For Immediate Release…

Minnesota Community Broadband Awards announced

Communities recognized for robust broadband use

GRAND RAPIDS, Minn. (December 10, 2008) –Blandin Foundation and ADC Foundation, the charitable arm of ADC Telecommunications, have named recipients of the Minnesota Community Broadband Awards, which recognize communities at the forefront of broadband technology use.

The awards acknowledge communities, companies and community institutions that are successfully implementing strategies to improve deployment and use of broadband. Each will receive $2,000 to support additional technology promotion and development within their community. They were made during the “Connected Communities: Making the Net Work for Minnesota,” conference, co-sponsored by the two foundations and held Dec 3-4 at ADC Telecommunications in Eden Prairie, Minn.

“ADC Foundation is delighted to partner with Blandin Foundation in sponsorship of the Minnesota Community Broadband Awards,” said Bill Linder-Scholer, executive director of ADC Foundation. “We recognize that broadband is becoming the essential new infrastructure for communities in the new economy.”

“The Minnesota Community Broadband Awards recognize the efforts of communities large and small to harness the opportunities of high-speed broadband connections, to bring the full benefits of connectivity to their neighborhoods, towns and regions,” said Jim Hoolihan, president and CEO of Blandin Foundation, award co-sponsor. “We hope that by celebrating these visionary communities we also inspire even more efforts and more success in more communities. These awards recognize the importance of partnerships between public, private and non-profit organizations in launching and managing these new technologies.”

Awards were made in two categories.

Broadband infrastructure and services recognizes the provision of high-speed broadband capacity and services to a community, area or region. Recipients are:

• Federated Telephone Cooperative, Chokio, Minn.
http://www.fedtel.net
By the end of 2008, Federated Telephone Cooperative will be the first rural telephone cooperative in the nation to provide fiber to the premise (FTTP) to all its members – more than 2,450 residents of south-central Minnesota. The co-op has been a leader in fiber-optic installation since the mid-1990s, when it was one of two field-trial sites in the nation for rural fiber-optic cable installation.

• Sjoberg’s Inc., Thief River Falls, Minn.
http://trf.mncable.net
Sjoberg’s has provided high-speed internet to small rural communities in northwestern Minnesota since 1998, and is currently deploying FTTP in areas surrounding Thief River Falls; with 87 percent of potential customers signing up for high-speed internet service.

• Hiawatha Broadband Communications, Winona, Minn.
http://www.hbci.com
Hiawatha Broadband got its start in 1992, with the installation of a fiber-optic network to connect educational institutions within the city of Winona. Today, the company delivers voice, video and data services at competitive prices in the communities of Winona, St. Charles and Wabasha – an area of 41,000 residents. Impacts include addition of four new industries, one of the first “laptop” universities, and increased use of videoconferencing and telecommuting.

Broadband market and application development recognize efforts to stimulate community demand for broadband services and/or to deploy advanced broadband applications in business, education, government and health care.

Recipients are:
• Menagha and Sebeka, Minn.
These two communities – with a combined population of 1,930 – are raising awareness of the area’s fiber to the premise (FTTP) network. Efforts include creation of an internship opportunity for a high school senior to provide tech support to other community members, installation of high-speed internet in an assisted living facility, and identifying best locations for public internet access.

• New Ulm Retail Development Corporation, New Ulm, Minn.
http://www.newulm.com
A broad coalition of community partners helped local retailers boost their online presence with web sites and online sales to better compete with big box stores. Training sessions, a new community-wide retail portal, and targeted communications in the newspaper and on the radio were key strategies.

• Home and Community Options, Winona, Minn.
http://www.hco.org
With more than 20 sites in Winona County that provide support and residential services for people with developmental disabilities, Home and Community Options sought to leverage the FTTP infrastructure available in their area. The company is currently implementing a plan to use video and data-transfer to enhance program support, client supervision, recordkeeping and business efficiencies. Key elements include an updated email system and video conferencing to connect to human services and medical facilities.

-END-
For further information
Background on “Connected Communities: Making the Net Work for Minnesota” conference
http://transition.blandinfoundation.org/BBConf08/index.html

Video of winners available at the Blandin on Broadband blog:
http://blandinonbroadband.wordpress.com/2008/12/05/2008-minnesota-community-broadband-awards/

Contact:
Allison Rajala Ahcan, Director of Communications
Blandin Foundation
Phone  218-326-0523 
Cell  218-259-2893 
arahcan@BlandinFoundation.org
www.BlandinFoundation.org

Blandin Foundation
Blandin Foundation, Minnesota’s largest rural-based private foundation, is located in Grand Rapids, Minn. Its mission is to strengthen rural Minnesota communities, especially the Grand Rapids area, through grants, leadership development programs and public policy initiatives.

ADC Foundation
ADC Foundation, the charitable arm of ADC Telecommunications, focuses its grantmaking on solutions to the digital divide and particularly on activities aimed at addressing broadband policy issues and building nonprofit capacity for using information and telecom technologies to more effectively meet community needs. http://www.adc.com/aboutadc/adcfoundation/

Thanks also to Bernadine Joselyn sharing her final remarks. Hearing her impressions from the conference helped me frame my own impressions.

Feasibility Applications
Melissa Reeder, IT Director, City of Northfield
Myron White, Executive Director, Red Wing Port Authority

Government Applications
Merton Auger, City Administrator, City of Buffalo,
Gary Shelton, County Administrator, Scott County

Education Applications
Joe Shultheis, E-Learning Services Coordinator, Century College
Warren Schaeffer, St. Paul College

Video demonstration of Second Life.

I went to this session. This is the second tour I have had of Second Life. I am going to look more into it. What I found interesting was the statistics on how many people participate in virtual worlds. My kids are big Club Penguin fans; and I think that’s where they are starting to catch people. I think they started using CP in first grade. Second Life looks like the most grown up version of the online worlds. The biggest demographic there apparently is single women over 35.

The presenters talked about virtual worlds in higher education. I asked if teachers were trained to teach in a virtual world. They answer was an emphatic no – why would they be? My husband’s a teacher at a community college. He has no idea what Second Life is – so I found that answer surprising. I suspect that either certain teachers gravitate to the option of suing virtual tools and/or most spend a lot of their free time learning it.

Financing Options for Municipality Networks
Milda Hedblom, Dain International & HBC, Inc.
Brenda Krueger, Springsted

Community Broadband Resources
Bill Coleman, Community Technology Advisors
Pam Lehman, Lac qui Parle ED
Heidi Peper, SHE

Health Care Applications
Peter Walsh, Home and Community Options
Jessica Martensen, Lakewood Healthcare
Michael Hawton, MN Health

The video isn’t the highest quality; you’ll want to be in a quiet room to hear everything. (Loads of people asked about my video camera though so I wanted to add that I use a Flip Video. Mine is old – but it’s $130, it fits in my pocket and it is super easy to shoot and upload video.)

In the spirit of a listening session I’m going to post the video asis with few notes:

First is Christopher Mitchell of Institute for Local Self Reliance:

Mike O’Connor asks Chris a question and he answers:

Dawn Hegland from Upper MN Valley Regional Commission

Rick King talks about educating legislators (the audio is very quiet here)

Paavo Pyykkonen from NorthStar Access

Steve Kelley talks about competition

Pam Lehmann from Lac qui Parle County Economic Development Authority

Brent Christenson talks about redirecting (very quiet)

Mike O’Connor invites written comments content support for proposal. In fact his Broadband Task Force blog is a great place to post and send info.

Jerel Nelson from the City of Staples

Cathy Shuman from Monticello and Nancy Hoffman from Benton County

Wrap up by Rick King

First, ADC welcomes us to the global headquarters. (Some folks enjoyed a tour of their factory in Shakopee, where they empty 1000 people. The rest of us enjoyed their terrific hospitality in Eden Prairie!)

Steve Kelley led the session where attendees got to show their opinions through a poll. (Think the Who Wants to be a Millionaire? audience voting – a big thanks to Extension Service for sharing this tool with us!!) There weren’t any big surprises but it was fun. You can see the results in the PPT below.

Rick King led the Policy Listening Session/Task Force portion of the morning.

Panel members (Task Force members on stage) included: Chuck Taylor from Health Partners in IGH. Brent Christenson from the Telecom industry (in Madelia). Kim Ross is the Superintendent of Schools in Houston.

It was interesting to hear from Rick about his reason for getting involved. It’s not to get better broadband for Thomson/Reuters – it’s to get better broadband for the employees so that they can work from home. That would help environmentally; it would help with transportation.

We have infrastructure – road, plans, sidewalks… Broadband should be included. Our infrastructure is out of balance., We need more railroads and broadband.

Why ULTRA is task force name? Because the FCC has ill-defined “high speed”.

The Task Force will have a recommendation for the Legislature in November 2009. The goal is to not to be in the bottom half of the US as far as broadband access/use. We know the budget does not forecast a magic bullet for broadband but it is still important at a State level. It will be interesting to see what the change at the Federal level means.

Craig Taylor: Did a quick poll – some people have electronic medical records, a few had accessed that record in the last 3 months, and one had had an electronic health care visit.

Brent Christenson: Businesses demand drove the access to broadband. They are looking for telecommuters to relocate to Madelia because they can provide Ultra high speed access. They started an economic development agency. Small towns need broadband to thrive. Being on the task force has been enlightening – it’s very balanced.

Kim Ross: There are 22 passionate people on the Task Force. Education will not be a player without Ultra high speed broadband. We can now meet the needs of each student. Technology tools, online learning, helps customize teaching. All of their students now have remote access to class materials. Teachers are enhancing skill and motivation. Lots of students are still using dialup.

Notes on the listening session follow…

Here are the winners:

Broadband infrastructure and services for communities under 2,500 … the winner is Federated Telephone Cooperative of Chokio. General Manager Kevin Beyer accepted the award.

Broadband infrastructure and services for communities between 2,500 and 10,000 .. the winner is Sjoberg’s Inc of Their River Falls. Dick Sjoberg accepted the award.

Broadband infrastructure and services for communities above 10,000 … the winner is Hiawatha Broadband Communications of Winona. Gary Evans accepted the award.

Broadband market and application development communities under 2,500 – … the winner is Menahga Area Historical Society& Museum. Linda Karjala accepted the award.

Broadband market and application development communities between 2,500 and 10,000 . .. the winner is New Ulm Economic Development Cooperation. Brian Tohal accepted the award.

Broadband market and application development communities above 10,000 . .. the winner is Home and Community Options of Winona. Peter Walsh accepted the award.

We were lucky enough to get brief interviews with each winner. Bill Coleman is seen talking with each:

Robert Bell gave the keynote speech tonight. Much of it mirrored his talk earlier but here are some highlights.

Broadband economy brings out community opportunities. There is no such thing as the middle of nowhere. There are opportunities to leverage great quality of life and local expertise as economic potential.

What is an Intelligent Community? One that understands the challenges and rises to the occasion.

7 Habits of Intelligent Communities

1. Have leaders that convince people there is more to be won than lost from the Broadband Economy
2. Have big ambitions and an appetite for action (don’t study things to death – and I quote. Hmmm)
3. Do what it take to get broadband – but don’t fall in love with the technology
4. Create a sustainable model
5. Create and celebrate community champions
6. Work to build a culture of use
7. Plan for economic growth by reducing your emissions

I realized that I could proof my notes and post this on Friday or post asis today. I hope you can overlook any typos.

What is an intelligent community? – Robert Bell

Broadband flattens the world. We compete and collaborate with communities all over the world. Bad News
o Transaction costs went down
o Economy boomed
o It started with the Fortune 1000s – but in the 90s regular people got it too.
o Businesses are looking for appropriate rates for jobs
o Supercharged competition – shortens product development BUT also shortens lifecycle
o Local success is reliant on global issues

Broadband flattens the world. We compete and collaborate with communities all over the world. Good news
o Global trade opportunities emerge
o Innovation becomes important
o Go global for education
o Increase community involvement
• Takes a prolonged, conscious effort to adapt
o Requires collaboration among sectors
o Comfort with change/progress

What are Intelligent Community Indicators?
• Broadband
• Knowledge workforce (creates demand for broadband)
• Innovation (also creates broadband demand)
• Digital Inclusion
• Marketing (tell the community story well)

Marketing & Advocacy

In a global economy, marketing is more important than ever. You need to provide the world with reasons to build or relocate in your area. Need to talk about:

Sell your strengths
o Broadband
o Education
o Degree of economic inequality
o Culture and practice of innovation

• Be dramatic
• Internal advocacy (build up local confidence)

Local comments

MNPRO – an online effort in Minnesota to highlight profile. It’s difficult to get those updated – it’s difficult get communities to update their own profiles. It’s tough because no one’s job depends on it.

Economic developers are judged by traditional means. Economic developers do not get credit for local expansion only when we open any new shops.

Strongest form of marketing is word of mouth. So, economic developers need to get everyone on the same page to promote the community. That’s what has made viral marketing valuable.

Companies take notice in infrastructure projects – and that helps them choose where to relocate, build or open.

Is there a tool to help communities self assess their intelligence quotient? Not yet – but ICN is working on it through the ICN academy (which they are working on).

There’s a lot of good discussion on building from within – but it’s a challenge to change the system. The State and Federal programs target the big business moves , not the smaller entrepreneurial efforts. It’s more effective to work small – but we need the support. But the fact that discussion are happening now indicates that it will be part of the process later – maybe in the few years.

Digital Inclusion

Need to promote digital inclusion. As prosperity has increased, so has inequality. Inequality is inevitable but too much is a bad thing.
• Skills that can be exported digitally are at a premium
• Products that are enhanced with broadband are at a premium
• Need broadband and skills to use broadband
• So we need to improve access, affordability and skills

Success Strategies
• Requires feedback from target users. (And you have to listen to them.)
• Create sustainable capacity for digital inclusion
• Requires long-term investment

What are issues in MN?

The elderly are an issue and they aren’t necessarily interested in technology. Any ideas? In the Netherlands, they have lots of older folks. They set up a network and set up cameras around town so that folks could look out their windows remotely. Helping folks see grandkids is another big motivator. In other words people-to-people connections speaks loudest.

Local governments get accused of pushing things that people don’t want. We want o reach everyone – but how do engage the people that aren’t hearing the message. How? Use other messengers. Get local community e-champions and deputize them to talk for you.

The local community is a great gatekeeper for getting people online because you have services that people want and need.

Small businesses have been asking for web sites so the state works with Intuit, which gives people free lessons and a web site. Wii Bowling is another great use of technology or at least intro to technology for many folks.

Small towns and leadership who don’t use technology is a hard mix. How do you move a leadership who grew up with a secretary who did much of their work? Get them younger peers who use the technology. Once you’re a little insecure, you learn.

Find the early adopters and work with them if the late adopters are your hang up.
Innovation
• Knowledge – knowing what has already been done
• Access to talent
• Access to markets

How do you build an innovative technology?

• Get knowledge workers
• Build innovation (don’t waste time on relocating businesses)
• Think beyond cluster
• Make it easier to start a business
• Create a pipeline for talent
• Access to funding
• Improve access to markets
• Invest in e-government (but think about investment in the community too by thinking about economic development)

How do we do this in MN?

We are building FTTH but folks don’t necessarily think about themselves as innovators. But innovators don’t necessarily focus on technology – innovation comes from somewhere and maybe we can add that into the marketing.

What are you going to do with broadband? Ask before you build to speed ROI. Need to think about applications and connectivity.
Any ideas for rural brain drain? All of this is about kids. You can transform yourself from the middle of nowhere to somewhere with broadband.

Everybody is going to be above average with broadband – but how do we get there when lots of us all really followers? The point is that the bar is being raised for us all. We don’t all need to be leaders – but through leaders comes leadership – which raises that bar. Innovation is local, specific and reaction to the marketplace.

What can states do to encourage development of broadband? Right now you need super majority for a community to provide broadband. That’s not a help. Create a reasonable regulatory environment.

Not all innovation is a new product. It can also be making an old thing better. And lots of innovation is going to fail.

Knowledge Workforce

• Post-industrial economy
• Broadband drives economic incentive for knowledge workers
• Broadband rewards knowledge work
• Education is important but aside from k12 and some higher ed, communities don’t have control

What can communities do?

• Coordinate assets (IP policy)
• Create assets
• Create a culture for knowledge work

Broadband

Why does government get involved?
• To overcome a broadband gap
• To fill a broadband hole
• To make a broadband statement

How does government get involved?
• Policy
• Network for government use
• Public-private partnerships
• Dark fiber and open-access networks
• Direct competition
• Get a sustainable model
• If you compete know that the others are really going to compete
• Need to manage expectations