July 9 webcast for NOFA

July 8, 2009

Just passing this on. I hope to attend – but may not be able. I’ll post notes on the call if I can.

Broadband Stimulus National Town Hall Webcast Attracting National Attention After Release of NOFA

July 9 Event Will Help Educate and Inform Grant Applicants Seeking Access to $4 Billion in Funds

Washington, D.C. – The initial Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA) and programmatic rules for broadband stimulus funds has just been released, with up to $4 billion of funding available in the first round. Time is of the essence, with applications due on August 14, just over a month from now.

To help educate grant applicants, Nati onal League of Cities TV (www.NLCTV.org) in cooperation with VMainStream.com is featuring a free live webcast of the Broadband Stimulus Town Hall Workshop co-sponsored by
Broadband Census, the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) and Alcatel-Lucent. The interactive live workshop will provide a first look at what applicants need to know in putting together successful
broadband grant and loan applications.

Live Webcast & Sign Up Today!
July 9, 2009
2:00 – 4:00 p.m. EDT

Ken Kuchno, Director of the Broadband Division of RUS and an invited NTIA speaker will discuss details of the releases, timing of applications, and how some of the key issues that had been left open these last few months have been resolved with hosts Drew Clark of BroadbandCensus.com and Marty Stern of K&L Gates.

A second panel of experts on NTIA on RUS funding programs will be available to take your questions live. Confirmed panelists include:

John Kneuer, President Kneuer LLC and former NTIA Administrator and Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information
Gary Bolton, VP Global Marketing, Adtran
Maria Browne, Partner, Davis Wright and Tremaine LLP

The program will conclude with a discussion on compliance issues, how the agencies are expected to police waste, fraud and abuse, and what applicants need to pay attention to now to avoid potential issues down the road. Invited guest is Cynthia Schultz, Director of Compliance and Audits, BTOP Program, NTIA.

In June, Clark and Stern hosted a highly successful Broadband Stimulus Live Webcast Town Hall. Join them again for this important event.

TVWorldwide.com, Inc.
4206 F Technology Court
Chantilly, VA 20151
(703) 961-9250

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Posted by Ann Treacy

BIP & BTOP workshops

July 2, 2009

The NTIA & RUS are planning a series of workshops for folks who intend to submit applications for stimulus funding. A workshop will be held in St Paul on July 21.

Here’s the scoop from their web site:

Workshops will include an overview of BTOP-BIP programs, a review of the application process for NTIA
and RUS grants and loans and individual meetings with Rural Development headquarters and field staff.

Pre-registration will close for each city approximately 24 hours prior to each workshop.

Please select the workshop you will attend. If you will attend more than one workshop, complete the registration for your first city and submit a separate registration for any other you’d like to attend.

All workshops run from 8am – 5:30pm local time
Pre-registration will be from 6pm – 9pm local time the evening before each event.

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Posted by Ann Treacy

More problems with Mapping – due to short deadlines?

June 30, 2009

Thanks to Cor Wilson for sending the heads up on an article in Public Knowledge on the problems with mapping based on the experience in Texas and Tennessee.

The problem in Texas was that the State was that the RFP was done too quickly, it was open to nonprofit organizations only – and worst of all, that nonprofit status requirement was not clearly stated. (There’s more but that’s the Reader’s Digest version.) In the end, the contract went to Connected Nation.

In Tennessee, there wasn’t a RFP – the contract was simply awarded to Connected Nation – because they had done a good job with Kentucky and this was a similar project. Naturally “good job” is in the eye of the beholder. Also once you look at the contract it focuses on branding as being as much a primary goal as mapping.

So that’s the article from Public Knowledge.

All of this reminds me of how quickly the stimulus funding applications will go as well and how that gives the advantage to the slick – not necessarily the ones who need it. Now it’s been a big game of hurry up and wait for potential applicants – but once the NOFA is out (and shouldn’t that be today if they want to hit the before July 1 deadline?) it will go fast.

A huge part of the process is how you write the application – and I am concerned that the best and/or most deserving projects won’t have what it takes to get the best application done in time – after all that’s part of what made them the un- and underserved in the first place. If they were slick – they’d have better broadband already!

I hope that we’ll see more partnerships like the Blandin Foundation, Lake County and Hiawatha Broadband where folks with NOFA (or at least proposal) experience are partnering with the folks who need the help.

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Posted by Ann Treacy

Home adoption rates from Pew

June 22, 2009

So after hitting a plateau, it looks like home adoption rates are bumping up again. According to Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, 63% of adult Americans now have broadband internet connections at home, a 15% increases from a year earlier.

The even happier news is that it’s the traditionally offline crowd that’s getting on the broadband bandwagon:

Broadband usage among adults ages 65 or older grew from 19% in May, 2008 to 30% in April, 2009.

Overall, respondents reporting that they live in homes with annual household incomes below $30,000 experienced a 34% growth in home broadband adoption from 2008 to 2009.

On a less positive note, African Americans experienced their second consecutive year of broadband adoption growth that was below average.

Broadband users think it’s really important; 55% of broadband users view a high-speed link at home as “very important”. Still, 7% of Americans are dial-up internet users at home. (That’s about half of the percentage of last year.) They had a range of reasons they didn’t go online at home: it was too expensive. Just not interested, can’t get access, and more.

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Posted by Ann Treacy

Broadband Policy Seminar Grand Rapids June 18, 2009

June 19, 2009

About 30-40 people came to the Blandin Broadband Policy Seminar, including journalists (some from the Twin Cities), Task Force board members, representative from Senator Klobuchar’s office, community leaders. Technologists and folks interested in relocating their new businesses.

There are people who are involved with infrastructure and there are people who are interested in making sure that underserved – get access both in terms of infrastructure and training. People have seen the impact of well used technology and they have lived the results of limited access to technology.

In an effort to get these out in time, I’m rushing this. Hopefully it won’t be too rough. But I thought some folks might want to see it before the meeting tomorrow. Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment | Blandin Foundation, Community Networks, Conferences, Digital Divide, FTTH, Funding, MN, Policy, Rural | Permalink
Posted by Ann Treacy

A sneak peek at the Broadband Task Force recommendations

June 1, 2009

Here are two opportunities to get involved with the Minnesota Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force work. I love that they are so transparent and open to feedback; I hope we can rise to the occasion to tell them what we need.

This month the task force is working on setting some suggested broadband speeds for the state and they have explicitly asked for our help. I’ll paste the request/opportunity below.

The Speed Team sub-group met today and is making good progress.
However, we need help from all Task Force members to really do justice to our assignment. We’ve agreed that we need to go out to subject- matter experts (both on and off the Task Force) and get their help in updating the application-speed-requirements listed in the recent California broadband study. Here are the questions we need help on.

Please review the California Application-Speed Matrix

http://www.urbanusers.com/wiki/index.php?title=California_Application-Speed_Matrix  

1 – In your area of expertise (education, government, business, consumer-use, etc.) do you feel that these are still accurate for present-day applications?
2 – What would you project these speed-requirements will be in 2015, and what is the basis for your projection?
3 – Are there applications that are missing from this list, and if so what speeds would they require both today and in 2015?

We would like to have your answers by Friday, June 5th so that we can incorporate your work into ours.

Thanks in advance,

The Speed Team — Tom Garrison, Jack Geller, JoAnne Johnson, Mike O’Connor, Dick Sjoberg, John Stanoch and Chris Swanson

In April, the task force members were asked to write 5 paragraphs to build a draft recommendations document for the legislature. I am super excited to share these paragraphs here.

 If you read the paragraphs you’ll see that they are a work in progress. Some paragraphs are completely contrary to others – but you can get a read for where there is agreement and what the contentious issues are. (There may not be agreement in some of these areas but there were no paragraphs to contradict the view.) I think this is also a golden opportunity to chime in on what you like and what you don’t like. Remember they invite comments from the public at their monthly sessions and you can post comments on their forum or via form online.

Issues of Agreement

  • Everyone seems to value broadband and there were some nice paragraphs detailing need by sector.
  • Everyone seemed to think that building broadband demand through training and improved access to computer was a good idea.
  • Most everyone liked the idea of mapping. The broadband providers seemed to be happiest with Connected Nation’s work; some were not happy with their work; others wanted to ask CN to the maps to the next level of gauging citizen’s relationship to broadband.
  • Everyone seemed to agree that affordability was a good idea – so long as cost to providers was a factor too.
  • Everyone seemed to like te idea of an ongoing state effort to focus on broaband – often through the creation of a entity to oversee the effort.
  • It seems as if everyone was interested in secure, reliable, redundant connections with improved interconnectivity – including a focus by some for better peering within the state to improve local access.

Issues of Disagreement

  • Some people seemed to think of broadband as a necessity or utility: Jack Geller, Peg Werner, Vijay Sethi, Mike O’Connor, Barbara Gervais, while others were more interested in meeting market demand only.
  • Most supported government intervention (even municipal networks) in areas where private companies are not interested in going. Some seemed to think of this as a plan of last resort: Rick King, John Gibbs, Peg Werner
  • Others were supportive of government providing service: Chris Swanson, Vijay Sethi, Robyn West, Tom Garrison

 Interesting notes

  • Mike O’Connor stressed the importance of considering mobile broadband and mobile devices for folks who don’t have a computer
  • They allude to a few Minnesota broadband reports (pages 16-19), both historical and kind of recent. I was surpised that more reports and statistics weren’t used. Although the following folks did mention reports: Dick Sjoberg (S. Walsten, “Understanding International Broadband Comparisons“); John Gibbs (Crandall & Jackson) and actually John cited quite a few on page 23), Mike O’Connor cites reports for projected market bandwidth (page 28), Kim Ross (SETDA
  • Some folks mentioned speed – but those were all over the board. One said T1 – others seemed to start at 5mbps or higher. The speed offered seemed to coincide with whether someone thought the current market demand should set price or we should strive for world class access. (Some folks, such as Steve Crawley jumped in with a minimum speed of 100mbps – Go Steve!))
  • Jack Reis and Gopal Khanna did a nice piece on government as a broadband consumer and increased need for connected citizenry as the government provides more services online. Kim Ross did a similar write up with the education focus and MaryEllen Wells for healthcare.
  • OK clearly I have to point out that Blandin was mention on page 19 in a nice historical look back at what has been done in the state regarding broadband.

The paragraphs are long. I’ve done my best to distill them. I think there are some interesting comments on Net Neutrality, the role of a Better Business Bureau type model to service broadband customers, possibility of federal funding – but I didn’t yet see consensus on those topics so I’m only mnetioning them briefly.

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Posted by Ann Treacy

Community Benefits Agreement for communitywide networks

May 23, 2009

Last week I had the opportunity to talk to Sheldon Mains about his work with the community benefits agreement in Minneapolis. Sheldon is a friend who helps nonprofits and foundation use technology wisely. In April he posted a blog on the history of the Community Benefits Agreement in the Wireless Minneapolis Project.

The quick, loose take is – a community benefits agreement (CBA) is traditionally used in real estate where developers commit to certain concessions in exchange building permission. The folks in Minneapolis were smart enough to think about a CBA when talking to US Internet about the communitywide wireless contract. (Again read Sheldon’s post for the details.)

I asked Sheldon to talk about what he had learned through the process of developing and deploying the CBA and what advice he might have for other communities looking at a communitywide (wired or wireless) network.

In Minneapolis there were some folks pushing for a municipal network while others wanted to outsource; others came up with the idea of using a CBA as a compromise.

It started with an informal roundtable of likely stakeholders: schools, libraries, community technology centers, nonprofit service organizations, community-based organizations. They talked about what they wanted and needed from a CBA.

Next the city pulled a task force together – with many of the same players. Minneapolis wanted free and low cost access. The task force recognized that cost of connectivity wasn’t the only issues. Cost of computers and training were also barriers. So a fund that would help with the broader issues was more valuable that cheaper access.

They decided that the money should go to a Foundation (the Minneapolis Foundation) who would administer grants. There were some benefits for US Internet to give money to the Foundation rather than the government and the community saw benefits with working with the Foundation.

So if you’re in a community that might be interested in pursuing a similar path, Sheldon suggests that you remain flexible. The benefits that Minneapolis chose might not be what you need. See what works for the provider and your city.

The Alliance for Metropolitan Stability has a guide called Community Benefits Agreements: Growing a Movement in Minnesota (Jan 08) on their site; they also have Recommendations for the Wireless Minneapolis Community Benefits Agreement (March 06).

I think the CBA is a clever way to think about how to get your community the best solution without reinvesting the wheel entirely.

Leave a Comment » | Building Broadband Tools, Community Networks, Digital Divide, MN, Vendors, Wireless | Permalink
Posted by Ann Treacy

Mapping in Massachusetts

May 9, 2009

Thanks to Cor Wilson for sending me in on what Massachusetts is doing about mapping in their state. Here’ their plan – as stated in their press release:

The Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development and the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) today announced a partnership between the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) and EEA’s Office of Geographic and Environmental Information (MassGIS) to develop sophisticated mapping that will help the state determine the highest-priority areas for investments in broadband infrastructure and technology. The mapping project will initially focus on western Massachusetts, where problems with broadband coverage are most acute. It will also lay the foundation for comprehensive, statewide broadband mapping, as targeted for funding by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

I like this idea for a couple reasons. First I love the local! All things being equal I just always like when we can use local resources.

I like the immediate focus on areas they know need help. I know one of the issues in Minnesota with the statewide stats is that the stats in the Twin Cities overpower the statewide picture.

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Posted by Ann Treacy

NTIA money vs RUS money

May 2, 2009

Thanks to Ann Higgins for sending me an article about how legislators are asking the RUS to consider urban need for broadband as well as rural. I’m all for ubiquitous broadband but I have to say that I think the RUS (Rural Utility Service) money is best spent in rural areas. I would feel differently if the RUS was responsible for all of the broadband stimulus money but they aren’t.

The RUS (Rural Utility Service) has $2.5 billion to distribute and they are mandating to spend at least 75 percent in rural areas. Much of which will go to broadband loans and loan guarantees to build infrastructure. (Apparently the RUS said that they thought that all of the money would go to rural areas and that’s what spurred the letter to legislators.)

The NTIA has $4.7 billion to go for grants for programs that will include community technology centers, mapping, building broadband demand.

It seems to me as if urban areas are better served by the kind of funding provided by the NTIA. That the biggest issue in urban areas is training, affordability, access to computers and not lack of physical access to broadband.

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Posted by Ann Treacy

A Blogger without Broadband

April 28, 2009

Yesterday I drove about an hour north of the Twin Cities to meet up with Jennifer Peterson of Duskwind Farms. Jennifer, her husband Chuck and daughter Ilana (age 1.5) moved to Pine City last June with a goal towards a sustainable lifestyle. (I know Jennifer because she is a Horizons blogger and we met at the Minnesota Voices Online Unconference.)

They have 5 cows, 2 huge rabbits, 7 sheep, 2 donkeys, 5 dogs and a cat. They are about to get 50 hens. They live off the meat, eggs, and produce from the farm. They live in a house that they built themselves; it’s about 300 square foot with some of the best looking hardwood floor I have ever seen. They don’t have indoor plumbing, electricity or consistent cell phone coverage.

Jennifer maintains a blog about their farm to help inform others who might be interested in living a self-sustained life. She has a community of other modern homesteaders that she knows online. As she points out, they have chosen this lifestyle. The lack of plumbing and electricity do not seem to be hardships for them – but the lack of broadband is because it is shutting them out of the information and community that they need.

As it stands now they get online at the local library. It’s a lifeline – but it’s not enough. I’ll let her speak for herself on the video below.

1 Comment | Broadband Applications, Citizen Journalism, Digital Divide, MN, Rural | Permalink
Posted by Ann Treacy

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