News from the Blandin on Broadband Blog

Governor Signs $20 Million Broadband Fund
The Broadband fund proposed at the beginning of the un-session was $100 million in grants and loans to encourage broadband build-out. After discussion the House landed on $25 million; the Senate didn’t discuss it much but the fund was added to the House Omnibus bill. http://wp.me/p3if7-2Hr The number dropped again to $20 million but it passed and the Governor signed it. http://wp.me/p3if7-2HJ

Broadband Task Force Poises for More Recommendations
Perhaps inspired by the results of their work in 2013 (see article above), the Broadband Task set out in small groups to brainstorm more recommendation to work on in 2014. They also learned a lot about cyber security. http://wp.me/p3if7-2HJ

Meet the Broadband Policymakers
The Humphrey Institute and Blandin Foundation are hosting a TISP Broadband Roundtable on June 17 in Minneapolis. The inclusive Roundtable brings together main leaders in the broadband policy debate. Join to learn from this past year as well as next steps in implementation of the Broadband grant program. A lot remains to be done and this Roundtable discussion will help clarify where we are going. http://wp.me/p3if7-2Ic

Rural MN broadband access is 57%; Statewide access is 75%
Connect Minnesota unveils results from their latest survey. They found that 74.93% of Minnesota households can access fixed broadband at speeds of at least 10 Mbps download/6 Mbps upload; however, only 57.07% of rural households can access these broadband speeds. http://wp.me/p3if7-2I8

Local Broadband News

Cook and Lake County
Provideo produces a brief video history of broadband deployment in Northeastern Minnesota. http://wp.me/p3if7-2Ii

Deer River
Deer River Clinic will establish a telehealth demonstration site, with support of a $45,000 Blandin Foundation grant, to improve access to specialized medical care in the region. Through Essentia Health’s Telehealth system, the Deer River Clinic will now be able to offer early lung cancer screening, sleep study programs, and even weight loss programs to patients who are a distance away from a major medical center. http://wp.me/p3if7-2Io

Goodhue County
Goodhue County Education District will provide licensed staff members access to online professional development courses available through high-speed Internet, with support of a $50,000 Blandin Foundation grant. Online courses can be tailored to staff’s individual needs and will be a more convenient option to earn required continuing education units rather than having to travel to conferences, classes, and workshops. http://wp.me/p3if7-2HV

Kanabec County
Through the Blandin Broadband Communities initiative, Kanabec is enjoying a community portal, local e-business classes and they are working on a telework center. http://wp.me/p3if7-2Hn

Lac qui Parle County
The Lac qui Parle Economic Development Authority will support residents in gaining digital literacy skills available through the local Computer Commuter, with support of a $25,000 Blandin Foundation grant. http://wp.me/p3if7-2I3

Lake County
Through the Blandin Broadband Communities initiative, Lake County is offering intergenerational digital inclusion opportunities, Wi-Fi hotspots and celebrating fiber in Silver Bay. (Fiber is not part of the BBC program but big news.) http://wp.me/p3if7-2Hp

Lake of the Woods County
Through the Blandin Broadband Communities initiative, Lake of the Woods County is hosting local e-business training, deploying Wi-Fi hotspots and is outfitting the library with broadband-ready devices. http://wp.me/p3if7-2Hl

Minneapolis
The City of Minneapolis releases results of their second digital inclusion survey. It indicates that over the last three years, residents have increasingly accessed the Internet using smart phones and tablets, yet access varies across the 11 Minneapolis Communities and socio-economic factors. Residents who identified as lower-income, African-American, older and retired, unemployed or disabled were less likely to own a device with Internet access. Still, ownership of Internet-enabled mobile phones was high, even among those households least likely to own a computer. http://wp.me/p3if7-2Hg

Minneapolis (and Montpellier, France) are working with IBM to make data-driven decisions to rapidly transform the way they provide water, transportation and emergency management. http://wp.me/p3if7-2I5

Minnesota
AT&T has invested more than $525 million in its best-in-class wireless and wired networks in Minnesota from 2010 through 2013. http://wp.me/p3if7-2HD

North Central Minnesota
Headwaters Regional Development Commission (HRDC) will complete an action plan for developing community technology/telework centers in the Headwaters region, with support of a $10,000 Blandin Foundation grant. These physical spaces will provide freelancers, entrepreneurs, telecommuters, and community members with shared access to secure broadband, video conferencing equipment, meeting space and resources like printers and fax machines. http://wp.me/p3if7-2HX

Northwest Minnesota
Northwest Minnesota Foundation (NMF) will work with area businesses to take advantage of more online resources available through high-speed Internet, with support of a $9,750 Blandin Foundation grant. This work will occur as part of the regional IMPACT 20/20 Business Broadband Initiative. http://wp.me/p3if7-2HZ

Prior Lake
Prior Lake’s tech center supports and promotes small local tech businesses. Businesses that outgrow the space are relocated locally to take advantage of area fiber broadband access. http://wp.me/p3if7-2Ie

Ramsey County
Ramsey County Board chooses Comcast to provide broadband and managed-network services for the county government’s building-to-building communications. Two years ago they nearly went with a public-private fiber option that would have opened the door to FTTH. http://wp.me/p3if7-2HB

Region Five (Central MN)
Resilient Region Champions, part of Region Five Development Commission, will develop a rural telehealth program in Central Minnesota, with support of an $8,000 Blandin Foundation grant. http://wp.me/p3if7-2I1

Renville and Sibley Counties
RS Fiber talks to the Institute for Local Self Reliance about their project to create a cooperative to build and run a fiber network to homes, businesses and farms in the area. http://wp.me/p3if7-2HT

Southwest and Central Minnesota
MVTV Wireless continues to grow and expand; it now provides Internet access to its customers over 20,000 square miles in rural Southwest and Central Minnesota. http://wp.me/p3if7-2HM

Twin Cities
Comcast plans to transition its Twin Cities customers to Charter Communications as part of a process to facilitate a Comcast-Time Warner merger. http://wp.me/p3if7-2Gv

Events

JUNE 5 Northside Minneapolis Digital Innovation Forum (Minneapolis) http://wp.me/p3if7-2H8

JUNE 12 Approaches for Local Governments to Expand Internet Access Blandin webinar – http://wp.me/p3if7-2Ig (You can check out last month’s webinar online, DIY Tools and Strategies for Communities Google Fiber is NOT Calling http://wp.me/p3if7-2GH)

JUNE 17 Broadband Roundtable TISP (Minneapolis) http://wp.me/p3if7-2Ic

JUNE 21-22 Hack for MN (Minneapolis) http://wp.me/p3if7-2HH

JUNE 26 MN Broadband Task Force Meeting http://mn.gov/deed/programs-services/broadband/task-force/task-force.jsp (location TBD)

JULY 23 MN Broadband Task Force Meeting http://mn.gov/deed/programs-services/broadband/task-force/task-force.jsp (location TBD)

Stirring the Pot

By Bill Coleman, Community Technology Advisors

“Connecting the dots” is a metaphor for people who can see the big picture in a complex world of technology, people and trends. In past weeks, I have seen the positive value of connecting people so that 1 + 1  > 2.  I saw references to the powerful impact of “connecting the people” in a Star Tribune article on Fargo Moorhead this weekend, at the Red Wing Ignite hack fest and at several community broadband meetings. With broadband, the universe of possibilities has expanded from local to global.

Last week, Bernadine Joselyn and I spent two days in Washington, DC trying to connect dots, first through a series of meetings with federal agency staff who either use broadband to achieve their mission or fund broadband as their mission, and second, at an excellent workshop of interactive learning and sharing. Both of these opportunities were well-hosted by NTIA, an agency that sees connecting people as a part of their post stimulus mission.

I did a bit of matchmaking myself over the past week. In one opportunity, I connected multiple telecom providers to each other and to regional community broadband advocates and our new Office of Broadband Development. These prospective partners have underutilized assets, that in combination, could improve broadband services in a number of counties at a minimum of capital expense. Combining assets could produce a great partnership, but I would not minimize the challenges of partnering across untraditional lines, especially private-public lines on new ventures. At least, the connection started a discussion.

Spurred by introductions at the state broadband conference, I met with state staff who work with the blind, deaf and hard of hearing community. Over the life of the Blandin broadband initiative, we have not paid very much attention to this community. People who rely on American Sign Language to communicate require a decent broadband connection to use video conferencing technology. For ASL users who want to communicate over distance with those who do not sign, three way connections to translators are required. While translators may be readily available in the metro area, they may not be close at hand in greater Minnesota, especially outside of regional center communities. Some rural residents with these skills may exist but they are not readily identifiable. I had a great conversation with the staff and we came up with several ideas for collaboration. Some of those opportunities might include you!

Sometimes these connections take root with immediate success or they might lay fallow until you provide some tilling and watering. With some, they might not produce at all. In any case, it is spring planting season here in Minnesota so make some connections!