Monthly Archives: August 2008

McCain’s Tech Policy

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Last week while I was teaching an 8 year old to dive, Senator John McCain came out with his tech policy. I had been waiting for a quiet hour to read it – but it didn’t take an hour as there weren’t many changes from the last time I looked. There’s not much new and I’m going to be brief on this super sunny Sunday and quote PC Magazine’s recap of the policy:

Increased innovation, a crackdown on piracy, and H-1B visas? Good. Taxes on tech companies, Net neutrality legislation, and our country’s current patent system? Bad.

New Speed Matters Report

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Last year, the folks at Speed Maters have recently the “first-ever state-by-state report on Internet connection speed.” (We blogged about that last year.) They just released the latest version. In short, they ask folks across the country to test and report their connection speeds.

Here are the Minnesota stats we pulled last year:
The median download speed in Minnesota was 1.77 (mbps)
The median download speed in Minnesota was .36 (mbps)

Compared with the numbers from this year:
Number of tests done from MN: 2,650
The median download speed in Minnesota was 1.566 (mbps)
The median upload speed in Minnesota was .512 (mbps)

So our download speed is actually slower! That’s not a good sign. We’ve slipped from 26 state ranking to 40. I could feel better about that if other states were picking up their game – but we’re just losing ground.

For the countrywide perspective, I’ll quote from Speed Matters directly:

The Speed Test, which measures the last-mile speed of your Internet connection, shows that the 2008 median real-time download speed in the U.S. is a mere 2.3 megabits per second (mbps). This represents a gain of only 0.4 mbps over last year’s median download speed. It compares to an average download speed in Japan of 63 mbps. At this rate of progress, it will take the U.S. more than 100 years to catch up with current Internet speeds in Japan. This is unacceptable for the country that invented the Internet.

Fairness Doctrine and Net Neutrality

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Something makes me nervous about political concepts with cutsie names – like Net Neutrality and the Fairness Doctrine. I just feel as if I’m being handed a sound bite – not a policy.

For a librarian, I have surprising broad views on Net Neutrality. I’m not strongly for or against it. I think people should have equal access to information but I also feel that people should get paid to transmit that info – unless the government wants to take over of heavily subsidize that transmission.

The Fairness Doctrine is another concept that can sound great in theory – broadcasters should provide equal time to equal perspectives – but in practice it’s hard to deploy.

Recently, FCC Chairman McDowell said that a potential reimposition of the Fairness Doctrine could be “intertwined” with the debate over network neutrality. I love the idea that people would spend time listening to diverse opinions – but the web site a pull technology not a push technology. You can create all the content you want – a lot of time you’ll be preaching to the choir, especially if your viewpoint is strong.

It sounds as if it’s the Democrats who like the Fairness Doctrine; although Barrack Obama seems not to like it. It seems like an interesting time for the Republicans to oppose it, when a regime change is more likely than it’s been for a while.

FCC on White Spaces

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The FCC has been looking into allowing mobile devices to use the old TV white spaces. Does that sound like Greek to you? Well, I just ran across a great article in c|net (White space tests get mixed results) that gives a great run down on what that means and how the decision making is going.

Here’s a quick clip from the article:

The FCC has been conducting these real world tests of different prototype devices to see if companies can develop products that use buffer spectrum between licensed broadcast channels. This spectrum known has “white space” sits between broadcast TV channels in the 150 MHz to 700 MHs spectrum bands.

Several technology companies, including Motorola, Microsoft, and Google have been lobbying the FCC for more than a year to open up these channels, which would provide between 300 MHz to 400 MHz of unlicensed spectral capacity throughout the country that could be used by anyone. These tech companies believe this spectrum, which is ideal for sending data wirelessly over long distances and penetrating through walls, can be used to enhance or create new wireless broadband services.

The idea was tested last weekend before an NFL game. The results were not great. Apparently the devices interfered with broadcast equipment. Here’s another quick clip from the c|net article:

“Simply stated, the prototype devices were unable to consistently identify operating wireless microphones or distinguish occupied from unoccupied TV channels,” said Mark Brunner, Shure’s senior director of public and industry relations. “More troubling, the devices failed to detect the presence of wireless microphones when switched on–an occurrence that takes place multiple times during any NFL game.”

On the other hand, Motorola says their tests have gone well – because they use a geolocation approach, which includes combination of location technology (such as GPS) and a database that advises the device on what channel to use and whether or not there is compatibility with other white space devices.

The FCC Chairman said last week that the testing may not be done before the end of the summer, which is sadly approaching quickly.

Home and Community Options, Inc.

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Light Speed Grant Recipient

Peter Walsh, Project Coordinator

Project Update

August 12, 2008

 

We met a major milestone in our development of a remote monitoring system last week when we gathered some staff and supporters together to view a demonstration of our remote monitoring system.  We have completed our installation phase and are now moving into the testing phase.  We intend to run a parallel test for several months to document the dependability and reliability of the system.  Let me share a few of the details of this system and why we are so excited about it.

 

First of all we have a residential program that consists of four adult men and their staff.  The men and their interdisciplinary team worked with our remote monitoring team to develop the conditions under which everyone could agree that the men would be safe and appropriately supervised during the evening hours using remote monitoring.  These conditions are all delineated in a document called an “Informed Consent”.  The Informed Consent will be a fundamental document in our request for a variance from the Minnesota Department of Human Services to use our remote monitoring program in an adult foster care setting.  The details of the Informed Consent document are too lengthy to share here but some of the key technology requirements are:  remote video supervision of all public spaces, remote two-way audio communication in all public and private spaces, all first floor doors and windows alarmed; smoke and fire alarms, a security system linking all alarms and devices to the remote monitoring sight, and finally, a call escalation program that guarantees a physical presence in the home in the case of crisis. 

 

We have created a portable remote monitoring station that links to all the monitoring devices in the home.  This portable unit can be run from any of our other program sites linked to our network.  It is our intention to use an existing overnight staff to provide the remote supervision, thus saving the cost of one overnight staff.  The design of the remote monitoring system allows the supervising overnight staff to sleep.  When an incident occurs at the home the remote monitoring station requires a response from the night attendant.  We have built in a couple of ways of waking the staff but if he/she is unable to respond for some reason the system will alert an on-call staff to go to the house.  This is part of our call escalation program that can be set up to call a list of staff that could respond to the home.  One of the features of the system is that once the program moves into the call escalation process it can only be resolved by someone physically being at the home.  An emergency call to 911 is automatically made if no one arrives at the home before the “fail-safe” time elapses.  The system has a number of built in redundancies and backups to ensure its dependability and reliability in case of power outages, phone disruptions, loss of internet and so forth.  There are also a number of conditions that need to be met every day in order for the remote system to be used.

 

It has taken us almost two years of development after a year of design to bring this system to the testing phase so yes, we were excited to gather and watch the remote video, engage in a two-way audio conversation with the folk at the home, monitor doors being opened and closed and to have the automated phone system kick in and make the calls from the call list.

 

We have set up the remote monitoring station in one of other program sites and are in the process of training the night attendant staff how to use it to supervise the home remotely.  While we are testing the system the regular overnight staff will continue staying at the test site but they will not engage with the men unless the remote system requests them to or if the remote system fails.  We will be running a number of test scenarios and documenting the results.  We are confident that we will need to make some fine tuning adjustments but excited to see the system go through its paces.  In a few weeks we intend to invite some interested colleagues to come for a show and tell session.  That will be another exiting milestone that I look forward to sharing with you.

 

 

 

 

light speed communityThe Blandin Foundation is supporting four standout broadband programs through the Light Speed program. The program’s purpose is to stimulate the deployment of bandwidth intensive applications that connect local institutions to area resident’s home. This post comes from a Light Speed community leader.

Broadband in the north woods

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I’m on vacation in Detroit Lakes. It’s raining but I don’t mind as we’re staying at a resort where they entertain your kids. It’s called Fair Hills, which I think is Minnesotan for – “just like the resort in Dirty Dancing.”

Also I don’t mind the rain because they have wifi. In fact if they didn’t have wifi, I wouldn’t be able to come for a week. I like to think that I’m too important to skip email for a week. That’s probably not true but I would not relax thinking of the work piling up back home.

So in my vacation mode I enjoyed a recent article by Geoff Daily in App Rising (Connectivity Bad For Business?). In it Geoff talks to the cable director in Portland who recounted a story of a community in a remote area of Vancouver Island. The community had voted down a plan for broadband because they thought it would be bad for business. Apparently if vacationers are online it ups the odds of them going home early for an emergency.

I thought it was an interesting twist. I work with about half a dozen resorts in Minnesota. I think all but one has added wifi in the last couple of years. Maybe the demographics of guests is different in more remote areas – but I can tell you that just about everyone here has asked about connectivity – since I’m the really outdoorsy looking mom at the pool covered in sun screen, a giant sun hat and my laptop.

I’m not saying either slant is right or wrong. I remember listening to a radio program from Grand Marais where Danna Asche McKenzie (a big broadband proponent) noted that they had to consider the perspective of folks in that area who preferred remote to connected. It’s interestng.

Downloading Textbooks

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school

school

I saw the headline (Click here to download textbooks) of a recent article in the Minnesota Daily (the U of M newspaper) and thought it was great. Unfortunately the article didn’t introduce a great new legal way for students to save time and money – it introduced a huge copyright and piracy issue – students downloading textbooks illegally.

So it just reminds me that in a lot of ways, policy, business and education aren’t even keeping up with the broadband we do have.

Policy – OK there are piracy statutes on the books but I think the music industry has shown that those are at best sporadically enforced. Admittedly I think the policy makers have the toughest time keeping up with the technology but right now not much is happening on that front.

Business – Here’s where I’m a little surprised. Can’t the textbook industry come up with some better solutions – maybe by starting with publishing textbooks as interactive e-books? It seems as if now is the time to start integrating more e-learning and an easy step in that direction would be to improve on the existing textbooks. Or for the heavy class droppers (and you know who you were) maybe you could just download a chapter at a time. It just seems as if with a little creativity the ability to download a textbook would be a huge benefit. If nothing else just making them available for a lower cost would be great. Somewhere between the $976 average spent on textbooks a year and the illegal free method is a price point that students and publishers will like.

Education – Here’s where I get downright annoyed. With great power come great responsibility and students don’t seem to realize it – and that’s fair enough because I don’t think parents or teachers do either. People just don’t seem to understand that copying things from the Internet is illegal. (OK, it’s legal if they pay of it, or if it’s with the realm of fair use, but mostly it isn’t.) Partially it’s a tough concept to teach. When my three-year-old walks out of Target with a ball, I can make her walk back and return it and say sorry. When 5 years later she downloads the latest Hannah Montana song illegally, what can I do? Hannah doesn’t want her calling to return it. But we do talk about why we shouldn’t do it. Then their friend gives them a pirated CD and we’re back to square one. I know that teachers are caught in the middle: they don’t have enough funds so they improvise, they don’t necessarily understand the ins and outs of digital copyright and they have a ton of other things to teach.

OK, thanks for letting me rant a bit. I just think that learning to use broadband is a big part of promoting broadband. And learning to use broadband goes beyond the actual technology.

Presidential Candidates on Rural Broadband

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Thanks to Matt Rezac (from the Blandin Foundation) for sending me a fun article on Broadband in Rural? The Campaigns Talk in the Daily Yonder.

I’ve read a few articles lately on the vast differences between their candidates and the use of technology. Obama is a user; McCain is not. There’s also been a lot of press on how their use would have an impact on policy. While I don’t think the President needs to be a super user, I do think it would be nice to have a President who has used it enough to understand how it works, its advantages and its disadvantages. (I’m tempted to go on with a big digression, but I won’t.)

Former FCC chief Michael Powell represented McCain when he said that People Connect was a good way to go where “he would hope to provide tax benefits and financial benefits to companies who would provide those services to low-income users and rural users.” Because “the problem in rural parts of America are that the economics are not nearly as compelling as they are in metropolises like New York or Chicago or Los Angeles, and it may require some government assistance, either through financial subsidy policy or other kinds of creative tools like community or municipal broadband services that help bring those people into the cosmos of technology and connects them to the wonderful benefits that the Net provides.”

Former Federal Communication chief Bill Kennard spoke for Obama when he said, Obama embraces the universal service fund because “this is fundamentally about economic development. It’s about making sure that people in rural areas can participate in the Information Age.”

Monticello ripple in Northfield

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I’ve been wondering about the impact the recent Monticello lawsuit would have on other communities interested in installing fiber. (In short, Monticello started to design/deploy FTTH; the local ISP is suing to stop them.)

Ross Currier, blogger from Northfield, has helped answer that question. He wrote a post earlier this week remarking that Northfield has been looking into fiber as a public utility – but since that’s the root of the Monticello lawsuit, he suggests a wait and see policy.

Most folks consider the lawsuit in Monticello to be unfounded – but the impact is clearly spreading.

The comments on the blog post are also interesting. It seems as if there is a need for improvement in Northfield but that readers understand the need for a financially conservative approach.

(Northfield received funding from Blandin for an open access feasibility study. Last I heard they were moving forward and looking for someone to help spearhead the study.)

Blandin eNews – local Minnesota broadband news

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The Blandin Foundation monthly eNews just went out. I wanted to share the compilation of news items acorss the state and Coleman’s Corner. You can get the whole issue online.

Austin
Downtown Austin is planning to deploy a municipal wireless network in October (2008). http://tinyurl.com/6yju8q

Duluth
Compudyne, an IT support company, purchased WiFi provider Superior Broadband,. http://tinyurl.com/6kgqd9

Fergus Falls
Online classes will be available for the 2008-09 school year for grades 6-12 at iQ Academy Minnesota. iQ Academy is certified through Fergus Falls Independent School District #544. http://tinyurl.com/6sb9u6

Grand Rapids, Brainerd and Bemidji
With the help of some grants (including a $124,000 from the Blandin Foundation), KAXE is developing news and information Web sites for each community in its market. http://tinyurl.com/56v664

Iron Range
The Iron Range FiberNet project winds down, led by Hibbing’s decision to discontinue their participation rendering the project financially impractical. http://tinyurl.com/ironrange

Itasca State Park
Reporters and campers debate the benefits of a wired wilderness. http://tinyurl.com/6ny8jy

Mankato, Blue Earth and Scott Counties
An intra-county network of government-owned fiber-optic cables could be installed this fall in Mankato, Blue Earth and Scott counties. Each county has been looking at installations but in the aggregate they may be able to save money.
http://tinyurl.com/6nrm84

Marshall
For the past year, the Marshall school board has been using a computer program called Electronic School Board to help streamline meetings, record agendas and minutes, and share information with the public. http://tinyurl.com/5zefmg

Minneapolis
The Digital Inclusion Grants are looking for proposals from organizations in Minneapolis that promote digital inclusion. http://tinyurl.com/5ha3up
Minneapolis-based HealthFitness quintupled the amount of education content on its Web-based eHealth platform. http://tinyurl.com/5n24ss

Monticello
The City of Monticello moves forward with its plans for a municipal fiber network, despite a lawsuit from the incumbent provider, TDS. http://tinyurl.com/mitchellvideo TDS is moving forward with its own fiber network upgrade. http://tinyurl.com/montivideo

Rochester
Rochester-based online retailer BuyOnlineNow.Com is growing at a record pace despite economic slowdown. http://tinyurl.com/6lgzp4

Staples
Light Speed Grant Recipient, Lakewood Medical unwrapped new telemedicine equipment and plans for staff training in August. http://tinyurl.com/64n45g

Winona
Light Speed Grant Recipient, Home and Community Options, Inc. took time to celebrate and show off their paperless office and remote monitoring. http://tinyurl.com/5c8ngq

Coleman’s Corner

If you have been keeping up with the Blandin on Broadband blog lately, you will notice that Ann Treacy has been adding video interviews to the blog. There is no doubt that video is an increasingly powerful force on the Internet. Videos on YouTube, political web sites, news channels, vacation spots and real estate provide information of increased value to end users. The increased use of video is driving the need for more robust networks and broadband connections.

I recently purchased a video camera for use in my work and in my personal life. I found the video editing software “Movie Maker” right on my computer and was able to upload my first video clips and begin editing for uploading. I was pleased to see the variety of cameras available for very reasonable prices.

What’s going on in your community with video? Has any organization begun the transformation to using video on its web site as a marketing or educational tool? If not, it may be time to conduct some training and encourage the use of video in your community. You can start with city council meetings, tourist attractions, a welcome video from the mayor, local sporting events. Videos put a very unique face on your community or business web site.

The tools are in place to make this a relatively painless process. Both YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/) and Google video (http://video.google.com/) are available for free use so that you can upload your videos to these sites and place a link on your web site. Happy shooting!

Blandin in Minnov8

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Fun news from the Blandin front – the Blandin Foundation Broadband initiative was highlighted in a recent article by Steve Borsch in Minnov8, an online publication that focuses on Minnesota Innovation in Internet & Web Technology.

Thanks Steve!

FCC Rules in Favor of BitTorrent

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When it rains, it pours. For the past two weeks it’s been all I could do to keep up on Minnesota broadband happenings. Off in the ether, I’ve been getting glimpses at the FCC’s activity but I haven’t been tracking it too closely. Well the news broke today on FCC ruling on the Comcast/BitTorrent case and I want to thank Jim Baller for not only tracking the news but allowing me to post his comments here. (Jim maintains a great daily email list of telecommunications policy news.)

The big news is that the FCC just ruled, as widely expected, that Comcast’s treatment of BitTorrent traffic violates the FCC’s broadband policies.

According to Commissioner Michael Copps, who joined with Chairman Kevin Martin and Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein to form a 3-2 majority, “This is a landmark decision for the FCC—a meaningful stride forward on the road to guaranteed openness of the Internet.”

The decision does not attempt to lay down rules for all situations but focuses on the specific Comcast practices at issue. The FCC emphasizes the need for a balance between preserving the openness of the Internet and permitting essential network management.

A written order is not yet available. The FCC’s press release and the statements of Chairman Martin and Commissioners Copps and Adelstein are available at www.fcc.gov. They are well worth reading.

More Monticello

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Between Monticello and the Iron Range it’s been a busy couple of weeks for broadband in Minnesota.

Lynne Dahl Fleming was kind enough to send me the official word from the FiberNet Monticello project. It’s a quick take on what’s happening with the TDS lawsuit, obviously from FiberNet’s perspective:

TDS/Bridgewater has finally awakened to the fact that its existing system in Monticello is inadequate. It has belatedly changed its course, announcing a plan to build its own citywide fiber network. The City does not object to TDS’s change in course. Unfortunately, however, TDS accompanied the roll-out of plans for its new system, by filing a lawsuit that serves as a tool for keeping the City from doing the same. (You can read more on the FiberNet homepage.)

Christopher Mitchell was also kind enough to send me his recent Op-Ed piece on Monticello from the Monticello Times. I hope he won’t mind if I excerpt a paragraph and a half and suggest that you read the article for the full perspective. Christopher has spent a lot of time in Monticello and I think he has TDS’ card when it comes to the lawsuit:

Monticello is well within its rights to build a fiber-to-the-home network. But the construction cannot start until the litigation ends. TDS, a phone company headquartered in Madison, has filed a complaint with the laughable charge that the fiber network is neither a “utility” nor “public convenience.” Minnesota’s legislature has explicitly listed telecommunications and “cable television and related services” in its definition of public utilities. Everyone who has ever used the Internet knows it is a public convenience.

TDS cannot win this case, but it can stall Fibernet Monticello’s start-up to buy time for its own hasty upgrades and attempts to lock subscribers into long-term contracts.

Minnesota Broadband Task Force – Mike O’Connor

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Earlier this summer Governor Pawlenty announced the member of the new Broadband Task Force – including Blandin Foundation Broadband Strategy Board member Mike O’Connor.

Mike is representing the urban user; he has started a Broadband Task Force blog to let us know how it’s going and just as importantly to get feedback from urban constituents – well I’d say Mike would like to hear from us all, but again urban is his beat for the Task Force.

Mike was also kind enough to let me know how the Task Force is going – although me asking him was kind of like asking how the new job is going before noon on the first day.

We’re still in the formation stages. we had an informal kickoff meeting over lunch, but the good stuff will start with our first “real” meeting in August. Rick King (our chair) has a domain-name for the “official” site which I’ve linked to on my little http://www.urbanusers.com site — but there’s nothing there yet.

I know that a fair number of us are interested in doing something very forward-looking. And the Governor has asked Rick for an “actionable report” (according to Rick at our kickoff). So we’ll see how we do.