One of the nicest things about being home is getting to actually see folks like Christopher Mitchell from the Institute for Local Self Reliance to talk about how things are going with municipal networks. Both of us have been following the progress in Monticello; he visited Monticello a couple of times in the last week to see firsthand how things are going and was gracious enough to meet with me to discuss what he learned on video. (The super quick version – Monticello passed a referendum last year (74% approval) to build a fiber network. Things were going great – I mean they were really rocking. About 6 weeks ago the incumbent ISP (TDS) dropped a lawsuit into the soup. Many think the lawsuit is unfounded but will give TDS time to build their own flavor of fiber.)

I realize now how busy Christopher was the day we met (Wednesday) when I saw his name all over the news yesterday; so I really appreciate his time. I saw him mentioned on Ars Technica, Third Pipe and MinneaPolitics.

We spoke before either of us coudl have seen an article posted today in the Monticello Times on the lawsuit. The article is very interesting and seems to strongly portray TDS’ perspective on the network.

What really struck me about our conversation was how much Christopher wanted to provide information to other communities on how to avoid or prepare for obstacles in planning for and deployment municipal fiber networks.

The video is not professional quality – but we did get youth involved in the form of my 9 year old daughter/camera person. (And 10 minutes after we finished the jackhammers arrived to tear up our street so it could have been worse!)

broadband mapping

Thanks to Bernadine Joselyn for sending me a link from the Baller list to a fun article on DSL Reports (US has no idea how wired for broadband it is). In the article, Karl Bode talks about a recent report from Costquest that found that only 39 states have any semblance of a broadband plan and only 10 states have tried to map current broadband plans/deployment.

The stated purpose for the report (based on a survey) was to fill the gap in literature. They found that there is no national broadband plan or policy and there are no explicit (or really implicit) best practices. I completely agree. I think the closest thing we have to a best practice is Connected Nation. And I don’t know if that is so much best practice as most popular practice – as Bode points out their real “benefits remain dubious.”

Costquest is “a leader in providing information systems, economic analytics, and services that deliver comprehensive solutions to complicated business challenges.” So I expect they may be offering up some best practices soon. And wisely they’ve surveyed the playing field and I appreciate them sharing the info, even if I look at it differently than I would if it came out of a nonprofit or maybe academic organization.

Anyways, I wanted to compare Minnesota’s progress with the rest of the US. I think we’re smack dab in the middle. They don’t give responses to the survey on a state-by-state level but here’s where I place Minnesota:

1. States with some form of broadband initiative: 39 yeses (no = 11) – Now that we have a broadband task force I think we get a yes here.
2. Plan to conduct broadband mapping: 17 yeses (already done = 10; no plans = 23) – Again with the task force we’re planning

The survey followed up with a few more specific questions. I think the answer for each is that currently Minnesota doesn’t do it but the door is open for the task force to promote any or all of the following:

1. States that consider broadband availability a component of ‘universal service’: 5 yeses
2. States that plan to identify the location of key broadband infrastructure items within the state: 7 yeses
3. States that plan to use their Broadband Intiatiative to encourage carriers to deploy in high cost / uneconomic areas: 7 yeses
4. States that have analyzed, or plan to analyze, deployment barriers such as the cost to deploy broadband: 11 yeses (We’re a yes here)
5. States that plan to conduct mapping of broadband availability at or below the census block level: 15 yeses

PS – fo

r interesting reading, check out the comments to the DSL Reports article. One big tangent is – why should we care about broadband when gas is $4+? Another is – everyone I know can get broadband. There are some good responses such as – I hear Japan and South Korea have 100 Mbps symmetrical fiber to most homes – and the government helped there. Sometimes it’s good to get the regular Joe (OK maybe not regular, but probably not broadband-focused.)

I got some bad news from Christopher Mitchell (ILSR) today about Iron Range FiberNet. Last week the Hibbing city council voted unanimously not to put $15,000 toward the continued financial feasibility of the Iron Range FiberNet project. Hibbing is kind of the big fish in the project of 11 communities that had been involved in building a community wide network. Each community has been asked to pony up $15,000 to stay involved in the project.

So far Mountain Iron and Two Harbors have also opted out of the project. Ely and Babbitt are definitely in and more meetings in more communities will tell us how the project will shake out.

The project seemed as if it were full steam ahead last summer. Then the estimated costs actually went down considerably over the winter. It seemed like a done deal. Then about Christmastime one of the project leaders retired from the project but able folks seem to pick it up. So things were still looking up. It’s disappointing to see the project start to unravel.

Thanks to Ann Higgins for sending me to the Star Tribune Op-Ed pages for a fun story on the wired wilderness.

First Eric Ringham wrote an article that made fun of wifi in Itasca State Park. (I blogged about the project getting state parks online a while back.) The follow up from “high tech campers” is great.

The campers apparently sent their letter from a Blackberry while out on the Superior Hiking Trail. It was great. Here’s a snippet:

Technology and the outdoor experience need not be at odds. In fact, they never have been. Why should anyone complain if Wi-Fi makes a camper’s experience more comfortable? Our experience is certainly more comfortable with our sleeping bags, stove and (maybe) Steripen.

I’ve said it before wifi might be necessary for getting me in the wilderness – but it isn’t sufficient. I’m with the high tech campers in wondering what impact wifi might have to those who don’t want it. It seems to me as if it would be a valuable safety tool for anyone who might get lost in the wilderness with a cell phone.

Thanks to Ann Higgins for passing on a newsletter from Speed Matters with info on the US Conference of Mayors (USCM) and their resolution for high speed Internet deployment on a national level. (Judging by another story in the same newsletter, the timing is good and the need is there; according to Pew Internet and American Life, one in ten Americans still cannot gain access to high speed networks.)

The nicest part is that they really call on the Bush Administration and the FCC to develop a national broadband policy. The mayors wisely make the connection of broadband as a utility. They leave the door open for communities to handle their own infrastructure but suggests that a national policy could lead the way.

Looking at the resolution, I see similarities with other suggestions for a national broadband policy including the Blandin Broadband vision. Specifically I see world-class standards, ubiquitous and affordability mentioned.

Here’s the blub from the resolution:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that if U.S. cities are to thrive as engines of economic growth and be globally competitive in the 21st Century, then the Administration, Congress and the FCC should take action now to develop a comprehensive national broadband policy that includes high speed broadband deployment to cities as an imperative; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the national broadband policy should support measures to preserve the ability of local governments to provide broadband capability and services within their communities; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that said national broadband policy should ensure that the speed of Internet access available to American consumers, enterprises and institutions is comparable to that available in the most advanced industrialized nations; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that said national broadband policy should ensure that these high-speed Internet services are ubiquitous in availability to all American households in all neighborhoods; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that said national broadband policy should ensure that affordable high-speed Internet access is attainable for all American consumers and families; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that if American cities are to undertake appropriate and necessary broadband planning, the FCC should immediately begin collecting detailed information on broadband coverage and use and share said data with local governments as such information is a matter of public concern; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Administration, Congress and the FCC should work with local governments to facilitate an expansion of resources to speed the development of affordable globally competitive infrastructure in American cities.

Light Speed Grant Recipient

Peter Walsh, Project Coordinator

Project Update

We had an exciting time sharing our progress with Bill Coleman a few weeks ago.  He came to visit so we could do a little “show & tell”.  Some of the staff who participated in our classroom training were there as well as staff who helped develop our eFile program.  The staff gave Bill a tour of the eFile program and explained that we had developed and integrated these Outlook, Excel and Word templates to reduce the amount of manual writing, to improve accuracy and to improve communication among the team that is providing care within the program.  The staff engaged well with Bill and were quite animated in sharing how much the training provided by Blandin and the Blandin support of our eFile development helped spur this project along.

As the staff were sharing some of the details of the program I could not help but to feel very proud of their accomplishments.  Having worked in the systems integration field for 15 + years I know how much creativity and persistence something like this requires.  These are professional care givers, not software integrators, who had a vision of a paperless system and were not put off by the “I don’t think you can do that.” response of the “experts” to whom they turned for help.  They were relentless in their quest and would accept help from whoever was available.  They got a lot of assistance from part time staff – college students – who were also excited about the possibilities.  This project has also affirmed a leadership model of empowering direct line staff to be creative.    These are some very sophisticated solutions and ones that I think could benefit other agencies like Home and Community Options; we do hope to find a way to share them.

After showing off the eFile system we reviewed the Remote Monitoring application.  The IP cameras acted up a little ( of course they worked just fine after he left). but we were able to demonstrate an alarm being triggered, the system calling a staff, the staff indicating that they could respond to the incident and the system patiently waiting the allotted time for the staff to log in and indicate that they were on site and resolving the incident.  I will share more on our Remote Monitoring System next time as we are just finishing the installation of our equipment in a test home. 

Gary Evans, CEO of Hiawatha Broadband our matching fund partner, attended our gathering and shared HBC’s plan to provide fiber to the household for all of our Winona based program sites.  Gary conveyed the excitement HBC has about being involved with Winona Non-Profits and HBC’s plan to eventually bring FTTH to all of Winona.  This will open up many more potential applications and we are already beginning to explore partnering on a project with our Public Health Department.  I think there is an exciting future for Non-Profits as FTTH becomes more available and they continue to seek ways to improve care and reduce costs.  We are thankful for the assistance we have received from the Blandin foundation.

The 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.

I’ve said before that I think we have a lot of learn from groups such as Connected Nation. Somehow they have captured the attention and the imagination of legislators. I don’t always buy into their plan and procedures – but they are doing something very right.

Well now they have captured the imagination of the incumbents. OK that’s not new there has always been a link from one to the other – but recently the incumbents AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and others sent a note to Congress outlining a new broadband policy for them and Connected Nation seems to be the model they are touting.

That’s great! It reminds me of my least favorite past co-worker who I affectionately called Boss Junior. She wasn’t really my boss, she couldn’t (or wouldn’t) do her own job, but she had a lot of helpful advice for me. She didn’t have a Master’s Degree in Library Science, she had a very vested interest in how I did or didn’t do my job and she didn’t get why that should matter. (She was helpful to everyone, not just me.) Often I wondered why in the heck she didn’t just spend half of the energy just doing her own job – but she never did. She preferred to get us all spinning our wheels, than working. (Eventually, that workplace closed its doors.)

So maybe that story relates; maybe it doesn’t.

Last night Karl Bode from Broadband Reports posted a great and more explicit article on his views on “Nation’s Largest ISPs Crafting Fake National Broadband Policy.”

Thanks to Ann Higgins for sending me an article from Progressive States Network Stateside Dispatch on Providing Broadband For All: Washington State and West Virginia Take Strides Forward.

Here’s a super-condensed version of what’s going on with each state:

Washington – working on State Senate Bill 6438 that would include mapping, deploying broadband to underserved areas and working on digital literacy. The downside is that the mapping will not be made public. (Side note: did you know that Washington boasts highest percentage of slow connections?)

West Virginia – New legislation (HB 4637) created a broadband council, doing mapping, establishes a deployment plan. One current worry is that the broadband council is weighted with industry folks.

If it rains this weekend, I am going to try to get broadband policy updates for more states. I’m sorry I can’t promise more – in Minnesota we know to make the most of the sunshine!

Thanks for the Heads up from Becky LaPlant for the update on KAXE, is a community radio station with stations in Grand Rapids, Brainerd and Bemidji. They have a huge focus on community. I first really learned about them at the Blandin Broadband Summit last year.

I was so impressed with their work incorporating web 2.0 applications into their community-building strategy. Well, they are going to take it even further. With the help of some grants (including a $124,000 from the Blandin Foundation), KAXE is going to individual news and information Web sites for each community in its market.

Here are the things I love about the project:

1. They are creating individual community web sites and will use KAXE to market those sites. Who thought of that idea? Buy them a beer! I’ve seen similar projects fizzle because of turf wars. The umbrella organization usually wants to keep the fishing pole and just dole out the fish but the best way to really get a community involved is to give (not lend) them the tools. (From a search engine perspective the community-focused pages is a ton better too!)
2. They have been providing citizen journalism education. They brought in some worldly expertise in Doug McGill (former NY Time reporter). That’s a great way to draw attention to the importance of a topic. Then they have also drawn on local expertise such as Aaron Brown (former editor of the Hibbing Daily Tribune) and the journalism program at Bemidji State University.
3. Finally it seems as if KAXE has invited anyone and everyone who might be interested to participate in the process. The others may or may not hop on the bandwagon – but just the transparency is laudable.

I live in St Paul – mostly I love living here. But I hear about a project such as KAXE and I get a little jealous. I know we have at least one great community radio in the Twin Cities, but I feel as if the focus is a little different. (In a good, but different way.)

I would love to get involved with something that really focused on my zip code. What I’d love to see is the local community paper increase their presence online. Maybe the KAXE model will become the norm and it will happen eventually.

I heard about the following from MAP’s TechTalk list - an email list for accidental techies. I know many readers aren’t Minneapolis-based but for those who are I wanted to pass this on…

If you are an organization that works on digital inclusion in Mpls you will probably want to know about this. The Digital Inclusion Grants are happening again this year. The funding is from the City of Mpls’
agreement with USInternet.

Peter Fleck, a member of the Digital Access Board that gives guidance on the fund at the Mpls Foundation has pulled the information together on his blog.