Follow the 2011 Broadband Conference!

Connect Minnesota and the Blandin Foundation are excited to be hosting this year’s 2011 Broadband Conference. The conference will focus on ARRA broadband funding efforts that are underway in Minnesota as well as our continued efforts to bring broadband to more schools, businesses, and communities across our state.

We look forward to the more than 100 policymakers from the private, government, and nonprofit sectors who will be attending and discussing their ideas and input on how to bring broadband to more rural and low-income homes.

These discussions will promote a better understanding of how policy impacts policymakers and those seeking to obtain broadband access. Through the sharing of tools and accomplishments of ARRA projects, attendees will celebrate the progress toward meeting broadband adoption goals while planning for future endeavors.

Do you want to join the conversation? Search #mnbb2011 and @BFBroadband for highlights from the conference and be sure to follow @ConnectMN on Twitter for live updates from the conference. If you have questions, send us a tweet and we'll get you answers!

Stay Connected!

Protecting Children Online

As a follow-up to National Cybersecurity Awareness Month,

below are tips to help you stay safe online:

1. Keep the computer in a family room where you can monitor computer use (under 10).

2. Use parental controls. Parental Controls to help manage how your children use the computer. For example, you can set limits on your children's access to the web, the hours that they can log on to the computer, and which games they can play and programs they can run.

3. Teach children never to meet an online friend offline unless you are with them.

4. Find out what e-mail and instant messaging accounts they have and (while agreeing not to spy on them) ask them for their passwords for those accounts.

5. Teach them what information they can share with others.

6. Check your children's profiles, blogs and any social-networking posts.

Other Useful Sites and Information Sources

• OnguardOnline.gov

• United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT)

• WiredSafety.org

• Commonsense.com

• Ncmec.org

• TRUSTe.org

• ConnectSafely.org

• NetSmartz.org

• WebWiseKids.org

• Makeadifferenceforkids.org

2011 Broadband Conference

Blandin Foundation and Connect Minnesota host this year’s 2011 Broadband Conference, which will focus on the ARRA Broadband funding efforts that have been underway in Minnesota. 

Through discussions with national and local policy leaders; community leaders will have a better understanding how policy impacts them and how they link to the big picture. Through the sharing of tools and accomplishments of ARRA projects, we will celebrate the progress towards meeting goals while planning for the future.

Click here to register

A block of rooms will be held through November 2 at the Sheraton Duluth Hotel under the name “Broadband Conference.” The conference rate is $99-119 per night. To reserve your room, call (218) 733-5660 or visit http://www.starwoodmeeting.com/Book/broadbandconference. Please note that lodging is NOT included in the registration fee.

Don't need broadband? Think again as providers look to educate consumers

By Samantha Bookman | Fierce Telecom

Published: October 28, 2011

A couple of years ago I was having dinner with my uncle during a stopover in San Francisco. The conversation, as it is wont to do, turned eventually to the Internet, specifically to Facebook, which my uncle had joined but was not posting to very much. Why? I asked.

"Because it takes too long to load," he replied. "I have dialup."

I found this pretty amazing, considering he lives close enough to the city to get high-speed Internet, so I quizzed him a bit more about his reasons for staying with a dialup service. He had fairly sound ones: the price was very affordable; he wasn't locked into a service contract--important because his carpentry work often took him out of town for weeks at a time; the service was reliable; and he didn't see much use for Internet access beyond checking his email.

That conversation took place just as the Obama administration's broadband stimulus effort was gearing up, an initiative that now is in full swing, with broadband rolling out--at various speeds--well beyond urban areas and into rural ones. So I was very interested to see the results of a recent study that found that not only did 28 percent of Minnesota residents not subscribe to a broadband service, a significant portion of them weren't that interested in subscribing: 29 percent of those without broadband said there wasn't enough Internet content worth viewing.

Only 8 percent of the survey participants said that they didn't have access to broadband, so in the parts of Minnesota surveyed, which included rural areas, broadband access was not the biggest issue.

Minnesota wasn't the only state surveyed as part of an effort by Connected Nation. In South Carolina--where a battle for municipal broadband regulation was fought recently--around 43 percent of residents do not subscribe to broadband. Again, only 8 percent said broadband was not available to them.

Read more.

10 Ways to Avoid Phishing E-mails and other E-mail Scams

As a follow-up to National Cybersecurity Awareness Month,

below are tips to help you stay safe online:

1. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

2. Be suspicious of unsolicited e-mail messages. If an unknown individual claims to be from a legitimate organization, try to verify his or her identity directly with the company.

3. Treat e-mail attachments with caution.

4. Don’t click links in e-mail messages.

5. Do not reveal personal or financial information via unsecured e-mail.

6. Don't send sensitive information over the Internet before checking a website's security.

7. Take advantage of any anti-phishing features offered by your e-mail client and web browser.

8. Configure your e-mail client for security.

9. Learn the e-mail policies of the organizations you do business with.

10. Take your time. Resist any urge to "act now" despite the offer and the terms. Once you turn over your money, you may never get it back.

Other Useful Sites and Information Sources

• OnguardOnline.gov

• United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT)

• WiredSafety.org

• Commonsense.com

• Ncmec.org

• TRUSTe.org

• ConnectSafely.org

• NetSmartz.org

• WebWiseKids.org

• Makeadifferenceforkids.org

5 Tips for Protecting Your Identity Online

October is National Cybersecurity Awareness month.

Below are tips to help you stay safe online:

1. Look at a Website’s privacy policy - Before submitting your name, e-mail address, or other personal information on a website, look for the site's privacy policy.

2. Look for evidence that your information is being encrypted - To protect attackers from hijacking your information, any personal information submitted online should be encrypted so that it can only be read by the appropriate recipient.

3. Do business with credible companies – Work with websites certified by an Internet trust organization such as BBBonline, TRUSTe, or WebTrust? Sites that display these logos have agreed to follow certain practices like providing a comprehensive privacy statement

4. Do not use your primary e-mail address in online submissions - Submitting your e-mail address could result in spam. If you do not want your primary e-mail account flooded with unwanted messages, consider opening an additional e-mail account for use online

5. Take advantage of options to limit exposure of private information - Default options on certain websites may be chosen for convenience, not for security. For example, avoid allowing a website to remember your password. If your password is stored, your profile and any account information you have provided on that site are readily available if an attacker gains access to your computer. Also, evaluate your settings on websites used for social networking.

Other Useful Sites and Information Sources

• OnguardOnline.gov

• United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT)

• WiredSafety.org

• Commonsense.com

• Ncmec.org

• TRUSTe.org

• ConnectSafely.org

• NetSmartz.org

• WebWiseKids.org

• Makeadifferenceforkids.org

Connect Minnesota Releases 2011 Residential Broadband Adoption Survey Results

28% of Minnesota residents still do not have broadband at home

Access the Findings

ST. PAUL, MN – Today, Connect Minnesota released new residential broadband adoption survey results revealing the top trends in technology use among key demographics in Minnesota. The preliminary indicators from the survey are available online, which gives a comprehensive view of the challenges and opportunities for expanding broadband in targeted sectors. According to the survey, approximately 28% of the population still does not subscribe to broadband. Most notably, the majority of low-income, senior, disabled adult, and Hispanic households are without broadband at home, leaving them facing an uphill battle in keeping up with essential online resources, job and educational opportunities, and social services.

The survey reveals that:

• 39% of Minnesotans living in rural areas do not subscribe to broadband service at home.

• When comparing to the 72% of all households that do subscribe, there remain large gaps among key demographics:

   o 53% of low-income households;

   o 51% of Hispanic households; and

   o 68% of seniors are without broadband.

• 54% of low-income households with children are without access to this essential tool at home.

• The biggest gap is among low-income seniors. Only 21% of low-income seniors subscribe to broadband and only 32% have a computer at home.

• The largest barrier to non-adopters is relevance - 29% of non-adopters say there isn’t Internet content worth viewing. The second most commonly cited barrier is that it is too expensive.

• The number one reason Minnesotans say they started using broadband is because they needed it for business.

These results and comparisons to many others are available on Connect Minnesota’s new consumer trends widget. This interactive tool gives people the ability to view, share, and download the results. Connect Minnesota will use these survey results to target solutions in communities based on the demographic and economic barriers that the surveys indicate are most relevant to those communities.

Connect Minnesota’s 2011 residential survey was conducted in the summer of 2011 and includes responses from 3,100 residents.