Last week I attended the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition BTOP Summit. As I said last week, it was a great opportunity to hear from folks making policy and see what’s happening, especially with ARRA-funded projects across the country. It was also an opportunity to learn more about Anoka County – as David Minke (from Anoka) and Essam El-Beik (from Zayo) were presenting at the conference.

I captured most of their presentation on video. Most of the presentations from the day were from libraries and schools – folks who seemed unreservedly to want to be part of the local broadband project. Anoka County was a little different. Like other countywide projects, Anoka needs to get support from individual cities as well as the county, which means talking to taxpayers about investment and that can always be a challenge – but I think it helps the project leaders hone the benefits of broadband. (In fact, Lino Lakes was meeting to discuss broadband the night I met the folks from Anoka.)