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.

Wired in the West (of Ireland)

Most of the time, I have access to broadband; so most of the time, my interest is more academic than practical. This week my parents are visiting Ireland and we are in Lehinch, a golfing/surfing town on West Coast of Clare, near the Cliffs of Moher.

We are renting a house with WiFi – but I didn’t get the network key for the first 24 hours. I got dizzy and kind of shaky – but I survived. I did contact the keep of the net key twice and visited the library in that first day.

At the library I learned that public access to broadband is tough to come by here. There was no WiFi access in the library but I could use their computers to check email. (No help when/if I needed to update a web site.) The librarian thought that there might be a coffee shop in Lisdoonvarna with WiFi. That’s about 30 minutes away.

I was kind of surprised. There are plenty of signs for residential broadband here –so it is available, but not for visitors. I don’t know the numbers but I have to think that tourism is a huge chunk of the economy here – and I have to think that both golfers and surfers are a pretty wired group.

If I knew that Lisdoonvarna was the “most wired city” in the area – I would have focused my attention on accommodations there. It got me thinking of the Get Broadband communities back home and the number of resorts I work with in the area and how much broadband is a selling point for a visitor like me. And I like to think I’m a desirable visitor. My kids are too young to be too much trouble; I have too many kids for me to be too much trouble; and cost isn’t my first question – access to broadband is.

Potential Broadband Economic in Minnesota Estimated at $2.7 Billion

So at the end of last week I liked an article that was a pure business plan for broadband from a vendor perspective. This week starts with a business case or research report anyways on why the nation needs broadband (from Connected Nation).

“The Economic Impact of Stimulating Broadband Nationally” details the potential state-by-state impact of legislation to accelerate broadband access and use. The report’s findings suggest that the U.S. could realize an economic impact of $134 billion annually by accelerating broadband availability and use across all states. The map above shows the potential for broadband that exists in every U.S. state. Please take the time to review the report and the potential for broadband in the U.S.

Apparently the potential annual economic impact in Minnesota is $2,791,481,531.83.

I have to state first that I’m always a little wary of a report that comes up with such a precise number – but maybe that’s a reflection of my own inability to be both precise and accurate.

Here’s the breakdown they gave for Minnesota:

Additional jobs 4 8,691
Direct Impact Growth $2,021,172,957
Average Annual Healthcare Costs Served $11,446,205
Average Annual Mileage Costs Saved $111,405,012
Average Annual Hours Saved 64,845,051
Value of Hours Saved $647,153,606
Average Annual lbs of CO2 Emissions Cut 56,429,893
Value of Carbon Offsets $304,751
Total annual impact: $2,791,482,532

Digital Cities Expo - Thursday Afternoon

There was interesting discussion about FTTH and economic development this morning at the Digital Cities Expo in Phoenix. While economic development is oftencited as the driving force for municipal involvement, some participants were noting that, by itself, the existence of FTTH is not enough in the absence of other critical economic development assets. Other participants promoted the succedd that their networks had in stimulating competition and lowering prices for business customers. In fact, five times the bandwith for one third the cost. That certainly, at a minimum, levels the playing field and may provide a competitive advantage.

Making sure that local businesses understand how they can use the network is a key ingredient for economic success.

Top Seven Intelligent Communities of the Year

Thanks to Bill Coleman for sending me an article from the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) on their Top Seven Intelligent Communities of the Year. (Folks who have been involved with Blandin for a while may remember that Robert Bell from ICF did a videoconference with Blandin in February, 20006. There was a video archive. I can’t get it to work from Dublin, sadly the good folks who had hosted the video for us may have taken it down.)

Super quick background on the awards: ICF spends about a year selecting the top community. In October, they select 21 Smart Communities (or Smart21) from the nominations they have received. In January, they pare those 21 down to the Top Seven Communities. In May, they announce the Intelligent Community of the Year at the Building the Broadband Economy conference.

Anyways, the ICF has announced their top 7 communities. I’ll paste the brief descriptions from the ICF web site below:

Google Android

Android is an open source operating system for mobile devices. It’s being developed collectively by more than 30 technology and mobile companies, including Google. The organzation is called the Open Handset Alliance. (I think Google actually bought Android back in the summer of 2005.) Android was unveiled last month (Nov 5).

They are providing info on the code now and they have a contest (prizes worth $10 million) for developers to encourage them to create applications for Android.

The goal behind Android is the get better products to the customers faster. By opening up the code, they figure people will come up with cool things and they can work collectively to perfect and deploy these cool thing. (I loved their video explanation so much I had to add it here.)

From a Broadband perspective, this ties in so closely with Google’s interest in the Spectrum Auction. From an economic development perspective, I think it’s a great example of the modern business plan. I think information used to provide a huge competitive intelligence (and really it still does) but making that information available to everyone leads to the next generation or product and business development where it’s the knowledge that becomes valuable – not just the information.

One of the reasons I think that the US is falling behind in the technology arena is that so many people refuse to embrace this new way of thinking about information and business development. I think we see it with all of the debate about trying to get base numbers of current broadband speeds and accessibility.

I think too many people feel that info is proprietary – when if they would open that info up we could all work together to create a better situation.

Broadband is Better than Roads

Through the Baller list, I ran into a great article that sells the green side of broadband (Spread universal broadband access, not asphalt). Here’s the gust as taken from the article:

Universal broadband equals increased telecommuting, which in turn means less roadway demand, fewer greenhouse gas emissions and less pollution. Even if a worker telecommutes a day or two a week, it can make a real difference.

It goes on to talk about the environmental impact of cars on the road and how broadband can help reduce the need for roads. I think it makes perfect sense – but that’s of course because I have either worked entirely from home or telecommute for almost 10 years. Getting cars off the road by promoting telecommuting would have a terrific environmental impact – but almost more importantly I think it improves the quality of life for all of the people who can avoid traffic for a few days or more a week!

USDA Measures Creative Class Areas

While not directly related to broadband I thought the following announcement from the USDA was very interesting and enlightened:

CREATIVE CLASS COUNTY CODES
The creative class thesis—that towns need to attract engineers, architects, artists, and people in other creative occupations to compete in today’s economy—may be particularly relevant to rural communities, which tend to lose much of their talent when young adults leave. The ERS creative class codes indicate a county’s share of population employed in occupations that require “thinking creatively.” A separate break-out of employment in the arts is also included. Data are provided for all counties in the U.S. for 1990 and 2000.
Released Wednesday, October 17, 2007

I have been trying to find time to do something with this – but I think just pointing to it is the best that I can do these days. There is a great map of Creative Class areas on the web site given above. Minnesota does better than Nebraska but not as well as New Miexico.

The Case For Universal Broadband in America: Now!

Thanks to Bernadine Joselyn and Becky LaPlant for forwarding me a recent study from the Center for Creative Voices in Media. The report’s title kind of tells it all — The Case For Universal Broadband in America: Now!

The gist is that in 2004, President Bush made universal broadband a goal – yet not much has happened to make that goal a reality. We’ve slipped down the rankings of countries with high broadband penetration. And the report claims we’ve lost:

• Hundreds of Billions of Dollars in New Economic Development
• Over a Million New, High-Paying Jobs
• Increased Homeland Security and Public Safety
• Better Health Care at Lower Cost
• Enhanced Educational Opportunities
• Greater Citizen Participation in Government and Communities
• More Access to – and Participation in – Journalism, Culture and Entertainment.

Broadband and Economic Development Presentation

I’m cheating a little bit and I’m pre-posting the slides from Bill Coleman’s webinar Broadband and Economic Development: Local and Global. I’m sure it will be as good as his presentation two weeks ago on Global Trends on Broadband - but I wanted to make sure the slides where available for attendees immediately after the presentation - so I’m cheating.

You can view the presentation below - or you can download the presentation here. The final Blandin Broadband webinar will occur Wednesday, October 31. The Fall Blandin Broadband Conference is happening on November 7-8.