Monthly Archives: September 2008

Broadband Data Improvement Act approved by House

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This is just a super quick note to say that the House of Representatives approved the Broadband Data Improvement Act, (S. 1492). The Senate approved the bill last week.

The next step is for the House and the Senate to get together to resolve any differences and then it goes to the President for his signature. I’m not a policy expert; I have to hum I’m Just a Bill any time I try to figure out what’s going on with resolutions so I don’t know what the timing will be.

I’m hoping that it will hit the President long after the Wall Street issues have been resolved.

Broadband applications for home use

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For our crafty readers, the Fergus Fall Daily Journal just published a fun article on holiday gifts you can create at home using your computer and often requiring a broadband connection.

If you’re looking for homemade presents this year and baking a fruit cake isn’t your cup of tea you might get some good ideas. But really I wanted to share it because I think this is a sign of ubiquitous need for broadband if not ubiquitous coverage.

Once the local paper assumes that the crafty readers can upload video to their blog you we’ve reached a critical mass.

Demo of Telepresence

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Yesterday Bill Coleman and I got to tour the videoconferencing tools at Video Guidance. I wrote about them about a week ago and that scored us the invitation.

First I have to saw that I see very little HD anything in my real life. I might have to save up for an HD TV! First we saw their regular (HD) videoconferencing tools and they were pretty good. The picture and sound were clear and you could focus the camera (of the people you were looking at) remotely. But it was the telepresence that was really cool.

I took a video. While I love my FlipVideo – I’m the first to admit that the quality isn’t the best but I think it gives the impression enough to share…

(Sorry, video removed upon request of Tandberg, the Telepresence providers.)

We met with Dustin Artwohl, who works primarily with schools and government agencies. It was also fun to hear about some of his projects – such as the school project where districts can remotely save and store video. It seems as if it works like a Video on Demand works at home. They store the video centrally and anyone is the district can access it. So they can save commercial videos (with a site-wide license) and/or save videos of their own making. So say you had a native Mandarin speaking teacher, you could save all of her classes to use now and in the future.

Lakewood Telemedicine update

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Happy Fall!  We are enjoying beautiful fall weather here in central MN.  Our telemedicine program is off to a great start already improving the quality of care provided to our customers.  Our six telemonitoring units are deployed and on active duty, monitoring daily vital signs and assisting the nurses in tracking their client’s health status.  One “win” we have had so far occurred after the nurse noticed her client’s heart rate was getting slower and slower during the week.  The nurse contacted the client, who at the time denied symptoms, but after checking with the MD, a heart medication was found to be the culprit.  The client was taken off the medication and the heart rate returned to normal.  Without this monitoring, the client may have had a number of days of dizziness, general malaise, or worse before the cause was determined. 

The next phase of our project will be marketing.  The telemedicine project manager and I have met with our marketing department to determine the best strategies for getting the word out about our new service.  While there are a few agencies in the area that have telemonitoring, there isn’t anyone that has this kind of technology which includes the Lifestream application- a content-management platform allowing access to information from any internet connection and disease specific content management.  The idea is that in the future, families separated by great distances will be able not only to call on the telephone, but actually see data showing that Grandma is doing well, or Dad answered on his monitor that he is having problems breathing, so he better have someone check on him. 

We are excited to be able to make a difference in health care!

light speed communityThe Blandin Foundation is supporting four standout broadband programs through the Light Speed program. The program’s purpose is to stimulate the deployment of bandwidth intensive applications that connect local institutions to area resident’s home. This post comes from a Light Speed community leader.

Senate Approves Broadband Data Bill

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OK I’m a little late on the uptake for this one but the Broadband Data Improvement Act (S. 1492) passed in the Senate last week (September 26, 2008) in traduced by Commerce Committee Chairman Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) and others (including AAmy Klobuchar (D-Minn.). The goal is “to improve the quality of Federal and State data regarding the availability and quality of broadband services and to promote the deployment of affordable broadband services to all parts of the Nation.”

The Broadband Data Improvement Act (according to the Senate press release) specifically would:

  • Direct the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to conduct inquiries into the deployment of advanced telecommunications services on an annual, rather than periodic, basis.
  • Direct the Census Bureau to include a question in its American Community Survey that assesses levels of residential computer use and dial-up versus broadband Internet subscribership.
  • Direct the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to develop broadband metrics that may be used to provide consumers with broadband connection cost and capability information and improve the process of comparing the deployment and penetration of broadband in the United States with other countries.
  • Direct the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy to conduct a study evaluating the impact of broadband speed and price on small businesses.
  • Establish a program that would provide matching grants to State non-profit, public-private partnerships in support of efforts to more accurately identify barriers to broadband adoption throughout the State.

The Senate bill sounds a lot like the the “Broadband Census of America Act” (H.R. 3919), sponsored by Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), which passed in the House last November.

Advice for the Broadband Task Force

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I’ve been asking folks in rural areas if they have any advice for the Minnesota Broadband Task Force. I started at the Blandin Broadband Strategy Board retreat. These are people who have been working with the Blandin Foundation on our broadband initiatives so they spend time thinking about broadband.

Next I went to Minnesota Development Conference. I spoke to people who live in or work with rural areas; they had some good advice too.

Google’s not happy with FCC White Space tests

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Last month I wrote about the FCC tests on broadcast white spaces – the spaces between the channels that folks (such Google) want to use for wireless broadband.

Well, on Wednesday Google co-founder Larry Page went to the FCC to say that he wasn’t happy with the FCC testing. The tests were supposed to help the FCC determine any potential conflicts with other broadband channels if you open up the white spaces.

Here’s a description of the suspect testing from the Google Policy Blog:

Those tests were intended to assess whether white space device prototypes could sense the presence of wireless microphone signals. However actions suggest that wireless microphone operators actually transmitted not on their normal channels but instead on channels occupied by TV broadcast signals. For instance during the Fed Ex Field test, wireless microphones were improperly used on the very station that carried the broadcast of the game. As a result, the white spaces devices naturally could not detect the microphone signals, as they were hidden by the much more powerful TV signals. The White Spaces Coalition, of which Google is a member, offered a filing with the FCC in late August pointing out what had happened in the test.

It seems as if some folks are OK with the testing that was done and some aren’t. No surprises on who thinks which way – but Google was at the FCC pleading the case for White Space. The FCC is expected to come out with some news regarding White Space soon.

Minneapolis WiFi needs stronger light poles

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No news is good news. I think that’s especially the case with Minneapolis’ WiFi network. When things are running well, we hear nothing. Well, I just read in the Pioneer Press about a hiccup in the system (Wi-Fi dead zone to cost Minneapolis extra $1 million).

The problem is that to keep the network cooking, US Internet hung wireless Internet transmitters on the light poles. The decorative light poles in some areas weren’t strong enough to support the transmitters. So now the city has to replace those poles with stronger poles. Apparently they have to replace the poles with other decorative poles because the houses (in Kenwood, Lake of the Isles and Loring Park neighborhoods – super nice neighborhoods) have already been assessed for the fancy poles.

Replacing the poles is going to cost the City $1 million. The initial project cost US Internet $20 million to build. The City is on the hook for $1.25 million ayear over the next 10 years to use the network.

So, that’s the bad news. The good news, according to the article, “Minneapolis still expects to save $3.5 million on broadband services over the life of the city’s 10-year contract.”

Wireless Network used by Crow Wing Power to serve customers

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Crow Wing Power, Brainerd, Minn. recently reached the one-year mark in a project implementing a 700 MHz licensed wireless broadband communication network from Arcadian Networks. They don’t provide broadband services to their customers but they use the network to better serve their customers with advanced communication and remote metering of service.

This story would be even more on-topic if they did provide broadband services to their customers but I thought it was fun to see the benefits of an enterprise broadband network. Here’s what their IT Manager, Todd O’Hotto said:

“By reducing our costs to supply power, we can keep charges lower for our consumer members while ensuring reliable service delivery. The network has proven itself to be a secure and reliable foundation for our smart grid efforts and smart business in support of our membership.”

100 Megabit Nation by 2015 Please

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A group of techie organizations recently sent a letter to legislators asking them to “consider at your earliest opportunity legislation introduced by Senator Rockefeller and Representative Eshoo to establish important national broadband goals for the United States.”

Here are the details:

Who sent the letter?
Fiber-to-the-Home Council, Information Technology Industry Council, TechNet, Voice On the Net Coalition and Communications Workers of America

Who received the letter?
Chairmen Inouye, Dingell, Markey, and Ranking Members Hutchison, Barton, and Stearns

What do they want?
Establishment of a national next-generation broadband goal of universal 10 megabit-per-second network capability by 2010 and universal 100 megabit-per-second network capability by 2015.

They don’t go into the details of how to provide such speeds but in the spirit of “first you gotta wanna”, I’m all over persuading legislators to make rules that help us want to get up to speed with our broadband coverage and bandwidth.

Free Student Help in Areas of Rural Minnesota

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A couple of years ago I worked with the Center for Small Towns at University of Minnesota, Morris (UMM) and Minnesota Rural Partners on the Minnesota Rural Summit. I have to say that the students that I encountered there were some of the most competent people I have ever met. Also, and I know this is really off topic, but one of our most favorite babysitters went to UMM.

That’s a longish lead in to help announce the Small Town Faculty and Student Fellows Program. Here’s the announcement I got from them earlier today:

Here is the RFP for the Connecting Students and Communities program for a Free UMM Student Assistance. If you know about projects that can benefit from a UMM student assistant in the 12 west central Minnesota counties — Big Stone, Chippewa, Douglas, Grant, Kandiyohi, Lac qui Parle, Pope, Renville, Stevens, Swift, Traverse, and Yellow Medicine encourage them to apply. Applications are due November 7th.

You can learn more from their web site. And here’s an application.

FTTH latest numbers

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FTTH CouncilToday (well yesterday actually but I’m under embargo to not post until tomorrow) I am listening to a webcast on the latest FTTH numbers from the FTTH Council. They check FTTH stats about every 6 months. Here are my notes from the session:

They found that broadband has reached about 61 percent of US homes. At of end of September fiber passed about 13,825,000 homes in the US (that’s 25 percent). That means homes could be hooked up to get FTTH. Homes marketed included 12,369,000 homes. Homes connected rate is at 3,760,000 (that’s about 3.5 percent). Those are the people who have FTTH and can use it.

Most of the FTTH connections are found in about one third of the US. Those areas are covered by Verizon or Independent telcos. Take rates are surpassing 30 percent. So that’s a good sign.

Municipalities are showing interest in FTTH but growth is moderated by difficulties and time to market. Usually municipalities will go to incumbent first. But if they don’t find a willing partner they will go it alone.

Here’s what folks are doing online:

  • High definition TV: 43 percent
  • Video on demand services: 32 percent
  • Full movie downloads: 26 percent
  • Online gaming: 21 percent
  • Home-based businesses: 7 percent
  • Two-way conferencing: 3 percent

Broadband brought up at DFL Fundraiser in Bemidji

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There’s a longish article in The Bemidji Pioneer today talking about a recent DFL fundraiser. I thought I’d draw out the comments on broadband, made by State Rep. Brita Sailer, DFL-Park Rapids. I’m not really following any topics outside broadband up there and I don’t mean to give air time to one side over another but the story that she tells of the woman who could work from home if she weren’t on dialup illustrates the problem in many rural areas and I think it’s a story that could be used by Democrats or Republicans…

Sailer, who is seeking a third term and faces former Rep. Doug Lindgren, R-Bagley, said if re-elected she wants to focus on energy and technology. She was ahead of the curve, and now chairs or has important posts in House committees dealing with energy.

Improving energy and technology policies “will keep us ahead of the curve,” she said. “For economy, we’ve got to get more jobs. There is great technology that is available for us. But a lot of it isn’t here.”
Bemidji is well-served with broadband Internet, Sailer said, but outside Bemidji is a different story. “For those of you who don’t (have broadband access), life is little different for you.”

Sailer told of a woman whose employer in Bemidji said she could work from home two or three days a week, and save on transportation costs.

“Excellent — good for the environment, good for her pocketbook, good for everything,” Sailer said. “But one little problem — she has dial-up (Internet access) so she can’t use the files.”
The state of Minnesota needs to do what it can to change that, she said, “so that we can have more jobs all over in our rural area and use that technology that we have in place or should have in place and move that along to benefit people in rural areas.”

Videoconferencing is ready for prime time

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There was a fun article in the Pioneer Press this weekend (Live from (wherever)! It’s your 9 a.m. staff meeting!) on videoconferencing starting to come into its own.

As the article points out the time is right for videoconferencing – gas prices are sky high, there’s a focus on reducing our carbon footprints with less travel and terrorism scares make travel inconvenient. And videoconferencing vendor have stepped up their game to take advantage of the opportunity.

The article takes a look at Telepresence, a concept I’ve read about for almost two years but never seen. The idea is that Telepresence will make it feel as if remote meeting attendees into the room with you. I know that Bernadine Joselyn mentioned it after his trip to the Killer App conference in May, 2007 and she was impressed.

Video Guidance is a company in Eden Prairie that sells video conferencing systems. Telepresence is the very high end of their offerings. It sounds as if it’s pretty expensive and new – but the popularity of other videoconferencing systems in places such as Target Corporate gives me the impression that the high end systems are just around the corner. The system costs $200,000 but for a large company it would be easy to recoup that costs.

Just for the heck of it I checked to see what roundtrip flight to Chicago (from St Paul) would cost tomorrow – $822. So my expenses for the day would easily be $1000 add in salary and you can see how it would add up.

The article also mentions that broadband has made this all possible so the assumption is that users on both ends would have ready access to broadband- and we’re working on that.

Citizen Journalists – media or not?

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My kids getting interviewed at RNC by Annie Baxter at MPR

My kids getting interviewed at RNC Demonstration by Annie Baxter at MPR

At the beginning of the month I was completely drawn in by the RNC. I live in St Paul. I’m not super political – but I’m a sucker for taking my kids to big, historical events. I wrote about it in our personal blog, but even that entry is as apolitical as I could be. I made a conscious decision to not mention it other places, such as this blog, but an article in TwinCities.com/Pioneer Press opened the door for me to talk about it and really to frame my own experience based on their comments. (Protester or press? During RNC, it often didn’t matter.)

The article outlines the number of journalists that were arrested at the RNC, most famously Amy Goodwin from Democracy Now. It also describes the difficulty that the police had in determining who was Press. Heck, even I was holding a video camera most of the time I was there. Luckily I was also holding my daughters’ hands, which I think gave me higher credentials most of the time.

I can’t talk too much about the event without getting off track. I will say that my own experience and others I’ve talked to – we noted that there seemed to be 2, to 3 to 4 times as many police officers as protesters, more than half the police in riot gear. So maybe they should have been in a position to ask questions first but I wasn’t in their shoes, maybe they had different orders. Also from what I saw people weren’t disguising themselves. What I said to my kids on the way there was – don’t stand too close to anyone wearing a bandana on their face; don’t bother the cops if you get lost, find a mama with a cell phone and have her call me. And those were the two extremes to avoid.

Back to the issue that relates to broadband (kinda) – citizen journalism. I think that a silver lining from the RNC is that this will boost the conversation about citizen journalism. Clearly it’s here to stay.
I’ve talked about the role of citizen journalists, placebloggers, whatever you want to call them before. Especially in rural areas, when traditional local media has disappeared or cut back, local folks have been pick up the slack. Becky LaPlant wrote about her experience at The New Pamphleteers/New Reporters: A Passion for Place, where while many were making distinctions between “big J” and “little j” journalists, John Nichols issued an invitation to think of anyone who gathers information and conveys it to others as a journalist.

The technology and availability of broadband have supported this effort. Digital video cameras are cheap. It’s free to post the video to YouTube. It’s free to start a blog to promote and frame your video with commentary. And others can comment on your videos and blog for free.

John Nichols (from the conference Becky attended) noted that journalism ethics are a lie; that has been replaced (or maybe always came from) personal ethics. And that’s what I saw a lot last week – people using personal ethics and people documenting events that supported or thwarted their personal ethics. I think it’s a great thing and one upshot I love – the debate that will arise about what do you do with citizen journalists (say at a Convention) because I think the answer is – assume the need to be transparent – and how can the existing infrastructure make room for citizen journalists.

I’m hoping this fall to highlight some of the Minnesota citizen journalists and place bloggers.