Monthly Archives: April 2009

Hiawatha Broadband on Public-Private partnerships

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There was a nice editorial in the Red Wing Republican over the weekend about Hiawatha Broadband and their proposal to bring fiber to Red Wing.

Gary Evans of Hiawatha Broadband told me that he spoke to a “Red Wing group on Wednesday and will tell City Council members there and in Lake City tonight [Monday April 13] that we would like the endorsement of those cities to apply for stimulus fund to build fiber to the home networks in each community. Under the plan, HBC would finance the gap between stimulus funding and total project costs, although we would give each community an opportunity to own a portion of the projects, if they choose.”

They have wanted to go into these areas for some time – but the stimulus funding has made it possible to escalate those plans. I think this is a great use of funds.

Importance of Redundancy

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This article caught my eye today (Phone, Internet service restored in Silicon Valley after cables are severed). The quick take is that fiber was cut to Silicon Valley leaving thousands of people without service. Cables were cut in neighboring San Carlos too.

It sounds as if the fiber was cut Thursday morning and that most people were back online Thursday night. But both landlines and cell service were effected – leaving some people truly off the grid for a day. (No 911 services!)

Redundancy isn’t a very hot topic – until you realize you don’t have it. I know that on the Minnesota Ultra High-Speed Task Force that Gopal Khanna (Commissioner at OET) has mentioned his concern for security issues. I’m glad he’s on it.

Northfield moves head with fiber and federal funding

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Good news in Northfield. The City Council met on Monday to decide whether or not to appoint a workgroup to pursue a federal stimulus grant application for a Fiber to the Premise (FTTP) project based on information from their feasibility study.

The decision was to move ahead – or in the words of local blogger Griff Wigley, “The Council message was clear: Do it and do it quickly.” Apparently the Council appointed two councilors to the workgroup as well as 4-5 staffers. You can get the scoop and some great insights from Griff’s recent blog post on the meeting the Locally Grown blog.

People are asking the right questions and getting good answers. They’re looking at what happened in North St Paul – where the referendum for fiber didn’t pass and Monticello, where it did. They are looking at the role of the incumbents and how federal funding changes the playing field.

Grand Rapids nonprofits using new media together

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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.

Blandin sponsored pre-planning stimulus meeting

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Blandin FoundationLast week the Blandin Foundation sent a letter to the Minnesota office of USDA RUS in response to their request for input on how best to allocate ARRA funding to benefit rural Minnesota. In short, Blandin promoted funding projects that encourage collaboration and systematic change and suggested that RUS staff get involved in a local level – specifically by joining the Blandin Broadband Strategy Board and participating in local events.

This week we’re planning a meeting for folks who are interested in the stimulus funding. The meeting is open and I encourage you to join us – but please RSVP so that we can enough space (and chairs!) Below is the official invitation:

April 9, 2009

To: Key Minnesota Leaders

From: Bernadine Joselyn, Director of Public Policy & Engagement

RE: Broadband Stimulus Funding

Stimulus funding for broadband totals some $7.2 billion with USDA Rural Utility Service responsible for dispersing $2.5 billion and Commerce’s NTIA responsible for dispersing $4.7 billion. We know that people and organizations across the state are awaiting additional information on program rules and timelines while developing projects in anticipation of these funds.

Within the NTIA legislation are two programs in which Blandin Foundation has particular interest. Through our Blandin Broadband Initiative, we have been working on these types of projects for the last several years through our Get Broadband, Broadband Network Feasibility Fund, and LightSpeed grant programs.

  • $250 million in grants for “innovative programs to encourage sustainable adoption of broadband service.”
  • $200 million in grants for grants for “expanding public computer center capacity, including at community colleges and libraries.”
  • Within the $350 million in funds for broadband mapping are opportunities for community technology planning and broadband efforts

We believe that Minnesota, and especially rural Minnesota, will be able to garner more NTIA resources with a coordinated and collaborative approach, than individual communities or organizations applying on their own. In addition, we believe that these funds would have greater impact across the state.

With that in mind, we would like to invite you to participate in a discussion and preliminary planning session. The goal of this session will be to get a sense of interest among possible partners in collaborating in such an effort, and to discuss roles, scope, and next steps.

The Minneapolis Club
April 21, 2009
9:00am – 11:00am
RSVP to broadband@blandinfoundation.org

Please feel free to pass this invitation on to those you think will be interested in participating. For more information, contact me at    218-327-8728    or brjoselyn@blandinfoundation.org or Bill Coleman of Community Technology Advisors at    651-491-2551    or bill@communitytechnologyadvisors.com

April Blandin eNews

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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.

Building capacity for Minnesota Broadband Coalition

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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.

Video from the Unconference

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I was so pleased with the unconference this weekend. I had hoped to do some live blogging and add video – but it turns out when you have a room full of video cameras that it can take hours to upload video. So I’m bringing you everything a day after the fact.

Below are videos from the day. Mostly we went through topics suggested by attendees – assigned table to topics and folks went where they wanted. Then we’ve convene and report back.

I tried to take notes during the first session, so I’ll inlcude that too – just to give you a quick idea of the conversations that were happening.

Notes from First Session:

Table 1: E-Democracy Group Server – folks got a great demo on how the E-Democracy Group Server facilitates local issues forms. It combines email and web-based discussions – or rather offers multiple ways of participating in the discussion.

Table 2: Facebook – a fun hands on session on Facebook.

Table 3: Strategic Use of Tools for Nonprofits Organizations – a discussion of people who use and/or want to use online tools. I heard people ask about a checklist or recipe for success. Does it help to have multiple people involved? It’s important to have a real person with a real voice at the helm.

Table 4: Podcasting – a discussion of how to use tools to facilitate remote meetings and record them. Dim Dim is a tool I heard come up.

Table 5: Creating community web sites – using tools that will help your audience help you with content, such as Google Calendar – but you still have to moderate.

Table 6: Twitter – a good hands-on session on how to add hash tags

Saturday Second Session Topics:

Saturday Second Sessions Summaries:

Continue reading →

Unconference – developing topics for the day

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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:

MVO Unconference Fishbowl

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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?

MVO Unconference Friday night

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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

Stimulus Fund Hopefuls – MVTV

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After the Minnesota Broadband Coalition meeting last week people have been sending me their stimulus plans. I thought it would be a good idea to start posting them here (with their permission) to spur conversations. (We are also starting a conversation about this on Coalition LinkedIn Group page.)

I don’t have firsthand knowledge of the ins and outs of RUS funds. But I’ve applied for NTIA money and I know they have rewarded collaboration in the past and suspect they will continue to reward it. So if you have an idea you want me to post – please send it. Feel free to post a comment on any of the projects I post or contact the idea owner directly.

I’m going to start with MVTV Wireless; here’s what I got from Dan Richter, President of MVTV. (Thanks to Dan for allowing me to share this!)

First, I would like to invite you to check out our web site www.mvtvwireless.com and see the 10,000 square miles of west central Minnesota that MVTV ‘s Broadband Two-way Wireless Internet System currently covers.

MVTV is a non-profit member owned cooperative which pays no dividends or return on investment. We provide services to ourselves at the lowest possible cost.

MVTV is a Licensed Broadband Internet Service Provider –owning the southern half of the Willmar-Marshall BTA # 477. MVTV also currently has 54 Access Points–repeater sites operating on the 2.4 and 5.8 Unlicensed Frequencies.

MVTV participated with Connected Nations project with the Mapping of the State of Minnesota. Further, we plan to use them as MVTV’s Engineering Firm to put forth a Proposed Stimulus Plan Project to expand our Network to unserved or underserved areas adjacent to our current coverage area.

MVTV currently has a USDA –RUS Pilot Broadband Loan and hope to apply through their Stimulus Plan Loan or Grant Program when guidelines have been established. MVTV’s Board of Directors unanimously approved putting a project together to serve unserved or underserved adjacent areas.

Connected Nation talks to Feds, mentions Minnesota

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Thanks to Amalia Deloney for passing on to me the “Prepared Testimony of Connected Nation Chairman and CEO Brian R. Mefford, United States House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet “Oversight of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act”
Thursday, April 2, 2009.“

They promote the Connected Nation model of mapping, which is a public private partnership. Critics would say it’s too private. They also promote their model for promoting broadband expansion. They also include a policy brief focusing on connecting minority Americans, which are too often on a wrong side of the digital divide.

They mention their work in Minnesota to illustrate the importance of mapping. I think/hope I have extracted enough to give context:

Plenty of evidence exists to justify why Congress called for household level mapping in the Broadband Data Improvement Act. This household level is the only way to truly understand where the broadband gaps exist, particularly in rural areas. If broadband mapping is done at any higher level – at a geographic unit level such as Census units or postal codes such as nine-digit zip – the result will be a severe overestimation of broadband deployment across the United States.

For example, Connect Minnesota has found, through a detailed and granular method of broadband mapping at the household level, that broadband is available to 94% of Minnesota households. If Minnesota’s broadband service availability were mapped at the level of census block groups, broadband deployment would be grossly overstated at 99.6%. Even at the most granular census block level, Minnesota would appear to have 96.4% broadband deployment – again, compared to Connect Minnesota’s household level mapping which shows 94% availability. Even going down to the census block level, this type of general mapping would assume that nearly 45,000 Minnesota households
are served when they are in fact unserved. Even worse, if Minnesota’s broadband deployment were mapped in terms of nine-digit zip codes, the process would become substantially more laborious and complicated, and even less accurate, since zip codes at any level are postal codes and not geographic units.

The result of inaccurate and overstated broadband maps would be an inaccurate baseline for broadband deployment as well as inaccurate benchmarks when Congress tries to evaluate the progress and impact of the whole of the broadband stimulus funding.

What is broadband?

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It’s a question a lot of folks are asking. The FCC defines it as 786kbit/sec. Some say that isn’t fast enough. While the OECD defined broadband as 256k in 2006. The definition changes as the need increases.

Often people want to equate broadband with the functions you can do at certain speeds. It would make a fun “you might be a redneck” type list. You might have broadband if you can watch a full TV show on your computer. You might have broadband if you can use Skype without hiccups. You might have broadband if 3 of you can surf on computers on your home network…

The Daily Yonder recently did a nice article on what broadband is and how it has evolved in rural areas. The article is worth reading – so I’ll just hit some of the highlights here:

What we had

  • When the web first appeared, we were getting speeds of about 28k. Modems are now able to handle faster speeds, but most rural phone lines are still 28k.

What we have

  • DSL is about 10 times the speed of dialup but only work about a mile out from the source.
  • Wireless DSL is emerging and can extend the reach to 6 miles “line of sight.”
  • Popularity of service will make it slower. So if everyone on your block subscribes to broadband you will all be drinking from the same trough. You may get great speeds when no one else is on, but during the popular times there will be a slowdown. (I know we saw a seasonal difference in Northern Minnesota back when I worked for an ISP. Everyone wanted to be online in January, not so much in June.)
  • Satellite is more consistently stable and works well for uploading or downloading files but the latency renders it useful for online interaction.

What we might have

  • The FCC has made “whitespaces” available; that will allow for faster wireless connections. But that won’t happen until the DTV transition is complete and I haven’t seen signs that the technology is ready yet either.
  • FTTH (fiber to the home) is very fast but requires a cable to every home, which can be expensive.

What we need

  • If you’re access to broadband is unreliable or slow, you can still have web site, ebay site or sell things on Amazon – because those sites don’t need to be hosted locally. But without broadband, it’s difficult to give or attend online presentations, get some mode of technical support, do online banking, download video…

Rural broadband is based on supply and demand. To improve supply consumers must understand what they want and need and may need to talk to other consumers to aggregate demand to make a business case to improve supply.