At the MVO unconference the need for broadband came up – often. There was a blogger there who doesn’t have Internet access at home. She drives 10 miles to the library to get access. As she said, she could get dialup but feels like they ought to pay her to use it.

People recognized the need to make info available for tech lovers and tech-challenged (challenged by access, experience, cost…). People also recognized the need to help bridge the gap with training, improving tools and broadband.

I was thrilled when Jeff Narabrook form Minnesota Council for Nonprofits offered up his topic to talk about building capacity for the Minnesota Broadband Coalition. We talked about the tools we have created for the Coalition (web site, email newsletter, LinkedIn group). We talked about what we wanted from folks: ideas for the Broadband Task Force and ideas for the stimulus funding.

We talked about the need for the Coalition to help people understand why and how broadband does matter to them. The conversations that the Task Force are having (symmetrical speeds anyone?) do not necessarily capture the imagination of your average bear. But stories of how broadband means a better job, how broadband means a way to talk to a grandson in the army … they can capture the imagination.

So we’ve been trying to gather those stories (Got one? please let me know). Now we need to get those to a wider audience. One thought was to create a widget of sort (maybe a logo linked to an RSS feed) to share with folks like the Minnesota Council for Nonprofits to help us spread the word.

I had/have wanted to capture some stories in video – the biggest barrier for me is getting to people to get their stories. So I’m going to throw that out there too in case there’s someone in the field who’s looking for a story idea.

So that’s my lucky take-away and assignment from the conference. I also have a laundry list of tasks for me on more of a professional development level – like learn about Plurk (thanks Chuck Olsen for that) – so I feel like the support for the Minnesota Broadband Coalition is a complete bonus.

But before I do any of that – I’m spending the day in sunny Duluth with my family.

It’s Friday night and the Minnesota Voices Online unconference is off to a good start. The reception started at around 4:30 – people trickled in and it was fun to see people who we really only knew via email. The dinner was great. Some of us brought our families. It was a good chance to get to know people.

At 6:30 the work began. The attendees gathered in a room to participate in a spectrogram. The idea is that the facilitator presents a statement such as – Online tools have allowed people to respond and react very quickly, decreasing the time that people have to reflect. This leads to quick reactions and a reduction is thoughtful democracy. Then participants can demonstrate their level of agreement (or extreme disagreement) by placing themselves on a continuum on taped to the floor. Participants are able talk about their options to the group and on video.

I was really impressed with how well the exercise worked. We did this three times with three different questions. There were about a dozen people who were very vocal and everyone else was willing to vote with their feet (placing themselves on the spectrum) and give a few words when asked.

I took video. I have been trying to upload the video for 2 hours – so far goose egg. But I’m hopeful that the video will be available by morning.

I enjoyed talking to folks after the scheduled activity. The folks that I talked about are interested in technology as a tool for community development – but their passion is the community. While they were technology users – they didn’t all have Internet access at home. As they pointed out, generally you only have good internet access (broadband) if you live within 2 miles of a town. If you don’t, you’re going to the library for good access. There was some concern about the digital divide as the online world expands.

Someone mentioned that they were able to expedite DSL access in their community because a neighbor had gone to Qwest to get a petition that they had 160 people sign to express an interest in getting DSL.

I did hear that some people were feeling a little lost because they felt that they didn’t know the technology as well as others. Twitter, wiki, blogs, utterly – it is like a foreign language , but we all learned it at some point and for better or for worse we learn something new everyday . Many of these people have tremendous community organizing skills – many of us could learn from them!

Here are the videos:

Marc Osten explains the spectogram

 New media-driven instant feedback leaves no time to think and that is eroding democracy.

Technology tools distract communities from coming together.

Online communities needs a heavy dose of structure to realize their potential.

 Steve Clift talking about online tools for the unconference