Here’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.

NTIA/RUS Funding Update
In August, NTIA/RUS received 2,200 applications requesting $28 billion in response to the broadband stimulus NOFA. http://tinyurl.com/la98sv The plan was to have volunteer reviewers read through the applications to decide which should be sent to appropriate States for review. That has not happened. The volunteer reviewers have not been reading applications and the States received unfiltered lists of applications. The States have until October 14 to send their recommendations back to the NTIA/RUS. http://tinyurl.com/yavpf4q The status of the applications came up earlier this month when the Blandin Foundation spoke to the TISP Forum about their application for ARRA broadband stimulus funding. http://tinyurl.com/y9foaba

Broadband Task Force Meetings
The Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force met in September http://tinyurl.com/y8jusl5 and will continue to meet every other Friday in October http://tinyurl.com/yc8dnup until their recommendations are due in November. A draft of the recommendation from September 15 is available online http://tinyurl.com/ydd5px7; it does not include updates from the October 2 meeting. A new draft will be posted as soon as it is available. The Task Force plans to roll out the official recommendation at 10:00 am on November 6 at a press conference with the Governor and Committee Chairs.

Blandin Broadband Conference
The Blandin Broadband conference is coming up November 18-19 in Duluth. http://tinyurl.com/n4gqvb The theme is Realizing our Broadband Future: Getting from Here to There. It will focus on the future of Minnesota communities, providing community leaders with the information and tools they need to position their communities in the future. Leading up to the conference Blandin will host a series of free webinars http://tinyurl.com/y9b8m49:
October 6 – A Futurist View of Minnesota with Delore Zimmerman http://tinyurl.com/ybb4x4h
October 20 – Broadband Best Practices in Greater MN with Bill Coleman
November 3 – Telling a Story with Social Media with Ann Treacy

The Latest Research
According to the FCC, three to six million people in the US are unserved by broadband. http://tinyurl.com/ycy8x5l Those numbers made more frustrating after reading about the positive impact broadband can have in rural communities. http://tinyurl.com/ybnqb53

Local Broadband News

Alexandria
AT&T has expanded its 3G mobile broadband network in Alexandria. http://tinyurl.com/yep5ozp

Anoka County
Anoka County is surveying residents and businesses on their interest in broadband. http://tinyurl.com/yeop277

Cook County
Cook County applies for a $33 million federal grant to help fund a project to bring fiber to every home and business. http://tinyurl.com/ycka5wx

Foley
The Foley School and Benton Telephone Cooperative offer students’ families a rebate for broadband service. http://tinyurl.com/yekchvh

Lake County
Lake County applied for ARRA stimulus funding; they requested $11,050,770 in grants and $22,436,409 in loans. http://tinyurl.com/ybfmuu3

Monticello
Monticello wins NATOA award for its vision and courage in planning a community FTTH network. http://tinyurl.com/y9zhp28

Northfield
After deciding that Northfield was not a good fit for ARRA/RUS funding, the City is researching alternative financing options. http://tinyurl.com/yev3pu8

St Cloud
NewCore, a company based in St Cloud, has a plan to help stretch broadband into more remote areas. http://tinyurl.com/yerbakt

St Paul & Ramsey County
Saint Paul and Ramsey County look into fiber optic connectivity to deliver city and county services to the public. http://tinyurl.com/y8wkcv8

Staples
Staples wins a community pride award based on their fiber broadband initiative. (Staples was part of the Todd County Get Broadband initiative, sponsored by Blandin Foundation.) http://tinyurl.com/y85dxps

Coleman’s Corner

Goal setting is always an interesting exercise, whether for an individual, organization or government. There are hard choices about the focus of the goal and the intensity of the goal. The focus tells what is important. The intensity drives the difficulty. If achieving the goal does not bring about real change, is it even worth it to set a goal? Is it better to achieve an easy goal or to fail to reach an aggressive goal?

The state broadband task force is settling on a statewide broadband goal of 20 Mb download speed with 10 Mb upload speed for statewide access by 2015. A northwestern MN group is setting a goal of 10Mb download in each community in the same timeframe. Are these the right goals? While each group has to set its own standard, I think that goal setting is extremely important to enable progress.

Dakota Future, an economic development group in Dakota County with which I work, has set a goal to be a global Intelligent Community by 2012. (http://www.dakotafuture.com/showcase.html) Dakota Future has completed a benchmarking exercise and is awaiting the results which will tell the county community whether this goal is realistic or whether it is unachievable. But the goal setting is already paying benefits. We are seeing increased ability to think about critical priorities and discover collaborative opportunities on shared interests.

I encourage you to set your goals high and then get busy working to achieve them!