There’s an awkward time in the life of a startup, when the idea outgrows the garage but maybe isn’t quite ready to commit to anything long-term. It may be time to graduate, but not yet time to settle down—as an entrepreneur, you want to focus on the project, not real estate. Enter “Coworking”. Coworking is a […]
Planetizen Benchmarks How Tech Savy Your City Planners Might Be
Remember when the Internet was going to make our lives easier? Everything was going to be available anytime, anywhere. Sometimes it feels like the web has just made everything more difficult, more complicated. Yet sometimes, when we look up from our iPhones for a minute, some folks are trying to make the business of civic […]
Broadband is not a luxury, but “something like plumbing” necessary for normal life
“The new railroad, the new interstate, the new road system in this country and in this state is (Internet) connectivity.” (WTE) Governor Matt Mead opened the inaugural Wyoming Broadband Summit with keynote remarks before over 200 policy wonks, technology geeks and interested bystanders gathered in Cheyenne Tuesday morning. Wyoming Enterprise Technology Services and the Wyoming […]
Broadband Briefing: LightSquared vs GPS
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. […]
Kicking Demo Projects When They’re Down
Tuesday is time for measured introspection from NewGeography.com: In the wake of Solyndra’s failure, pundits have latched on to a simple, compelling narrative: government can’t do energy right. From synfuels to solar panels to “clean coal” (written, inevitably, with knowing quotation marks), demonstration projects funded by the Department of Energy are described as one failed […]
Beacon Power Pulls the Plug
It may be darkest just before the dawn, but it doesn’t seem like there’s much of any light shining out of the US Department of Energy’s Energy Policy Act loan guarantee program. First solar energy manufacturer Solyndra went lights out in September. The end of October, now, brought us news that energy storage (back-up power supply) firm Beacon […]
Firming the Wind
[v=NE_BalA6AT8] This bit of renewable energy news was buried in a subhead in Sunday’s STrib: JUHL WIND TO BUY STORAGE UNIT Juhl Wind, the little public company near Pipestone that is a 30-plus year pioneer in community-owned wind power, has agreed to buy a 1-megawatt advanced energy storage system developed by Zinc Air. Juhl plans 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 […]
MN Ultra High-Speed Broadband Report
Summary for Southwest Regional Development Commission.