Grand Rapids nonprofits using new media together

April 9, 2009

Last month I had a pleasure of doing some Google Calendar training with the Grand Rapids Area Nonprofit Directions (GRAND) group. The training went well. (You can see the presentation here, if you’re interested.)

It’s not so much the training I found interesting though – it’s the coordinated effort. Bill Coleman and I had been visiting with the GRAND group for a while. As a group they wanted to better use technology. But as individual groups they were all over the spectrum of technology users.

Some have self-built Drupal web sites with tons of functionality; others don’t have a web site. Some do live streaming, most (but not all) send out email newsletters, some have blogs. Some have IT staff, others have an IT hat that’s given out based on proximity to the computer or problem, not necessarily experience or interest.

One shared goal was a community calendar. We looked at a couple of options – but in the end Google Calendars won out for several reasons. First (and probably most importantly) the Grand Rapids Community Internet site uses it. Second, it’s easy to use and you don’t need to have a web site to publish it. Third, it’s free.

The beauty of Google Calendars is that it’s easy to share events with other users – through the magic of RSS. On a practical basis that means that each nonprofit organization can set up their own calendar, they can post both public and private events, they can invite people to attend events and send out reminder – all through the calendar. They can also add a partner’s calendar to their own or vice versa. Or they can all contribute to a community calendar while decentralizing the maintenance for the calendar.

And again, it’s the coordination that impresses me. The tools are out there now to work together like Google Calendars. A good way to maximize the usefulness is to get a group together to talk about shared goals and what technology can help meet them.

Leave a Comment » | Blandin Foundation, MN, New Media, Rural | Permalink
Posted by Ann Treacy

April Blandin eNews

April 8, 2009

Blandin Get Broadband CommunitiesHere’s the news from our latest newsletter. It’s mostly a compilation of Minnesota-related stories from the blog in the last month – but sometimes it’s nice to have it compiled.

Minnesota News from the Blandin on Broadband Blog

Minnesota Voices Online Unconference
Last weekend Blandin Foundation sponsored a successful unconference focusing on Minnesota Voices Online: Connecting rural Minnesotans with new media so every place can share its voice in the Internet age. Materials and video are available on the MVO web site (http://mnvoicesonline.org/). The conversations and connections continue online on the MVO email list. http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/mnvoices

Minnesota Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force
The Broadband Task Force meeting in March featured representatives from the healthcare industry. The mood with the Task Force members was more collegial than past meetings and there seemed to be a drive to start actively creating the recommendations for the legislature. (http://tinyurl.com/cr68ju) They started by compiling members’ broadband value statements (http://tinyurl.com/d9phop); many statements seemed to mirror Blandin Foundation’s principles from the vision created a couple years ago. (http://tinyurl.com/d2j4y2) For April’s meeting each member is assigned to write five paragraphs to potentially fit into the final recommendations.

Minnesota Broadband Coalition
Some members of the MN Broadband Coalition met to talk about how to work together to get stimulus funding in Minnesota and how to support the work of the Ultra High-Speed Task Force (http://tinyurl.com/crog2w). The conversation continues online. http://tinyurl.com/5mdwh7

The Blandin Foundation has compiled a list of “Online Tools to Save Money” http://tinyurl.com/c9ded5

Local Broadband News

Chaska
Chaska posts security camera video on their blog and invites citizens to help catch criminals. http://tinyurl.com/df7yxd

Chisago County
Frontier helps a family in rural Chisago County by bringing broadband to their home. Good news but is case by case expansion scalable? http://tinyurl.com/dje9ag

Cook County
Cook County is preparing to be a potential recipient of broadband stimulus funding. They have created a web site to promote broadband to the community and update residents on their fiber feasibility study. http://tinyurl.com/d3pm7b

Eveleth
Eveleth makes their plans for the future but some eagle-eyed citizens realize that broadband is in the backseat. http://tinyurl.com/d4nwsd

Goodhue County
Hiawatha Broadband Communications (HBC), Goodhue County and the Southeast Minnesota Network are pursuing funding have expressed an interest in pursuing funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. http://tinyurl.com/dybtj8

Hoffman
A grandma in Hoffman uses her broadband connection maintain a blog and make Skype calls that help her stay in contact with a grandson in the army. http://tinyurl.com/d46dsh

Jackson
Jackson turns down Windom’s offer to expand fiber to their area. Cost seems to be the major factor. http://tinyurl.com/crbwfg

Moose Lake
Moose Lake plans to apply for broadband stimulus funding to sustain and expand their wireless service through the Water & Light Commission. http://tinyurl.com/d997te

Red River Valley
Residents of the Red River Valley and potential volunteers around the state turn to the Internet to connect need with support. http://tinyurl.com/cafx39

Sebeka
Located in Sebeka, CrossUSA started a business in 1997 that employs IT experts to work remotely with larger business across the US. CrossUSA is changing lives because they have the broadband they need to support their business. http://tinyurl.com/dnkete

Winona
The local library is a place to get online in Winona, especially as people are cutting costs. http://tinyurl.com/cdqz93

Bill ColemanColeman’s Corner

I am just completing a regional telecommunications inventory and assessment study for the Upper MN Valley Regional Development Commission. (http://umvrdc.org) This work is being completed through a technical assistance grant from Blandin Foundation through the Community Broadband Resources Program. http://tinyurl.com/cseu7e

The region is unique in several ways. First, it has significant FTTP networks deployed by Federated Telephone and Farmers Mutual Telephone that enable big bandwidth to be delivered to any customer – in town or to the barn – in their exchanges. Second, the region has large areas covered with fixed wireless; this service provides users with an option for broadband, but it is one that is generally limited to lower speeds. This technology generally works well on the western MN prairie. Third, the area has many communities, including their county seats, where DSL service and cable modems services are generally limited to the city limits or not far afield. Fourth, the region suffers from middle mile scarcity; that is, there are very high costs for providers to connect to the Internet hub in the Twin Cities as connections have to be routed through multiple providers.

Our report did not deal much with public sector networks, but the topic was brought up by a committee member. We heard about the growing use of state online applications and databases driving the need for bandwidth. We learned about the significant costs facing county governments and school districts as they seek to increase their bandwidth through their existing providers. In one case, an additional T1 was an unaffordable $900 per month through the regional government network contracted to a regional telecom provider. The local cable provider has offered a 10Mb connection for around $100 per month. This confusing situation calls for some more investigation!

The regional committee is setting priorities for future action. Those won’t be announced until the report is final, but the group will be working on several fronts to increase the technological vitality of the region.

Leave a Comment » | Blandin Foundation, Broadband Applications, Conferences, Digital Divide, FTTH, Funding, MN, New Media, Rural | Permalink
Posted by Ann Treacy

Building capacity for Minnesota Broadband Coalition

April 5, 2009

logownameAt the MVO unconference the need for broadband came up – often. There was a blogger there who doesn’t have Internet access at home. She drives 10 miles to the library to get access. As she said, she could get dialup but feels like they ought to pay her to use it.

People recognized the need to make info available for tech lovers and tech-challenged (challenged by access, experience, cost…). People also recognized the need to help bridge the gap with training, improving tools and broadband.

I was thrilled when Jeff Narabrook form Minnesota Council for Nonprofits offered up his topic to talk about building capacity for the Minnesota Broadband Coalition. We talked about the tools we have created for the Coalition (web site, email newsletter, LinkedIn group). We talked about what we wanted from folks: ideas for the Broadband Task Force and ideas for the stimulus funding.

We talked about the need for the Coalition to help people understand why and how broadband does matter to them. The conversations that the Task Force are having (symmetrical speeds anyone?) do not necessarily capture the imagination of your average bear. But stories of how broadband means a better job, how broadband means a way to talk to a grandson in the army … they can capture the imagination.

So we’ve been trying to gather those stories (Got one? please let me know). Now we need to get those to a wider audience. One thought was to create a widget of sort (maybe a logo linked to an RSS feed) to share with folks like the Minnesota Council for Nonprofits to help us spread the word.

I had/have wanted to capture some stories in video – the biggest barrier for me is getting to people to get their stories. So I’m going to throw that out there too in case there’s someone in the field who’s looking for a story idea.

So that’s my lucky take-away and assignment from the conference. I also have a laundry list of tasks for me on more of a professional development level – like learn about Plurk (thanks Chuck Olsen for that) – so I feel like the support for the Minnesota Broadband Coalition is a complete bonus.

But before I do any of that – I’m spending the day in sunny Duluth with my family.

Leave a Comment » | Blandin Foundation, Citizen Journalism, Conferences, Digital Divide, MN, MVO Unconference, New Media, Rural | Permalink
Posted by Ann Treacy

Unconference – developing topics for the day

April 5, 2009

We all met. Attendees were invited to submit topics for the day. People used post-it notes to vote for the topics that interested them most. I have videos that I hope outline that process:

Getting instructions:

OK this stinking video is coming soon. I have waited long enough and held the other posts. I will add the video when I can.

Learning about the topics:

Leave a Comment » | Blandin Foundation, Citizen Journalism, Conferences, Digital Divide, MN, MVO Unconference, New Media | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by Ann Treacy

MVO Unconference Fishbowl

April 4, 2009

The unconference started out with a fishbowl. Half a dozen of us sat in a circle in the middle of the room and discussed potentially controversial topics. Audience members were able to chime in to some degree.

Because I was in the fishbowl, it’s harder for me to talk about what happened – but I can say that it wsa fun to hear about differences of opinion. I’ll track down video of the event later.

Topics that came up include:

  1. How much structure do you need for online discussion? How strongly do you need to enforce structure?
  2. Do the growing online communities leave the real world community weakened?
  3. Will newspapers be around in 10 years?

Leave a Comment » | Blandin Foundation, Conferences, Digital Divide, MN, MVO Unconference, New Media | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by Ann Treacy

MVO Unconference Friday night

April 4, 2009

It’s Friday night and the Minnesota Voices Online unconference is off to a good start. The reception started at around 4:30 – people trickled in and it was fun to see people who we really only knew via email. The dinner was great. Some of us brought our families. It was a good chance to get to know people.

At 6:30 the work began. The attendees gathered in a room to participate in a spectrogram. The idea is that the facilitator presents a statement such as – Online tools have allowed people to respond and react very quickly, decreasing the time that people have to reflect. This leads to quick reactions and a reduction is thoughtful democracy. Then participants can demonstrate their level of agreement (or extreme disagreement) by placing themselves on a continuum on taped to the floor. Participants are able talk about their options to the group and on video.

I was really impressed with how well the exercise worked. We did this three times with three different questions. There were about a dozen people who were very vocal and everyone else was willing to vote with their feet (placing themselves on the spectrum) and give a few words when asked.

I took video. I have been trying to upload the video for 2 hours – so far goose egg. But I’m hopeful that the video will be available by morning.

I enjoyed talking to folks after the scheduled activity. The folks that I talked about are interested in technology as a tool for community development – but their passion is the community. While they were technology users – they didn’t all have Internet access at home. As they pointed out, generally you only have good internet access (broadband) if you live within 2 miles of a town. If you don’t, you’re going to the library for good access. There was some concern about the digital divide as the online world expands.

Someone mentioned that they were able to expedite DSL access in their community because a neighbor had gone to Qwest to get a petition that they had 160 people sign to express an interest in getting DSL.

I did hear that some people were feeling a little lost because they felt that they didn’t know the technology as well as others. Twitter, wiki, blogs, utterly – it is like a foreign language , but we all learned it at some point and for better or for worse we learn something new everyday . Many of these people have tremendous community organizing skills – many of us could learn from them!

Here are the videos:

Marc Osten explains the spectogram

 New media-driven instant feedback leaves no time to think and that is eroding democracy.

Technology tools distract communities from coming together.

 

Online communities needs a heavy dose of structure to realize their potential.

 Steve Clift talking about online tools for the unconference

Leave a Comment » | Blandin Foundation, Citizen Journalism, Conferences, Digital Divide, MN, MVO Unconference, New Media, Rural | Permalink
Posted by Ann Treacy

Chaska police use blogs to catch criminals

March 26, 2009

I’m not 100 percent sure how I feel about this story. The Chaska Police have started to post surveillance video of suspects on their blog. I caught the story last night on the Channel Five News.

The blog appears to be very new – and it appears as if one case has been has already been solved, presumably with help from a blog reader. I guess if it were my store that had been robbed, I’d like it; or if were my child that was abducted, I’d love it.

It kind of hammers on home the idea that Big Brother is always watching. I just feel like it might be opening the door to vigilantes or camera hungry criminals.

Leave a Comment » | Broadband Applications, MN, New Media | Permalink
Posted by Ann Treacy

Broadband helps in the Red River Valley

March 24, 2009

In 1997 when there was bad flooding in the Red River Valley, I worked at MRNet and we started an email list where people in the area could post a wish list. Then those of us on high ground were able to send what they needed.

The Internet couldn’t stop the flooding but it could at least help bring in some solutions and small comforts. On the MN Voices Online list we have been talking about how and where to get info this time around. Here’s a list of how people have been using technology to coordinate help this time around:

  • Fargo – Moorhead Flood is a Facebook group used to keep people updated. (Here’s a story from MRP on other Facebook groups: Floods on facebook.)
    • I didn’t realize this – but a MVO member in Duluth mentioned that Facebook is the place to go for info on an emergency or disaster.
  • Giveback with Impact – a web site for donations set up by Dakota Medical Foundation called DMF Red River Valley Flood Fund, and they will match up to $25,000. (Funds will be distributed to Red Cross, Firstlink, and The
    Salvation Army.)

There are a couple of blogs:

 

  • A wiki
  • Some suggested standards for Twitter: Let’s start one trend, use the #flood09 hashtag on Twitter which seems to have momentum -  – and #fargoflood … #citynameflood for area specific

Hopefully the technology will again help to facilitate solutions and small comforts. We’ll be thinking of our friends and families in the areas – especially Thursday afternoon when the crest is expected.

Leave a Comment » | Broadband Applications, MN, New Media, Rural | Permalink
Posted by Ann Treacy

Grandmas going online in Hoffman

March 14, 2009

Tired of policy, I have been looking for successful broadband stories in Minnesota- big or small. If you have any, please send ‘em my way. For example, I spoke yesterday to a Grandma who is using a blog and Skype to keep up with grandson in the army.

I am a blog helper for the Horizons Project, an initiative to reduce poverty in several Minnesota towns. Joanne Holl is a Horizons blogger from Hoffman, Minnesota. She was looking for help in adding pictures to her blog and we got talking. I learned that Joanne has her own blog – Grandma Jo’s blog. Her grandson started it for her. All of her family seems to have a blog – mostly to stay in touch with her grandson, who is in the army. Last weekend 5 family members, including her grandson, were talking via Skype.

It’s hard to quantify the ROI on that kind of application – but what a difference for Joanne’s quality of life. (Multiple that by the number of people who have friends and family stationed overseas – and that is some value.)

Joanne’s story led me to learn two new things. First, Joanne told me that Runestone (her local provider) is digging up the ground in her area for fiber. Runestone is 4 years into a 10 year plan to deploy FTTH in the 9 communities they serve. They started with the rural areas because their goal is to provide high speed to all of their areas. The rural areas have the oldest lines and need the upgrade more than towns – so they come first.

Runestoen is a co-op. They started 50 years ago when the large national providers weren’t interested in coming to their area to provide phone service. They figure that by spring their percentage of homes with fiber will surpass Sweden and by summer with surpass Taiwan – according to the rates recently reported by the FTTH Council.

I also learned about the Military’s social networking tool. About two years ago, the military turned off access to YouTube and Facebook. It turns out that the military had been working on upgraded (and I’m sure much more secure) tools for their purposes.

iLink is a social networking tool for the army. Remember how the army built the Internet? Well it looks like they’re doing some amazing things with social networking too. It’s a little off topic so I’m just going to paste two paragraphs from an article I found in ReadWriteWeb – but if you have any interest in the science of information – read the article – it’s very cool!

iLink specifically was the part of the overall CALO project that focused on social search and message routing within social networks. It was also used to develop a system for FAQ generation within a network – they call this technology “FAQtory”. With this technology implemented on a social network, FAQs are continuously generated and revised by the community using a Wikipedia-like model, as opposed to being static creations made by the site’s authors. But it’s not basic as a simple user-generated FAQ system – instead, iLink’s FAQtory technology allows for incremental bits of information – even those that don’t qualify as answers to the question. As the members contribute these bits of information, the learning system in iLink monitors how users are attempt to resolve queries and is then capable of drafting off of the social network’s learning. Essentially, the technology actually enables the social network to discover and amplify its own capabilities
…

Today, iLink is being used in the military communities to help recognize “who knows what” within a community, connect members to each other, and point members to valuable content, discussions, and others who share their same interests. Those connections between members and resources are made with iLink’s machine-based learning to model the users and the content in order to facilitate the information sharing.

2 Comments | Broadband Applications, FTTH, MN, New Media, Rural, Vendors | Permalink
Posted by Ann Treacy

Teachers don’t just know technology

December 27, 2008

Last month I mentioned the breakout session on Second Life in Schools at the Blandin broadband conference. One thing that struck me was that the teachers at the community colleges received no training in how to teach in Second Life. Maybe it works for some but I just don’t thank sink or swim approach works well for everyone.

So I was delighted today to read about how Goodhue Public Schools is handling technology in the classroom. They hired Carl Anderson, a technology integration specialist, to help teachers integrate technology into the classroom. He’s available for the teachers, he team teaches and he provides training on new tools.

What a good idea!

Ten or more years ago, I provided training to teachers on how to use the Internet. The training was free but they weren’t paid to attend. I thought that was unfair. Also while I feel like the teachers learned a lot – our computer lab was not necessarily the same setup as they would have at home or school. We weren’t on hand when they needed support mid-semester. Goodhure has a much better approach.

Having the equipment and the broadband in place is only half the battle. Teaching people how to use technology makes it accessible. Our tiny example at home – my husband (a teacher) got a cell phone for Christmas. This isn’t his first – but this time it comes with lessons from our 10 year old about how to set up and retrieve voicemail, how to text and how to set an alarm. So I have high hopes for a spouse I can reach by phone soon.

Check out the Goodhue Public Schools web site for a taste of how they are using technology.

Leave a Comment » | MN, New Media, Rural, education | Permalink
Posted by Ann Treacy

« Previous Entries