The E-Vermont Community Broadband Project was the only applicant East of the Mississippi to be awarded federal stimulus money for rural broadband.

This week the project announced both advances of 2010 and the names of 12 rural communities chosen for next year.

E-Vermont doesn’t lay fiber cable; instead, it offers small communities expert help in making the most of existing Internet technology. The 2010 projects included, for 5th graders in Bristol, VT, new computers, training in making podcasts, and better integration of technology into the school curriculum. Other towns are developing public Wi-fi zones and town-wide calendars for better coordination of community events.
 
“Small business owners in West Rutland are getting one-on-one analysis and advice on how to update and grow their e-commerce from the Vermont Small Business Development Center.” Read more about how towns have benefitted from the project here.

Selected for E-Vermont’s broadband project in 2011 are Brighton, Bristol, Canaan, Cambridge, Grand Isle County, Ludlow, Middlesex, Newport, Poultney, Pownal, Sunderland-Arlington-Sandgate, and West Rutland.

• Staci Hupp in the Des Moines Register reports that financial problems in the state could force many small rural schools to close. 

The state had hoped small districts would merge or close on their own. Mergers are happening. But, also, some school districts are still spending beyond their revenues. That may lead to more closures forced by the state. 

• Wind turbines could be good for agriculture. David Elbert at the Des Moines Register writes:

"Gene Takle, an ISU professor of geological and atmospheric science, said it appears turbines may help crops grow healthier and faster by moderating ground level temperatures, blowing away fungi-producing moisture and churning the air to expose plants to more growth-promoting carbon dioxide." 

We want to add to our list of state fair oddities. Remember, last week we saw the story of the Krispy Kreme bacon/cheeseburger -- a burger inside a "bun" of two KK doughnuts. Today, we have the sad case of Bobo.

Lots of state fairs have characters who greet fairgoers. Kentucky's giant Freddy Farm Bureau would "talk" to kids as they came into the fairgrounds. Texas has, of course, Big Tex. Bobo the clown greets people coming into the Iowa fair, daring them to pay $3 to try to dunk him by pitching baseballs at a target. Bobo's schtick was to make fun of fairgoers, taunt them and then release a loud cackle.

Unfortunately, Bobo this year got carried away. "Fairgoers complained that Bobo, or his equally abusive alter-ego, Snaps the Clown, had resorted to racial slurs, using the N-word in reference to a black child and directing epithets at a Hispanic family," reports Clark Kauffman in the Des Moines Register. Bobo denied it all, but fair officials have relieved the clown of his duties. 

• The Austin (TX) American-Statesman has a great story about J.W. Breeden, a 24-year-old kid from Smithville who has started a broadband business in small towns in Central Texas. His LiveAir Networks provides wireless broadband to three towns and a good bit of acreage in between from microwave transmitters attached mostly to water towers. So far, Breeden has invested just under $1 million in his fast-expanding business.

Does Breeden feel limited by his rural surroundings? No way. "The world is rural," he said. "I can go anywhere the business demand is, and I can expand for a lower cost per mile."

This is also the story of the smart kid who came home. He started forming his business idea as a DECA student at Smithville High School. He began building it out while a student at the University of Texas. He graduated and kept right on working on LiveAir from a spare room in his parents' house outside of Smithville. "He has no desire to go big city," said Stewart Burns, his high school DECA teacher. "He feels he can sit in his home and run the world." 

In a speech yesterday in Seattle, Federal Communications Commission Chair Jules Genachowski said that the Universal Fund was "broken." “As the math of the overall Universal Service Fund gets worse each year, the importance of broadband to rural America gets greater,” Genachowski said. “There is a clear need to reform USF – not to end it, but to reorient USF to directly support broadband all over America." 

Genachowski's speech mentions "rural" dozens of times: "Roughly 50 million Americans live in rural areas of the country. If we want the United States to be the world's leading market for the innovative new products and services that drive economic growth and job creation, we need rural Americans to be full participants in our economy. America needs a vibrant rural economy."

The speech is filled with examples of how rural communities are using broadband. Oil and gas companies are managing their networks using broadband, Genachowski said. Farmers are managing their irrigation systems. Ranchers are selling cattle on online auctions. 

Unfortunately, "Only half of rural Americans have adopted broadband, compared to a 65% adoption rate for the nation. We estimate that broadband with actual speeds of at least 4 megabits per second downstream isn't available at all in more than one out of three U.S. counties - almost all of them rural."

Genachowski said the Universal Fund must be revamped so that it can be used to extend broadband.

Broadband news from this morning includes an article in the Boston Globe about a $45.4 million grant of federal stimulus money to help pay for a $71.6 million fiber-optic "backbone" in Western Massachusetts. The cable will serve 123 municipalities and cover 1,000 miles. 

However, the project won't connect to individual homes. "The region’s approximately 333,000 homes and 44,000 businesses won’t get access immediately, however," according to Globe writer Hiawatha Bray. "The state is counting on private Internet companies to plug into the backbone and to begin selling network services to private citizens."

“This was always meant to be a public and private partnership,’’ said a state broadband official. “The stimulus money and state money don’t pay for the entire process, but it catalyzes the investment.’’

Meanwhile, in Texas, Stop The Cap! can't quite believe the maps produced for the state showing that 97% of Texans already have broadband access, which is "quite a revelation to the scores of consumers who aren't served by cable companies and cannot get DSL service from the phone company, even if the Broadband Map of Texas says they can." 

The map was produced by Connected Texas, a subsidiary of Connected Nation, which has come under criticism for being overly fond of cable and telephone companies. 

Stop the Cap! argues that allowing existing cable and phone companies to draw the maps showing where broadband is needed will allow those incumbent firms to skew the debate over the spending of federal stimulus funds. 

"In smaller communities in rural Texas, efforts by local entrepreneurs to launch needed local broadband services often meet fierce opposition from incumbent interests who declare communities already served, backed up with a map that shows coverage, and therefore should not be allowed to receive stimulus funding," Stop the Cap! writes.  "Often, objections from existing providers effectively disqualifies stimulus applicants and the result is a continued blockade for rural broadband."