Monthly Archives: August 2010

Mobile computer lab in Lac qui Parle

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Last week, I was fortunate to participate in the ribbon cutting for the Lac qui Parle Computer Commuter mobile computer lab. There was a great crowd to tour the bus and try the new laptops before listening to the presentations, highlighted by Congressman Collin Peterson, chair of the House Agriculture Committee.

Pam Lehmann, EDA Coordinator, thanked all of the project partners, including Blandin Foundation which provided financial support in addition to that provided by the TDF Foundation of Washington DC. The project leaders will establish a schedule for the mobile lab with regular stops in at least six communities around the county. Mary Quick, the Computer Community coordinator will provide computer classes and one to one assistance to anyone who wants help in learning how to use the computers.

MN ARRA broadband awards so far

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There are two more rounds of ARRA broadband to be announced – one is scheduled for next week, the next the end of September. In the meantime I’ve gathered a list of the Minnesota-based and Minnesota-touched awards announced so far. I’ve included brief descriptions of each project. I thought I’d share it as a cheat sheet we could all use.

I’ll paste the table of info below – but I know tables and blogs don’t’ always mix – so there’s a prettier version in Word too.

Grantee Amount Description
Infrastructure Projects:
Arvig Telephone Company $5,048,168 Bring high speed DSL service to unserved establishments within its rural service territory in Crow Wing County, MN.
Carver County $6,000,000 Affordable middle-mile broadband service in south central Minnesota to connect schools, libraries, and community colleges.
City of Windom $12,800,000 SWMBG will build FTTP (Fiber to the Premise) infrastructure to eight rural communities in Southwestern Minnesota.
Enventis Telecom $16,800,000 Affordable middle-mile broadband service in Minnesota by connecting 70 community institutions to broadband, including connecting the Mayo Clinic to 12 rural health care facilities in southern Minnesota.
Farmers Mutual Telephone Company $9,652,956 Bring FTTP technology to Lac qui Parle County.
Federated Telephone Cooperative $1,300,000 Build a FTTP system to deploy voice, video, and data services to rural Appleton, Minnesota.
Federated Telephone Cooperative. $2,987,000 Bring a FTTP voice, video, and data network to the Rural Morris, Minnesota exchange.
Halstad Telephone Company $6,555,000 Install FTTP to 1,069 underserved locations in 5 towns and surrounding rural/farm areas in Norman and Polk Counties in Minnesota
Minnesota Valley Television Improvement Corporation $1,125,552 Continue building out its broadband internet network to unserved and underserved areas of west central and south central Minnesota.
Northeast Service Cooperative $43,498,220 The Northeast Service Cooperative, in partnership with state and local agencies, schools and health care organizations, will implement a middle mile project to make dark fiber, wavelength services available to private sector providers in rural areas of northeast Minnesota.
Sjoberg’s, Inc. $866,000 FTTP in Roseau, Thief River Falls, and the hamlet of Fox, serving approximately 656 people stand to benefit, as do roughly 15 businesses and 3 community institutions
Wikstrom Telephone Company, Incorporated $7,398,600 Deploy FTTP in 6 communities in Kittson, Marshall and Roseau Counties.
Winnebago Cooperative Telecom Association $3,100,000

*Winnebago received $19.6 million but only 16% will go MN

 Expand the existing portions of its fiber network by providing FTTP to rural portions of about 21 communities in Iowa and Minnesota.
Woodstock Telephone Co Inc $15,184,424 Expand its fiber network into neighboring rural communities by providing FTTP in 15 communities located within 3 counties in Southwest Minnesota.
Zayo Bandwidth, LLC $13,382,593 The Connect Anoka County Community Broadband Network will make high-speed broadband services available to governments, businesses, community anchor institutions, and local Internet service providers in Anoka County and parts of Isanti and Ramsey Counties
15 Projects $145,698,513
Public Computer Center Projects:
Leech Lake Reservation Business Committee $1,722,371 Create seven new public computer centers and upgrade 10 existing facilities on three Ojibwe and Chippewa Indian reservations in Minnesota. They will provide training and support to youth, parents and small businesses.
Regents of the University of Minnesota $2,862,333 Establish one new public computer center and improve 10 existing computer centers in Minneapolis and St Paul. They will offer computer and workforce training to vulnerable populations, including African-Americans and Hmong and Somali immigrants.
Broadband Adoption Programs:
C.K. Blandin Foundation $4,858,219 Blandin Foundation and partners will bring a network of resources and support to rural Minnesota individuals and communities – especially those unemployed and seeking employment, small businesses, coalitions of government entities, and local leaders.
3 Projects $9,442,923 .
Multi-State Projects with a presence in Minnesota
Communication Service for the Deaf, Inc. $14,988,657 Discounted broadband services and specialized computers, online technology training, public access to videophones at anchor institutions for the deaf and hearing impaired community. The project is primary based in South Dakota.
Connected Nation, Inc. $1,700,000 Expand existing broadband maps to reach more providers, give information at a more detailed level, and investigate broadband adoption in Minnesota
Merit Network $69,639,291 Develop 1172 miles of middle mile fiber to serve anchors, public safety, homes and businesses in the Upper Peninsula and Northern Lower Peninsula. Paths out of the region will reach the Duluth area
Mission Economic Development Agency $3,724,128 The Latino Microenterprise Tech Net will create a public computer center in Minneapolis, where they will offer computer training and adult basic education in English and Spanish.
One Economy Corporation $28,519,482 Publishes a portal of Twin Cities and national resources focusing on jobs, school, housing, money and health. Their Digital Connectors program will bring a mentor/community service project to the Twin Cities where youth will learn about broadband and pass on their knowledge to the community
University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development* $62,540,162 Create an ultra-fast national network to colleges, universities, libraries, health care facilities and public safety entities, including some based in Minnesota
6 Projects $181,111,720
Total:
23 Projects $336,253,156

Social Media, not just for kids anymore

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According to Pew Internet & American Life…

Social networking use among internet users ages 50 and older has nearly doubled—from 22% to 42% over the past year.

Consistently reports are showing that age is a factor in broadband adoption – so it’s exciting to see any increase in use in that demographic. Although just as the definition of broadband is important – so is the definition of age. Lots of readers might not think of 50 as a cut off for old, older or elderly. Still it’s nice to see the increase. Here’s Pew’s take on it…

However, even though older adults may be among the most resistant to broadband, there is evidence that once these users get a taste of high-speed access, they often come to rely on the internet as an everyday utility in their lives. While the rates of broadband adoption among the oldest users are low, the frequency of use among those who do have high-speed access is relatively close to the usage levels of younger users.

And here are some of the other quick numbers from the report that were interesting…

  • Half (47%) of internet users ages 50-64 and one in four (26%) users age 65 and older now use social networking sites.
  • One in ten (11%) online adults ages 50-64 and one in twenty (5%) online adults ages 65 and older now say they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves or see updates about others.
  • Email and online news are still more appealing to older users, but social media sites attract many repeat visitors.

Or in the spirit of promoting social media, here’s the latest version of Social Media Revolution 2. Thanks to John Shepard for the heads up on the latest iteration. I posted the original clip last winter; it was fun to see the updates and advanced adoption since then.

Lake County update on network plans

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There’s good news and bad news is Lake County. The bad news is that they still haven’t received ARRA broadband funding. The good news is that they’re still in the hopper.

According to the Lake County News-Chronicle, they remain optimistic…

“I don’t look at it as a rejection,” said Paul Bergman, Lake County commissioner. “There’s still money left. Somebody has to be the last project funded.”

The quick description of their project is…

The county broadband project is expected to cost $70 million and would bring service to every home in Lake and parts of St. Louis County currently served with electric service. The “last-mile” project, meaning service to homes from a central system, is what much of the federal money is tied to.

If the ARRA funding doesn’t work out, municipal financing through revenue bonds may be an option. As the article points out, there will be some improvements in the areas through another ARRA-funded project…

The Northeast Service Cooperative is in the engineering phase of the project to bring broadband to agencies such as medical facilities, counties and schools throughout northeastern Minnesota.

But we keep our fingers crossed for Lake County and the other Minnesota projects waiting to hear the good word.

More info on ARRA awardee Woodstock Telephone

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I have a few local Minnesota broadband stories to share this afternoon. I thought about grouping them – but I know it’s easier for folks to find them later if I keep it to one topic per post. I hope folks won’t mind the overload on a Friday afternoon.

First – thanks to Ann Higgins for the heads up on a recent article about Woodstock Telephone. I didn’t know much about them except that they were awarded $15 million in ARRA funding earlier this month and I welcomed the opportunity to learn more.

The article is really more of a case study written by Tellabs, which provides the Multiservice Access Platform (MSAP) that allows Woodstock to take fiber all the way to customers’ desktops. If you are interested in technical details – this case study is for you. But even if you aren’t interested in the nitty gritty the study paints of picture of what it’s like to be or have a small independent broadband provider…

Woodstock Telephone Co., where Knuth is owner and president, decided that FTTH was essential for staying ahead of both his customers’ bandwidth needs and the competition. With 1,300 access lines serving an operating territory of 450 square miles in southwestern Minnesota, the independent operating company provides Internet and voice services to subscribers in 5 neighboring communities and the surrounding rural areas.

Knuth said many of his customers are farmers who use the Internet for applications such as checking commodity prices, buying equipment, plowing their fields along GPSdefined grids and using software to measure crop yields in real time.

So it sounds as if the upgrade has been done like patchwork over the last few years. They upgrade when replacements are required. They upgrade equipment on a more planned basis – but as they could, including a few miles of fiber with each upgrade.

They ARRA grant will help them be more organized, systematic and obviously quicker with their upgrade. Their plan (taken from the ARRA award announcement) is…

Woodstock Telephone Company will use this more than $15.1 million award to expand its fiber network into neighboring rural communities by providing Fiber-to-the-Premise (FTTP) for over 3600 premises in 15 communities located within 3 counties in Southwest Minnesota. This expanded fiber network will provide bandwidth of over 20megabytes per second for advanced voice and data services. More than 8,000 people stand to benefit, as do approximately 180 businesses and nearly 50 community institutions. In addition to the jobs this project will create upfront, it will help drive economic development and create jobs for decades to come.

Minnesota Broadband Advisory Task Force Meeting August 26 – full notes

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It felt like the first day or school today for the Minnesota Broadband Advisory Task Force at their first meeting since being appointed a week ago. There were a couple of sophomores who were there to help lead the pack – but otherwise it was freshman orientation. Introductions went well, there was some discussion of rules (open meeting et al), the outgoing class president had some suggestions, they worked our some logistics (next meeting is September 23) and then they talked about what they needed to do to get a passing grade (meet the Legislative objections for an annual report) and what they could do for an A.

I tried to take full notes and have posted them pretty mush asis below.

Commissioner Glenn Wilson started –
We are hoping that you will help meet the goals of the legislature, which is fairly general, please also will focus on ways to help meet those goals. How can we have an impact on how we can improve? And remember the goals are minimums.

Help us draw consensus – help think more broadly so that we have good coverage. Continue reading →

Senator Klobuchar Broadband Summit – full notes

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Senator Klobuchar’s Broadband Summit was a far cry from the Public FCC Hearing last week. There were a lot more suits today, although about 250 people as opposed to 700 last week. There were a number of the same people – but certainly not a complete overlap by any means. I recognized more faces today, which means these were people who have been involved with and/or have been following broadband for a while.

The focus today was more on how the government can and is supporting broadband expansion through adoption and deployment programs. We heard from some folks who have received ARRA funding and some folks who are hoping to get the call in the next couple of weeks.

Some definite themes emerged, such as the importance of broadband in terms all aspects of life, the need for public-private partnership the advantage of focusing on win-win strategies such as supporting broadband adoption and the importance of setting broadband goals to make broadband a priority.

Chairman Genachowski ended by reminding attendees that while broadband seems like a burning issue at a broadband summit that it’s not necessarily a top priority for most people or most politicians. We need to continue to talk about it to raise awareness.

Ironically my post is slow to come today because it has taken almost 10 hours for my 40 minutes or so of video to upload to YouTube. So I’m feeling the pain of inadequate broadband. But it does allow me to link to folks who have already written about today’s event:

Read on for more notes on the event or check out video clips online.

Continue reading →

Text Support from Hazelden

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I love the following use of text messages…

Hazelden Foundation, a not-for-profit alcohol and drug addiction treatment center, is launching a clinical research study to measure the effectiveness of therapeutic text messages to support its treatment and recovery management efforts. The pilot study will focus on sending motivational text messages via cell phones to young adults enrolled in alcohol and drug dependence recovery programs.

OK a text message doesn’t require broadband – but I’m just back from Senator Klobuchar’s Broadband Summit where FCC Chair Julius Genochowski spoke about the opportunities for the US to become leaders in the mobile arena. (I’ll post more info on that meeting once my video has uploaded – ask me today how I feel about asynchronous connections.) So seeing an innovative use of the technology – especially coming out of Minnesota-based organization is kind of fun.

Something’s missing from the new MN Broadband Task Force

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Last week we got word on the newly appointed Minnesota Broadband Advisory Task Force members. Here’s the quick roll call: (You can see full bios here.)

  • Six Members who work for broadband providers, provider associations or vendors
  • One Public Affairs Consultant (and former ISP employee)
  • One IT Director of a large business
  • One High Tech Association Director
  • One Retired from the Legislature and MN PUC
  • One IS Director for a Metro County
  • One Metro Cable Communications Officer
  • One Metro Librarian
  • One Healthcare IT Director
  • One Rural K12 Technology Co-op

Where’s the rural* representation? Where’s the community representation? Who will be speaking for the folks who are least likely to be online – the elderly, low-income, ethnically under-represented and rural folks?

Last year when the original Task Force unveiled their recommendations, Blandin Strategy Board applauded the formation of a continued Task Force to carry on the work of the original team but cautioned…

The membership of this advisory committee will be crucial to its success. Diverse voices and perspectives must be included. Specifically, we urge the participation of more community representatives and end-users, especially those with strong technology backgrounds and needs – from large and small businesses, historically marginalized and disadvantaged populations, health care, education and government. We believe these representatives would be well positioned to identify and implement collaborative strategies to bring world class broadband throughout Minnesota.

Apparently there were 31 applications for the 15 positions; almost one third (11) were from rural applicants. The Department of Commerce tried to get a mix of backgrounds, gender, geography but it seems as if the list is a little industry-heavy and community light.

The initial Task Force strove for consensus, which made for more powerful and practical recommendations – but consensus is only powerful when you have everyone’s voice at the table. The newly elected folks are all qualified but some voices are not at the table and I’m afraid we may miss their voices too late.

The job of the new task force is to…

Advise and assist the commissioner on progress in achieving state highspeed broadband goals and assist in annual report to legislature regarding same.

That means there won’t be a publicized “final report” that the public can read and assess; rather advice will be given without the fanfare and probably without the scrutiny that the first Task Force experienced. Therefore it’s even more important that we have a diversity of representation around the table. Maybe there will be opportunities for the new Task Force to hear those voices – I hope those voices will speak up!

*I want to quickly add that legislation for the original Task Force “metropolitan area” means the counties of Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, and Washington, and “rural area” means an area outside of the metropolitan area.

A closer look at the recent Enventis/Hickory Tech ARRA award

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Slowly but surely, I’m trying to feature the Minnesota ARRA awards. I wanted to look into the recent Eventis award today – but the description in most of the ARRA announcements were not very specific…

Enventis Telecom – This approximately $16.8 million award, with more than $7.2 million in matching contributions, will allow Enventis Telecom to offer affordable middle-mile broadband service in Minnesota. The project plans to directly connect 70 community institutions to broadband. As many as 350,400 people stand to benefit as do 28,000 businesses. Enventis estimates that the project will create more than 250 job

Well to start, Enventis is a subsidiary of Hickory Tech. The will be serving 23 counties in Minnesota. According to a recent article in Rochester Post Bulletin…

The project is expected to create more than 250 jobs and benefit as many as 350,400 people and 28,000 businesses.

The Post Bulletin also provide a picture of at least part of the network…

The project will connect Rochester’s Mayo Clinic campus with 12 rural health care facilities throughout southern Minnesota. The high-speed broadband will enable the clinic to provide distance health care training, education and remote telemedicine services to patients in rural areas.

Minnesota 2020 offered some perspective on the project and how – at least for the Mankato area – the project bring policy to the street…

The Rural Broadband Act will shortly, in Mankato, look suddenly less like a policy idea and more like work crews trenching 428 new miles of fiber-optic cable. Repeated across Minnesota and the nation, this investment expands marketplace infrastructure. It’s a progressive idea that worked a hundred years ago and is working now.

Speeds up to…

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Thanks to Mary Mehsikomer for the heads up on a recent Ars Technica article on American broadband speeds — Your fears confirmed: “up to” broadband speeds are bogus. Here’s a quick excerpt that I think gets at the root…

In reality, no one gets these speeds. That’s not news to the techno-literate, of course, but a new Federal Communications Commission report (PDF) shines a probing flashlight on the issue and makes a sharp conclusion: broadband users get, on average, a mere 50 percent of that “up to” speed they had hoped to achieve.

The timing could not have been better. I was just on the phone to my provider last week. They are telling me that my connection is “up to 7 Mbps down”; but speed test seem to clock me at 2 Mbps. My neighbor stopped by today to see if his diminishing bandwidth is him, the web sites he’s visiting or his ISP. (He pays for 1.5 Mbps and gets 1.2 Mbps; I’m thinking now that I’m really getting robbed!

As Ars Technica points out the National Broadband Plan takes on the distinction. Here’s the recommendation from the National Broadband Plan:

Recommendation 4.2: The FCC and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) should collect more detailed and accurate data on actual availability, penetration, prices, churn and bundles offered by broadband service providers to consumers and businesses, and should publish analyses of these data.

I can’t wait until that happens and to see what an effect it has on services promoted and offered.

Future of the Internet, Aug 19, 2010, Minneapolis – FCC Public Hearing – full notes

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Last night, I attended the FCC Public Hearing on Net Neutrality. I was impressed. The auditorium at South High was full and 1100 were watching the live stream on The UpTake. The invited speakers were very good. Everyone was passionate.

I thought I’d give a Reader’s Digest version – then you can read on for full details – including some links to video.

A last minute addition, Senator Franken was clearly passionate about the topic. He repeated the idea that Net Neutrality is the First Amendment issue of our time and spoke from his own experience as a politician and former NBC employee. Commissioners Copps and Clyburn were gracious – listening to probably two hours of public comments. They are obviously supporters of Net Neutrality and seem to feel that the FCC should strive to address consumer protection even more. The local speakers painted a picture of how broadband has made a difference in Minnesota (economic, democratic and for community organizing) and addressed the fact that we’re not all served here, yet. Secretary Ritchie compared our communication issues today with the Dead Sea Scroll exhibit at the Science Museum. I particularly enjoyed that comment, since I had spent my morning at the exhibit. His point was that the decisions we make today determine the future and we need to be good stewards of the communication and democratic tools that we have inherited.

The public comments came from community activists, techies, small business owners, librarians, people with broadband and people without and some folks just wanted to be heard. Most people felt that Net Neutrality was essential to innovation, economic growth, civic engagement and citizen advocacy. Net Neutrality was depicted as a tool that leveled the field – and allowed the seed for a future Google (or other garage startups) to grow. Some were cautious about giving too much power to the government and wanted the people to have control. Many were concerned about affordability and access to “third places” to get online, such as libraries, which do not have the capacity to meet the current needs. One gentleman rewrote the Tale of Two Cities’ best of times, worst of times speech to accommodate his broadband points. One woman got up with her sign interpreters and eloquently spoke about the needs of folks who are deaf, blind or hard of hearing. (She had, but did not use the interpreters for her comments.) The computer can be a godsend to folks with disabilities but many tools require serious bandwidth. One woman wanted to know what happened to books.

Again, Commissioners Copps and Clyburn graciously held on to the end. Although one member of the public noted that while that was great – last night the public was primarily preaching to the choir. Commissioner Copps and Clyburn are supporters of Net Neutrality; and for the most part so were the attendees.

Even after three and a half hours, it was refreshing to see people speak their minds and be heard. Two of the planners (Amalia Deloney and Joshua Breitbart) had an editorial in MinnPost describing the need for the public to be heard early this week. Here’s a snippet of what they said…

By contrast, the chairman of the FCC, Obama’s law-school buddy Julius Genachowski, seems to see his role as a broker among corporate interests, not as their regulator. We have seen the results of that approach from Wall Street to the Deepwater Horizon. Now we are beginning to see it online.

Earlier this summer it emerged that Genachowski has been holding closed-door meetings with lobbyists from the big tech and telecom companies — Google and Amazon, Verizon and AT&T, and the like. Since then, some of these companies that once supported an open, level-playing-field Internet now say they want a privatized, pay-to-play network.

Last night folks in Minnesota got a chance to speak and Commissioner Genachowski will be here next week and will hopefully hear more.

Read on for full notes.

Continue reading →

Franken may join the FCC hearing tonight

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So much news on one day! I’m hoping to post more on the new Task Force members in the next couple of day – but in the meantime we have an FCC Public Hearing in Minneapolis tonight. That doesn’t happen every day. And I heard through an email from Free Press that Senator Franked will be joining the group.

Remember it starts at 6 p.m. at South High School 3131 19th Av. S Minneapolis. They are expecting a full house.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune ran an editorial today from FCC Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Michael J. Copps. It gives a good idea of what they are looking for in terms of conversation tonight…

The Federal Communications Commission has been considering how to ensure that we all continue to have access to lawful information, services, and applications available on the Internet, without service providers blocking or degrading such access, or favoring some content (such as their own) over others. This is not about regulating the Internet. It’s about ensuring that consumers, rather than gatekeeper corporations, maintain control over their online experience.

The conversation about protecting consumers and their access to an open Internet is important — and should not occur just in Washington, D.C. For that reason, when Free Press, the Center for Media Justice and Main Street Project approached us about participating in a town hall meeting in Minneapolis to discuss the importance of an open Internet with the public, we both signed up immediately. We hope you will do so, too.

So far there are 8 comments from readers. I wonder if that is a glimpse of what we’ll be hearing from folks. The comments were all over the board – but I don’t know if all of the commenters would be motivated enough to trek down to South High to chime in.

New MN Broadband Task Force Members Announced

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As you may recall the Department of Commerce invited members of the public to apply for the Minnesota Broadband Advisory Task Force – a group that in many ways will carry on the work of the Minnesota Ultra High-Speed Task Force that suggestioned its formation. Their official purpose is to “advise and assist the commissioner on progress in achieving state highspeed broadband goals and assist in annual report to legislature regarding same”.

Well the members of the new Minnesota Broadband Advisory Task Force have been selected and they are meeting next week. Here is what I learned…

The Taskforce was created to track the attainment of the broadband goals established in the 2010 legislative session (Laws of Minnesota, Ch. 27—H.F. No. 2907, section 237.12) and to make recommendations for achieving those goals. By January 1st of each year, the task force shall submit to the Commissioner of Commerce a report containing its findings. The following applicants were selected.

The first meeting of the task force is scheduled for:

8:30 a.m. to noon.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Room 295
Golden Rule Building
85 7th Place East
St. Paul, MN 55101.

Taskforce Members:

JoAnne Johnson, chair
Ken Wolf, vice-chair
Bob Bass
Brent Christensen
Todd Kruse
David Lind
Peter Lindstrom
Mike Martin
Mike Reardon
Pete Royer
Andrew Schriner
John Schultz
Lois Langer Thompson
Shirley Walz

Broadband Update on Cook County

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The Pew Internet & American Life reported last week that most folks do not think broadband deployment should be a top government priority. So I think the onus is on us broadband-believers to win over the non-believers. The folks in Cook County do such a good job of keeping their community (and hangers-on like me) informed and enthused on the latest broadband news in the community.

Here are the latest headlines:

Get the details on Broadband in Cook County – or if you working on promoting broadband in your are, check it out for ideas to replicate.