The Fergus Falls Daily Journal just ran a heartening article on broadband use in rural Minnesota. The super quick scoop is a professor from Japan came to 5 rural communities in Minnesota to study how communities are taking advantage of broadband – especially in terms of education and economic development.

She came to Minnesota because of the high deployment of fiber in rural areas. She was really impressed with how communities use the broadband to interact.

It’s a fun article. It sounds as if the people in the communities were as surprised as I was that someone from Japan would come to visit – because I think we could learn from Japan more than they would learn from us. It was nice to see that even if we’re behind in some areas – our ability to work together to make the most of the resources available is world class.