Blandin Fall Broadband Conference – November 7- 8
Blandin Foundation’s Fall Broadband Conference in St Cloud MN is just a month away. This year’s theme is Community Broadband: Making the Right Choices, and offers  several opportunities to participate:

• Attend the conference and learn how to make informed decisions about your community’s future broadband needs and technology vision.
• Become an exhibitor. There is no cost for nonprofit organizations to exhibit (in fact you get one free registration as an exhibitor); the cost is low for commercial exhibitors too.
• Join one or all three of the free webinars held throughout October as a precursor to the conference. It’s a great chance to get up to speed on Internet technologies and their impact on local economic development. (The first session is tomorrow!)
• Come to the pre-conference Sesquicentennial session, Oil lamps to Lasers…Creating Minnesota’s Broadband Future. It’s an official Sesquicentennial conversation on Minnesota’s future.

FTTH is on the Rise
Both in Minnesota and beyond, there seems to be a lot happening in the world of fiber. St Paul very recently made a step forward to plan for a FTTH network, and Monticello recently passed a referendum to build a citywide fiber optic network. Chattanooga is a step closer to fiber, so is Bangor. Many of these cities are looking at Open Networks to take advantage of public-private partnerships. The networks in Utah, on the other hand, seem to be running into issues.

More Talk of a National Broadband Strategy
Two FCC Commissioners spoke to the US Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship on a National Broadband Strategy, led by Senator Kerry and Senator Snowe. They were accompanied by a panel of experts, all but one of whom seemed to support a national strategy. Most speakers also seemed interested in a national summit on broadband, better means of measuring current access to broadband, and revisiting the Universal Service Fund to support better access. (Learn more.)

Unfortunately, at about the same time of this meeting, the courts in DC were denying access to the FCC data on broadband availability to a nonprofit organization that wanted to improve upon current information. (Learn more.)

Burlington Case Study
The Institute for Local Self-Reliance recently published a case study on Burlington, Vermont’s progress towards building a open network fiber optic network. After initially running into trouble, Burlington developed a plan that met their needs by focusing on only “building the barn they could afford”. (Learn more.)

Telemedicine in Peru
The United Nations installed 50 telecommunications stations in Peru, after the devastating earthquake in August. The stations are small “plug and play” devices that allow users to make phone calls, access the Internet and provide other voice, data and video services, such as telemedicine.

Blandin on Broadband is your source for up-to-date news and information about Broadband use, policy and trends especially in Minnesota. Subscribe today.

Ely
Iron Range Community Fiber Network held an informational meeting in Ely this month. (Learn more.)

Monticello
Monticello recently passed a referendum to construct a citywide fiber network to deliver Internet, cable and telephone services. The results were overwhelming with 1,055 for and 354 against.

Montevideo
Montevideo is excited about their training sessions scheduled in October and November featuring Sam Richter from the James J Hill Reference Library and two classes by Craig Berdie of Minnesota Technology.  These educational classes are being jointly coordinated by the Montevideo Area Chamber of Commerce and the Southwest Minnesota Private Industry Council. The Montevideo Community Center will be hosting free computer and Internet classes for senior citizens this fall.  

Moose Lake
Moose Lake has been working on the public safety project. The City web site will be complete after some minor tweaking, including adding information on WiFi access for citizens and visitors. The library and Moose Lake Power’s web sites are scheduled to be upgraded soon.

The City of Moose Lake Incident Communication Center and Public Surveillance Network Plans are completed. The Moose Lake Police will be able to monitor all of the video cameras on the network from the Moose Lake Emergency Response Center, The City Moose Lake Council will be asked to approve the plan at their regular schedule October Meeting. The City will become the fiscal agent for this project; with the authority to collect and disperse funds on behalf of the City of Moose Lake Technology fund, the Moose Lake HRA, the Moose Lake Area Fire Protection District and the Moose Lake Water & Light Commission.

New Ulm
New Ulm continues to make strides towards developing a new Chamber of Commerce web site. They recently selected Brain Magnet out of St Cloud to develop the site. Brain Magnet specializes in developing websites for tourism and Economic Development; they just completed sites for the Eagan Visitors Bureau, MOA and St. Cloud. 

Renville County
Using a $500 Renville County Get Broadband grant, the Thrift Store in Sacred Heart has installed a wireless internet connection and computers for public use in a store front location downtown. Sacred Heart is a small town without a library or other public facility for residents without personal computers  to connect to the World Wide Web. Public access gives those citizens a chance to:

• increase their knowledge of computer use
• keep in contact with friends and family through email
• enjoy entertainment and music
• help students with homework or school projects
• assist people with job searches
• or surf the information highway for personal interests

The new public access should also have a positive economic impact on the Thrift Store sales with increased return visitors.

Todd County
After the success of last year’s conference, Toddy County is planning another Entrepreneur Conference, to be held November 2.

October 3 – Global Trends in Broadband – a free webinar sponsored by the Blandin Foundation – learn about the emergence of big bandwidth networks and applications from around the world

October 9 – What is Happening with St Paul Broadband? (St Paul, MN) – a chance to talk with Andrea Casselton, Director of Technology and Communication for the City of St. Paul

October 14-17 – Rural Telecommunications Congress 07 (Springfield, IL) – will highlight broadband deployment strategies and applications that are improving lives in communities across the country.

October 17 –  Broadband Technology – a free webinar sponsored by the Blandin Foundation – learn about the emergence of big bandwidth networks and applications from around the world

October 17 – 23rd Annual Conference on Policy Analysis (St Paul, MN) -an opportunity for analysts and policy makers to explore timely topics that reflect the importance of analysis in formulating policy decisions in government.

October 31 – Walk the Talk Through Tech Applications – a free webinar sponsored by the Blandin Foundation – learn about the emergence of big bandwidth networks and applications from around the world

November 7-8 – Blandin Broadband Conference: Community Broadband: Making the Right Choices  (St Cloud, MN) – Register today!

November 14-15 – MTA Fall Conference and Communications Seminar (Alexandria, MN)

February 21, 2008 – Megaconference Jr – an online event for and by students of the world.

Two big economic development events occurred last week. First, the MN Development Conference featured some excellent speakers.  Eric Jolly of the Science Museum of Minnesota, is a fascinating speaker. Jolly outlined our need to step up to competitive challenges on science, math and technology. Ann Bancroft, another featured speaker, talked about her trips to the north and south poles and how much planning, dedication and cooperation are required to achieve success. She told about times when failure occurs and you have to reorganize and try again to succeed. I recommend both speakers highly! 

I also sat in on a session on by Jack Ulrich, who talked about impending tech changes, especially in energy and medicine. He describes how technology changes build slowly and then explode on the scene. He predicted that solar power is going to be big soon. It was great to see several Get Broadband community coordinators at the event.

The second event was Governor Pawlenty’s announcement of the SEED (Strategic Entrepreneurial Economic Development) Initiative. I am excited to see an emphasis on small business development; it will be interesting to see what comes out of the legislature when they take on the topic.

Neither the SEED Initiative announcement nor the conference program had a major broadband/Internet emphasis, but it’s not too late to influence SEED to include a strong technology focus. Broadbandinfrastructure is eligible for the $40 million of state funding described in the two bonding programs (redevelopment and business infrastructure), but the State has not actively promoted broadband support. 

Through our work with Get Broadband, we have learned the impact of training and technical assistance on a local business community. We know how encouragement and financial incentive can help put a business on a footing to compete and sell products. You know what works in your own community based on your efforts. Educate your leaders about the work that you have done and the positive changes that have occurred. Make sure that the programs that you have pioneered can be delivered more broadly to the businesses within your community and region. Keep your community moving forward!

Skype: http://www.skype.com
Skype offers Internet-based phone services. The software allows you to make free phone calls to other Skype members and low cost calls to anyone. (Calls to Europe start as $.02 per minute.)