Cross-posted from Blandin on Broadband blog, originally prepared for Southwest Regional Development Commission. LightSquared vs. GPS A new wireless start-up with Minnesota connections has been in the news lately with plans to provide a unique wireless-satellite communications network that could bring ubiquitous broadband coverage to rural America for a fraction of the cost of existing, […]
Doing Our Broadband Homework
I met Mark Forseth in 1994, when as Chairman of the Traill County Economic Development Commission Mark hired me as Executive Director to help facilitate economic opportunity in the Red River Valley. TCEDC didn’t limit itself to recruiting footloose branch plants, but focused broadly on preparing communities across the county with a seedbed for growth. […]
FourSquare for Your Square
FourSquare for Business webinar, Thurs 10 Nov, Noon CST. The information superhighway was supposed to knock down the barriers of distance, putting rural communities on a level playing field with our urban brethren. And it has… except where it hasn’t. For every web app that lets rural entrepreneurs compete globally it seems another online trend […]
I Stole This Internet Idea, and Why You Should Pay Me To Steal Yours
I stole this post. Yes, there you go, guilty as charged. In the Internet economy, with 2 billion people and $8 trillion exchanged annually online, it’s really easy to copy-n-paste and pawn off a product as your own. I have been meaning to read the latest McKinsey surveys for weeks. I think the rain brought […]
Call Goes Out for MN Broadband Task Force
Minnesota’s governor is putting the call out for the next iteration of the Minnesota broadband task force: Governor Dayton Charges Taskforce with Expanding Broadband Access Statewide August 25, 2011 Today, Governor Mark Dayton issued Executive Order 11-27, establishing the Governor’s Task Force on Broadband and continuing his commitment to strengthening our state’s infrastructure and fostering […]
What Women Want (When Thinking About Moving To A Small Town)
Proving the adage that great minds think alike, in a post at Blandin on Broadband blog today Ann Treacy follows-up on Ben Winchester’s work on the Rural Brain Gain, which I mentioned earlier this week. The BoB blog is, of course, focused on the broadband angle, but this entry speaks more generally to how communities prepare (or […]
Rural Broadband Project Breaks Ground
Last Friday, I had the opportunity to attend the Southwest Minnesota Broadband Services Group (SMBG) Groundbreaking in Lakefield. SMBS will be building fiber-to-the-premise infrastructure to eight rural communities throughout Southwestern Minnesota. The network will consist of a 125 mile fiber ring which will connect the eight communities and an FTTP infrastructure within the communities that […]
Sen. Klobuchar speaks to MIRC
Minnesota’s Senator Amy Klobuchar spoke at lunch for the Blandin Foundation’s MIRC project at an event organized by the University of Minnesota Extension Service in St. Cloud Wednesday. It was my first time hearing the Senator. Thought she did a pretty good job with a brief talk on broadband in rural Minnesota. She spoke to […]
APA STaR Publishes MIRC Story
This article was published last week in the newsletter of the Small Town and Rural Planning division of the American Planning Association. You can find them on Facebook, too. Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities: Broadband as a Rural Development Strategy By John C. Shepard, AICP, Southwest Regional Development Commission America’s economy runs on broadband. Ninety-five […]
A Journey to High-Speed Internet in Rural Minnesota
[v=SA-vE0qAt-w] I’m struggling to get my head around video. I’m a book guy, not a movie guy—I have a face for radio, not TV. But I know people learn through stories and the oral storytelling tradition is far more ancient than the written word. As I’ve adapted to adopting broadband this last year, I’ve also […]