Keynote from 2014 Broadband Communities Summit in Austin TX

1. Cool Things Rural Communities
Are Doing With Broadband
The Minnesota Experience

2. Community Technology
Advisors
Combining Knowledge in Broadband and
Economic Development
Since Dial-Up

3. Rural Broadband Initiatives
By providing leadership development, technical
assistance and funding, Blandin Foundation has
helped rural communities launch almost 200
broadband-oriented projects over the past four
years.

4. This is RURAL!
From NW to SE, MN is 500+ miles
Our “communities” include:
Cities
Counties
Regions
Tribal governments
Our largest city has 20,000
people.
Our most rural counties have
around 4,000 people.

5. Blandin Foundation Strategy
Targeted Communities
 Select engaged communities
 Organizational development
 Strategic planning
 Project development
 Funding
 Coaching
Broadband Grant Programs
 Robust Network Feasibility Fund
 LightSpeed
 Digital Inclusion Community
Partnership
 Broadband Innovation

6. Intelligent Community Indicators

7.  Community selection process as organizing tool
 Steering team formation and support
 Cross-sector community meeting
 Intelligent community benchmarking
 Assets/gap analysis
 Outcomes
 Project development and prioritization
 Funding
Planning Process

8. Improving Broadband
Networks
Community organizing, feasibility studies, partnering and financing
Broadband

9. Success Stories
Networks
 Built
 Cook County FTTH
 LqP County FTTH
 SMBS FTTH
 Cloquet Valley Wireless
 In Process
 RS Fiber
 Todd County
 Redwood County
 Kanabec County
Critical Elements
 Commonalities
 Leadership support
 Community organizing
 Feasibility studies
 Differences
 Network owners
 Technologies
 Financing

10. Cook County
ARRA grant to Arrowhead Electric
Association as new provider
Direct county grant from county
economic development sales tax
Result of long–term effort on
Internet –- from dial-up to fiber

11. Lac qui Parle County
ARRA grant to
Farmers Mutual Telephone
Direct loan/grant from County EDA
plus shortfall guarantee
Opportunistic initiative rewarded by
stimulus

12. Eight communities in joint
venture
ARRA funding
Partnering with an existing muni
to deliver triple play over FTTH
Southwest MN
Broadband
Services

13. Newly formed
Initiative led by the area farmers’ co-
0p
To be supported by private and public
financing backed by area cities and
townships
FTTH to the Farm

14. Cloquet Valley Internet
Initiative
Nine sparsely settled townships
Challenging terrains with woods & hills
Partnership with Cooperative Power
and Light, the electric co-op
700 Mhz wireless technology
15 mile range
7 Mbps

15. Growing a Knowledge
Workforce
Creating, supporting and recruiting talent
Knowledge
Workforce

16. Alternative Approaches
 Cook County Higher Education
 “The Education You Need Where You Live”
 Programs
 Local
 Online independent
 Group learning
 Mentors, financial aid resources and more
 90% completion rate for online courses

17.  Encouragement of telework by:
 Partnering with local telecom to provide bandwidth and tech
support
 Marketing the community workforce to metro businesses
 Providing job postings and local resources
 Creation of telework hotel
 Convinced State of MN to include a telework location
category
 Recognized by NTCA as Smart Rural Community for their
telework initiative

18.  Courses
 Local
 Videoconferencing
 Targeting to new Americans and older adults
 Open lab with assistance available
 Videoconferencing rental available

19. Innovation
Spurring Innovation
New companies, new processes, new products

20. A three pronged approach to
spurring innovation and
increasing broadband utilization
in Itasca County
• Business technology
assessments, strategy
development and
implementation via financing
 Social Media Breakfasts
 IT Pros Networking Brown
Bag Lunches

21. Facilitating collaboration among
area volunteer fire departments
to improve and share training
resources
 Install videoconferencing
capabilities in ten fire halls
across five counties
 Coordinate training offerings
led by regional center
community fire department
 Enable streaming of past
events for 24x7 viewing by
new and current firefighters

22. Southwestern
Minnesota Adult
Mental Health
Consortium
 Bringing desktop and mobile
videoconferencing to
coordinate and share mental
health resources across 22
rural counties.
 Care team coordination
 Staff meetings
 Direct care

23. Addressing Digital Inclusion
Providing a computing device, training and connectivity
Digital
Inclusion

24. Turning trash to treasure for
thousands of low-income families in
Minnesota and now expanding into
other states
Partnerships with:
• schools and non-profits to target
eligible people
• government and business to
source computers
• ISPs for discounted Internet
service
 Collected, refurbished and
distributed over 7,000
computers in 2013, about
half in rural communities
 Set up local affiliate offices in
three rural Minnesota
locations, plus one additional
independent project
 With a mobile refurbishing
lab, they collect, refurbish
and distribute 100 computers
in three days

25. Providing digital literacy
training, computers and
connectivity to new
Americans
Partners with
• PCs for People
• Winona State University
• St. Mary’s University of Minnesota
• Hiawatha Broadband
Communications

26. Marketing and Advocacy
Creating a tech savvy image for your community –
to attract talent and investment
Advocacy

27. Marketing/Advocacy Strategies
 External marketing
 Fergus Falls as Teleworking
Capitol
 60/90 Tech Corridor as fiber-
rich agriculture and
manufacturing region
 Mobile sites
 Cook County CVB
 Google Place business
initiatives
 Internal marketing
 “What’s up in Foley?”
 “Finding Windom”
 Public policy
 Blandin events
 18 Legislative rural
listening sessions

28. Findings
These elements are mutually reinforcing and
bring together diverse stakeholders
Multiple small activities have more impact
than one big activity
Cross-sector activities have the largest
benefits
When in doubt as to “what to do”, just do
something!

29. Bill Coleman
Community Technology Advisors
651-491-2551
bill@communitytechnologyadvisors.com
Discussion
Resources:
http://Blandinonbroadband.org
http://broadband.blandinfoundation.org
www.communitytechnologyadvisors.com