News from the Blandin on Broadband Blog

Governor Dayton Recommends a Broadband Development Office
In his proposed budget, Governor Dayton recommends funding for a Broadband Development Office to coordinate broadband deployment projects and work toward developing a Minnesota Fiber Collaboration Database and a statewide “dig once” program. The Broadband Development Office would supply logistical resources to the Governor’s Broadband Task Force and staff resources to provide technical analysis and advice. http://wp.me/p3if7-26q It is unclear how the office would work with the current broadband office. http://tinyurl.com/9wbes2b

Blandin Broadband Communities (BBCs) Launch

In February, the Blandin Foundation team met with nine BBC communities united in their goal to expand broadband in their areas. Each community has a different set of assets, challenges and goals – but there was a lot of overlap too. Like many Minnesota communities, they had uneven access to broadband; for most that meant decent to good access in town and slower speeds on the outskirts. Almost every community had one sector that was doing well with broadband – often the school, health care or local government. And everyone had residents on the far side of the digital divide. It will be interesting to see how these gaps narrow as their projects progress. http://wp.me/p3if7-26P

MN Broadband Task Force Shares Recommendations with Legislators

The Minnesota Broadband Task Force has been talking with legislators about the recommendations they made last month. They met with the Senate Committee on Jobs, Agriculture and Rural Developmenthttp://wp.me/p3if7-27i and the House Committee on Labor, Workplace and Regulated Industries.http://wp.me/p3if7-26I They presented recommendations to the business community at an MHTA event.http://wp.me/p3if7-25N

The Task Force also held a regular meeting to discuss how to move forward with the recommendations in 2013. Representative Sheldon Johnson and Senator Dan Sparks attended part of the session. Both were interested in moving forward with the recommendations, with the caveat that funding from the Legislature would be difficult this year. http://wp.me/p3if7-277

Policy Topics:

Before the session even began, House Commerce Chairman Joe Atkins predicted that broadband would be a hot topic at the Legislature. http://wp.me/p3if7-24RBelow are some topics that have come up in Minnesota and on the federal policy stage.

• Asking State to Keep Resident Emails Private: Legislation has been introduced to keep resident emails private when they have been submitted to the State and local agencies – such as for snow removal updates. http://wp.me/p3if7-26M
• Taxing Online Purchases: Governor Dayton supports taxing online purchases. http://wp.me/p3if7-26q This follows a national effort, the Marketplace Fairness Act, which strives to level the playing field for online and Main Street businesses as well as increase tax base for local governments.http://wp.me/p3if7-21b
• Primer on Public Utilities Commission: The Minnesota PUC met with legislators to talk about what they do and the impact federal legislation has had on telecommunications regulations locally.http://wp.me/p3if7-26C
• Federal Compliance: Baller Herbst Law Group shares information for providers of cable television, telecommunications, interconnected VoIP, Internet access, and other communications and information services on Federal Communications law compliance for 2013. http://wp.me/p3if7-25B
• Copyright Policing to Start Soon: The copyright alert system partners ISPs and Intellectual property organizations in an effort to monitor file-sharing networks and seek out potential copyright violators. ISPs plan to implement the system soon along with penalties that include redirecting traffic away from copyrighted material and throttling service for the end user. This may be an issue for some public hotspots, such as coffee shops, because monitoring may shed a light on ISP customers who have ignored (or been unaware of) contractual agreements to not provide public access to their broadband connections. http://wp.me/p3if7-26F

Local Broadband News

Anoka County Connect Anoka County received ARRA funding to construct an approximately 286 mile fiber network throughout Anoka County linking 145 governmental institutions. Construction of that network is almost complete. http://wp.me/p3if7-26e

Brainerd Alane Ferguson, author of the Christopher Series, visits with students at Brainerd High School through technology of Skype. http://wp.me/p3if7-25Q

Farmington Farmington School Superintendent Jay Haugen comments on their classroom iPad program, “Technology can help students individualize their own learning.” http://wp.me/p3if7-25g

Jordan Policy changes make it easier for seniors in Jordan to use telehealth tools to maintain good health, while health care providers continue to get compensated for patient’s good health. http://wp.me/p3if7-27L

Kanabec County Kanabec County partners with Blandin Foundation to educate residents and business owners about the options and uses for broadband. http://wp.me/p3if7-27v Â

Lac qui Parle Valley School District Lac qui Parle Valley, one of the new Blandin Broadband Communities, talks about their goals for broadband expansion. http://wp.me/p3if7-24V

Mille Lacs County Mille Lacs, one of the new Blandin Broadband Communities, talks about their goals for broadband expansion. http://wp.me/p3if7-24Z

Northern Minnesota  What is broadband life like for folks on the Range? “We pay more than $1,000 a year for our satellite internet and routinely hit our “data cap,” after which our fast speeds are rendered slower than dial up.”http://wp.me/p3if7-26k

Red Wing Red Wing Port Authority Exec Director Randy Olson and Division Head of Information Services Laura Blair are featured on Gigabit Nation Radio talking about driving broadband adoption and network financial sustainability. http://wp.me/p3if7-27f

Rochester Mayo Clinic announces a $5 billion economic development initiative to increase livability in Rochester.http://wp.me/p3if7-27s

Southeastern Minnesota Connect Minnesota maps show broadband access throughout the state. The Post Bulletin notes that Southeastern Minnesota maps show room for improvement. In southeastern Minnesota, Goodhue and Wabasha counties have the best coverage at 40-50 percent; Olmsted and Winona counties have the worst at less than 20 percent. http://wp.me/p3if7-26n

Twin Cities Aereo, a startup that lets consumers stream broadcast-TV channels on computers and mobile devices, will enter the Twin Cities market this year. http://wp.me/p3if7-25y

Willmar PCs for People affiliate in Willmar is looking for donations of used computers to refurbish and distribute to families in need of home computers. http://wp.me/p3if7-26Z

Events

February 5: MHTA Session Preview: Tech, Innovation and Life Science Industries (St Paul)http://wp.me/p3if7-26T

February 6: Digital Learning Day (various) http://www.digitallearningday.org

February 7: Broadband Summit: Broadband Adoption and Usage – What Have We Learned? (online)http://wp.me/p3if7-25b

February 19: Minnesota Broadband Task Force (Twin Cities) http://tinyurl.com/7n2syt8

February 26: Women Leading in Technology (Minneapolis): MHTA Event http://tinyurl.com/b67fjlk

February 28: East Central Regional Broadband Summit (Hinckley) http://wp.me/p3if7-275

March 9-10: Nerdery Website Challenge (Twin Cities) nonprofits apply to get a free website (or website upgrade) http://wp.me/p3if7-268

March 20-21: Library Technology Conference 2013 (St Paul) http://libtechconf.org/

March 25-27: Minnesota Telecom Alliance Annual Conference (Minneapolis)http://tinyurl.com/4696vm6

April 10: Technology and Communications Conference (Minneapolis) http://tinyurl.com/7rawqvn

April 11-13: NTEN: Nonprofit Technology Conference (Minneapolis) http://www.nten.org/ntc

April 30: MHTA Spring Conference (Minneapolis) http://tinyurl.com/7t6oner

June 1-2: Civic Hack Day (various locations TBA) http://wp.me/p3if7-26t

Looking for more events? Check out TechDotMN’s calendar http://tech.mn/events/. Many events are based in the Twin Cities but it is a comprehensive list. (If you have an upcoming event, consider submitting it.)

Stirring the Pot

After 12 years in business as a consultant, I have managed to fill two four-drawer filing cabinets with paper.  In anticipation of installation of a new floor in my home office, I am doing some office cleaning and paper management.   I am managing to recycle about three-quarters of the paper in the cabinets.  Luckily my garbage guys have mechanical devices on their trucks!  I am stunned to think that I could be storing all of this information on a couple of flash drives.

My initial community technology assessments found that dial-up was standard for homes and ISDN and frame relay were used by schools and hospitals.  DSL was an emerging technology.  Dedicated video conference networks were state of the art with 384k connections.  My reports focus on the emergence of the Internet as a critical tool for community development.   An advanced website had five or six pages and we encouraged page owners to update them once a quarter for freshness.

Today, Gig networks connect many school systems and many rural farms and lake cabins have FTTH connectivity. Wow, that is progress!  Today, many businesses and organizations have online strategies that combine web pages, blogs and social media tools like Facebook and Twitter.  Again, wow!!  Mobile devices are a common way to connect with texts, tweets, maps, apps and more.  Wow, wow and wow!!

While there has been great progress in connectivity, the flip side is that many still lack connectivity that meets state broadband standards.  For those with dial-up or slow DSL the gap is even more pronounced and its impact is greater.  For those who did not have home broadband Internet in 2000, it was considered an inconvenience.  Today, it means less access to critical information and a lack of ability to communicate fully with the world around.  The connectivity gap for residents using dial-up compared to early DSL was 200 Kbps; today the gap is from somewhere under 56 kbps to 10 Mb to 50 Mb to 1 Gb depending on where you live and your ability to pay.  The gap for schools and health care facilities has grown from a 56 k frame relay connection or a T1 (1.54 Mbps) to many 1 Gb school or health care networks.  And yes, in the past week I met with a clinic that cannot get more than one T1 from their incumbent telco.

On the applications side, we know that barely a majority of small businesses have a website, fewer have claimed their Google Places and that many have not jumped into the social media game.  We know that many small businesses are resistant to change and are slow to adapt.  From my perspective, they can choose to adopt and compete, or not.

I do have significant concerns for those who cannot connect due to lack of availability and affordability.  With changes in education and health care coming full speed down the applications track, the inability to connect will mean limited access to these critical services and an inability to fully participate in today’s society.  Their lack of access will translate into a lack of services for them and unrealized human potential.  It will also mean higher costs for society as duplicative and inefficient service delivery mechanisms will need to be maintained with tax dollars.

Lots of work yet to do in the broadband world.  And on my filing system!