Monthly Archives: September 2010

MIRC October Update

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This week the NTIA announced their final ARRA broadband awards; Minnesota was part of a winning multistate effort to provide online educational opportunities to adults. Connect Minnesota also was awarded funding to extend their mapping in the state for another three years.

We’re excited for the state and it makes us even prouder of our ARRA-funded MIRC project. We feel like the old timers with five months under our belt. Our 11 demonstration communities spent the summer working on their strategies to improve broadband adoption locally. They have unveiled RFPs locally asking folks to submit projects for their consideration. The RDCs have been helping to spread the word beyond the demonstration community borders.

Our project partners have been honing their offerings to meet the needs of the communities. Some folks, such as the University of Minnesota Extension, have hired staff members to manage the program. Other programs, such as PCs for People, have been busy putting computers in the communities and picking up discarded computers to refurbish. We’re in a groove and we’re happy to share our story.

I was pleased to co-present with Bill Coleman and LaDonna Boyd about the Intelligent Community Forum at the annual development conference at DEED. The Intelligent Community Forum provides the underpinnings for our Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities project. You can learn more from our presentation below.

The idea is for communities to build upon a base of solid broadband infrastructure, to pursue the creation, attraction and support of knowledge workers; spur innovation; and address digital inclusion. Communities create their marketing/advocacy story based on these assets.

We’re going to look further into the Intelligent Community Forum with Robert Bell and others October 13-14 at the 2010 Blandin Broadband Conference: Cultivating the Culture of Use.

We will hear from experts, researchers, students and folks in the field who are creating programs to help boost broadband use in their communities. We will also have time and space for attendees to ask questions and tell their stories, and follow up on the work of the Minnesota Ultra High-Speed Broadband Taskforce to answer the question, “Where are we now – one year later?”

The conference is open to everyone. We’re hoping to get a great variety of voices to help paint that picture of where we are – and maybe to start talking about where we will be next year.

Construction to start in Carver County

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Here’s the latest news on Carver County’s ARRA-funded broadband project according to the Herald Journal…

CARVER COUNTY, MN – Work on the $7.2 million Carver County fiber optic ring could begin as early as spring 2011, Carver County officials told the Mayer City Council Monday. The county received a $6 million federal grant to help bring broadband service to the 55 percent of county residents who are currently not served or who are under-served by broadband. The construction period is expected to take about two years.

Broadband views from economic developers

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Craig Settles recently published a survey of economic developers and their views on broadband, broadband use, broadband access and broadband policy. It’s interesting. Some results I would have expected and some I didn’t.

Not surprising:

  • More than 90% of those surveyed found government-recommended goals of 4 Mbps for rural areas inadequate for impacting economic development outcomes.
  • More than 55% believe speeds of 100 Mbps or more are needed, but within three years, not 10 as some Federal agencies (and National Broadband Policy) support.
  • 6% of those surveyed had access to dialup only (that number is showing up consistently!)
  • Most folks found economic development gains (community, business, personal) benefits with broadband.
  • 62% who believe communities will need between 100 Mbps and 1 gigabit access by 2013 to achieve personal economic development goals.

Surprising:

  • 58% of respondents from all areas believe Universal Service Fund reform should enable communities to determine where funds go that are targeted to broadband.
  • 47% felt that a business model where a private provider owned and managed the networks would most likely ensure the area get adequate broadband.
  • 61% believe broadband can help encourage individual entrepreneurship among underserved individuals but only 19% stipulated that it would require support programs.

The report ends with respondent answers to the following question:

How can you and your professional peers help communities get broadband services that improve local economic development?

Craig Settles is going to be following up the raw numbers (with some commentary) with further analysis in the next few days. I’ll keep my eyes open for more.

Final ARRA Broadband announcement

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On Monday, Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)  announced 56 investments totaling $190 million to support state efforts to compete in the digital economy.

Connect Minnesota was awarded $2,761,171. According to the Connect Minnesota site…

The additional Recovery Act funding will allow mapping efforts under the SBDD program to continue for three additional years, while the program also focuses on projects that relate to broadband planning activities, such as the identification of barriers to the adoption of broadband service and information technology services.

The Washington Post reports that Minnesota is involved with one funded project…

California, Louisiana, Minnesota, New York, Oregon and Texas: Portland State University. This $3.3 million grant will fund digital literacy and other training tailored to adult learners. The project intends to train approximately 23,000 people, focusing on economically vulnerable populations, to prepare them for careers in the digital economy.

You can find the whole project description on the NTIA ARRA portal.

I’ve updated my list of MN ARRA awards to include these new awards.

Broadband questions for candidates

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With an eye towards helping broadband resurface in the election, I am trolling the Internet for good broadband questions to ask candidates. I had a few people respond via Twitter and LinkedIn. I might try Facebook. I thought I’d see if the blog readers might have some suggestions. My hope is to share these questions with Debate Minnesota and with Minnesota communities through the Blandin Hot Broadband Topics series.

I’ll post the questions I received so far. If you have questions to add – please add them in the comments below or send them my way (atreacy@treacyinfo.com).  I think the Governor’s race looms greatest this year – but I’d like to see questions for candidates at any level. I’m hoping to pull the Hot Sites article together on Friday.

  1. As a candidate or public official, how important do you think world-class broadband services are for community and economic development? (from Bill Coleman)
  2. If the private sector fails to provide these services, what do you believe the role of the public sector should be to ensure that these services are available? (from Bill Coleman)
  3. What would you do to ensure every Minnesotan has the skills to participate in a broadband economy? (from Mike Wassenaar)
  4. The MN Broadband Taskforce has concentrated on speed as an outcome, and acknowledges that including all Minnesotans in the digital economy is necessary. And yet there are no goals for digital inclusion in the report. What goals for digital inclusion would you aspire to? How would you define digital inclusion? (from Mike Wassenaar)

Technology & Education in NYT Magazine

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Bernadine Joselyn flagged last week’s New York Times Magazine for me – Learning by Playing was the theme. It’s all about how technology has, can have, maybe should have an impact on learning. It’s great reading for anyone interested in technology or education. They don’t mention broadband by name – and not all technologies require broadband – but broadband certainly opens a lot more doors.

I’m tempted to go on and on about what I thought about the various articles – but I suspect for most readers, I’ll be preaching to the choir. So I will say – if you’re interested in technology or education – check it out! The article paints a compelling case for using games and the Internet in education. It engages students and gives them 21st century skills. And I’m not just talking about fast texting fingers – but ability to work within, design, build and fix a system.

Here are some of my other quick highlights:

  • With games it’s OK to fail. Failure urges you to try again. In education failure is disastrous. Mark Zuckerberg (the Facebook Founder who recently gave $100 million to schools in Newark) talked on Oprah about how Facebook is based on lots of failures and a few wild successes. We need that enthusiasm for progress. I often hear people say – keep the bar low and celebrate victory. I loved the idea of make it hard and try until you get to the next level. That leads to progress.
  • “Where a book provides knowledge, Gee says, a good game can provide a learner with knowledge and also experience solving problems using that knowledge.” School books have tried to do this for as long as I can remember with Chapter Questions – just imagine if those self-tests were interactive quizzes. And that’s a weak example of drawing kids in.
  • Looking for an excuse to get your kid a phone? Dial-a-Class is an article that will give you a couple academic examples of mobile use.
  • There’s a pen that records class at you take notes. I could use that at the Broadband Task Force meetings! Here’s a description…
  • The pens perform an interesting trick: when Dervishaj and her classmates write in their notebooks, the pen records audio of whatever is going on around it and links the audio to the handwritten words. If her written notes are inadequate, she can tap the pen on a sentence or word, and the pen plays what the teacher was saying at that precise point.…
    If students have trouble remembering how to tackle that type of problem, these little videos — “pencasts” — are online 24 hours a day. All the students I spoke to said they watch them.
  • One father wrote about home schooling his son…
  • The accelerating pace of technology means his eventual adult career does not exist yet. Of course it won’t be taught in school. But technological smartness can be.

Random observations – but that’s because technology and education is such a big topic. For a number of years I think we’ve been looking at how today’s technology can help us teach yesterday’s classes. It’s great to also see how today’s classroom is being altered to meet the needs, advantages and challenges of today (and hopefully tomorrow’s) technology.

NESC and Blandin Foundation received $200,000 for broadband

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We have fun news to announce about another award we have received with the Northeast Service Cooperative. (I’ll post the full press release below.) We are excited to partner with NESC on this grant. We are committed to working hard together to maximize the benefits of these federal investments for the NE MN communities we serve. NESC’s experience in regional planning and in building collaborative partnerships makes them uniquely qualified to oversee this project.

Also I want to quick congratulate the other Minnesota award recipient – the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe ¬received an award of $47,380. We look forward to hearing more about their grant.

Here is our official announcement…

FEDERAL GRANT OF $200,000 AWARDED IN NORTHEASTERN MINNESOTA

MOUNTAIN IRON – The Northeast Service Cooperative (NESC) and Blandin Foundation will receive $200,000 in federal funding for regional broadband development planning in northeastern Minnesota.

Also partnering with this initiative are Fond Du Lac Reservation, Bois Forte Reservation and Grand Portage Reservation, with project coordination and support by Compass Consulting Inc., NorthSpan, Nordvold Consulting and Cronin Communications.

“High-speed broadband connectivity is important to our region and critical to economic development initiatives especially in the underserved or unserved communities,” said Lyle MacVey, IT director at NESC.

The United States Department of Agriculture announced Thursday that NESC and Blandin Foundation received a Technical Assistance Grant through its Broadband Initiative Program. The NESC and Blandin Foundation applied in June for funding, which was available to round one awardees of stimulus funding.

Funding will enable design, engineering and implementation of a broadband technology plan that will meet the current and future needs of the region. It will specifically address how the region can use broadband infrastructure as a strategy to facilitate expansion of market opportunities for small business and local entrepreneurship, and to support broadband utilization through a region-wide approach.

“A key Blandin Foundation initiative is to make sure Minnesota’s rural communities have access to broadband technology needed for improved quality of life and economic competitiveness,” said Jim Hoolihan, president and CEO of Blandin Foundation. “Competitive rural economies demand connected rural communities. That’s why, with partners like the Northeast Service Cooperative, the Blandin Foundation has tapped national grants to help rural Minnesota make the most of the Internet.”

Planning will address needs in portions of eight counties in northeastern Minnesota including Pine, Carlton, St. Louis, Itasca, Lake, Cook, Koochiching and Aitkin that are considered underserved and unserved.

The project design will focus on implementing a market study to determine business, economic, and broadband needs, developing an engineering design for a regional broadband network, and creating a pro forma financial analysis of a proposed future loan. The project will result in the development of broadband engineering models for connecting the majority of communities and expanding the future of market opportunities for small business. Private sector experts in engineering, project management, and finance will lead each phase.

The region is poised to design and implement this type of plan with the recent successful awards of a $43.5 million grant/loan to the NESC for 915 mile fiber optic middle mile project and the Blandin Foundation’s award of a $4.5 million grant, that will enable the Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities coalition to bring a network of resources to support rural individuals and communities.

ITU encourages worldwide broadband plan

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The ITU (International Telecommunication Union) just posted a world broadband plan or report to the United Nations. It emphatically makes the case for broadband and asks nations to look at their broadband plans in terms of a 2015 deadline…

Put plainly, we believe the models of the mobile and Internet revolutions can transform global development and have fundamentally thrived because they are bottom-up, market-led models. By forging a common vision and understanding of the needs and requirements for ubiquitous and higher capacity access to the Internet, governments have today an unprecedented opportunity to unleash the creativity.

The report is filled with details that delight every broadband lover both in terms of economic devleopment…

The implications are enormous. International estimates suggest that for every 10 per cent increase in broadband penetration we can expect an average of 1.3 per cent additional growth in national gross domestic product (GDP), and we concur with OECD findings that justify rapid broadband roll-out in all OECD member countries. ITU estimates that by 2015 at least half the world’s population should have access to broadband content and communication.

And in terms of cost savings…

In many cases, the social returns of broadband connectivity are potentially much larger than the costs of building networks. Savings in the health sector alone in OECD countries could justify the cost of rolling out a fast broadband network if health costs were to fall between 1.4 per cent and 3.7 per cent as a direct result of having the new network in place. In other words, the inability of all stakeholders to take into account the full social costs and network externalities may lead to nonoptimal provision of services and reduced innovation.

Some recommendations are pretty specific…

We urge national governments not to limit market entry nor tax broadband unnecessarily to enable the market to achieve its full growth potential; to radically rethink the availability of adequate radio frequency spectrum in the broadband era; and to adhere to the guiding principles of fair competition to promote access to all, including fair licensing procedures. At the international level, coordinated standards for interoperability must be established that can grow markets in devices, networks and software through economies of scale and significantly increased user satisfaction.

They also strongly support content creation at the local level and digital literacy programs.

The report gets around offering a goal speed – but they suggest that bandwidth required for applications, always-on, capacity and ability to support multiple users. However I will note that their chart of “what bandwidth is required for what action” started at 56K and went to 100 Mbps. They also noted which counties were aiming for ubiquitous coverage. (The US National Broadband Plan aims for neither ubiquitous coverage nor 100 Mbps by 2015.)

While the report is hard to read (white letters on black background, blue headers, two-column layout), it’s worth the effort. They offer specific advice on how to construct a national broadband policy and then talk about broadband is a means, not an end. Specifically broadband is a mean to reaching Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), such as eradicating hunger and achieving universal primary education.

One thing that’s humbling about the report is that while economic development is recognized as a goal and cost is addresses – the other goals really demonstrate how broadband can help countries work together to solve world issues – such as HIV/AIDS and malaria and ensure environmental stability. It kind of puts the price of infrastructure in perspective when you look at the price of not moving everyone forward.

Senator Klobuchar on broadband

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Senator Amy Klobuchar had an editorial in the Bemidji Pioneer over the weekend. She gave a special nod to the Blandin Foundation for work communities across the state. She also mentioned her co-presenters from her August Broadband Summit with FCC Chairman Genachowski.

Klobuchar gives a call to action…

But we have work to do be-cause we have fallen behind.

Out of 57 industrialized countries, the U.S now ranks 23rd for access, speed and affordability of broadband. Our average connection speed is 4.7 megabytes per second. To put that in perspective, South Korea’s average speed is 33 megabytes per second.

She mentiond the National Brodband Plan, especially mentioning the Universal Service Fund…

Of special interest for rural communities, the plan recommends reform of the Universal Service Fund to reflect the realities of 21st century communications.

Instead of maintaining its historical focus on subsidizing rural telephone service, the fund should be re-focused to support deployment of broadband in rural areas that would otherwise not be served effectively by the private market.

MN Broadband Task Force – September 30

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I just got word on the next Minnesota Broadband Advisory Task Force meeting…

Minnesota Broadband Advisory Task Force
September 30, 2010
Falcon Heights City Hall
2077 Larpenteur Avenue West, Falcon Heights
9am to 3pm

Agenda

  1. Welcome
    1. Peter Lindstrom or Justin Miller on behalf of Falcon Heights
  2. Introduction of guests and public remarks
  3. Approval of Minutes of August 26, 2010 meeting
  4. Legal and policy issues for the task force
    1. Alberto Quintela, MN Department of Commerce
  5. Iowa Broadband Report review
  6. Connect MN – Brent Legg
  7. Lunch break
  8. Connect MN – Continued (Brent Legg and Phillip Brown)
  9. Discuss report drafting
  10. Logistics for future meetings: date, time, location and agenda
  11. Adjournment

Interesting to note the time for public comments at the onset. Mike O’Connor was actually on the spot with the time and place last week.

Update coming soon on White Spaces

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The FCC is expected to make annoucnements regarding use of White Spaces soon. Public Knowledge applauded the upcoming (Sep 23) opportunity to discuss the issue of White Spaces.

I ran into an interesting article on White Spaces in The Register (Microsoft strolls into white spaces).It’s hard to recap the article but in short it gives a glimpse at what’s going on and what could go on with White Spaces.

  • Folks such as Microsoft and Google want white space to be unrestricted. Kind of a if you got ‘em, use ‘em policy that unfortuanutely relies on a “detect-and-avoid” technology that doesn’t seem to work that well.
  • Folks such as FiberTower have been looking to the FCC to reserve some channels for backhaul. And it sounds like they would like to own/manage that backhaul.
  • Others have concern about handing over the backhaul to one company. Access Humboldt and Mountain Area Information Network are two organization with such concerns. They have been mobilizing like-minded folks and have created a letter of concern to the FCC, which they were kind enough to share. I’ll just post their opening here – and suggest that it may be interesting reading to many folks…

As organizations concerned with ensuring fair and equitable access to broadband and to the media, we write to express our concern that proposals to set aside additional channels for wireless microphones, as well as proposals to reserve six channels in rural areas for licensed wireless backhaul, will unduly limit opportunities for new unlicensed wireless technology.

Colorado big winner in ARRA broadband projects

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Thanks to Ann Higgins for the heads up on the big Colorado award. Because it’s Sunday, I’ll give just a snippet of the article and say that I’m suffering a little broadband envy today.

But the state won a $100.6 million federal grant that will be combined with $34.7 million in matching contributions to help build an affordable broadband network across the state, providing access for as many as 230 community institutions — including 178 school districts, 26 libraries and 12 community colleges.
…
Under the new system, speeds initially will be between 20 megabits per second to 1 gigabit per second, with growth capacity to 10Gbps.

The project will be managed by EAGLE_Net, a group that focused on educational access and technology use

More on the Lake County ARRA project

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I had a great conversation with Chris Swanson from Lake County yesterday. I got to know Chris while he was on the Minnesota Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force. (Chris Mitchell at the Institute for Local Self Reliance also did a nice follow up on Lake and Cook County perspective on recent the announcements.)

Here’s the quick take on the winning project:

Lake County
$66,369,064
This approximately $66.3 million award, matched by $3.5 million in private contribution, will allow Lake County to offer FTTP advanced voice, video and data services to every home and business in Lake and eastern Saint Louis Counties. Approximately 37,000 people stand to benefit, as do roughly 1,000 businesses and 98 community institutions. In addition to the 510 jobs Lake County estimates this project will create upfront, it will provide a foundation for economic growth and job creation for decades to come.

Lake County got their letter of acceptance on Monday and I think Chris said they’ve already signed, sealed and delivered it back. While this is called the Lake County project is also includes eastern St Louis County. The service area covers all of Lake County and eastern Saint Louis County, including Ely, Babbitt, Aurora, Hoyt Lakes, Morse Township, Duluth Township, Embarrass Township, White Township, Waasa Township and Bassett Township. If that list sounds familiar, you may be remembering the old Iron Range FiberNet communities. As you may recall the FiberNet included about a dozen communities that were determined to get fiber a few years ago but as some of the larger towns opted out of the project, the opportunities for smaller towns decreased. I think it’s an example of seeds having been planted with germination timeframe all their own. A good reminder that seeds do sprout!

Lake County is excited. They will own the network and it will be managed by National Public Broadband. They plan to offer voice, video and data (triple play). It will be an Open Access model, so other providers will be welcome to come into the area to provide services over the fiber network.

The project is going to be a game changer for the area. For example, Lake County went to a 4-day school week this year. Apparently educators in the area are already talking about how they can use the newfound amazing broadband to keep kids engaged on their days off.

But as Chris pointed out, his company PureDriven has had some experience getting folks excited about fiber in the area. They are also working in Duluth with the prospect of Duluth becoming a Google Gig Town.

Already folks in the areas are calling to find out when they can sign up for service – even if signing up for service puts them on a long waiting list. So that’s exciting to hear.

Update on MN ARRA awards

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A couple of weeks ago I posted a list of ARRA MN awardees. I just updated it after the latest announcement and wanted to make sure that folks had the latest list. I’m hoping to post more on the individual awardees too – sooner and later.

Telework 2010 Conference in October

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In my life away from broadband, I gave a presentation earlier this week on social media tools to the Minnesota Communication Technology Association. While I was there I learned about the following conference…

Telework 2010 Conference in October

October 6th – 6-8 p.m.
October 7th – 8 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Plymouth MN

The Minnesota Telecom Alliance, Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, and the Center for Rural Policy and Development are co-hosting TELEWORK SUMMIT 2010. The Summit will be held at the Radisson Conference Center, 3131 Campus Drive, Plymouth. The networking reception will be held from 6pm to 8pm on October 6. The Summit will run from 8:30 a.m. to Noon on Thursday, October 7. There is NO COST for this event. Our goal is to advance telework and telecommuting in Minnesota. If you are interested in telecommuting this is the event for you, whether your company employs teleworkers, you are looking to promote your community as telework friendly, or just believe telecommuting is crucial to the future of rural economic development this is the event for you.

The event kicks off with a networking reception on Wednesday evening. We all know that the way to get things truly done is by building relationships. What better way to do that than a fun, friendly social environment.

Thursday morning is packed with relevant speakers who will talk about their insights on the topic from the employer’s perspective, teleworker’s perspective, and what DEED has to offer to facilitate telecommuting. The morning will conclude with a panel discussion where you get to ask your questions of the presenters.

See you at the TELEWORK SUMMIT! For more information, contact Brent Christensen at
651-288-3723. To register, visit
www.mnta.org/displayemailforms.cfm?emailformnbr=146622