Blandin Foundation Broadband Initiative

April 2005

Welcome to the Get Broadband e-News.

e-News has been created to share the good work and exciting results happening in Get Broadband communities. Each month you will receive updates from the project coordinators, program information and technology news to keep you abreast of the progress of our Get Broadband communities in moving people on to the Information Superhighway.

e-News will complement the soon-to-be-launched Get Broadband website that will contain details and links to more information about the project and participating communities. More information about the website will be available in the next issue.

Broadband enables all kinds of successful interactions. Interaction requires action. And it's up to all of us to create a lively Get Broadband Initiative here in Minnesota. Send us your comments or suggestions at broadband@blandinfoundation.org


Are you curious how people across the United States use the Internet? The Pew Internet and the American Life Project has an excellent survey describing how people use the Internet as well as some other interesting broadband studies. Read more... The California One Gigabit has interesting insights into where new uses of the Internet will be occurring and what we need to think about to upgrade our capacity to use them. Read more...	Are the ISPs in your area nervous about investing in fiber-to-the-user? Here is a financial case developed by the former Bell Research Labs that supports the investment in fiberoptic networks. Read more... An innovative fiber-to-the-user development is underway in UTAH that offers a unique approach to public-private partnership. Read more...

Ely - One of Ely’s Get Broadband goals is to reach half of the population in educational efforts (approximately 2000 people). The concept of “Wiki” is an activity they have chosen to facilitate and help track that effort. Read more... Windom - Windom Telecommunications gets ready to unveil the new “Fiber-to-the-Premise” state of the art telecommunications system. The new system will offer high-speed Internet access, advanced cable TV, and telephony. Read more... Marshall Area - From the inception of the PrairieNet Cluster, the organization exists to assist communities of Ghent, Marshall, Minneota, and Tracy in standardizing technological applications and practices employed within the communities for the economic growth of the region. Read more...	Thief River Falls - The Thief River Falls “Get Broadband Steering Committee” met to review the results of the recent community-wide broadband survey. The Survey interviewed the commercial sector and the private residential sector. Read more.. International Falls - The International Falls Area "Get Broadband" program is moving forward with great ideas for promotion to increase the use of broadband in our area. Read more... Cohasset - The Cohasset “Get Broadband” committee has met and is getting close to finalizing our goals. We are excited about these for both businesses and residents. Read more.. Grand Rapids - The Grand Rapids Advanced Telecommunication Steering Committee has been hard at work finalizing the first four goals they will accomplish under the initiative. Read more...

Smart Community International Network Conference, September 19-20, 2005 - The first conference ever to use an advanced network in real time to show real applications. Distance learning, telework, telemedicine, advanced television, video gaming, security etc. will be demonstrated in real time. Read more...	Click here to access Get Broadband resource page with materials provided to support community efforts.
Two new communities join Get Broadband
A couple weeks ago, Bill sent an email describing how to set up simple videoconferencing using a webcam, MSN Messenger and Scype. Has anyone tried this? A capital budget of $50 is all that is required. The benefit received is free long-distance calling and free videoconferencing over your existing broadband connection. Bill has a prize for the first project coordinator to connect with me using these technologies.	Join us in welcoming the communities of Sleepy Eye and Bird Island to the Get Broadband Program. Rob Anderson, EDA Director and Bob Weiss, General Manager of the Sleepy Eye Telephone Company, are the Sleepy Eye coordinators. Pam Matchie-Thiede of Decision Resource Associates is the Bird Island coordinator. We will introduce these newest community projects in more detail in the next issue of this newsletter.