Blandin Foundation Broadband Initiative

August 2005

On behalf of the Blandin Foundation, I am proud to announce the release of Get Gigabits: Live at the Speed of Light, a new broadband vision for Minnesota. Achieving this vision will help position Minnesota to compete successfully in the global economy. The vision was developed by our Broadband Strategy Board, a 16 person group of senior public and private sector leaders we have assembled to provide strategic guidance to our efforts to increase the benefits Minnesotans enjoy from Broadband.

When we began our broadband public policy initiative over 2 ½ years ago, we were aware of the importance of the expansion and use of broadband based technologies to our global competitiveness. The urgency of this opportunity has been heightened by America’s accelerating decline in broadband use and availability, relative to the rest of the world; as a nation we have slide from 4th to 16th in broadband penetration over the past four years. This bold new vision for our state is intended to help us catch up. It says,

“To ensure a high quality life and a globally competitive future for its citizens, businesses and communities, Minnesota is committed to making the necessary investment, through public-private partnerships, to becoming a world leader in the universal deployment and use of ultra high speed next generation broadband. Objective: By 2010 affordable gigabit broadband will be available to all Minnesotans.”

With this effort, Minnesota can now be counted as one of only a few states that have undertaken a statewide policy effort to bring home the benefits of broadband to its citizens. Achieving it will not be easy. That is why it is important that each of us do our part to help turn this bold vision into reality for our businesses, and our communities and our state as a whole. I hope I can count on you to be actively engaged in discussing the vision and seeking ways to help us reach it. We are seeking a variety of approaches and strategies and intend to present the best of them at a Broadband Conference on November 16&17 in St. Cloud, so please hold the date.

In the following days we’ll be sending a quantity of vision statements to all the community coordinators for distribution to your members. The vision statement is also available online at www.blandinfoundation.org.

Thank you for all your extraordinary work.

Jim Hoolihan President, Blandin Foundation


100 megabit service over coaxial cable? A Finnish firm claims that by 2006 it will be possible to deliver 100 megabit service over coaxial cable, 30-50 times the speed that is available today. This speed is capable of delivering multiple channels of HDTV as well as teleconferencing capability. Read more Study reveals access to public rights-of-way strongly correlated with penetration A Brookings Institute Report compares the effectiveness of State Broadband policies. While it states that usable data is scarce, good access to right-of-way as the policy most positively correlated with broadband penetration. It is inconclusive about restrictions on municipal services. Read more Thompson to get tagged Tommy Thompson, the Health and Human Services Secretary in President Bush's first term and a former Governor of Wisconsin, is going to get tagged. To help promote health care technology, Thompson himself will get an RFID tag implanted under his skin. Read more	Qwest loss narrows Qwest has just reported that its second quarter loss was substantially reduced over its previous year’s report. Read more Speed Demand for faster upload broadband speeds is increasing, Read more 21 million online teens A new Pew Internet survey shows that teens have greatly increased their use of the internet (Surprise!) and that schools are playing a much greater role in their internet usage. Read more

Ely - Mini-courses wind down, surfing for seniors and prize giveaway ramp up. Read more Bird Island - Brings video conferencing to the Renville County Fair. Read more Sleepy Eye - Local consultant hired to help the Sleepy Eye Blandin Get Broadband Steering Committee reach its utilization goals. Read more International Falls - International Falls is gearing up for fall. Read more	Cohasset - Get Broadband hits the local air waves. Read more Windom - Educating the masses; targeting seniors and healthcare. Read more Grand Rapids - Takes Get Broadband to community organizations; prepares for Cast a Broad-Net Showcase. Read more

Broadband Cities Conference - Tuesday, July 12 - 5-6:30, St. Paul - Rich Connections, Limitless Directions. www.broadbandcities.com RuralTeleCon ‘05 - October 9-12, 2005 - Lexington, Kentucky - 9th Annual Conference of the Rural Telecommunications Congress www.ruraltelecon.org	Click here to access Get Broadband resource page with materials provided to support community efforts. Save the Date! Get Broadband Fall Convening November 16-17, 2005 - St. Cloud, MN

Question of the Month The leaders that control local school, health care and government budgets make critical decisions about the use of technology in your community. They control whether students have modern computers and if school labs are open after 3:00 p.m., whether residents have access to telemedicine and online information services, and whether government information and permits are available online. These key local content providers partially determine how much value can be obtained via a broadband connection. What are effective tactics for educating these leaders, influencing their decisions on technology investments and involving them in broadband and technology promotion? Please send your ideas to broadband@blandinfoundation.org. We’ll share your suggestions in the next edition of e-news and the community coordinator who submits the best response will win a video cam!	Afterthought I had the opportunity to promote the Get Broadband program as a “Connection Station” (breakout session) at last week’s MN Rural Summit held in Collegeville. Conference participants were very interested in the success stories of our communities, especially the involvement of senior citizens and small businesses. Blandin Foundation teamed with FiberFirst Minnesota to promote broadband benefits in rural communities during a special after-conference workshop. Bernadine Joselyn and I participated on the panel along with Jim Erickson of FiberFirst and economic development consultant John Starke – who video-conferenced in from Lansdowne Virginia. Webcam Winner Congratulations to Sharee Johnson of Ely! It took a while, but Sharee claimed the prize for connecting to me with MSN Messenger for a video conference. With the improved MSN Messenger 7.0, video conferencing is a snap (actually a click!). Her prize was a web cam so that she will now be able to connect from her home to her office colleagues. I noticed in the Best Buy ad this past Sunday that web cams are now $25 each with rebates.

Electronic Banking - Still writing checks? Save the cost of checks and the stamps and have the payment delivered the day you want! Here is a good demonstration from US Bank - most banks now have a similar service available.. It’s on the Consumer/Residential CD in your Get Broadband Toolkit or click here to view it online.	The Get Broadband Toolkit is designed to promote and facilitate community-led broadband market development and education efforts. To view the Toolkit online visit GetBroadband.us To request additional copies of the Toolkit email: broadband@blandinfoundation.org.