Daily Archives: October 14, 2007

Breathing Life into MN Rural Towns

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Mary Treacy sent me a great article from the Twin Cities Daily Planet (Technology: The driving force behind rural Minnesota change). The author, Lee Egerstrom is tracking the 342 Minnesota cities that had fewer than 1,000 people in the 2000 Census and the estimated 150 unincorporated communities that are commercial and residential hubs of rural townships.

This article is the second installment. I think I find the whole series especially interesting as I travel around Ireland to see the economic development that has happened here. Tourism seems to fuel so much here.
Back to MN, Egerstrom talks specifically about Elbow Lakes and Ely in this article. Elbow Lake is using lots of agriculturally-focused technology to farm better and to allow farmers more freedom. In Ely they focused on how people use the Internet (not necessarily broadband – but as those of us who work remotely we know you can’t do it on dialup!) to allow them to work in Ely. They enjoy the beautiful amenities Ely has to offer – but stay in touch and/or run entire business over the Internet.

Egerstrom’s first article (in the series) introduced a theory called Ruttan-Hayami Model of Induced Innovation. It shows a relationship among: Resource Endowment, Cultural Endowments, Technology and Institutions. The health and nature of those relationships can help make a break a town. I’m reducing this quite a bit – but it reminded me a bit of Richard Florida’s Creative Classes – only this theory or perhaps Egerstrom’s fine description seems more suitable to rural areas and small town.

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Broadband Conference: Speaker Intro: Bill Carlson

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Another speaker bio from the upcoming Broadband conference…

Bill Carlson

Short bio
Moose Lake has always been an active supporter of technology. I am the Public Access & Technology Coordinator for the City of Moose Lake. I have been fortunate to participate in the following community projects:

• Twenty five (25) years ago Moose Lake signed a franchise agreement with a cable company to provide two-way public access television to the area. This allows us to broadcast live video protection from seven (7) locations throughout the community. The system works great without any outside intervention.
• The Moose Lake Community School was one of the original participants of an interactive television/classroom project. I was the staff member, who was responsible for the design, setup, and operation of the system for the school district.
• The Mercy Hospital & Health Care Center was part of the Rural Health School Project. They had weekly teleconference/telemedicine session with other participants. My responsibility was to setup and operate the local portion of the teleconference network. I also was responsible for the educational component to train the students on how the system worked.
• I designed, assisted in writing the grant, and responsible for the installation of the high-speed broadband network to providing internet access for the Moose Lake Public Library.
• I was the consultant for the implementation of the Moose Lake Community Broadband Network. The network includes a fiber optic backbone, a fixed wireless system, and a WiFi system.
• I am the Project Coordinator for the Blandin “Get Broadband” Project.
• I am currently working on the public community surveillance system which will be interoperable and have the ability to be monitored at the Emergency Response Center.

What aspects of broadband are on your mind these days?

Moose Lake is trying to incorporate the advantages of using broadband communications technologies into their Emergency Management Plan. The specific portion of the plan that addresses Public Notification and Dissemination of Information is where I will concentrate my remarks.

What are you hoping to learn at the conference?

Sometime we get so focused of our local project that we lose sight of the bigger picture. Conferences are a great way to get a better insight of what is happening in other communities.