Category Archives: LightSpeed

Lakewood Health System update

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Telemedicine update: Our agency has had two equipment distributors visit in January to showcase their products.  We have found the research from other providers who have already incorporated telemonitoring into their health care system to be very encouraging.  The rates of re-hospitalizations for clients who had daily telemonitoring decreased by more than 50% for one Home Care agency.  The research indicates that patients have improved disease management with daily monitoring of vital signs.  Many of the vendors have designed disease specific questions a client can answer daily to assist the nurse in evaluating symptoms.  Any abnormal or problematic symptoms can be reported promptly to the client’s physician to see if there are any changes in care that would need to be made.  We have found that the vendors are incorporating video capabilities, interfacing their system with common Home Care documentation software as well as creating health monitoring equipment powered by Blue Tooth technology.   We have two more vendors scheduled to complete a site visit in February and hope to make a purchase decision by March.   

light speed communityThe Blandin Foundation is supporting four standout broadband programs through the Light Speed program. The program’s purpose is to stimulate the deployment of bandwidth intensive applications that connect local institutions to area resident’s home. This post comes from a Light Speed community leader.

Blandin Foundation announces Community Broadband Resource Program

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Blandin FoundationThanks to Becky LaPlant for sending on the exciting news from Blandin Foundation on the Community Broadband Resource Program…

Blandin Foundation announces Community Broadband Resource Program Initiative will help rural communities connect to broadband’s worldwide advantages Grand Rapids, MN—(February 15, 2008) Blandin Foundation is pleased to announce the Community Broadband Resource Program (CBR). This newly created program offers technical and business consulting services to rural communities interested in researching, developing or advancing broadband capacity. Participating communities receive services at no charge.

CBR is the most recent program addition to Blandin Foundation’s Broadband Initiative, which also includes the “Get Broadband” and “LightSpeed” grant programs, the Blandin on Broadband blog and the Open Networks Feasibility Fund. The initiative is guided by a 16-member Strategy Board representing a broad range of private and public perspectives.

In designing this program, Blandin Foundation has applied its broadband experience gained from working with leadership in 29 rural communities.

Customized approach

Bill Coleman“Blandin Foundation’s Community Broadband Resource Program is unique in the state,” says Bill Coleman, project leader for the program. “This program will be customized for each community because when it comes to broadband decision-making, we know that no two communities have the same set of challenges or priorities.

“While some communities may already have committed resources and know what they want to do, others may not really understand broadband capabilities and don’t know where to start,” Coleman says.

“Our job is to facilitate the good work that community leaders are capable of doing. We help identify and clarify key community priorities, involve project stakeholders and assist community leaders in developing their plans and understanding their planning needs–whatever would help them move forward to the next step.”

Broadband News Around Minnesota

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Earlier today we published the Blandin Broadband eNews. Many of the stories are quick summaries of blog posts from the last month. We also compile new regarding broadband and community use of the Internet from Get Broadband communities and local newspapers around Minnesota.

I thought I’d post the news from MN in the blog too:

Bemidji
In May, Governor Pawlenty signed a law that requires all school districts to address intimidation and bullying in all forms, including electronic forms and forms involving the Internet; the Bemidji School Board is considering changes now. (http://tinyurl.com/2u7u5y)

Faribault & Marin Counties
Suspected vandals were arrested in Faribault for causing more than $100,000 in damage to telecommunications sites and equipment owned by five local companies. (http://tinyurl.com/yueveh)

Iron Range
The Iron Range’s FiberNet project has halved their estimated startup costs for developing a fiber network. Meetings will be happening throughout the month to promote communities’ support of the project. (http://tinyurl.com/2742uu)

Kandiyohi
Kandiyohi is offering a series of classes to teach basic skills ranging from email and Internet browsing for individuals to online marketing for small-business. For those who participate, grants will be available to help underwrite 50 percent of the cost of creating or upgrading business web sites. (http://tinyurl.com/23orvk)

Monticello
Monticello is moving forward with a city-wide fiber optic network. The fiber network will be financed with revenue bonds, not a tax levy. The cost for the entire project is estimated at $20 to $25 million and completion of the fiber network will take approximately 18 months. (http://tinyurl.com/yuo2b7)

Owatonna
David Warlick of the Landmark Project (http://landmark-project.com) visited with Owatonna educators to talk about teaching information literacy to students to prepare them for their information-rich future. (http://tinyurl.com/39hm2m)

Rochester
The Mayo Clinic and IBM are building a Medical Imaging Informatics Innovation Center (MI3C) in Rochester Minnesota. (http://tinyurl.com/229h67)

Rushford
Since the flood in August, Rushford has been scrambling with other projects but Yaggy, Colby Associates are helping them move forward with broadband. Rushford will use a blog to inform the public about the planning process. They continue to work on website development for area businesses and organizations and will be marketing the opportunity through the internet and other media outlets.

Thief River Falls
Thief River Falls Times reminds readers that, “Congress has mandated that Feb. 17, 2009, will be the last day for full-power TV stations to broadcast in both analog and digital. After that date, those TV stations will only broadcast in digital. The switchover affects TVs that receive free over-the-air programming (those that are used with rooftop antennas or with “rabbit ears” connected to the TV sets). Analog TVs hooked up to cable or satellite services won’t be affected by the switchover.” (http://tinyurl.com/2x8vke)

Winona
Home and Community Options, which provides support and residential services to people with developmental disabilities, was featured the Winona Daily News. (http://tinyurl.com/229h67) Blandin is pleased to have a representative from HCO posting updates on the Blandin on Broadband blog. (http://tinyurl.com/235n28)  

Light Speed Project Update

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Home and Community Options, Inc, Winona, Minnesota  Peter Walsh, Project Coordinator. 

First the good news:  We have a FTTH connection at our main office!  This blog is being posted at “Light Speed”!  We are trying to be patient waiting for additional sites to be hooked up but the weather just has not helped.  The severe cold has caused all kinds of headaches for HBCI and their technicians have been busy keeping customers connected.  Our project is too far down the triage list to expect priority treatment.  So we are learning to be patient.

 

 

 

So this begins our lesson in barriers.  We knew going in that there would be barriers but we didn’t know what they would be.  Of course if we knew what they were going to be we could have anticipated them and been a bit proactive.  But that is the nature of many barriers; they crop up when you least expect them.  We were somewhat surprised to learn that a fair number of our staff are not ready to implement some of the advanced uses of Outlook and Excel and that we needed to offer some additional training for them.  Then we were surprised how much that training was going to cost, so we hunted around and found an independent Microsoft Trainer who is willing work with us.  Now we are endeavoring to put together a training room that we will not have to tear down after every class.  A tenant has just moved out of some of our space and we are commandeering that until it is rented.  This will enable us to set up a formal training center that we can use for a month or so to provide hands-on-training for our staff.

 

 

We are making good headway with our Remote Monitoring project and have begun wiring our first house.  We hope to begin installing cameras and security sensors next week.  Then it will be an extended period of testing and monitoring the reliability of the system. And, I’m sure we will encounter a few new barriers to overcome. (See blog entry “Obstacles to Remote Monitoring” by Dennis Theede, Executive Director, Home and Community Options, Inc.)

light speed communityThe Blandin Foundation is supporting four standout broadband programs through the Light Speed program. The program’s purpose is to stimulate the deployment of bandwidth intensive applications that connect local institutions to area resident’s home. This post comes from a Light Speed community leader.

Obstacles to the use of Remote Monitoring Technology

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Dennis Theede, Executive Director

Home and Community Options, Inc. 

Home and Community Options, Inc. is participating in a statewide discussion with the Minnesota Department of Human Services, advocates, consumers and providers to discuss the uses of technology to support persons who have disabilities.  Through discussions about service innovation, sponsored in our State, there has been excitement about using technology to support persons who are elderly or disabled and in need of support.  But with the excitement come obstacles to progressing with technology applications.  There are licensing barriers interpreted to require direct on site supervision.  Others in the field site their concerns about the reliability of technology and the fail safe measures required to insure people are kept safe when they use technology as a means of support.  Others express concerns about this technology misused to violate privacy.

 

 

These barriers cannot be ignored and must be carefully discussed with all stakeholders.  Careful measures need to be incorporated into any applications of technology to support others.  With that said, our society must be responsive to the looming demographic and resource crisis in human services.  The system must be flexible in allowing opportunities for technology to be tried and tested.  Research and data must be attained to validate appropriate applications and prevent uses that put persons in danger.  There must be reasonable allowances to try technology so that along with others in society, technology can be a means of becoming more efficient and enhancing quality of life for those who choose to use it.  Our fear of change and failure to balance dignity of risk with safety should not detour us from using technology to help others.

light speed communityThe Blandin Foundation is supporting four standout broadband programs through the Light Speed program. The program’s purpose is to stimulate the deployment of bandwidth intensive applications that connect local institutions to area resident’s home. This post comes from a Light Speed community leader.

Two Great Minnesota Broadband Applications

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I ran across two articles that highlight two aspects of telelhealth in Minnesota; each has a very different perspective – but together they give both the industry and consumer views of the advantages broadband technology brings to healthcare.

Home and Community Options in Winona Daily News

It isn’t that often that I get to read heartwarming articles about broadband – but today I did. Stewart Shaw, a Community Columnist from the Winona Daily News, wrote a great article about Home and Community Options, which provides support and residential services to people with developmental disabilities in order to enable individuals to live as full members of their communities.

Shaw paints a picture of what technology of a remote monitoring can mean to the residents and staff supporting independent living. He credits a grant from Blandin Foundation and in-kind grant from Hiawatha Broadband Communications. (I want to point out that this is the Blandin on Broadband blog – in fact we have a blogger from the HCO.) The article makes me realize that everyone’s “killer app” is different.

Mayo Clinic & Medical Imaging in FoxBusiness

I also read about the Mayo Clinic and IBM are building a Medical Imaging Informatics Innovation Center (MI3C) in Rochester Minnesota. At the heart of the MI3C will be the latest in high-end imaging platforms and computational hardware, including IBM’s breakthrough computing system based on the Cell Broadband Engine and blade technology.

I won’t pretend to truly understand all of the projects that they are planning for the Center – but it seems as if, not surprisingly, they all revolve around improving the quality of pictures they can take of organs, tumors, and the swallowing process to help them diagnose and track parents’ symptoms.

Home and Community Options, Inc. Light Speed Grant Recipient

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  We are waiting expectantly for our first homes to be connected with the fiber to the home connection.  The cables are being strung and the technicians are bustling about as we standby and watch and pester them with questions they can’t answer; like “When can we start using it?”  We know the increased speed of our internet connections will have a huge impact on our network as we have 23 remote sits all connected together as a virtual private network.  As soon as we get two or three sites connected we can begin testing various applications. In anticipation of the greater functionality we have begun doing an assessment of the proficiency levels of our staff.  Like all organizations that implement technology enterprise wide we have a great disparity between the “power users” and the “reluctant users”.  With some 150 people to train we find it is an ongoing challenge to keep everyone up to speed.  We have conducted many in-house training sessions but still find it hard to reach the “reluctant user” as they usually do not take advantage of the training opportunities.  So our technology committee recommended that we look into brining in an outside trainer to assist us.  Our first thought was to contact the Custom Training Center at Minnesota State College-Southeast Technical.  We met with Christi Braun, a Custom Training Consultant, and reviewed our needs.  She made some good suggestions regarding the configuration of our classes; such as providing a separate class for upper management as a means of getting them excited and willing to provide leadership within their departments. She also recommended that we conduct the training in our training center so staff will have access to actual data to work with.  Christi will be getting back to us with a proposal and we hope to offer classes in late January or early February. With the holidays upon us I don’t expect too much more progress until after the first of the year.  Then I hope we will begin to see consistent progress toward our goals.

light speed communityThe Blandin Foundation is supporting four standout broadband programs through the Light Speed program. The program’s purpose is to stimulate the deployment of bandwidth intensive applications that connect local institutions to area resident’s home. This post comes from a Light Speed community leader.

Telemedicine Grant Start Up

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Hi.  I would like to introduce myself as the new Assistant Director of Home Care and Hospice for Lakewood Health System, Staples, MN.  I am excited to be a part of the Light Speed grant.   My first priority will be to implement the telemedicine home visiting program within our agency. We feel that this will be an excellent service addition to assist our clients in living safer, healthier lives in their own homes.I am in the process of contacting telemedicine equipment providers for equipment specifics and obtaining purchasing bids.  It is amazing how the telemedicine industry is expanding and is taking a major role in our health care.  I have found a broad range of services offered among the providers allowing not just the monitoring of vital signs, but the ability to monitor the overall health and well-being of the client.We look forward to continuing our partnership with the Blandin Foundation and thank them for their support!


light speed communityThe Blandin Foundation is supporting four standout broadband programs through the Light Speed program. The program’s purpose is to stimulate the deployment of bandwidth intensive applications that connect local institutions to area resident’s home. This post comes from a Light Speed community leader.

Home and Community Options, Inc. – FTTH Underway

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We are very excited about implementing our FTTH project.  We have been working with HBC, plotting all of our homes on the installation map and determining the potential complications with each of them.  Some will be much easier to connect than others.  Dan Pecarina, HBC VP Technology Services, has been extremely helpful in this process.  We then prioritized our facilities to insure that the most important programs were installed first. 

HBC then began to work our project into their installation schedule.  If all goes according to the schedule we should start having our first FTTH connection within the next week and our “high priority” first 3 connections completed before Christmas!

At Home and Community Options we have been busy getting things ready for the install.  We have been experimenting with some different methods of using Outlook to manage many of our day-to-day program management and communication functions. We call this our Efile system.   As soon as our FTTH connection is made we will test some of the different file sharing techniques to determine which approach provides us with the most secure and efficient performance.  Then as new homes are brought into the FTTH network we will implement the Efile program in them.

We also have been working with the residents of one of our priority homes to prepare them to become a test site for our Remote Monitoring Program.  We met with the men and all the responsible people on their Interdisciplinary Team. This team would include people like guardians, Case Managers, HCO representative, work site representative and any other parties that would have input into the individuals care plan.  We reviewed the precautions that would need to taken in order for the men to be allowed to be home alone without a night staff on duty. 

I ordered the basic equipment we will need to set up a remote monitoring program in this home and we hope to have all the components installed by the second week of January.  Then we will begin testing the various protocols that we would need to be able to implement if the men were going to be cared for remotely.

We are very grateful for the Blandin Light Speed Initiative for this opportunity to enhance our program quality and efficiency by connecting all of our programs to a fiber network.

light speed communityThe Blandin Foundation is supporting four standout broadband programs through the Light Speed program. The program’s purpose is to stimulate the deployment of bandwidth intensive applications that connect local institutions to area resident’s home. This post comes from a Light Speed community leader.

Broadband Conference 2007: The Infrastructure, The Applications

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The description from the official agenda:

Track II: Technology – The Infrastructure, The Applications
Suite 2
Community Transformation via Broadband Applications
Hear first hand about new projects underway to deliver to rural Minnesota the broadband promise. A panel of awardees from Blandin Foundation’s Light Speed grants program will talk about their plans, their hopes and their experiences to date.
Panel: Light Speed Grantees
Panelists: Peter Royer; Hutchinson, Pat Wickham ; Lakewood Hospital, Staples, Peter Walsh; Winona, Tom Riordan; Windom
Moderator: Geoff Daily; Assistant Editor, Killer Apps
Get descriptions of the LightSpeed programs: http://blandinonbroadband.org/2007/10/24/intro-to-lightspeed/#more-394

What are you going to do with the money?

PW: Money will go to purchases telemedicine unit we need. Want to reimburse folks for in-home care.

TR: We are creating an Internet-ready classroom. The infrastructure is there in the city. One of the first classes will be meteorology. It’s a unique offering and potentially could become a money maker for the school.

Kids will get homework from on-call teachers via web conference in the off hours. Money will go to cameras and equipment needed to facilitate

Setting up a Mass Media class and need the technology required for that. The class will capture school events and publish on the community video server.

PR: We do online learning. We offer Mandarin Chinese – so we’re buying an IP-VCR to allow kids to access the curriculum at the right time. But when you’re working with people all over the world the timing can be an issue. Also now we can record the activities to archive them.

PW: Working on fiber to the household (FTTH) through Hiawatha Broadband. This will provide the infrastructure to allow for a wide range of applications. This will open the door to new ventures – staff training, more communication, videoconferencing with our clients and among clients.

Plan to do video health with local clinic. Plan for visits from social worker through work with the county. Electronic filing system is another project.

The second phase will be train the trainer implementation.

How important is broadband to get communities to connect?

PW: High speed is critical. Access to bandwidth and money were barriers. Blandin match has helped with training.

PR: The speed of the network has gone from 100Mbit to a Gig. And we’re not there yet – but it’s nice to have it. It’s like garage space – once you have it, you use it. School to school connections are nice because they are faster than connecting via Internet.

TR: Broadband is a vital piece to going into the future – especially to keep a small rural community alive. We have a lot of bandwidth and now we want to use it.

PW: We worked with U of M on a telemedicine project but it was first generation – it was too slow to use. Greater broadband will make these tools usable.

What are the other challenges?

PR: Getting people to understand that the technology will get used is tough. Sometimes the supply comes before the demand. But now people understand that they don’t have to get in the car to meet.

PW: MPR interviewed us (Digital Divide) and at that time 50 percent of use of broadband was determined by an age barrier. SO, teaching folks how to use it and why to use it was a challenge.

What marketing have you done?

PW: Not much, we’re already very busy. Get 10-20 customers a month and there is a waiting list. But we know we’ll have to market at some point. Right now we’re a little cheaper than the incumbent.

How are patients reacting to the technology?

PW: A few years ago with the old telemedicine – the customers were wary and it wasn’t very successful. But with the baby boomers people are expecting the hospital to have telemedicine options and glad to participate.

The patients get a telemedicine unit (on loan) – not really a computer. They get virtual visits – not a huge amount of training is required.

What do you think of the current state of applications? Are applications ready to go – or is it still in development?

PW: We have a hard time finding applications. So we invent them. Getting initial buy in as been a challenge. Getting people when they can use the technology soon is key. You learn when there is an urgency.

PR: A lot of the applications are there but the teachers don’t necessarily think it’s easy to use. We went through a technology in the curriculum push – and some folks have taken to it easier than others. The teachers who are users are the best to convince others.

TR: The pieces are there – it’s just a matter of putting it all together. There is a wireless provider in Windom that can provide access for the kids at home – so many kids have the infrastructure and home and homework helpers can also answer email.

PW: The more technology makes life easier or better the easier it is to sell and it’s just a matter getting them to use it.

What’s the role of school librarians?

PR: Some of our trainers were librarians.

TR: Our librarian has not been involved. We only have one and he is very busy.

What can other areas do to promote broadband? Any advice?

TR: We have city council meetings on cable. The next step is to have them live online so that people can ask questions online. It would help get people involved.

PW: Call you senator to get senate funding. We want it for telemedicine and we need contact legislators to sustain it. Medicare doesn’t reimburse for telemedicine. Some/many others do reimburse.

PR: We participate in Internet2 – they signed up to watch the knee replacement online. We need to pay $35,000 to belong to Internet2 – the state wouldn’t it pay for it so a bunch of schools got to get together to get the money – without state help. But we need to get money from the state.

Any info on best practices?

PW: Rural TeleHealth Center is out there with info on QIO that works between homecare providers and medicare.

GD: These programs really highlight the ability of the Internet to bring the community together not just bring outside resources in.

Intro to LightSpeed

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Blandin Foundation recently announced grants to four Minnesota organizations through the new LightSpeed program. The program’s purpose is to stimulate the deployment of bandwidth intensive applications that connect local institutions to area resident’s home. I will be keeping a close eye on the grantees and helping to report their progress on the Blandin blog. In addition, you will be hearing from our grantees about their efforts to better serve their communities with big bandwidth tools.

We have two education and two health care applications in the LightSpeed program and four very different applications. Today, I will give you a brief description of each project. Continue reading →

Community Broadband Conference – Ways to Participate

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Communiy BroadbandBlandin’s fall broadband conference (Community Broadband: Making the Right Choices) is about 6 weeks away. It’s designed to help community leaders learn more about getting your community the broadband it needs for the future. There are a couple of ways to particpate:

Pre-Conference Seminar

If you’re planning to come to the conference, we hope you’ll also join us for the Pre-Conference Sesquicentennial Session: Oil lamps to Lasers…Creating Minnesota’s Broadband Future. It’s happening November 7 at 1-4:00 PM, directly before the conference. You can sign up for the pre-conference session when you register for the conference.

Free Webinars

Every is also welcome to join us for our free webinars leading up to the conference. The dates are October 3, 17, and 31. You can join via your computer. You can get the details online. If you’re interested please RSVP to Denise Pfeifer dpfeifer@minnesotaruralpartners.org or 507.828.5559.

Free Exhibitor Space for Nonprofits

And our final bit of conference news … we are looking for exhibitors and we have a great offer for nonprofit exhibitors. They can exhibit for free and each nonprofit registration includes a free attendee registration. The exhibition tables will be in the general conference room so you can watch your table and enjoy the conference. (For-profit exhibition space is $250 and includes 2 attendee registrations. So, that’s a great deal too.)

LightSpeed Q & A with Bill Coleman

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Bill ColemanThanks a million to Bill Coleman for answering a few questions about Blandin Foudnation’s Light Speed program for the blog.

What’s the thinking behind the creation of the LightSpeed program?
In community broadband, it is a mistake to focus only the connectivity provided by a network. Some advocates romanticize instantaneous adoption of advanced technologies throughout the community. In fact, once connectivity is in place, other deployment challenges rise to the top, like specialized equipment, software, and end-user training.

The LightSpeed program provides funding to overcome these challenges and encourages the adoption of new broadband intensive applications, especially in the education and health care areas.

A second reason for the LightSpeed Program is to provide evidence of the value of big bandwidth networks, most notably FTTP networks. Skeptics always ask, “What are you going to do with all of that bandwidth?” LightSpeed grantees will serve as demonstration projects and provide real world answers to those questions.

The Blandin Broadband Strategy Board’s Vision Statement emphasizes both the deployment and the use of ultra high-speed next generation broadband. The LightSpeed Program promotes achievement of the vision by stimulating end-user thinking about what is now possible in their own communities with the local deployment of high-speed networks, especially in partnership with their local telecommunications providers. Continue reading →

Live at the Speed of Light Report

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It’s a rainy Saturday and I’m taking the opportunity to catch up with lots of email – and actual mail. Earlier this week I got a really nice report in the mail and I have been enjoying it. I’ll paste the official announcement below. If you haven’t received a copy please consider checking it out online or calling the folks at Blandin for a copy (218-327-8738).Live at the Speed of Light

In a newly released report, Live at the Speed of Light, Blandin Foundation’s Broadband Initiative makes the case for Open Access Networks as a solution worthy of consideration for rural Minnesota communities that want to retain a competitive edge in the global economy.

The report states, “Businesses must have ready access to high-speed connectivity in order to support the continued development of the services and applications that enable them to remain competitive in the global economy”….and, yet, “relying on market forces alone will not close America’s growing ‘broadband gap,’ particularly in rural areas, where low population densities present an especially challenging business case for incumbent providers who must attend to their bottom line.”

Open Access Networks are public-private partnership-based alternatives to the dominant US model of incumbent owned and operated, closed networks. Because Open Access Networks are owned and controlled independently of any service or content that runs over them, anyone can connect to the network to take or provide content or service from or to anyone they choose.

Blandin Foundation Grant Program Workshops

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Get BroadbandOver the past two weeks, I have circled the state of MN conducting pre-application workshops for two new Blandin Foundation Grant Programs. It was quite a bit of fun because the workshop attendees were very interested in the programs and thought that the programs could help them launch some new and improved services.

The first program is the Open Network Feasibility Fund; this program will provide grants to communities to, as the name implies, study the feasibility of deploying an Open Network. A hallmark of the open network is that a network manager serves as a wholesaler to multiple retail telecommunications providers. There are many examples of this strategy in Europe; here in the USA, the best example is the UTOPIA project in Utah. A number of cities were extremely interested in this program as they have been considering their telecommunications options for some time and are ready to move forward in their analysis of how to improve their telecommunications services. The Foundation has committed $100,000 to this program. Individual communities can apply for up to $25,000 and multiple community applications can be up to $40,000.

Gary Fields is lead consultant on this program and is available to help communities through the application process. He can be reached at glfields@comcast.net.

The second program is the Light Speed Program. The purpose of Light Speed is to help stimulate the deployment of new broadband intensive applications that connect from a local institution to the home. Applications can be for up to $50,000. Many attendees were excited about the possibilities of this program, especially those in the health care and education industries. Technology is having a big impact on home health care and we had lots of interest from home health care providers, both for the elderly and those with disabilities. Better connections from health care providers to doctors’ home was also volunteered as an application that would provide great benefits to patients and for doctors’ quality of life. Educators were interested in using technology in new ways to reach new students or recover ones lost to home schooling. There was some exciting discussion about using mobile technology to reach students where they live – which is, wherever they are connected!

Bill Coleman is the lead consult on this program and is also available to help people through the application process. He can be reached at bill@communitytechnologyadvisors.com.  

Both RFPs are available on the Blandin Foundation web site.