by Tom Robertson, Minnesota Public Radio
“DEER RIVER, Minn. — A school district collaborative in northeast Minnesota is using video technology to link classrooms with others in the region. The Itasca Area Schools Collaborative is using a $1 million federal grant to help pay for the distance-learning initiative. Through a technology called telepresence, it creates the illusion that students miles apart are in the same classroom.”
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By Ann Treacy, Blandin on Broadband
“The latest Akamai report on global broadband speeds and rankings is out – based on Q4 2011 research. The news isn’t great for the US, it’s even worse for Minnesota.
…The report looks at global ranking and ranking by geography. Minnesota is not listed – not once. In the past we have occasionally ranked. Minnesota Broadband buffs will know that part of the Minnesota Broadband Bill was an aspiration to be a national and world broadband leader.”
By Ann Treacy
Many Minnesota high tech companies convened in Minneapolis for the Minnesota High Tech Association Spring Conference last week. Broadband was in the air as Margaret Anderson Kelliher, Chair of the current Minnesota Broadband Task Force, hosted the event and Rick King, original Task Force Chair, presented the keynote.
While hot topics included robotics, cloud computing and security — improving broadband access through deployment and adoption efforts across Minnesota remains vital to Minnesota’s prosperity.
In the last month, the Blandin on Broadband blog has highlighted broadband deployment, adoption and policy successes and challenges in Minnesota:
By Steve Alexander, Star Tribune
“Bil MacLeslie can’t get his own company’s Internet service at home anymore.
Last month, MacLeslie got a notice from telephone company CenturyLink. It said that his rural Stillwater home was being cut off from his provider of high-speed DSL Internet access service, ipHouse in Minneapolis. The notice told MacLeslie, the president of ipHouse, that if he wanted to continue using DSL, his new service provider would be CenturyLink.”
By Ann Treacy
According to Boston Consulting Group’s recently published ‘Internet Economy in the G20′ report, “the Internet accounted for $684 billion, or 4.7% of all U.S. economic activity in 2010.”
Some of that activity comes from the cost of deploying broadband, while most comes from connective benefits of having broadband. In the last month, the Blandin on Broadband blog has highlighted some specific economic activity that relates to broadband in Minnesota:
By Ann Treacy, Blandin on Broadband
“The Freedom Foundation recently asked some good questions about Minneapolis Wireless and the Minneapolis Digital Inclusion Fund (DIF). As a reminder: US Internet Wireless provides wireless service to Minneapolis.
Part of their original contract included a clause that said that they would contribute on an ongoing basis to the DIF. Apparently that’s not going as well as planned.”
With 15 months of planning and preparation behind them, a small yet savvy tech team has launched a new Minnesota startup called SparkWeave.
Their goal is two fold — to offer an enterprise private cloud storage platform in combination with a secure collaboration application suite — and their promise is to reduce storage costs while meeting data security requirements in a more simple manner than is currently available to most big companies.
“There’s a lot of moving parts to both private storage and the application layer,” says co founder and CEO Brent Bowlby. “We remove the mystery and complexity that many large organizations experience when making their migration, while offering the security and compliance they demand.”
By Katharine Grayson, Minneapolis-St.Paul Business Journal
“Growing software firm Open Access Technology International Inc. (OATI) plans to build a second campus and data center on 4.3 acres in Bloomington.
The Minneapolis-based company, which sells Web-based applications for the energy industry, reached a deal to acquire land near Interstate 494 and Highway 100. The parcel is at the intersection of Computer Avenue and West 78th Street.
The company hasn’t set a budget for the project or hired contractors, said David Heim, who is managing the project for OATI. The development will include office space, a showroom for OATI’s products and a data center.”
Via News Release
“MINNEAPOLIS, MN — Verizon Wireless announced today it invested $132 million in 2011 to enhance its network in Minnesota, including the expansion of its groundbreaking 4G LTE network to Austin, Albert Lea, Duluth, St. Cloud and Rochester as well as more communities in the greater Twin Cities area, giving more Minnesotans access to the most advanced 4G LTE network in the world.”
By Katharine Grayson, Minneapolis-St.Paul Business Journal
“The Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) plans to build a $15 million data center at Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport.
MAC is soliciting bids from firms that want to construct the 10,700-square-foot facility, which will be located in the cargo area at the airport. Bids are due Feb. 14 and contracts will be awarded in March. Work on the facility will begin in April.”
It might be educational for the other entrepreneurs in the community to know this isn't YC and the s...
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