NWBDC Founder Don Sidlowski met today in Memomonie with Scott Simenson (Director Information & Telecommunications Technology Program, Century College), Mike Cropp (Director of the Fab Lab at the Discovery Center, UW-Stout) and Dr. Steve Yahr (Lecturer at UW-Stout) to explore the expansion of fabrication laboratories or “fab labs” in Northern Wisconsin, with a special focus on the development of 3D printing manufacturing applications as a means of job creation and expansion. Every fab lab consists of five standard elements: 2D/3D milling, routing, cutting, laser engraving, and 3D printing. It is this last area in which Sidlowski sees an opportunity to expand education in the high school classroom leading to direct employment at the entry level for graduates with higher paying jobs for more skilled technicians who complete a two-year course of study at facilities such at the Fab Lab at the Discovery Center, UW-Stout. There are only some 300 fab labs in existence in the entire world, just 50 in the United States and ten of those are in the state of Minnesota. Sidlowski is exploring ways in which the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin can collaborate to turn the region in the northern third of each state – traditionally rural – into centers of manufacturing excellence based on fab lab technology.

NWBDC Founder Don Sidlowski met today in Barron, WI with DNR Northern Regional Director John Gozdzialski (John G) to talk about the agency’s decision to revisit policy and allow access to state-owned towers administered by the DNR and State Police. According to John G, the DNR’s legal counsel for towers has crafted the draft language for the agreement that would signed between the DNR and the co-locating party, forming a binding legal contract between the parties. John G also produced a map showing the location of the towers as well as a list which contains the operational details for each tower. NWBDC will introduce the DNR to the UW-Extension Center for Community Technology Solutions (CCTS) which has legal staff of its own researching existing state statute and working on the development of model language that could be used by local government to assist in tower placement in their communities.

NWBDC Founder Don Sidlowski joined other experts from around the state in a meeting of stakeholders conducted by the Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC) related to the Broadband Grant Program announced by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) at the PSC’s Broadband Summit in April, 2013. Part of the 2013-14 biennial budget, the $4.3 set-aside will be released as grants at the rate of up to $500K per year for the next ten years. For any year where the entire amount is not awarded the remaining balance will roll to the next fiscal year. Since the announcement, the PSC has been working on an interpretation of the legislation (Wis Stats 196.504) and invited stakeholders to this meeting to comment on the process for how the grants should be administered and awarded. Among many points submitted to the PSC, Sidlowski urged the Commission to define “unserved” and “underserved” not by census blocks but population density per square mile. “We believe the term underserved should not be defined solely as being tied to a definitive number of broadband service providers, in this case fewer than 2which implies one or none, and that the definition should be expanded to include or be replaced by a population density per square mile criteria of those with access to service. Current formulas typically use standard census blocks in which if only one individual in the entire block has access to service the entire block is categorized as served. This is a deeply flawed approach which vastly overestimates the amount of geography with access to broadband and grossly underestimates underserved and unserved areas”, said Sidlowski. He also recommended a point system be implemented by which a higher score (and thus chance of being awarded) be given to projects that aim for such things as higher broadband speed and likelihood that the service will not just be made available but actually used. He also suggested the funds be allocated 70/30 with the larger portion of the funds designated for public-private partnership applications, which are specifically identified in the statutory language as being sought after. Said Sidlowski, “the providers do not suffer in any way from this segregation of funding since a town, village or county must in any event team with a provider in order to qualify for grant fund consideration. Adding this grant criteria provision does not shut off funding to the providers, it merely ensures that the majority of project applications will be public-private partnerships. It is precisely at the town, village and county level in the public sector where funds are most scarce and therefore where the majority of the grant funds should be awarded.”

Speaking for 15 minutes in a joint presentation/testimony to the twelve members of the Assembly Speaker’s Task Force on Rural Schools, NWBDC Founder Don Sidlowski emphasized three main points. “First, starting about seven years ago and for all time to come, broadband is core to every curriculum. Students from now on will not be able to graduate without access to broadband. Second, the speed and bandwidth needs will only grow ever larger. They will never get smaller. Schools forced to maintain current speeds due to funding limitations will fall behind in the state and the nation. And third, the kind of public-private partnerships (P3) that have already been demonstrated to work in other sectors must be extended to the education arena”. Chaired by 34th Assembly District Representative Rob Swearingen, the bi-partisan committee (eight republicans and four democrats) were shown what the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) is recommending on their Digital Learning website, including the need for 1 Gbps of broadband capacity for every 1,000 students as early as 2015-17. Representative Swearingen stated that the committee members had agreed that each public hearing they conduct should include one presentational, non-testimony segment of importance to rural schools, and Swearingen noted “I couldn’t think of anything more important to keep in the minds of the task force members at this first hearing than the topic of broadband”.

The Town of Minocqua Broadband & Business Development Committee will team up with the Oneida County Technology Committee to publish a weekly column in the Lakeland Times newspaper devoted to topics related to broadband expansion and adoption as a means to economic development and vitality, education, job creation/growth/retention, and its importance to every facet of life in the 21st century. NWBDC Founder Don Sidlowski serves as chairman of the Oneida County committee, which was chartered by a resolution of the Oneida County Board of Supervisors and operates under the auspices of the Oneida County Economic Development Corporation (OCEDC). Sidlowski and Minocqua committee chairman Pete Otis concurred that the opportunity to spread the word in the community via means of this weekly column is an educational opportunity without match. The joint committees expect to continue submitting the weekly articles indefinitely.

At the request of Representative Rob Swearingen (State of Wisconsin, Assembly District 34) NWBDC Founder Don Sidlowski will provide a technology overview on the topic of the importance of broadband to the educational system in Wisconsin to the 12-member bipartisan Speaker’s Rural School Task Force at their meeting to be held in Rhinelander, WI on Wednesday, October 23. The task force was commissioned by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (State of Wisconsin, Assembly District 63) who also appointed Swearingen to serve as chairman.

A day-long tour and schedule of events by senior executives of the Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC) in Oneida County on September 24 “exceeded all expectations and was an unqualified success”, according to Northwoods Broadband Development Coalition (NWBDC) Founder Don Sidlowski. The day began with a 9-11 am meeting of the LinkWISCONSIN Region 2 Team, which was held at the UW-Extension (UWEX) Conference Room located at the Rhinelander/Oneida County Airport terminal building lower level. The some thirty attendees received in-depth briefings and updates by the PSC’s State Broadband Coordinator Dr. Tithi Chattopadhyay and staff members Pete Jahn and Kathy Bakke. This was followed by a report from Professor Andy Lewis of the UWEX Center for Community Technology Solutions (CCTS) on the results of the Region 2 portion of a statewide listening session on broadband conducted over the winter of 2012. The morning session concluded with an update on progress in Region 2 and a review of the region’s broadband investment plan conducted by Sidlowski, who also served as host for the day’s events. PSC Chairman Phil Montgomery arrived in town at Noon in time for a working business lunch at the Rhinelander Pub, after which Chairman Montgomery and Dr. Chattopadhyay were escorted by Sidlowski to the WXPR studios in Downtown Rhinelander for the 1 pm taping of a 30-minute minute “mini-forum” on broadband, in which Sidlowski served as on-air moderator. From there the trio headed up to Three Lakes for a one-hour forum which was held from 2-3 pm in the auditorium of the Three Lakes Center for the Arts. There the three person panel consisting of Montgomery, Chattopadhyay, and Lewis responded to an hour’s worth of questions put to the panel by Sidlowski on the general theme of broadband expansion and adoption as a means of economic development, job creation, growth and retention in the Northwoods. A question and answer session followed the conclusion of the formal portion of the forum, after which members of the media were present to interview the PSC personnel.

NWBDC Founder Don Sidlowski was one of a small handful of regional leaders invited to serve as a facilitator at the Small Town Downtown Forum conducted in Luck, WI (Polk County) on Friday, September 19. Sidlowski facilitated the roundtable on economic development, placing special emphasis on small towns using broadband expansion and adoption as a means of job creation, growth and retention. “Having a robust broadband infrastructure in your community in no way guarantees success in economic development”, said Sidlowski “but without it you don’t stand a chance of recruiting and retention, not when employers and workers can simply choose the nearby community that has invested itself in getting the job done”. Small towns have unique issues and needs that are often very different from those of larger communities. These forums are intended to bring together those serving and working in and with communities of populations fewer than 1500 to learn from each other through case studies, roundtables and discussion groups. The forums are financially underwritten by the USDA Rural Development Department (USDA-RD), Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), the University of Wisconsin Extension (UWEX) and the Wisconsin Rural Partners (WRP) among others such as NWBDC who support the effort by offering pro bono professional consulting assistance.

It has been announced that the day’s agenda for the NWBDC-hosted tour with the Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC) on Tuesday, September 24, 2013 will include a radio forum at WXPR 91.7 FM Public Radio Plus in Rhinelander. The forum will be moderated by NWBDC founder Don Sidlowski with PSC Chairman Phil Montgomery and PSC State Broadband Director Dr. Tithi Chattopadhyay serving as panelists. From there, the delegation from Madison travels to Three Lakes for a forum being held at the Three Lakes Center for the Arts auditorium, starting at 2:00 pm. Expected to be in attendance from an eight-county area are state, county and local elected officials joined by members of county and regional economic development corporations, chambers of commerce, visitor bureaus, civic organizations, owners and executives from local area businesses, representatives of the telecommunications provider community, the media and the general public.

NWBDC Founder Don Sidlowski reports that on the same day two separate resolutions in support of broadband expansion and adoption passed. In similar actions on Tuesday August 20, the Oneida County Board of Supervisors and the Common Council of the City of Rhinelander approved resolutions respectively stating that “Oneida County will be home to the best broadband opportunities of any rural county in Wisconsin as measured by speed, adoption rate of its citizens, and data capacity” and “that the City of Rhinelander will pursue the best possible broadband availability in terms of speed, adoption rate by citizens, and data capacity”. Sidlowski notes that the passage of such resolutions is consistent with Step 1 of the “Building Community Broadband Capacity” model he authored and which has been published by the University of Wisconsin – Extension. The two key elements of Step 1 are “change and commit” which means the local units of government must first change their mindset to make broadband adoption a priority and then commit funding to the effort. In their resolutions, both the County and the City have appointed the Oneida County Economic Development Corporation (OCEDC) to oversee the effort. In turn, the OCEDC formed a Technology Committee chaired by Sidlowski to carry out the task of identifying projects and bringing the requests for funding back to the County and City.