Iron Range high speed internet at crossroads

Public investment in high speed Internet on the Iron Range should be among our highest priorities. Whether we use this method or another, we need to make tech infrastructure happen. It's not for the people who are here now, it's for the people we need to come here and stay here.

Range fibernet project at a crossroads
By Marshall Helmberger, Tower Timberjay, March 15, 2008
The effort to bring an ultra-high speed fiber optic network to 11 Iron Range cities is exploring a new direction after a contentious meeting in January left some once-active members expressing doubts about the proposed project.

The Iron Range Network Joint Powers Board had planned to give presentations to the city councils of the 11 member cities in February, but those presentations have been put on hold while supporters try to determine their next step, a decision they expect to make at a meeting in Hibbing on Thursday.

Baby, you can boot up my car

Nothing gets people thinking about the past or future better than a bland, even foreboding present. Possible economic recession? Yuck. Uncertainty in the presidential election? Nothing but ulcers for political junkies like me. And since the past involves “quantified research,” it’s so much easier to just envision the future.

That’s what folks did last week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Maybe you saw some of the coverage on the news. I saw one reporter asking about a robot ice bucket that delivered beer using technology very similar to the “Roomba” vacuum cleaner. Anyway, the future includes much more than “smart beer.” The item that caught my eye was the Chief Executive of GM, Rick Wagoner, telling the convention audience that we are only 10 years away from a driverless car, if there proves to be demand.

~ An excerpt from my Hibbing Daily Tribune column for Jan. 13, 2008. Read the full column at http://www.minnesotabrown.com/, in the Sunday paper or archived here.