Philadelphia & New Orleans Choose EarthLink
Philadelphia Mayor John Street recently signed an ordinance that officially gives EarthLink Inc. the green light to build a wireless Internet network covering the city. Work is expected to begin in June; Philadelphia plans to be the first big city to offer a citywide network. The New Orleans City Council has approved a law enabling EarthLink to develop a citywide wireless network.

Visit Wireless Philadelphia to keep up on their progress. Visit MuniWireless to keep abreast of other citywide projects.

Get Broadband Cooks Up a Hot Debate
Get Broadband recently held a mock debate on five policy issues surrounding telecommunications and broadband technology: Net Neutrality, Municipal Networks, Brand X, Universal Service Funds, and National Video Franchising. The goal was to present both sides of the issues in an informative and straightforward fashion. The transcript is available on the Get Broadband web site.

Universal Service Fund Safe Through 2008
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently promised that past accounting problems would not affect subsidies for telephone and Internet services through 2008, including in rural and poor areas. The universal service fund has been running on an exemption since 2004 that previously extended until 2006, but the FCC has recently agreed to continue services into 2008. Read more on the Benton Foundation web site.

Learning from Global Counterparts
Steven Ross, Editor of Broadband Properties, recently wrote an editorial promoting public-private partnership to deploy Fiber to the Home (FTTH). The specifics are interesting for FTTH; the public-private approach is compelling for anyone interested in how the US can improve current global standing. Research has shown that the US is falling behind global counterparts where technology and telecommunications is concerned. Looking to see what other nations have done successfully is a step towards narrowing the gap between US and global competitors.

Residential Broadband on the Rise
According to Pew Internet & American Life, doption of high-speed Internet at home grew twice as fast from March 2005 to 2006 than in the same time frame from 2004 to 2005. At the end of March 2006, 42 percent of Americans had high-speed at home. Greater residential broadband has led to greater user-generated content coming from all kinds of Internet users; 48 million Americans -- mostly those with high-speed at home -- have posted content to the Internet.

Hot Web Sites
Each month Get Broadband shares an original article (Hot Web Sites on a specific topic) with Get Broadband community coordinators. Coordinators are encouraged to customize the article with their contact information and send it on to local media outlets to help promote broadband use and the Get Broadband project. This month’s Hot Web Sites focus on Gardening.

Cambridge-Isanti - Cambridge-Isanti has been busy offering and planning training for businesses and online shoppers. They are also working with two local demonstration projects. (Learn more)

Cohasset - High speed Internet access is now available to every resident and business in Cohasset (36 square miles). Cohasset is eager to see their latest Get Broadband survey results. (Learn more)

Edge of the Wilderness - The Edge of the Wilderness has completed the wireless hot spot at the Marcell Family Center. They have also been busy with local demonstration projects. (Learn more)

Fosston
Fosston recently awarded web site subsidies to 10 local businesses to help advance existing web sites. They also hosted e-commerce training for grantees and others. (Learn more)

Grand Rapids - Now that the Central Square Mall has gone wireless, Grand Rapids is focusing on WI-FI Internet access along the bank of the Mississippi from the KAXE to the library (Learn more)

June 13-15 (Minneapolis, MN) Fiber-to-the-Home Council Meeting - Indiana Mayor Graham Richard will address Minnesota mayors, council members, city managers and economic development staff.

June 15 or 16 (Edina, MN) Mapping Minnesota Communities: An Introduction to GIS and Community Analysis Workshop - One Day Workshop is a fast paced, hands-on workshop that teaches the fundamentals of GIS to social service providers, planners and researchers.

June 17 (Boston) Grassroots Use of Technology Conference - "Making Technology Relevant to Nonprofit and Social Change Groups”.

June 19 & 20 (virtual) Get Broadband Communities of Interest Network teleconference/videoconference – virtual conversations on healthcare, economic development, education or e-commerce.

June 22-23 (Manassas, VA) Broadband Over Power Lines Annual Conference – learn about commercial deployment of BPL technologies

June 29 (Washington DC) Collaboration for Public Policy: Blogs, Wikis and Workspaces – tools to help public policy organizations be more effective and efficient.

June 29 (Brooklyn Park, MN) Minnesota e-Health Summit - learn firsthand from national and state leaders about current progress and future directions for e-Health in Minnesota.

Jul 17 – 18 (Duluth, MN) Smart Health 2006: Focus on Technology: Creating Connections and Strengthening Minnesota's Rural Communities – focusing on community, state and federal health information exchange.

July 17-18 (Chicago, IL) Community/Muni Broadband Solutions Summit – a conference for community and city members interested in broadband issues.

August 16 (Virtual) Emerging Technologies: Innovating for Growth - Experts talk about hot technologies and the business opportunities in Minnesota.

October 18-19 – Save the date for the Get Broadband State-wide Broadband Conference.

It seems that there is a myth, a Minnesota legend in fact, that summer is supposed to have a more leisurely pace.  Come September, I usually find that the entire summer has evaporated in a blink of a byte and I wonder how I would complete the annual “what I did on my summer vacation” essay.  For the Blandin Broadband team, the summer promises to be very busy.

Recently, I have spent some time talking with many of the project coordinators about how we can ensure that our monthly events are a value to community project coordinators and to local task force members.  I think that everyone noted the value of time, in their own and in their community members’ lives.  Many people are wearing more hats and covering what used to be two or three jobs just a couple of years ago. I also genuinely appreciated the positive feedback that you provided on the content of our events.

The calls taught me that we need to do some things differently and some things better.  Two examples are to add more video sites to lessen travel time and to get promotional material out earlier to enable better local promotion. I promise that these improvements will start immediately.  We will also be more consistent and improve our use of web technology to make our event material available for those who missed or want to revisit the presented material or promote it to others in the community.

Our Blandin team is committed to pushing each other to model some of the technologies that improve our productivity and effectiveness.  Keep us supplied with your suggestions and feedback and we will keep trying to respond.  I know that the Blandin team has high hopes and expectations for community participants and it is only fair that you should have the same of us! 

Please remember to bookmark the third Tuesday morning of each month for Blandin Broadband!  Next events are our COIN conference calls on June 19 and 20.  Check the web site or your email box for the details.

P.S.  Your assignment is to scan maps of your best local fishing spots and send them off to me so if I do get some free time, it will be most productive!!   There will be a technology prize for the first map marked with a “hot spot” that I receive.

"Hot Websites” is a monthly article provided to you to submit to your local newspaper for publication by as part of your committee’s effort to raise public awareness of the benefits broadband-based technologies have to offer to families, business and communities.

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