’ve seen the most coverage on a panel session that included Ambassador Richard Russell, the associate director of the White House’s Office on Science and Technology Policy who thinks the US rocks for broadband and Yale Law School’s Susan Crawford doesn’t agree. My favorite reading of the session comes from Slashdot – and as is often the case, it’s the comments that I most enjoy.

Blandin on Broadband shows up in the darnedest places

Yesterday I attended a technology and communications conference sponsored by the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and MAP for Nonprofits. Throughout the day, “Digital Immigrants” (a term used by keynote presenter Beth Kanter for folks who didn’t grow up with technology) were exposed to examples of how Web 2.0 tools such as Flickr and Tweeter, You Tube and Facebook and blogs and wikis could support our work.

Mary Turck of Twin Cities Daily Planet fame and Jeremy Iggers, executive director of the Twin Cities Media Alliance, presented an information-rich session titled “Media Relations in the Age of New Media”. Theirs was a message of change and opportunity – change brought about by the dramatic decline in print media readership (resulting in sharp cuts in news rooms across the country and their ability to cover the news) and opportunity enabled by technologies that put powerful tools in the hands of ordinary citizens. This repositions a growing segment of the population formerly known as “the audience” to partners in a multi-directional communication network.

The take-home message behind all of this is that the stories we tell must remain the constant and the driving force behind the mediums we choose to deliver them. I was jotting this note while Mary was bringing up an example of a blog that, in her opinion, does just that. When I looked back up, I was both surprised and delighted to see the Blandin on Broadband blog projected - bigger than life – on the screen. I shared with the group that the success of the BoB blog (as we affectionately call it) rests squarely on the shoulders of Ann Treacy, our blogger rock star. Thank you Ann, for jumping in with both feet to the age of new media!