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June 2005

Ely

Beginning June 9 and running through August, the Ely Get Broadband Steering Committee will host “Thursday night is Technology Night in Ely!”, a series of two-hour mini-courses on topics like Intro to the Internet, On-line Banking, Buying a Computer, Web Cams and Instant Messaging. These courses are free to the public.

The committee is also planning and promoting “Open Surf” at the Technology Center on Tuesday evenings as part of the city-wide “Tuesday Nite Live”, where local businesses stay open late and have music and specials.

These two activities will give the committee ample opportunity to promote broadband and provide community residents with hands-on experience using high-speed internet.

Windom

The Cottonwood County Citizen has agreed to give the Windom Get Broadband Steering Committee space each month under their "Tech Bytes" column to publish the initiative’s “Hot Sites” and provide other updates about the Get Broadband initiative.
In partnership with the local school, Windom’s Get Broadband Steering Committee will be offering four classes – Internet Basics, Genealogy, Safe Surfing and Internet Banking. Classes will be $10.00; coupons handed out during the initiative’s launch party will also be accepted.

The committee is also organizing a computer club. Interest appears to be high, and the committee hopes the club will take on a life of its own. The steering committee will help through the first few meetings with the hope that the group can and will then run on its own.

Sleepy Eye - Get Broadband is up and running

Broadband and technology were one of two priority topics on the agenda of the Bridging Brown County workshop held this month. Bill Coleman aimed technology questions at a panel of telecommunications providers to a good audience of area leaders. The providers were able to describe the broadband services that they provide as well as their plans for the future. They also said that some of their customers were using broadband to improve their business competitiveness.

After the presentations, attendees got their chance to propose technology applications. Distance education led the priorities for improving educational access within the county. Linking education and entrepreneurial development through technology was also set as a priority.

Thief River Falls

The Thief River Falls Get Broadband Steering Committee has finalized their goals and program strategies and set a timeframe for their projects to begin. This summer’s activities include a series of workshops about high speed Internet usage targeted towards the larger firms in town and participating at the County Fair to spread the word about the Broadband Initiative.

In the fall the committee will partner with the Minnesota Extension Service to present a series of workshops for the business community highlighting the benefits of high-speed Internet.

International Falls

International Falls is working to introduce senior citizens (55+) to the many ways broadband can improve quality of life through a series of presentations on using the internet and introducing high speed internet. Workshops will include: e-mail, web surfing, banking, shopping, medical, genealogy, spam, and free tools on the web. The committee has promoted the sessions in close cooperation with area senior citizens and social service agencies.

The committee has come up with a great slogan for the three-part series: “Come for one, come for all three or just come for the cookies!

Workshop co-sponsors include Rainy River Community College and Frontier Communications.

Cohasset - Setting goals and planning community events

The City of Cohasset Get Broadband Committee has invited two local ISP’s to have a booth at the annual Black Water Barge Festival being held June 25. This annual event is well-attended by the local community. The committee also will host a booth to help answer questions about broadband and learn from residents and businesses what is important to them in using Broadband.

On Monday, October 10th, the committee will showcase local vendors and companies that are using the internet actively in their business at a community-wide event of demonstrations and exhibits. The committee’s goal is to give the local community a chance to see what can be done with broadband.

Grand Rapids - Communicating with local broadband providers

The Grand Rapids Area Broadband Committee has completed one of its goals: to work with the City of Grand Rapids to make available to the community pending special assessment data electronically. This enhancement to parcelinfo.com for Itasca County went live this month. Committee members are becoming increasingly active in their use of Northern Tier High Technology as their primary means of communication. All ongoing activities, updates and files are available at www.itascanet.com. If other project coordinators would like access to the community, please contact Kathy Kooda.

Bird Island

The Bird Island Get Broadband Steering Committee has established its goals and work activities.

Goals

• Increase the number of residential broadband users by 20% of twenty users.
  
• Increase the number of businesses who have web sites and are linked to the City web site.
  
• Assist at least two businesses in increasing their ability to do business over the Internet.
  
• Host a video demonstration project that will include instructions to implement a turnkey, video solution for a home or business to use in conjunction with a broadband connection.
  
• Provide technology training and learning opportunities for area businesses with an added opportunity to network among colleagues facing similar issues and challenges in their jobs.

Activities

• Press releases, news articles and periodic technology columns in the Bird Island Union to inform citizens about the project
  
• Senior Surfing Seminars, similar to the ones offered in 2004, will be offered to new or returning senior citizens to help them get access to the web and to e-mail
  
• Technology topics will be presented at C&C meetings in July & September
  
• Area vendors will be invited to host information booths at upcoming festivals such as Wing Ding Days and the Renville County Fair
  
• One-on-one training will be offered to two area businesses which express a desire to begin or increase Internet sales and marketing efforts for their businesses.
  
• A demonstration project at the Renville County Fair using Internet video conferencing over a broadband connection. Possible uses – Connect with National Guard service people serving in Iraq or with Bird Island area alumni who want to attend the fair “virtually” via a video connection.
  
• Use and promote Internet – based tools to demonstrate the technology available to users today in Bird Island homes and businesses.

Next Steps

• Issue a Press Release summarizing the research results of the Blandin surveys and the goals developed for the project
  
• Conduct interviews with two citizens who are currently using Internet-based video conferencing to talk with family members in Iraq. Share results with local media
  
• Select technology topics for the June C&C meetings and recruit speakers
  
• Meet with broadband vendors to determine “before” and “after” statistics of the number of broadband users in Bird Island
  
• Begin testing Internet-based broadband
  
• Attend City Council meeting for City of Windom Fiber to the Premise proposal and prepare a summary to be published by area media
  

Marshall

PrairieNet Cluster is focused on helping local business use broadband-based technologies to improve efficiencies and lower cost. Broadband trainings for businesses have been held in Tracy and Ghent, with additional sessions planned for Marshall. PrairieNet is canvassing participants to help identify barriers to technology adoption and ways overcome them.