Here’s the news from our latest newsletter. It’s mostly a compiliation of Minnesota-related stories from the blog in the last month – but sometimes it’s nice to have it compiled. Also I’ve added Bill’s column.

Minnesota Broadband Task Force
The Minnesota Broadband Task Force met for the second time in September. They ironed out regulatory issues of future meetings and set an agenda for items to be addressed throughout the year. (http://tinyurl.com/45ynh7) Bill Coleman posted a video open let ter on the blog where rural citizens gave advice to the Broadband Task Force members. http://tinyurl.com/454cu2

Bemidji
State Representative Brita Sailer, DFL-Park Rapids, depicts the need for broadband in rural Minnesota with the story of a woman whose employer in Bemidji said she could work from home two or three days a week, and save on transportation costs. Unfortunately she only has access to dialup, which cannot support telecommuting. http://tinyurl.com/492egc

Brainerd
Crow Wing Power celebrated one-year of using a 700 MHz licensed wireless broadband communication network to better serve their customers with remote metering services. http://tinyurl.com/3tryja
Eden Prairie
Eden Prairie-based Video Guidance is receiving attention for their telepresence services. http://tinyurl.com/3ztlhy

Fergus Falls
The Fergus Falls Daily Journal promotes the use of the Internet and broadband with a how-to article on creating crafty holiday presents using technology. http://tinyurl.com/5xddga

Marshall
Forbes Publisher Rich Karlgaard spoke at the Premier Leadership Event at Southwest Minnesota State University saying that rural areas will be THE place to be for new and emerging businesses over the next 30 years. Karlgaard pointed out that “Improvements in Internet and wireless communication technology mean cities in the heartland aren’t isolated”. http://tinyurl.com/49a4cz

Minneapolis
Minneapolis Wireless projects ran into a hitch when transmitters used to spread the wireless network damaged decorative light poles in certain neighborhoods, costing the city $1 million for replacements. http://tinyurl.com/4rn3u2

Monticello
Despite the barrier of a lawsuit (http://tinyurl.com/4s2gx7), the City of Monticello began construction of a fiber loop in their community. The fiber build includes construction of 11.19 miles of fiber optics that is an important subset of the larger FiberNet Monticello project. http://tinyurl.com/4prqbs

Morris
The University of Minnesota, Morris is offering free student help for community-based projects in 12 west central Minnesota counties — Big Stone, Chippewa, Douglas, Grant, Kandiyohi, Lac qui Parle, Pope, Renville, Stevens, Swift, Traverse, and Yellow Medicine. The applications deadline is November 7, 2008. http://tinyurl.com/4qkel4

Staples
The LightSpeed project in Staples is going well; six telemonitoring units are deployed and on active duty, monitoring daily vital signs and assisting the nurses in tracking their clients’ health status. Now they are working to promote a content-management platform that allows access to information from any internet connection and to disease specific content management. http://tinyurl.com/3mmxy9

Blandin Broadband Conference and Awards
The Blandin Foundation broadband conference, Connected Communities: Making the Net Work for Minnesota, will be held on December 3-4, 2008 in Eden Prairie, MN. (http://www.blandinfoundation.org/BBConf08) The conference will feature the brand new Minnesota Broadband Community awards, recognizing communities, companies and community institutions that are successfully implementing strategies that improve deployment and use of broadband. (http://www.blandinfoundation.org/BBConf08/application.html) Pre-conference events include three free webinars on Fiber to the Home Networks (Oct 22), Wireless Technologies (Nov 5) and Broadband Policy (Nov 19). http://www.blandinfoundation.org/BBConf08/webinar.html

(Many stories are gathered from local online newspaper. Unfortunately each newspaper has a different policy in regards to archive news and therefore we cannot guarantee access to all articles cited.)

Coleman’s Corner

New technologies put pressure on old rules and ways of doing things. Schools need to adapt to students with cell phones. Workplaces need to adopt new policies for dealing with personal email and web surfing. Political campaigns need to ensure that they are using technologies in ways that do not violate campaign laws. Sometimes, it is easier to just say no to new technologies than it is to thoughtfully develop new policies. I want to encourage you, as community technology leaders, to push your own organization forward and to support others in the community who are willing to work on these adoption issues. Our Lightspeed grantees are doing a great job pushing through these non-technical barriers. They are working with their own staff, regulators and clients to smooth the adoption of new technologies. Several of our grantees have paid extraordinary attention to these details and it is paying off as these technologies are deployed. Learn more about their efforts at the Connected Communities conference in December.