I realize it’s only 12 hours away – but I just remembered to check in on the Telecommunications Regulation and Infrastructure Division Committee Meeting Schedule – the continuation of the statewide cable franchising discussion (which I blogged about last week) is on for 8:00 tomorrow morning. I assume it will be shown on TV again. According to the TPT 17 schedule, it will be Minnesota House/Senate Coverage so it looks good.

(Side note – did you know that you can have TPT send you an email reminder about an upcoming program? I love that!)

I’m hoping to watch the meeting and I’ll be taking notes.

I love the Pew Internet & American Life project research reports! Today for the first time I read one of their Comments, “Internet Ferment in China”. Apparently one of their staff members is in China and she wrote up her views on the Internet in China.

I was particularly interested to learn about Internet cafés in China – because I just read recently about a ban on new Internet cafés for 2007. Here are some facts I learned:

1. 80 percent of rural Internet users go online at an Internet café (because a home computer is too expensive).
2. Internet cafés keep track of who’s doing what, including who plays games, looks at porn, and reads politically sensitive content.
3. Internet cafés are considered “dens of iniquity”

I must admit that when I hear Internet cafés, I think coffee shop with WiFi. (Here’s a good list of such places in Minnesota.) For a short time in the mid-1990s there were a few Internet cafés with computers in Minnesota, CyberX in Minneapolis, Brad Theissen’s coffee shop in Mankato, Cyber Bugs in Bemidji, and Browsers N’Etc in Duluth – but they all seem to be closed now.

I wonder if public Internet kiosks in would be popular in Minnesota again, especially rural areas. I know that computers in libraries are often booked. However I wonder if even those computers would get used if the users knew that tabs would be kept on their online activities. I suspect not.

While I was down in Minneapolis last week, enjoying conversation at my favorite coffee shop with Jack Geller of the Center for Rural Policy and Development, and Jack asked me about the Iron Range Community FTTH project. Thirteen Iron Range communities have come together to create a Joint Powers Authority to design, develop, and manage a state-of-the-art fiber Open Network. If completed, this project would spring board the Iron Range into a world class telecommunications environment. Not surprisingly, the estimated capital costs are very high, and to work, the project will need both private and public financing. Securing major public funding is a challenging proposition, for reasons both economic and philosophical. Jack pointed out how important it is to be able to talk to legislators in ROI terms – what are the concrete economic benefits this investment of scarce public resources will bring to my communities? How many jobs with house-hold supporting wages?

I’d had this conversation before. Lots of times. And so, I’m always looking for compelling evidence that IT infrastructure and literacy are really important and need our attention and investment, especially in low density and underserved rural areas. Continue reading →

This morning, I had the honor of representing the Blandin Foundation at a meeting in Mora, a town of about 3,000 in east central Minnesota. It was an interesting gathering of the city government, municipal utility, chamber of commerce, several providers (wireless and wireline) a local IT consultant and me. The Mora community has been working on a business visitation program and telecommunications is emerging as an issue, both within the city limits and outside. The meeting was cool because everyone was participating and sharing information on existing infrastructure and services. The tech experts were helping novices understand some of the differences between technologies. I explained how some communities are addressing similar issues and trying to position themselves for future economic development.

Within the room was the expertise, both technical and community, to outline both the issues and the opportunities. Each person in the room had a different set of knowledge and resources to bring to the table. Taken together, a pretty complete picture of the Mora technology scene was drawn and everyone knew a bit more than before they came. By the end of the meeting, there was a prospective project involving several participants; a relatively low-cost solution that will make a difference to Mora businesses, visitors and residents. The project will not address all of the community’s issues, but it demonstrates the power of honest communication, collaboration and action. Hats off to the Mora community!