The Blandin Foundation recently held a meeting of cooperative broadband providers. One of the get started question was – What cool/unexpected way are people using your network? I thought it might be a fun start to the week to share some of the responses. Reminds us why we do what we do – to facilitate innovation in business, learning, health care and life!

• Business owners are using security cameras to protect their businesses
• Atomic Learning is located in Little Falls and has created a mini Apple-like environment
• A family has set up an stellar observatory at the far end of the Gunflint Trail and is now selling subscriptions to those who want to view the stars and northern lights.
• Two Bemidji State University graduates have set up a DNA testing lab in a garage in the north woods.  All they need is broadband and UPS delivery service.
• A young woman, operating with the handle “GamerGirl”, plays Call of Duty live on the Internet using a webcam to broadcast her in action.  She has 16,000 people who pay to play against her and that is how she makes her living.
• People in lake country are using an incredible amount of bandwidth, especially on busy holiday weekends.  The CTC network was extremely busy over the 4^th of July weekend with the CTC network reaching 7 GB of data, about twice the amount of data that was consumed one year ago.  People are on the Internet in large numbers with large usage on Saturday and Sunday night. What would people do if they don’t have it?
• People of all ages have growing reliance on the Internet as evidenced by 85-year old neighbors who are upset when the Internet goes down after a storm.
• The fitness company -Snap Fitness – is installing networked devices on each piece of equipment. This is just not possible to support without fiber.
• Teleworking is a growing trend as evidenced by our own organization. Many people, including myself, are learning to check for Internet service availability before purchasing property.  Just bought a new house and had to check and make sure he had service before they closed.
• Robust broadband is now increasingly used to support farming applications for animals and crop production as farmers generate and consume data and use tools like remote video to monitor animals about to give birth
• Tools to support the creation of media through collaboration are growing in use and are increasingly available at no cost to users.  Almost every night, the kids will discover and use something – Just two days ago, I saw the results of a fun lip synch video application with dub smash
• At the cabin we have moved from wondering if we even need the Internet at the cabin to considering it essential for work (enabling longer visits) to Skyping internationally with relatives in Kiev.