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July
2005
Ely
The Ely Get Broadband
steering committee’s “Thursday Night is Technology Night”
classes are well underway, with wait lists started on several of the classes.
The most popular class is “How to buy and use a digital camera”
followed by “How to buy and sell on Ebay!” coming in second.
Tuesday Nite Live!
at the Technology Center is in full swing offering open surfing from 6-8
pm. A “What is Broadband” slide show plays continuously, and
an evening moderator is available to answer questions and show speed demonstrations.
Any night of the week
laptops are now available at each of the two internet cafes and have a
“What is Broadband?” message on the desktop.
And if all that isn’t
enough, the Ely Get Broadband steering committee is in the process
of finalizing their summer advertising and giveaway promotions.
Windom
With
support from the Windom Get Broadband Steering Committee, 35 Windomites
have formed a computer club, the Windom Surfers. This very informal
group has voted NOT TO HAVE refreshments at every meeting (and this is
Minnesota?). This month’s topic was Best Deals on the Internet and
Computer Maintenance; next month’s topic will be email.
The meetings are held in a computer lab with enough computers to give
everyone a “hands on” experience. The hope is to have the club
flying solo in September when they elect officers and began to plan their
own meetings.
To help attract participants,
the steering committee is collaborating with Best Buy on class content
and prizes. The Best Buy Geek Squad will offer a class on How to Buy
a Computer and Digital Photography. Best Buy will offer special purchase
prices for computers and laptops to those attending the class.
Windom’s next
project is to develop broadband-focused classes for the fall community
education program.
Sleepy
Eye - Get Broadband is up and running
The
Sleepy Eye Get Broadband Steering Committee has submitted their goals
and activities to the Blandin Foundation and is awaiting approval to begin
activities. The goals and activities developed by the Steering Committee
were derived mostly from the market needs analysis. Because Sleepy Eye
is very fortunate to have broadband infrastructure, project emphasis will
be to provide broadband education and technical assistance to the community
and businesses.
Thief
River Falls
Several
action steps are in place for the Thief River Falls Broadband Initiative.
The Steering Committee developed a revised budget to make sure that the
program goals will be achieved.
The Committee focused
on obtaining added help. Funding was set aside for an Intern starting
this coming fall and working through December. The Intern will be selected
from candidates at Northland Community and Technical College.
Workshops are tentatively
set to begin in September. The Steering Committee determined that the
program should focus on three sectors – the business community, the
senior population and those families with children in school.
The Steering Committee
is offering e-commerce workshops focusing on the business community. There
will be follow-up hands-on seminars for website design and hosting. Workshops
for the senior population are also going to be scheduled. The particular
venue is important and has to be established before the actual schedule
is established. Finally the Thief River Falls School District is online
and wants more parent/family involvement. One of the leading members of
the Steering Committee is the School’s Technology person and is in
charge of developing the Internet process for the District – the
Broadband initiative fits perfectly.
As an incentive for
attendance the Steering Committee determined, based on the Survey results
that most often the reason a particular business or family does not have
high-speed Internet is because they do not have a computer or a computer
with the capability to handle high-speed service. As a result the Steering
Committee proposes to give away 15 complete computers systems (through
Northland College it is anticipated that a complete system can be purchased
for about $500.00). In addition, the Committee agreed to give away several
high-speed Internet subscriptions (we are hoping that the local providers
will match that number – our goal is 50 subs.).
Plus this coming week
we are developing our “Broadband Project” Web page. The web
designer is coming to our meeting and the Steering Committee is developing
the Site during the Meeting. We intend to link it with anything and everything
that is appropriate.
We are also developing
a Technology Fair and working on a seminar focusing on Internet Predators.
All the events will be set for this fall and early winter.
International
Falls
International
Fall’s senior citizens were treated to three free internet and broadband
workshops on the first three Wednesdays in June. Each session had 25 participants
who met in Rainy River Community College’s computer lab. The workshops
were led by Abe Deusterman, IT professional, and instructor Sue Olson.
Two work study students and three Phi Theta Kappa honor students were
also on-hand to assist seniors and answer questions. Coffee and cookies
were served on breaks, but the seniors couldn’t wait to get back
on the computers and surf the net using ultra high-speed of broadband.
Seniors took pre- and post surveys to help the I-Falls Steering Committee
better understand interests and learning. The workshops were sponsored
by Blandin’s Get Broadband program and Frontier Communications.
Abe marketed the workshops
through a presentation at the Koochiching County Elder’s Council
spring meeting, where council members were given packs of flyers to distribute
at their senior centers in Northhome, Indus, Littlefork and International
Falls. The Daily Journal ran a “Borderland Brief” announcement.
The seniors want more lessons and chances to surf! The International Falls
Get Broadband Steering Committee took this as an excellent sign
of progress.
Cohasset -
Setting goals and planning community events
Representatives
from two ISPs and the Get Broadband steering committee took part
in Cohasset’s Annual Bargefest, held June 25 th. It was the committee’s
first chance to answer questions from the public. The most common question
was “When are we going to get it?” followed by “Will we
ever get high-speed where we live?” Some people already had high-speed
internet and some were content with dial-up. When asked, “What do
you use the intenet for?” one booth visitor replied that he spends
1 ½ - 2 hours a week to upload/download files and pictures. When
asked “How much is your time worth?” it’s as if a light
bulb went off. He agreed, yes, perhaps using high speed broadband would
probably make a qualitative difference in his life and help him to use
his time more effectively. Most everyone had heard of the Get Broadband
program.
Both ISPs had many
inquires about their packages and offerings, and they both agreed that
having the options easily available for the public was important. They
were glad they attended. The inquiries were generally light in content
due to the casual atmosphere. Some people were observed going from one
ISP to the other.
Grand
Rapids - Communicating with local broadband providers
The Grand Rapids Area
Broadband Steering Committee continues making progress on its planned
September 15 Technology Fair – “Cast a Broad-Net: Reeling in
Innovative Technologies”. Barb Radke, Regional U of M Extension Educator/
Leadership & Civic Engagement will lead two workshops on Google U
– a fun, informative and interactive session designed around Google's
new search features. In this one-hour workshop, participants will learn
to search Google efficiently and effectively. Other workshops will be
offered at this day-long event.
In other news, Get
Broadband has been added to MediaCom, the local cable company's community
portal. Additional information will be added to this site for added exposure
of activities planned.
Bird
Island
The Bird Island Steering
Committee has had three planning meetings to discuss expanding the broadband
knowledge base in their community by offering several different eye catching
projects as well as organizing a computer club to help citizens of Bird
Island with ongoing hardware and software problems.
A live video conference
session for family members of the Olivia National Guard soldiers in Iraq
is in the planning stages and will be made available for the three days
at the Renville County Fair in mid August. The steering committee is also
working on a video conference session with other families from the area
showing the benefits of high-speed internet.
Marshall
PNCluster Tracy, Minneota,
Ghent and Marshall Project: The first round of training on Broadband and
e-commerce application finished in June with thirty plus attendees participating.
The steering committee held a meeting in the Ghent City Hall to review
the initial process. Main findings included a realization of the different
perceptions of broadband, web sites and the complexity of security in
developing e-commerce sites. That was to a degree expected, but the steering
committee decided to work harder on articulating the basic skills, including
realistic consultant rates for the expertise and working with the businesses
to understand the opportunities with e-commerce. It was also decided to
conduct a survey with participants to get their thoughts on how the steering
committee might achieve these goals.
Mn.West will conduct
the survey and share results for consideration during the planning for
the second round of training in early fall. Pairiewave has graciously
donated certificates for the fall training for a free months upgrade for
participants. The Marketing committee will work with the Chambers and
local Utilities to promote the training and clarify the incentives to
businesses that participate and upgrade their broadband capacities. While
waiting for this process to increase the awareness of broadband opportunities,
it has already had impact as Marshall’s Municipal Utilities and Marshall
Public Schools have agreed to extend the community WAN to the Middle School.
Previous agreements through the Prairie Net Consortium have the new High
School connected. (Prairie Net Consortium is a public/private 501(c)(3)
organization dedicated to improving telecommunications in SW Minnesota.)
Bois
Forte
The Bois Forte Reservation
has expressed its appreciation to the Blandin Foundation for accepting
its application to the Get Broadband grant opportunity. The grant will
provide crucial computer training to the communities of Nett Lake and
Lake Vermilion. Computer training will begin the end of July and continue
till the end of March. Programs such as basic Windows, Word, Excel, Quick
Books and E-Commerce will be the focus of this computer training. The
computer lab needed to provide this training is currently being built,
and will be ready for the first scheduled training the end of July.
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