March 31, 2007
Yesterday the Hutchinson Leader published an op-ed by Jack Geller, President of the Center for Rural Policy and Development. Jack talked about the three main driving forces behind recent broadband in rural Minnesota: personal entertainment, business and commerce, and public services.
I was lucky enough to talk to Jack about this last month (read more here) but I was interested to learn in this article that in 2006 as much as 70 percent of rural businesses reported that they purchased goods or services online.
Jack talks about this is the first year that broadband users seem to do different tasks than dialup users. In years past broadband and dialup users claimed to do the tasks – broadband users just did them faster.
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MN, Rural | 
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Posted by Ann Treacy
March 31, 2007
I am so excited to be able to share this Minnesota Map of School Districts by Telecommunications Access.
The quick story is that I contacted my old friend Dan Boehlke from TIES for an upcoming article on Internet II for the April eNews. He had just received an email from Dale Carrison of Project Socrates with this map and Dale was kind enough to let me share it on the blog.
The map shows all of the Minnesota school districts and whether or not they belong to a telecom region/cooperative/cluster, and, if so, which region/cooperative/cluster. Apparently a few (4-5) of the districts without affiliations are in discussions with a provider; and 10-12 of the districts are talking about forming a telecom cooperative.
As Dale said in his original email, “As a state, we are certainly moving in the right direction to once again have a K-12 Education and Public Library Learning (and reference and research) Network of Minnesota that interfaces (actually integrates) with the Higher Education Learning Network of Minnesota.”
The map was created with help from the Minnesota Department of Education.
I think it’s very helpful to look at the map to see what is going on with the schools. For a very short time I was actually a computer teacher for a school in Minneapolis. Our biggest challenge was access to working computers and the Internet. I went in thinking we’d be bale to do some really neat things and two weeks into it I just prayed that that I could turn on all of the computers. So it’s nice to see the progress with access – and it was fun to hear from Dan about some of the new technology applications in the schools, but I’ll save that info for eNews.
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MN, education | 
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Posted by Ann Treacy
March 26, 2007
I just heard about this program through the email grapevine. I thought that there might be readers who would qualify and/or could spread the word.
HP is offering grants of HP mobile technology and cash to microenterprise development agencies and programs located in the US, through its 2007 HP US Microenterprise Development Program. Up to 40 grants, each valued at $56,000, will be awarded to nonprofit organizations and higher education institutions that provide start-up assistance, business training, access to capital, and advice to entrepreneurs and very small businesses in low-income communities.
The deadline for submitting an application for is Tuesday, June 5, 2007, 5 pm. Good luck!
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Posted by Ann Treacy
March 23, 2007
The Graduate Library Science Department at the College of St Catherine has free, interesting programs on Monday nights. I thought the program on March 26 would be of interest to some blog readers:
Public Information You Thought Was Private. Panelists include: Robbie LaFleur (Legislative Reference Library); Karla Gedell and Anita Anderson (Minnesota Attorney General’s Library); Robert Horton (Minnesota Historical Society) and Randi Madisen (Minnesota State Law Library)
Time: 7:00 – 8:30
Date: March 26
Place: College of St Catherine 2004 Randolph Ave St Paul MN 55105
Coeur de Catherine Building 355 (directions & campus maps)
These are some super sharp people – after all they’re librarians! I am a graduate of the program and occassional adjunct faculty but even if I weren’t I’d love this topic. I am hoping to go – if you are a regular Blandin on Broadband reader and would be interested in notes from the meeting – please let me know and that might help me get motivated on Monday to get over to the campus to take notes for you. (It’s easy to say on a sunny Friday that I’ll want to go – tougher to actually get going when the time comes on Monday.)
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Posted by Ann Treacy
March 23, 2007
I just finished watching the continuation of the Statewide Cable Franchising discussion in committee meeting. I want to try go get my summary typed out before it leaves me. (I also watched and took notes on last week’s session.)
The plan is to continue this conversation on Friday April 13. It sounds as if the discussion will be moved to Commerce and Labor and officially offered as a bill to be considered next year. Citizens are welcome to contact Elizabeth Emerson, Committee Administrator, at (651) 296-7175 or elizabeth.emerson@house.mn if you are interested in testifying. (They invited everyone to testify several times!) Read the rest of this entry »
2 Comments | Cable, MN, Policy | Permalink
Posted by Ann Treacy
March 22, 2007
I’ve been combing through various local newspapers across Minnesota today to keep up on what’s happening with broadband. There is interesting news in Moorhead where the city wireless Internet service appeared to experience an attack in February this year. (Moorhead was a Round 3 Get Broadband community.)
Apparently the city’s signal was overwhelmed by the signal from a jamming device creating a Denial of Service. Court documents indicate that a “directional antennae” was being used to focus the attack. The attack was traced to a residential home; although a search produced no evidence. Cutting off power to the home did end the attack.
GoMoorhead is the name wireless network that is municipally owned and operated. They serve about 3800 individuals and businesses in the Greater Moorhead area including many at Minnesota State University Moorhead. (Visit the Post-Bulletin for more infromation.)
I tried to find some examples of other cities or communities with similar scares but didn’t come up with much. I did find some articles that I thought were interesting and related: Read the rest of this entry »
26 Comments | Community Networks, Get Broadband, MN, Wireless | Permalink
Posted by Ann Treacy
Posted by Ann Treacy 
