A small rural clinic closes. A home buyer chooses to look elsewhere. A teacher can’t teach. While these situations seem unrelated and strangely paired, they all have one common denominator — broadband. Not what you expected? Here’s the skinny behind the stories: The Bigfork, Minnesota clinic, a satellite of Essentia, can’t upload patient files because …
In a recent Star Tribune editorial, Growth & Justice president Dane Smith challenges us to think about how we perceive competitiveness. He argues that the focus has been narrow for far too long, emphasizing “cheap labor and lower taxes.” Smith says that, instead, competitiveness should be defined by what is done to increase human potential. …
During their spring meeting March 20 and 21, Blandin Foundation trustees voted to extend the organization’s decade of work in rural broadband another two years (through 2016) and allocate $1.5 million more for community broadband grants. “We see every day what local leaders can do to address very significant and complex challenges,” said Dr. Kathleen …
If you were asked to give $1 and, in return, you would receive $10, would you do it? Before you opened up your pocketbook, you’d probably gauge whether or not you trusted the possibility of return on your investment. Is the risk worth the reward? Much the same, broadband investments were akin to a game …
Buzz continues to build for next week’s Border to Border Broadband Conference. With Senator Matt Schmit’s Listening Tour wrapping, rural Minnesotans have broadband on the brain. On top of that, today Blandin Foundation announced their latest round of broadband grants. Projects like GIS mapping of broadband availability in Mille Lacs County, equipping a tele-work center …
Santa’s sleigh came early this year. Sam Drong and the PCs for People crew have been traveling across rural Minnesota this fall with computers for low-income people. More than 500 monitors, computers and keyboards have been donated and refurbished, ready for low-cost purchase and use though a Blandin Foundation Broadband Communities grant. Kanabec (County) Broadband Initiative, Mille …
Today we welcome Bernadine Joselyn, Blandin Foundation’s Director of Public Policy. Bernadine recently traveled to Washington, D.C., to testify at a Senate subcommittee hearing on broadband adoption. Here, she reflects on her experience. “How are we doing?” Everyone in the change business asks themselves that question. We’re always on the lookout for evidence that …
In many conversations about rural broadband, speed and distance take center stage: uploads, downloads, middle-mile, last-mile, how technology “deletes the distance barrier” for folks who choose rural. Today, the conversation is face-to-face on the national stage. Blandin Foundation has the privilege to bring insights about rural broadband to Congress — specifically to a hearing of …
Today we welcome Jean Lane, Blandin Foundation director of finance. She recently traveled to Worthington and Windom to meet with Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities (MIRC) partners there. She shares how high-speed internet projects and diverse downtowns create welcoming, vibrant community. Windom. What a great town! Stately, historic buildings really caught my attention. The Masons building …
It’s an age-old question, if a tree falls in the forest and there’s no one to hear it, did it make a sound? We might ask the same thing of broadband. If fiber cable is laid in the ground, but no one has the tools or knowledge to access it, is it really there? Very …