Does the Internet show rural ‘communities’ are getting larger?

Three rural Minnesota broadband projects to watch were on display Thursday at a forum at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute.

Proponents of building fiber optic networks in Lake, Cook and Sibley counties talked about the ups and downs, the millions of dollars on the line, the growing sense of imperative on the part of residents and businesses alike.

We've covered the three projects before here at Ground Level, and you can find a great rundown of Thursday's session by Ann Treacy at the Blandin on Broadband site, so I don't feel the need to re-do her efforts here.

But I was struck particularly by something that Bill Coleman, consultant to Blandin's federal stimulus project to create a "culture of use" in Minnesota, said at the end of the forum.

"People are seeing the need to address this county-wide, not just in the city," Coleman said.

Not only are these three projects among the most ambitious broadband efforts in Minnesota, other counties are exploring similar ideas. Coleman mentioned Pine, Kanabec and Todd counties, and I know Redwood County is also having conversations. Lac qui Parle County is in a partnership with Farmers Mutual, the local telephone cooperative.

It seems to me this might say something about sense of community in outstate Minnesota. The Sibley County project started with Winthrop, a town of 1,300, but then grew to include other cities in the area and finally the whole county, including farms.

The community-based broadband projects that have gotten most attention in the past are those in the cities of Monticello and Windom. But note that Windom is now expanding its fiber to a half dozen neighboring towns as well.

I'd be eager to hear whether people think this tendency is "simply" economic -- a bigger subscriber base makes a better funding model -- or whether rural Minnesotans are seeing their communities differently.

It's interesting to contemplate that, particularly when it comes to the Internet, we live in larger communities than we used to.

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