Monthly Archives: June 2014

ARMER Towers: Could they provide tower space to your community?

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Someone asked me about FirstNet and the ARMER network as tools to extend access to broadband to rural areas. So I thought I’d share a little bit about what I looked up.

ARMER (Allied Radio Matrix for Emergency Response) is the 800 MHz trunked public safety radio System used in the State of Minnesota. FirstNet is the next generation, national public safety network. I think there is some real potential in FirstNet to reach the far corners of the state with broadband – especially with wireless broadband. In the meantime, ARMER may be worth looking into for communities in need of towers from their equipment.

Here’s what the Office of Electronic Communications site says about the opportunity…

Leasing radio towers or other ARMER resources

Excess tower capacity

Cities, counties, and other public safety/governmental agencies can request to use space on the MnDOT towers and shelters where there is excess capacity.

Other wireless users (non-public safety and private) may also request to use capacity on MnDOT towers where the capacity is not required for public safety users.

All requests must be submitted on a User Request Form to MnDOT for review and approval.

To request a User Request Form or general questions in regards to collocating on MnDOT communication towers please contact:

Shane Chatleain
shane.chatleain@state.mn.us
Office of Electronic Communications
1500 W. County Rd. B2 MS 730
Phone: 651-234-7947
Fax: 651-234-7960

Other resources

Hope that helps!

 

Senator Schmit to tour Minnesota towns to talk about broadband next week (June 9-13)

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Sorry for the last minute notice I just found out about Senator Schmit’s latest broadband listening tour and I’ve been pulling together the info I can to make it easier for folks in the areas to get more info about attending.

Here are the logistics I have:

  • Monday, June 9 – Aitkin, County Court House, 1pm
  • Tuesday, June 10 – Ortonville, Berkner Pizza, 11:30am
  • Tuesday, June 10 – Slayton, Center for Regional Development, 3:30pm
  • Wednesday, June 11 – Bemidji, Northwest Area Foundation, 11am
  • Wednesday, June 11 – Staples, National Joint Powers Alliance, 2pm
  • Thursday, June 12 – Annandale, City Hall, 9am
  • Thursday, June 12 – Mora, Life Enrichment Center, 12:30pm
  • Thursday, June 12 – Balkan Township, 4pm
  • Friday, June 13 – Willmar, MinnWest Technology Campus, 2pm

And more information on the meeting in Bemidji, which I think it reflective of all of the meetings (at least for content and purpose)…

The Northwest Minnesota Foundation will host a broadband awareness meeting with Sen. Matt Schmit of Red Wing to follow up on discussions from a 2013 meeting. The goal is to help move Minnesota forward in reaching its broadband goal – providing 10 Mbps to every home in Minnesota by 2015.

“One of the key takeaways from our last meeting included the urgent need for additional capital to spur on new infrastructure investments and expand access,” Schmit said. “Carrying forth the good ideas and momentum from the listening tour, the 2014 legislature spent a fair amount of time discussing broadband.

“As you may have heard,” he added, “a new ‘Border-to-Border Broadband’ matching grant fund was created with an initial appropriation of $20 million. The Department of Employment and Economic Development will administer this fund, and I expect more detailed information will follow over the summer regarding the application timeline and eligibility criteria.”

The next step, according to Schmit, is meeting the state speed goals and being a leader in broadband access by adopting the $20 million down payment on the fund to be a sustained and engaged effort. The public is invited to help further discussion about preparation for the grant program by joining one of several scheduled meetings with Schmit. The public is also urged to contact their own legislators to attend the local meetings and become more informed on this important rural Minnesota issue.

Join us June 11 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Northwest Minnesota Foundation, 201 3rd St. NW, downtown Bemidji. Please RSVP to Barb Lien, barbl@nwmf.org or call 218/759-6520.

I am hoping to attend some of these sessions and will take notes when I can attend.

 

The Univeristy of Minnesota and Tango create mapping tool for indoors

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I love to see Minnesota get selected for cool technology projects –and being able to map indoors based on reading from the drone with a camera is pretty cool. The Line does a nice write up of the project…

Earlier this year, Google selected the University of Minnesota’s MARS Lab as its primary academic partner for Project Tango, a high-profile indoor mapping initiative that has been compared to Google Maps. The selection came with a $1.35 million grant and a directive to explore—and expand on—the possibilities of a prototype smartphone capable of creating 3D maps of indoor spaces. Google’s only other academic partner on the project, Washington, D.C.’s George Washington University, has a much smaller role.

And the MARS project published a video that makes is much easier to understand…

But cool as it is, this is one of those times that I have to ask about the purpose. Why do we need to map the indoors? Of course the fire department and other public safety departments might like to have maps of building and home before they enter. And I’m sure once the data is collected, it can give directions like Google Maps and maybe using the maps and a drone to scan rooms during a fire would help to search for anomalies in the rooms that could be people left behind. But I also see a huge issue with privacy. I don’t really want my house mapped. And it seems pretty easy for anyone to get a drone and deploy an app like this to map public places and some of those folks might have less than noble goals.

That being said. It is cool.

Technology apprentice program in the Twin Cities

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Last week at the MN Broadband Task Force, cyber security experts spoke about the need for qualified workers in their field. The conundrum was getting the education and experienced required – at the same time. Education is important but especially in the field of technology, you need to keep up on what’s happening in the field today too. So I was delighted to read (in The Line) about an apprenticeship program at Metro State…

In less than a year, a partnership between Advance IT Minnesota and Metropolitan State University has produced Fusion, an “IT residency” program that will officially launch during the 2014-15 academic year. Fusion places students in various technology degree programs with local employers—ranging from cutting-edge startups to Fortune 500 firms—that need flexible, entry-level IT labor. The program has already accepted applications for the coming year’s roster and is in the process of vetting applicants.

Unlike a traditional internship, which typically runs a single academic semester, each participant’s residency lasts 18 to 24 months—roughly tracking their last two years of college. Students are paid for their time, typically less than 20 hours per week, with projects assigned by their employers and paychecks issued by their school.

Worth looking into if you’re a potential apprentice or could use an apprentice. Worth looking into if you think a similar program might work in your community!

 

Broadband and farming – tracking the tractors

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People are often asking me about good uses of broadband on farms. I found one today in Farm News Industry. I know it reads a little like a press release, but interesting nonetheless..

They were testing out a new drive made by 640 Labs that plugs into the electronics of their tractors and farm equipment and records everything about how the machines are running. Torque, fuel, engine rpms, temp, planter data, location-all were being logged into a small black plug and wirelessly exported to the Cloud via iPad, where the brothers could tap into it at any time by entering their name and password.

With the data they know, for example, when and where there is a problem with one of the machines and whether they need to call in another operator to help finish up a field.  Software built into the drive lets you visualize, on your iPad or smart phone, any anomalies in the data that might indicate a problem in performance. All of this processing is done in near real-time so that the Schweigerts can make changes or adjustments before any more seed is planted.

Clive Thompson on smartphones and smart users at Top Coast

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Last weekend I attended Minnesota Public Radio’s Top Coast Festival, a conference on politics, pop culture, health care, technology, food and philanthropy. There were two talks I wanted to highlight here: Aneesh Chopra and Clive Thompson. Mostly for the sake of archive, I’ll do this in two posts. (The talks will be broadcast in MPR over the next few weeks. I’m afraid I can’t find a detailed schedule – I’ll add a link if/when I do find it.)

Clive Thompson is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and a columnist for Wired. He wrote Smarter Than You Think: How Technology Is Changing Our Minds for the Better. He is also in a Bluegrass band that does 80s covers. Thompson was interviewed by Neal Justin. The talked about the impact technology is having on users. Fascinating!

Thompson observed that the greatest danger of smartphone technology and status update culture is the focus on now. We are losing interest in our history and to some degree in our future when all we see and all we do is catalog and memorialize the now. What’s funny is that at the same time people are complaining that we’re too focused on the now – they also that we’re not focused on the here. We’re focused on our screens. Thompson, who backed almost everything he said with a study, added that while it seems like people are focused on their phones, studies show it isn’t true. People observed in social settings do not generally spend much time on their phone. He added that it just seems that way, especially if the notion of it bugs the observer.

He did add that while we might not be focused on our phones, we aren’t always present either but paying attention is teachable; we just need to be more mindful of it as a goal. Sometimes changing the format or platform of work can help. So going from a device to writing in pen can provide cause your brain to change its approach.

Another interesting observation comes of those who say “this generation is killing culture!” Nearly every generation has said it about the upcoming generations and people have been saying it about new technology for as long. Back in the day, people were worried that the pen would ruin public discourse and memorization. And to some degree it probably did. But what the naysayers don’t understand is that each new technology opens a new door too

Studies have shown that the workforce is more productive with technology; the problem is that industry has reaped most of the benefits of that productivity. We are now tethered to our office via our devices and smartphones. So at the end of the day does that tethering make us smarter than the phones or vice versa? Time will tell. As Thompson points out, we are really in the infancy of a new way of doing things!

Blandin Broadband e-News June 2014

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News from the Blandin on Broadband BlogBBC Map

Governor Signs $20 Million Broadband Fund
The Broadband fund proposed at the beginning of the un-session was $100 million in grants and loans to encourage broadband build-out. After discussion the House landed on $25 million; the Senate didn’t discuss it much but the fund was added to the House Omnibus bill. http://wp.me/p3if7-2Hr The number dropped again to $20 million but it passed and the Governor signed it. http://wp.me/p3if7-2HJ

Broadband Task Force Poises for More Recommendations
Perhaps inspired by the results of their work in 2013 (see article above), the Broadband Task set out in small groups to brainstorm more recommendation to work on in 2014. They also learned a lot about cyber security. http://wp.me/p3if7-2HJ

Meet the Broadband Policymakers
The Humphrey Institute and Blandin Foundation are hosting a TISP Broadband Roundtable on June 17 in Minneapolis. The inclusive Roundtable brings together main leaders in the broadband policy debate. Join to learn from this past year as well as next steps in implementation of the Broadband grant program. A lot remains to be done and this Roundtable discussion will help clarify where we are going. http://wp.me/p3if7-2Ic

Rural MN broadband access is 57%; Statewide access is 75%
Connect Minnesota unveils results from their latest survey. They found that 74.93% of Minnesota households can access fixed broadband at speeds of at least 10 Mbps download/6 Mbps upload; however, only 57.07% of rural households can access these broadband speeds. http://wp.me/p3if7-2I8

Local Broadband News

Cook and Lake County
Provideo produces a brief video history of broadband deployment in Northeastern Minnesota. http://wp.me/p3if7-2Ii

Deer River
Deer River Clinic will establish a telehealth demonstration site, with support of a $45,000 Blandin Foundation grant, to improve access to specialized medical care in the region. Through Essentia Health’s Telehealth system, the Deer River Clinic will now be able to offer early lung cancer screening, sleep study programs, and even weight loss programs to patients who are a distance away from a major medical center. http://wp.me/p3if7-2Io

Goodhue County
Goodhue County Education District will provide licensed staff members access to online professional development courses available through high-speed Internet, with support of a $50,000 Blandin Foundation grant. Online courses can be tailored to staff’s individual needs and will be a more convenient option to earn required continuing education units rather than having to travel to conferences, classes, and workshops. http://wp.me/p3if7-2HV

Kanabec County
Through the Blandin Broadband Communities initiative, Kanabec is enjoying a community portal, local e-business classes and they are working on a telework center. http://wp.me/p3if7-2Hn

Lac qui Parle County
The Lac qui Parle Economic Development Authority will support residents in gaining digital literacy skills available through the local Computer Commuter, with support of a $25,000 Blandin Foundation grant. http://wp.me/p3if7-2I3

Lake County
Through the Blandin Broadband Communities initiative, Lake County is offering intergenerational digital inclusion opportunities, Wi-Fi hotspots and celebrating fiber in Silver Bay. (Fiber is not part of the BBC program but big news.) http://wp.me/p3if7-2Hp

Lake of the Woods County
Through the Blandin Broadband Communities initiative, Lake of the Woods County is hosting local e-business training, deploying Wi-Fi hotspots and is outfitting the library with broadband-ready devices. http://wp.me/p3if7-2Hl

Minneapolis
The City of Minneapolis releases results of their second digital inclusion survey. It indicates that over the last three years, residents have increasingly accessed the Internet using smart phones and tablets, yet access varies across the 11 Minneapolis Communities and socio-economic factors. Residents who identified as lower-income, African-American, older and retired, unemployed or disabled were less likely to own a device with Internet access. Still, ownership of Internet-enabled mobile phones was high, even among those households least likely to own a computer. http://wp.me/p3if7-2Hg

Minneapolis (and Montpellier, France) are working with IBM to make data-driven decisions to rapidly transform the way they provide water, transportation and emergency management. http://wp.me/p3if7-2I5

Minnesota
AT&T has invested more than $525 million in its best-in-class wireless and wired networks in Minnesota from 2010 through 2013. http://wp.me/p3if7-2HD

North Central Minnesota
Headwaters Regional Development Commission (HRDC) will complete an action plan for developing community technology/telework centers in the Headwaters region, with support of a $10,000 Blandin Foundation grant. These physical spaces will provide freelancers, entrepreneurs, telecommuters, and community members with shared access to secure broadband, video conferencing equipment, meeting space and resources like printers and fax machines. http://wp.me/p3if7-2HX

Northwest Minnesota
Northwest Minnesota Foundation (NMF) will work with area businesses to take advantage of more online resources available through high-speed Internet, with support of a $9,750 Blandin Foundation grant. This work will occur as part of the regional IMPACT 20/20 Business Broadband Initiative. http://wp.me/p3if7-2HZ

Prior Lake
Prior Lake’s tech center supports and promotes small local tech businesses. Businesses that outgrow the space are relocated locally to take advantage of area fiber broadband access. http://wp.me/p3if7-2Ie

Ramsey County
Ramsey County Board chooses Comcast to provide broadband and managed-network services for the county government’s building-to-building communications. Two years ago they nearly went with a public-private fiber option that would have opened the door to FTTH. http://wp.me/p3if7-2HB

Region Five (Central MN)
Resilient Region Champions, part of Region Five Development Commission, will develop a rural telehealth program in Central Minnesota, with support of an $8,000 Blandin Foundation grant. http://wp.me/p3if7-2I1

Renville and Sibley Counties
RS Fiber talks to the Institute for Local Self Reliance about their project to create a cooperative to build and run a fiber network to homes, businesses and farms in the area. http://wp.me/p3if7-2HT

Southwest and Central Minnesota
MVTV Wireless continues to grow and expand; it now provides Internet access to its customers over 20,000 square miles in rural Southwest and Central Minnesota. http://wp.me/p3if7-2HM

Twin Cities
Comcast plans to transition its Twin Cities customers to Charter Communications as part of a process to facilitate a Comcast-Time Warner merger. http://wp.me/p3if7-2Gv

Events

JUNE 5 Northside Minneapolis Digital Innovation Forum (Minneapolis) http://wp.me/p3if7-2H8

JUNE 12 Approaches for Local Governments to Expand Internet Access Blandin webinar – http://wp.me/p3if7-2Ig (You can check out last month’s webinar online, DIY Tools and Strategies for Communities Google Fiber is NOT Calling http://wp.me/p3if7-2GH)

JUNE 17 Broadband Roundtable TISP (Minneapolis) http://wp.me/p3if7-2Ic

JUNE 21-22 Hack for MN (Minneapolis) http://wp.me/p3if7-2HH

JUNE 26 MN Broadband Task Force Meeting http://mn.gov/deed/programs-services/broadband/task-force/task-force.jsp (location TBD)

JULY 23 MN Broadband Task Force Meeting http://mn.gov/deed/programs-services/broadband/task-force/task-force.jsp (location TBD)

Stirring the Pot

By Bill Coleman, Community Technology Advisors

“Connecting the dots” is a metaphor for people who can see the big picture in a complex world of technology, people and trends. In past weeks, I have seen the positive value of connecting people so that 1 + 1  > 2.  I saw references to the powerful impact of “connecting the people” in a Star Tribune article on Fargo Moorhead this weekend, at the Red Wing Ignite hack fest and at several community broadband meetings. With broadband, the universe of possibilities has expanded from local to global.

Last week, Bernadine Joselyn and I spent two days in Washington, DC trying to connect dots, first through a series of meetings with federal agency staff who either use broadband to achieve their mission or fund broadband as their mission, and second, at an excellent workshop of interactive learning and sharing. Both of these opportunities were well-hosted by NTIA, an agency that sees connecting people as a part of their post stimulus mission.

I did a bit of matchmaking myself over the past week. In one opportunity, I connected multiple telecom providers to each other and to regional community broadband advocates and our new Office of Broadband Development. These prospective partners have underutilized assets, that in combination, could improve broadband services in a number of counties at a minimum of capital expense. Combining assets could produce a great partnership, but I would not minimize the challenges of partnering across untraditional lines, especially private-public lines on new ventures. At least, the connection started a discussion.

Spurred by introductions at the state broadband conference, I met with state staff who work with the blind, deaf and hard of hearing community. Over the life of the Blandin broadband initiative, we have not paid very much attention to this community. People who rely on American Sign Language to communicate require a decent broadband connection to use video conferencing technology. For ASL users who want to communicate over distance with those who do not sign, three way connections to translators are required. While translators may be readily available in the metro area, they may not be close at hand in greater Minnesota, especially outside of regional center communities. Some rural residents with these skills may exist but they are not readily identifiable. I had a great conversation with the staff and we came up with several ideas for collaboration. Some of those opportunities might include you!

Sometimes these connections take root with immediate success or they might lay fallow until you provide some tilling and watering. With some, they might not produce at all. In any case, it is spring planting season here in Minnesota so make some connections!

Aneesh Chopra on encouraging public-private collaboration at MRP Top CoastFestival

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Last weekend I attended Minnesota Public Radio’s Top Coast Festival, a conference on politics, pop culture, health care, technology, food and philanthropy. There were two talks I wanted to highlight on the Blandin on Broadband blog: Aneesh Chopra and Clive Thompson. Mostly for the sake of archive, I’ll do this in two posts. (The talks will be broadcast in MPR over the next few weeks. I’m afraid I can’t find a detailed schedule – I’ll add a link if/when I do find it.)

aneesh chopraAneesh Chopra was the first US CTO under President Obama in 2009. He spoke at length about US Government’s efforts to encourage private industry to partner with or at least engage with government efforts. It’s a model that can and is playing out at a local level. (One example that comes to mind quickly is the Hack for MN coming up June 21-22, which is modeled after a national effort.)

Chopra laid out a challenge, “This is the decade we can solve the greatest problems. We need to find the hidden path to do it.” The hidden path is latent human capital. To tap into that capital we need an open platform, we need to look outside our own walls (in this case, government’s) and we need to celebrate the frontline workers to help define the problem. Other tools required include: open data, competition and prizes, ability to attract talent, crowdsourcing and iterative process.

He offered Challenge.gov as an example. It is a government portal where departments can post “challenges” or contests to encourage private companies and individuals to contribute work for a chance at a prize. He mentioned that Congress has authorized every department to offer challenges up to $50 million – so these aren’t kids’ games they are real opportunities. And real people have offered great solutions saving the government time and money while earning themselves real money and reputation. And the best way to get people to participate in the challenge? Chopra says ask them to join the effort.

Another example is the Presidential Innovation Fellows (from the website)…

This highly-competitive program pairs talented, diverse individuals from the innovation community with top civil servants to tackle many of our Nation’s biggest challenges, and to achieve a profound and lasting social impact. These teams of government experts and private-sector doers are taking a “lean startup” approach and applying methods like user-centered design to achieve results for the American people in months, not years.

I find the prospects so exciting. The overriding tools required here are technology and openness; two tools that have the power to help us solve the greatest problems in this decade. Tools that we can build locally as well as nationally!

Tech Center in Prior Lake supports fiber adoption

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The Minneapolis Star Tribune recently featured improvements in Prior Lake. I like the juxtaposition of the tech center and the fiber deployment. Sounds like they are able to nurture small businesses in the tech center until they outgrow their space, creating a likely customer for fiber. It’s a win-win-win. Create a new business – create a bigger tax payer – create a supporter of infrastructure…

“We feel very good about the technology village, its progress so far,” Boyles said. The program exceeded its first-year goal of three small-business tenants, getting six focused on software development, graphic design, e-commerce and digital community news. The city carved out space in city hall to house the program, with offices for small-business tenants as well as computers, printers and other equipment.

 

One tenant, Innovative Computer Professionals, already is about to relocate to expanded offices in the Village Commerce Building. The software development business had only one employee in Prior Lake when it moved into the city hall space but will have nine at its new digs, said Mark Friesen, director of development. He said he expects the move to happen in June.

 

“Moving out [of city hall] but moving into Prior Lake is exactly what we want to see,” Boyles said. “The nature of these jobs is precisely what we have been looking for.”

 

The technology village’s goals this year include creating a pipeline of prospective new small-business tenants, said Dan Rogness, community and economic development director. The program’s board surveyed local building owners last year to determine the amount of vacant available space. “We’ve also gone out on our own to get a better inventory of space that’s available and we’re keeping better track or what’s out there,” said Rogness, who serves as the technology village’s director.

 

The EDA also supported last year’s effort by the city to extend its fiber-optic network, another step to encourage more tech-related business development. The city, Scott County and Integra worked out a cost-sharing agreement to build and operate an extension of the county’s fiber backbone along County Road 21 from the intersection at County Road 42 to the intersection of County Road 27.

 

Prior Lake’s city hall, police station and library already have fiber. The extension will bring high-quality fiber to four remaining city buildings — two fire stations, a maintenance building and the water treatment plant — with lateral lines going to several nearby business areas.

 

The EDA has said it will continue to support further expansion of fiber throughout the city.

Blandin Foundation awards grant for telehealth demonstration site in Deer River

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GRAND RAPIDS, Minn (May 9, 2014) – Blandin Foundation announced today that it has awarded six grants totaling $147,750 that assist rural Minnesota communities in advancing high-speed Internet access and use in their communities.

Deer River Clinic will establish a telehealth demonstration site, with support of a $45,000 Blandin Foundation grant, to improve access to specialized medical care in the region. Through Essentia Health’s Telehealth system, the Deer River Clinic will now be able to offer early lung cancer screening, sleep study programs, and even weight loss programs to patients who are a distance away from a major medical center.

“This grant will bring medical sub-specialists to rural communities,” says Maureen Ideker, RN Director of Essentia Health’s Telehealth system. “People in Babbit, Remer, Grand Rapids, and Deer River will be able to talk and visit with our sub-specialists without driving for hours.”

Essentia Health-Deer River Clinic provides primary and specialty care to residents of Deer River, Minn., and the surrounding area. The clinic is an outpatient department of Essentia Health-Deer River and is connected to the hospital.

“Rural leaders know that connected communities are vibrant communities,” says Dr. Kathleen Annette, CEO of Blandin Foundation. “We are delighted to see Deer River Clinic using technology to improve care for rural Minnesotans.”

Since making rural broadband use and access a focus in 2003, Blandin Foundation has partnered with leaders in more than 60 communities and 80 organizations across the state to support sustainable broadband adoption to enhance quality of life and place.

Brief video history of broadband in Cook and Lake Counties

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ProVideo has created a 7 minute video on broadband efforts in Cook and Lake Counties. Folks from the field talk about great potential use of the network (such as telework and education) and the drawbacks to not having it. Other folks talk about how the network was built – including an allusion to post-ARRA and tsunami access to the fiber. (ARRA funding for fiber created a big demand; the tsunami in Japan reduced the supply.) It’s a nice snapshot of broadband development in the communities…