Twenty people representing a host of community interests attended a workshop sponsored by the Blandin Foundation and the Cook County Fiber Optic Network Commission Wednesday, July 7, 2010 to gather ideas on how Cook County could use a $100,000 grant it has received to help the community make use of ultra-high-speed Internet connections.
Cook County is one of 11 demonstration projects statewide that received grants under a Blandin initiative entitled Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities. Blandin received a federal stimulus grant of almost $5 million for this initiative and will be matching it with $1,000,000 of its own funding.
In a letter of invitation to this meeting, Paul Harvey of the Cook County Fiber Optic Network Commission explained that the grant projects are intended to “demonstrate how broadband can carry the county toward the goal of an intelligent community. ‘Intelligent Community’ is an economic development framework that supports communities competing in the global broadband economy.”
According to Blandin’s description of the project, “A significant gap exists between rural and urban adoption rates in Minnesota–in both business and home environments. … Given the importance of high bandwidth technologies and services and their effective use to economic competitiveness and quality of life, this gap is a critical challenge for the future vitality of Minnesota’s rural places.”
Each community will develop at least four of its own projects, and all 11 communities will then be able to network with each other and share what they have developed. They must each address five basic components: planning and installing Broadband infrastructure, building a technologically knowledgeable workforce, developing creative innovations, making technology accessible to more people and teaching them the skills to use it, and marketing the technology to the community.
Blandin collects comments
Blandin consultant Bill Coleman asked those in attendance to comment on their interest in this grant. Jay Anderson of WTIP Radio said that more people follow them online than over the airwaves. “It’s a bit of an inequity,” he pointed out, that people from the Twin Cities can live stream them while his neighbor on Pike Lake Road cannot.
Cook County Information Technology Director Danna MacKenzie said 80% of the Cook County residents surveyed about their interest in highspeed Internet have Internet service, but 20% of them only have dialup. Cook County is the least connected county in the state, she said. She appreciates this grant because it will “bring more voices to the table.”
Coleman stated that most industries, even those not traditionally very high-tech, are utilizing more and more technology. With economic stressors on businesses and cuts in government funding such as Minnesota has been experiencing, technology can be used to provide the same level of service with less money, he said.
How it could work
Coleman envisions project communities offering more wireless “hot spots” in downtown areas, tourist areas, public buildings, and even public transportation. He could see entities joining together and sharing a bigger band to give everyone faster connections. He envisions students downloading educational information onto their Ipods so they could study on long bus rides home. One of the 11 communities will be refurbishing old computers.
One example Coleman cited was the University of Minnesota Morris, which has difficulty keeping professors on staff because their spouses have such limited professional opportunities due to its rural location. Better access to high-speed technology would open up possibilities for spouses to use their skills and could help the university lower its rate of staff turnover.
More and more young people are choosing where they want to live based on the amenities of a location, Coleman said, rather than finding a job and then relocating to where the job is. Highspeed Internet accessibility would allow them to be where they want to be and have professional jobs as well.
Coleman hopes that Cook County will be able to use its $100,000 to leverage more funding.
Community members sought
Community members are being sought for a steering committee to help bring the grant projects to fruition. Karl Semp of the Blandin Foundation, leading the discussion with Coleman, quoted from a writer named Daniel Yankelovich who wrote that making good public policy takes into account “the value-rich perspectives of citizens” as well as “the information-rich perspectives of experts.”
Some in Cook County believe that those who want public dollars invested in fiber optic infrastructure will pursue it whether most people want it or not. Coleman, however, said, “Political will rarely follows if community will is not there.”
More information on broadband initiatives, grant applications, and the Cook County Fiber Optic Network Commission can be found at cookcountybroadband. com/index.php/news/ latest.
These are some ideas generated at the Blandin meeting on
outcomes that participants would like to see over the next couple years:
. More reliable Internet access.
. Increased awareness of the value of broadband to rural communities.
. Better training in how to make use of technology.
. Diversification of the county’s economic base and start-up of new businesses
that make use of technology.
. Better use of technology to advertise community events such as school
activities, governmental meetings, and special events.
. Regular workday tasks done on the Internet so that information could be
accessed from various locations.
. Government and business use of social media such as Facebook.
. More computers available in public places at no charge.
. Greater leadership by government officials in bringing technology to the
community.
. A technology service center staffed partly by student interns.
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