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.

Lac qui Parle County Talks Broadband

Over 30 community leaders from economic development, local government, education, business and health care met yesterday in Dawson, MN to begin a discussion on broadband deployment and use. Lac qui Parle County is in western Minnesota on the South Dakota border. The county’s communities range in size from just under 2,000 people down to towns with fewer than 100 residents. In the countryside, the farms can be large and the residents widely scattered. I was pleased to see several county commissioners and elected officials at the meeting. The group really understood the need to work on this topic at the county and regional level, rather than focus at the city level.

Existing Internet providers were well represented, including Farmers Mutual Telephone Cooperative, Frontier Communications, Farmers Cooperative Association and MVTV. Representing Blandin Foundation through Community Broadband Resources, I provided some background information on broadband technologies and the issues that rural communities are facing.

We talked extensively about the mix of existing service providers within the county and learned about some planned improvements. For example, Farmers Mutual Telephone Cooperative will have FTTP to every subscriber in its service area by the end of 2009. Frontier Communications is upgrading their backbone pipe into the region which will enable more capacity to the end-customers. They are also beginning to extend DSL services into the more rural parts of their exchange. The wireless providers talked about their ability to reach into the countryside.

People understood that this will require an incremental approach. Two first step needs emerged from the discussion – better understanding of what is available where and the need to education consumers, especially businesses, about the power of broadband and broadband applications. I look forward to meeting again with this motivated community.

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.

Drawing a map for broadband

Our fun news of the day is Blandin Foundation President, Jim Hoolihan’s Op-Ed piece in the Pioneer Press.

Jim praises the leadership in the state for their recent decision to create a Broadband Task Force. He offers some advice for the yet-to-be-name task force members:

We commend these principles as a starting point for the state’s broadband task force:

Affordability: Find innovative ways to make broadband affordable in order for all to experience Internet advantages;

Collaboration: Establish public-private collaborations;

Competitiveness: Increased customer choice and innovation are positive outcomes; encourage competition among service providers;

Interoperability: Regardless of the technology used for ultra-high-speed delivery, all systems must seamlessly interoperate with all other technologies;

Neutrality: Ultra-high-speed broadband policy should be promoted regardless of the technology platform that delivers it;

Research: Reward ongoing broadband innovation and continued research;

Symmetry: Provide symmetric speeds (same speeds upstream and downstream) to improve people’s ability to share information;

Ubiquity: Support the concept that eventually ultra-high-speed broadband should be available to every person, business and institution in our state

World class: Settle for nothing less than a world-class ultra-high-speed broadband system.

Minnesota Broadband Task Force: Looking for a Few Good People

I also mentioned this in the eNews edition yesterday – but it seemed important enough to mention here too…

About two weeks ago, the Broadband Study Bill was signed, calling for the creation of a Broadband Task Force. So I am very heartened to see how quickly the Broadband Task Force is getting off the ground.

The Secretary of State’s office just posted a notice of vacancies on their web site. The application deadline is Tuesday, May 27, and the Governor may appoint the members of the Task Force as early as June 6. Not too shabby.

I would encourage folks on the frontline - especially in rural areas to apply for the post. Having real voices from practitioners on the board will greatly increase the value of the final report.

Towards that end, I know that the Blandin Foundation will be working with our Strategy Broad members to help them apply.

Broadband or Internet news from towns around Minnesota

Yesterday we sent out the Blandin eNews. It always includes highlights of the last month from the blog. But it also includes broadband news from around the state, which I wanted to share here too.

Clearwater
With support from the Blandin Foundation, the Clearwater Economic Development Authority is assessing their community’s telecommunications environment as they are not sure if their existing services are meeting the current and future needs of their community. (http://tinyurl.com/6k92zp)

Cook County
Cook County Higher Education and the Northeast Entrepreneur Fund held a class for business owners on Web Site Magic. (http://tinyurl.com/57hjp7)

Duluth
The Duluth Public Library is reopening with an expanded computer lab of 14 computers with Internet access. (http://tinyurl.com/5bmxwa)

Iron Range
Gary Fields (who has worked with the Blandin Foundation on broadband projects) and Tim Nulty (who led the lauded effort in Burlington VT) have been hired by Iron Range Community Fibernet to make presentations to the 11 FiberNet communities to talk about their plans to develop a financial plan and move forward to design and implement fiber to the home (FTTH). (http://tinyurl.com/6pokcp)

Itasca State Park
State parks across the nation are installing WiFi. In Minnesota the effort is starting in Itasca State Park. (http://tinyurl.com/5muaxd)

Marshall
Staff members at the Prairieland Genealogical Society and the History Center at Southwest Minnesota State University are embracing technology both as a way to store information on genealogy records and a way to reach patrons. (http://tinyurl.com/6k25a5)

Minneapolis
WiFi is up and running throughout Minneapolis but the speeds are not consistent. Buying a WiFi booster from US Internet will help users get better speeds. (http://tinyurl.com/5qxbcq)

Monticello
Progress continues on FTTH in Monticello as reported by the Monticello Fiber Optic Committee in Mid April. (http://tinyurl.com/6jx4e5)

New Ulm
A young entrepreneur in New Ulm makes a living by selling hand-sewn bags online using a web site called Etsy, which specializes in handmade items. (http://tinyurl.com/55qybx)

North Dakota
Candidates in North Dakota are already taking the campaigns to the Internet with Facebook and MySpace pages. (http://tinyurl.com/6coowe)

Red Wing
The Red Wing City Council and the Red Wing Port Authority approved Lookout Point Communications to conduct a FTTH feasibility study for Red Wing (a recipient of Blandin Foundation Get Broadband funds).

Staples
Lakewood Health Systems (a Blandin Foundation Light Speed funded program) is researching a telemonitoring purchase option. Their report on patients who currently avail of some remote monitoring services indicates that the advantages are clear. (http://tinyurl.com/6g9z2t)

Twin Cities
Comcast announces big broadband service in the Twin Cities. With the new service, subscribers will be able to download at speeds of up to 50 megabits per second and upload at speeds of 5 megabits per second. (http://tinyurl.com/5pnyqw)

Waseca
The Waseca County Public Library offered a free class called Senior Surf Day, designed to teach the ins and outs of modern technology. (http://tinyurl.com/5gvmsa)

Willmar
Kandiyohi County Economic Development Commission (a recipient of Blandin Foundation Get Broadband funds) recently approved payment to Bonnema Surveys Inc. to create a web-based mapping system for all the high-speed Internet coverage areas in Kandiyohi County (http://tinyurl.com/65sp79)

Winona
Home and Community Options Inc (a Blandin Foundation Light Speed funded program) is pleased with the response of care facility staff regarding training to use e-file system and with installation of remote monitoring systems. Unfortunately cold weather has slowed the actual installation of fiber. (http://tinyurl.com/5649h7)

Broadband Discussion on Radio Program in Cook County Minnesota

Last week (or so), Blandin on Broadband blogger Bill Coleman was on WTIP radio as part of a discussion on broadband. (WTIP is based in Cook County.) The conversation also included Danna Asche (Blandin Broadband Strategy Board Member) and Jack McDonald, from Boreal Access (a North Shore ISP).

The radio program is archived online.

The program addresses broadband from the perspective of the general public. So it starts with a discussion of what is broadband and why should we want it.

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!

FiberNet in Iron Range is back on track

Last month we reported that the project was at a crossroads. They were committed to moving forward, the method was undecided.

Well they are starting to move forward once again and have started by hiring Gary Fields (who has worked with Blandin in the past) and Tim Nulty (speaker from the Blandin Broadband Conference last fall).

Gary and Tim are going to make presentations to the 11 FiberNet communities to talk about their plans to develop a financial plan. If funded, the network would be operated jointly by the participating cities, would also offer high speed services (telephone, ultra high speed Internet, and video, including cable television) to customers in the participating communities.

Thus far the FiberNet Project has been funded primarily by the Blandin Foundation and Iron Range Resources. However, to move forward it looks as if the communities will be asked to lend 15,000 to the project to pay for completion of a bankable business plan.

For more information, visit the Timberjay article (Fibernet project takes a key step forward).

FiberNet Monticello April 2008 Update

Have you ever wanted to be a fly on the wall as a town funded, designed and implemented fiber into their community? Well thanks to Lynne Dahl-Flemming we got something even better – we’ve got the notes from the fly on the wall.

Monticello received funding from Blandin Foundation as part of the Get Broadband program. After an amazing referendum vote for fiber last fall, they are moving ahead in all direction. Read on to hear how it’s going. I think this account will be particularly interesting to anyone who is in a position to consider fiber in their area…