Monthly Archives: November 2010

Frustration getting online in rural Minnesota

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I’ve been trying to collect stories of broadband success in Minnesota. But sometimes a story of frustration can be just as illuminating. I want to thank my friend Denise for taking the time to share her experience. Denise Cumming spends half her time in Minneapolis, half in Southern Minnesota caring for her mother. Her online job allows her such flexibility – but her lack-luster broadband is getting in her way. In the video, Denise talks about what you can do on a practical basis with differing low bandwidth connections and/or better connections in public spaces. It’s a great glimpse of what folks on the far end of the digital divide experience.

Top Digital Cities Announced. Not one MN contender

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Thanks to Ann Higgins for the heads up on the bad news of the day. The Center for Digital Government and Government Technology announced their Top Digital Cities last week.

I don’t see one Minnesota city on any of their four lists. (Lists of winners are divided by population size.)

Apparently there has been a shift how Digital Cities are considered…

Not so long ago, governments could justify spending on e-government if it made lives easier and more convenient, or if it allowed a new service that was previously impossible. Now it’s not so simple, thanks to the struggling economy.

Today, showing that a project delivers “hard-dollar” returns has become more important. Consequently this year’s survey focused on measurable achievements.

The focus also seems to be on websites that are collaborating with others to offer new applications that make it easier to get information and/or services that might otherwise be too costly for individual cities to afford to manage. This touches on some of the applications Kathleen Lonergan spoke about in our conversation last week.

I’d be delighted to hear about Minnesota cities that should have made the list – focusing on new application or other forms of e-government.

Have plan, will deploy in Australia

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Thanks to Mike Horwath for the heads up – while we were eating turkey leftovers, the Australian Senate passed a bill that split Telstra’s Australia’s largest ISP separating their retail and wholesale arms.

The Age echoed many other news sources when they said…

THE national broadband network has cleared another key hurdle, after Parliament signed off on major changes designed to help consumers by splitting Telstra’s retail and wholesale arms.

The same article goes on to say that plans are in the works to block the path, while other promising to block the blocks – but a step has been taken. Ars Technica gives a brief summary of the route to deploying the national broadband plan…

The government let go of Telstra in the late 1990s. But, over the coming eight years, Australia’s taxpayers will fork over AUS$43 billion (US$38 billion) to build a “world-class broadband infrastructure.” The project will deliver fiber-to-the-home to 93 percent of all households. We’re talking open access and wholesale only. Every ISP will be able to tap into the system.

I hear people claim that the US can’t commit to ubiquitous broadband because we’re so big with so many areas of low population density. I know that size and population density matter – but I think Australia is showing that where there’s a will, there’s a way. As you may recall, access to broadband was a big issue in the elections this year. The people wanted broadband and now the government is stepping in to make it happen. Unfortunately surveys are showing the opposite in the US. Pew recently reported that more than half of Americans polled say they do not believe that the spread of affordable broadband should be a major government priority. Even Blandin Foundation’s own Rural Pulse survey indicated that…

Fifty three percent of rural residents strongly agreed and 33 percent somewhat agreed that their community has adequate access to technology, with 13 percent disagreeing with that belief.

And numerous surveys have indicated that one of the top reasons people don’t have home broadband is because they don’t see a value. It’s an indicator that we need to convince people of the value of broadband – because as Australia has demonstrated – it can be (or at least is being) done.

College students get real world work online

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According to the Duluth News, the College of St Scholastica is putting broadband and student ingenuity to work in a class where students work with busiensses and nonprofits to help them with their online marketing and social media strategies…

Dexterity with websites, Facebook and Twitter helped turn a class at the College of St. Scholastica into an in-house ad agency.

A mix of marketing, advertising, graphic design and computer science students became the BlueStone group last semester when they gained a national client, the nonprofit Taste of the NFL. The class has worked to redesign the anti-hunger charity’s website and drive its social media campaign.

It’s great real world experience made available because broadband allows the students to work with clients remotely and because broadband has helped increase use of social media tools.

Broadband Access Project Open House: Thursday, December 9

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For folks in the Cities, or willing to make a drive, I thought the following event might be interesting. As you may recall this is an ARRA-funded project…

Please join Asian Community Technology Center, Hmong American Partnership, Lifetrack Resources & YWCA Saint Paul for an inside look at the University of Minnesota’s Broadband Access Project in Saint Paul

Thursday, December 9, 2010

3:30 p.m. Program
Join Mayor Chris Coleman at Lifetrack Resources

2:00 – 5:00 p.m. Open Houses:
Asian Community Technology Center
417 University Avenue

Hmong American Partnership
1075 Arcade Street

Lifetrack Resources
709 University Avenue West

About the Broadband Access Project’s Computer Labs. The University of Minnesota, in partnership with 12 community organizations, received federal funds to develop and improve computer labs throughout underserved neighborhoods in the Twin Cities. The labs are available and free to any adult with employment and education needs.

Questions? Contact Jocelyn Wiedow (YWCA) at 651-265-0720 or at jwiedow@ywcastpaul.org

MN Broadband Story of Success: Publisher in Lake County

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Christopher Swanson, brand new Alderman Ward 2 at Two Harbors City Council, talks about the ARRA-funded project in Lake County. He tells the story of how county-wide fiber will help one local publisher better do her job. It’s just one example of what could/will happen in Lake County in the years to come.

Happy Thanksgiving – time to take a break?

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I thought this would be a fun post for today. I’m borrowing Benton’s summary of the article from the Los Angeles Times…

Most Americans will be checking their work e-mails over Thanksgiving and other holidays this year, according to a new survey conducted by research firm Harris Interactive. Harris found that 79% of U.S. working adults say they have been sent work-related e-mails over a holiday and 59% say they will be checking their work e-mail this holiday season. Of those 59% e-mail checkers, 55% said they peek in their In Box ox for work messages at least once a day, while 28% admitted to checking e-mails multiple times a day. 15% said they were thankful or relieved to have the distraction of work e-mail during the holidays, the survey said. Others don’t view work messages in their In Box so happily — 41% who get work-related e-mails over a holiday say it frustrates or annoys them. Younger adults, ages 18 to 34, are most likely — 56% — to be irritated by work e-mails on their off-days. Even worse, about 12% of those surveyed said they actually “dread” getting any work e-mails during a holiday.

I’m tempted to chastize anyone reading the message today to drop the smartphone and grab a wishbone – but I’m one of the 15 percent who enjoys the distraction – not because I don’t enjoy my family (I do!) but I’m lucky enough to enjoy my work too. I’m thankful for both.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

 

Government Standards for Information

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Today I met with Kathleen Lonergan to talk about Government and Technology. Kathleen works for the Minnesota Legislature. She’s been very involved with the State Government Budget Division and has a great interest in access to information, transparency and government use of technology. She recently started a blog where she talks about Government Technology and Efficiency. Today Kathleen spoke to me today about how statewide policies can help local governments improve their services and how broadband fits in with the process.

Social Media conferences in December

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There are two upcoming conferences that I thought might be of interest to readers.

On December 1 there is an event in Washington DC that will also be broadcast online…

Technology, Social Innovation, and Civic Participation: What’s the Next Step?

Disaster, fraud and crime reporting sites provide information to civic authorities. AmberAlert has more than 7 million users who help with information on child abductions, and SERVE.GOV enables citizens to volunteer for national parks, museums and other institutions. These are just a few examples of digital tools — from social networking applications, to microblogging (e.g. Twitter), to recommendation sites like Ushahidi — that represent the new frontier of technology-mediated social participation. Whether dealing with a natural disaster, expanding health care coverage, or campaigning to make a forest a national landmark, governments and private citizens alike have found digital tools to be an effective means of reaching the masses.

But there are also clear challenges when using technology in this realm, including limited scale and potential privacy violations. Please join us as we build on two recent National Science Foundation workshops to discuss the advantages and pitfalls of social innovation and civic participation in this brave new technology-mediated world.
3:30pm to 3:35pm – Introduction

Tom Glaisyer
Knight Media Policy Fellow, Open Technology Initiative
New America Foundation

3:35pm to 4:10pm – Presentations

Ben Shneiderman
Professor of Computer Science
Founding Director, Human-Computer Interaction Lab
University of Maryland

Jenny Preece
Professor and Dean, College of Information Studies
University of Maryland

4:10pm to 4:45pm – Panel Discussion

Ginny Hunt
Head of Public Sector Programs
Google

Ben Shneiderman
Professor of Computer Science
Founding Director, Human-Computer Interaction Lab
University of Maryland

Jenny Preece
Professor and Dean, College of Information Studies
University of Maryland

To RSVP for the event, click on the red button or go to the event page:
http://www.newamerica.net/events/2010/technology_social_innovation

On December 6 in Minneapolis (they are apparently considering online options or archive)

Announcing PPL’s Digital Inclusion forum.

Our world is increasingly ‘digital,’ but thousands are being left behind, limiting employment opportunity, access to education, and stifling full civic participation.

Join us on December 6 as we develop an agenda to include everyone in the Twin Cities in a digital society.

December 6, 2010

Registration 3:30 p.m.
Program 4:00-6:00 p.m.
Refreshments and Networking 6:00-6:30 p.m.

The Humphrey Institute University of Minnesota

Keynote: David Keyes, Community Technology Manager, City of Seattle
Emcee: Kit Hadley, St. Paul Public Library
Moderator: Catherine Settanni, Community Computer Access Network
Discussion: Panel of community experts

Hosted by: PPL [Project for Pride in Living] and SPNN [Saint Paul Neighborhood Network]

Sponsored by: The Minneapolis Foundation, IBM and Geek Squad

Visit www.ppl-inc.org/forums for more info on the event.

Monticello tops Minneapolis Broadband in cost and speed

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If you want to know anything about community networks, Chris Mitchell at the Institute for Local Self Reliance is the person to ask. He has written a new report (Twin Cities Broadband No Match For Community Network). In it he looks at broadband service in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St Paul) where service is primarily offered through commercial providers and compares it to service in Monticello, Minnesota, with its municipal FTTH network. He has found that…

The most recent data shows that Monticello’s community owned network offers much faster connections at lower prices than the private sector operators in the Twin Cities.

The ILSR report also found that, “every $1 for Monticello FiberNet offers 0.33/0.33 Mbps (download, upload), compared to 0.28/0.05 from Comcast, 0.16/0.02 from Qwest, and 0.10/0.03 from USIW Wi-Fi.”

As you can see the greatest difference is seen in the upload speeds. Fiber provides synchronous connectivity and the report explains why that’s important; video chat was one example.

I was particularly interested in how the ILSR numbers would compare pricing after reading the recent SBA report that indicated that on the average rural businesses pay more for broadband than urban counterparts. Looking at the numbers isn’t necessarily comparing apples to apples. The SBA reported that businesses “pay an average of $110 per month for Internet service, though most pay between $50 and $99 per month”. I learned from Connected Nation (at the Minnesota Broadband Advisory Task Force) that the average dialup monthly fee in Minnesota is $31.81 Home broadband monthly fee $46.36. The ILSR numbers are the most meaningful in that the averages provided by the others don’t specify speeds – but they’re still apples to oranges.

The quick answer is that it appears as if generally rural access is more expensive – but that doesn’t need to be the case – as demonstrated by Monticello. Communities who are interested in pursuing municipally-directed network might make talking to Monticello one of their first steps. Monticello has been very generous with information on their strategy and deployment.

MN Broadband Story of Success from NWLinks

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Last month I had an opportunity to corner a few folks on video to ask them about broadband success in their area. Mary Mehsikomer was gracious enough to tell me a little bit about NWLinks and about how broadband has allowed them to offer Mandarin Chinese to students in rural areas. You can learn more from the brief video below…

Sibley County broadband for farms: fair or foul?

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Dave Peters has a great article today about Sibley County and their conundrum about providing fiber. His article is definitely worth reading in its entirety but I’m going to borrow his succinct description of the issue…

Here are the questions: Should the county of 15,000 (18,000 if you add the neighboring town of Fairfax) create a project to serve eight small towns with Internet speed far greater than what is available now through phone and cable companies? Assume it would borrow about $34 million and have an expected breakeven in five years. Or should it build a project offering the same service to the same towns plus all the farms in the county, borrowing $61 million, finding another $2 million in equity and breaking even in seven years?

And — here’s the really interesting part for residents to tussle with — if they lay fiber to all the farms, should farmers pay more?

Chris Mitchell gave a heads up on this issue earlier this fall when he spoke about the Sibley community meetings to talk about broadband. And it is an issue that will be familiar to anyone who thinks a lot about broadband in rural areas – but just because we’ve been thinking about it doesn’t mean there’s a good answer.

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of speaking with a number of providers at the Minnesota Broadband Advisory Task Force meeting. As Dave points out – the providers in Sibley County are part of the landscape as well. In his article, Dave alludes to the Sibley project needed 70 percent of the residents to use the service. Funny enough yesterday we were talking about take rates (not in Sibley County) and we noted that a 70 percent take rate was very desirable, but perhaps not realistic, especially when there’s competition.

An Open Access model might be worth considering – where the cost of building the network could be shared. I don’t know that all providers are interested in the open access model, but some are. I know that both the State Report and National Broadband Plan encourage public-private partnerships. A definite step in the right direction is the community meetings that Sibley County is hosting in the area.

Non-ARRA USDA funding for Erskine MN

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Here’s the latest from a USDA press release…

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced nearly $247.9 million in funding for telecommunications projects that will improve broadband service to rural residents and businesses in 11 states.

The awards included one Minnesota award. Garden Valley Telephone Company received a $34,177,000 loan. I haven’t been able to track down a ton more info on the loan – but I was able to find a service area for Garden Valley, which seems to center on Erskine, Minnesota.

FCC looks at Spectrum

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Thanks to Ann Higgins for the heads up on the FCC Spectrum plan or plan to plan. According to Mutlichannel News…

The FCC plans to launch a rulemaking and inquiry into spectrum relocation at its Nov. 30 meeting. It is looking to reclaim 120 MHz of spectrum from broadcasters and auction it for wireless broadband.

The NTIA timetable tracks pretty closely with the broadcast spectrum reallocation timetable on the FCC’s National Broadband Plan action agenda, which had a 2010 target for a rulemaking proposal, a 2011 date for a final order, though it suggested starting the auctions of the spectrum in 2012.

They are hoping for 120 MHz – but as the article points out they may (OK will) need find a way to compensate anyone who might voluntarily give up spectrum.

You might recall the National Broadband Plan hopes to poise the US as wireless experts – although the timeline on expertise is a little long. In fact there has been talk about expediting the process with a fast track.

Minnesota Broadband Advisory Task Force November 17, 2010 – full notes

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In today’s meeting we got a nice preview of the Connect Minnesota report. I took notes – but am not including the draft or detailed notes because I know they want to wow us with the finished project.

The rest of the meeting was really spent in small groups talking about how the draft they had written will be morphed into a report. The hope is to have the report approved at the next meeting, which is scheduled for December 15.

Chair Joanne Johnson has been kind enough to allow me to share the draft report – but I want to emphasize that it is draft. I think we’ll see much of the content in the next/final draft but probably in a very different form.

Here are the notes from the meeting… Continue reading →