Paul Richard Harvey of the Cook County Broadband Commission is available to discuss ways that individuals or groups within the community could make use of a Blandin Foundation grant for projects that would demonstrate how broadband access and knowledge could enhance the community.
Wanted: Internet-related projects needing funding in Cook County. While the county waits to hear the outcome of two federal stimulus grant applications that would bring fiber optic Internet speed (“broadband”) to almost every doorstep, a smaller but still significant grant is waiting for takers who could use broadband to enhance our community. The Blandin Foundation has designated $100,000 out of a $4.86 million federal grant to help local governmental entities, educational institutions, health care facilities, and businesses demonstrate the usefulness of broadband.
Eleven Minnesota communities have been awarded grants for projects that help create technologically and economically vital rural communities that can compete and thrive in a larger economy.
According to the Blandin Foundation, “A significant gap exists between rural and urban adoption rates in Minnesota— in both business and home environments. This gap is compounded by rural demographic characteristics including an aging population, lower per capita income, and lower educational attainment. … This gap is a critical challenge for the future vitality of Minnesota’s rural places.”
” Cook County’s grant is part of Blandin’s Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities program. The philosophy behind the program, similar to initiatives being adopted in communities around the world, promotes five elements believed to give communities the highest bang for their buck when investing in broadband technology:
. Broadband— bringing the necessary technology and infrastructure to the people who need it.
. Knowledgeable workers— making sure people have access to the training they need in order to get good jobs.
. Digital inclusion— ensuring that people have computers and Internet access and know how to use them.
. Innovation— providing opportunities for government to work more efficiently and for the business community to thrive.
. Marketing and advocacy— retaining and attracting talent and investment in the community.
Cook County’s grant will require the implementation of at least four projects, one that must address digital inclusion. Steve Cramer, the executive director of Twin Cities-based nonprofit Project for Pride in Living (PPL), believes access to the Internet is becoming increasingly important for everyone in our society. On the organization’s website he wrote, “At a recent staff meeting a cross-section of frontline staff talked about the ‘digital divide’ not as an intellectual concept, but as a real life barrier for families trying to find employment, manage their finances, or stay connected with their children’s schooling…. Three years ago I doubt a single staff person at PPL would have advised participants that securing Internet service is a priority in a tight household budget. Today, it’s a totally different story. It’s not a stretch to argue that digital access and capability is a new building block of selfsufficiency, just like access to stable, affordable housing and a living wage job.”
The Cook County Broadband Commission is overseeing the Blandin grant and is seeking proposals for projects from local governmental entities, nonprofits, and businesses. Even individuals or clubs could partner with eligible organizations. Grants as large as $50,000 could be awarded. Projects that only benefit individual organizations may be asked to provide some matching resources in the way of money, time, or equipment. Projects that provide widespread community benefits and that are open to large numbers of community members will not be required to provide matches.
International connections
A 2005 study on broadband implementation in the country of Italy (www.itu. int/osg/spu/ni/ubiquitous/ Papers/UNSitalycasestudy. pdf) pointed out the economic and cultural benefits of broadband and the drawbacks to lack of it. At the time, rural areas and much of southern Italy did not have the opportunities that broadband would have afforded. According to the study, “A vicious circle exists, with the private sector uncertain of the return on their investment and the consequent lack of infrastructure hindering the development of applicative multimedia services, as well as the demand for high-speed connections. This leads to a reduction, especially in the South, in the opportunities for the development of an economy based on new communication technologies.”
Information technologies could figuratively bring rural areas much closer to traditionally urban opportunities. According to the Italian study, “This revolution also means that public access to communications facilities no longer implies … the need to be physically located near urban areas where most information and production is generated. It has completely eliminated the constraints of time and distance.”
The Information Age comes to Cook County
In Cook County, many businesses cannot operate like their counterparts in less remote areas of the United States. Places like Gunflint Lodge cannot take reservations online and have them interface with their database. Even if they had an office in Grand Marais where highspeed Internet would allow fast interactions, reservations made online could conflict with reservations made by other guests phoning the lodge directly at the same time.
Paul Richard Harvey of the Cook County Broadband Commission considers broadband implementation analogous to the Industrial Revolution. “The Information Age can afford many benefits, but without the post-industrial baggage—baggage such as environmental stress and the division of classes,” Harvey says. “Indeed, the Information Age should narrow the class divide.”
When Harvey moved to Cook County from Des Moines, Iowa, he left a job as director of telecommunications for IFMC, a large medical records processing company that helped clients like the Defense Department and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid make meaningful use of patient electronic records. He believes broadband would bring benefits to rural communities in much the same way that transportation advances did in the Industrial Age. Time and distance can be a hindrance in rural communities, but broadband technology can eliminate it.
Harvey recognizes the value many residents place on the lifestyle that is possible in Cook County. He believes that broadband access would help Cook County sustain and even enhance its current quality of life.
The Cook County Broadband Commission is hoping community members will be really creative in thinking up projects for the Blandin grant. Ideas tossed around so far include helping people learn how to use the Internet at the Senior Center, enabling health care providers to monitor homebound patients through daily health checklists sent via email, and providing more computers at the library and more Internet access points throughout the county.
Information on the grant as well as application forms can be found at www.cookcountybroadband. com (under “MIRC Broadband Project RFP Application”). Paul Richard Harvey is available to discuss potential projects and can be reached at paul@ starbear.org or (218)370-7994. The deadline for proposals is October 11, 2010.
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