Infonaut Ann Treacy does a blog at Blandin on Broadband, focusing on broadband use, access and trends as a project of Minnesota’s Blandin Foundation. She had an interesting post this weekend on including rural broadband projects in President-elect Barack H. Obama’s proposed economic stimulus package.
I have been interested in applications of broadband technology since I was in college, in particular when I worked for the now-defunct Center for the New West think tank in Denver. This makes it all the more ironic that I’m still mired on dial-up at home, but that is a post for a day to come.
The post brings in two other salient points.
- “broadband is all rural areas have seen or heard from Obama up to this point.” (ref. Daily Yonder)
- “we’re pouring more money into a solution that didn’t work the first time around” (ref. Public Knowledge)
I have personal issues with the stimulus packages we’ve seen last year and this; however, aside from that, on a professional level we should be concerned about larger issues present. Broadband is great, but it’s just a tool. We need broader rural development strategies. We also need much better research benchmarking economic development tools that work. You know that. I know that. It’s just not cheap nor easy to accomplish.
Treacy’s packing alot to think about into this focused, tightly-written blog. I suppose I ought to take notes.
-john shepard
JC Shepard 
Ann Treacy said,
13 January 2009 at 00:06
Hey – thanks for your kind words! It’s been interesting to see the shuffle around the stimulus money. Mostly I look at broadband but I have to think that people are scrambling to get their bids in from every industry.
I’m watching your posts on WordPress versus Blogger. So far I’m with you on WordPress – though I wished it was as open to new widgets as Blogger.
JC said,
13 January 2009 at 01:02
It is easy to get bogged down in the gospel of broadband. We’ve been talking about bandwidth so long my eyes glazed over for a couple years there. And yes, I do still have dial-up at home….
On the learning curve, I’m trying to do some longer think-pieces of the op-ed 500-600 word length, with shorter quicker current commentary; economics, policy & culture. Throw it about, see how it goes. Kinda like taking a Ford and a Toyota out for road tests in different conditions. Motor on.
JC said,
20 January 2009 at 15:31
I’m seeing more details thrown about on Infrastructure in the stimulus package(s). Treacy has notes from Minnesota on the search for Shovel Ready IT projects.
A Chicken in every pot, Broadband in every home. « JC Shepard said,
21 January 2009 at 15:09
[…] at 15:01 (Liberty, Life) Tags: broadband, MN, tech Saw this @NYTimes twitterfeed related to an earlier post on broadband in the stimulus packages. Yes, I admit it, I subscribed to the New York Times feed. I […]