{"id":657989,"date":"2013-05-13T18:22:27","date_gmt":"2013-05-13T22:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blandinonbroadband.org\/?p=8587"},"modified":"2013-05-13T18:22:27","modified_gmt":"2013-05-13T22:22:27","slug":"minnesotans-believe-improved-technology-could-assist-with-job-retention-and-creation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/657989","title":{"rendered":"Minnesotans believe improved technology could assist with job retention and creation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week the Blandin Foundation<\/a> released the 2013 Rural Pulse<\/a>, a research study that has been commissioned by the Blandin Foundation since 1998 to gain a real-time snapshot of the concerns, perceptions and priorities of rural Minnesota residents. It\u2019s always good for gauging trends and attitudes in Minnesota, especially rural Minnesota. I am always most interested in where and how technology comes up in the discussion.<\/p>\n

A highlighted concern in the report is the economy\u2026<\/p>\n

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The Economic Lens: Concern about jobs continues.<\/b><\/p>\n

While 22 percent of rural residents feel their local economy has improved over the last year, more than half believe it has stayed the same and 20 percent indicate that it has worsened. Urban Minnesota residents are nearly twice as likely <\/i>to feel their local economy has seen improvement over the past year.<\/p>\n

The need for attracting new, high-quality jobs continues to be the top priority for 36 percent of rural Minnesotans \u2013 more than twice <\/i>as important as education. Urban dwellers also consider attracting new, high-quality jobs (28%) and educational opportunities (21%) to be top priorities.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Technology was suggested as a tool to help improve the economy\u2026<\/p>\n

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Most rural and urban residents believe improved technology could assist with job retention and creation, and feel their local area works together to maintain and grow job opportunities.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The sentiment is not unfounded; the National Ag and Rural Development Policy Center<\/a> made that connection in a report released in March.<\/p>\n

The survey also indicates that rural residents feel that the local community is meeting the technology needs\u2026<\/p>\n

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Quality of Life: Rural Minnesotans believe their community is addressing most local needs.<\/b><\/p>\n

Most rural residents (87%) believe that their community offers equal access to essential services.<\/p>\n

Rural residents give their community relatively good grades for addressing environmental stewardship, crime control, services for the elderly, education, improving access to technology and residential housing.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Taking great liberties in reading between the lines here, it seems that the perception is that the rural areas are addressing residential technology needs \u2013 and while I\u2019m taking liberties, I\u2019m going to change that to broadband. (Really how useful is technology without broadband these days?) However, the perception also is that rural areas are not addressing the broadband needs of businesses.<\/p>\n

There are notable exceptions<\/a> but from meetings I\u2019ve attended<\/a> it seems that again these observation may not be unfounded. Some of the larger providers are sticking with DSL-type speeds, which are more apt to meet household needs (unless you have a houseful of teens!) than business needs. The frustration is twofold: many businesses are hesitant to move to areas with slower speeds and it is more difficult to start or maintain a business<\/a> with slower speeds.<\/p>\n

The report helps make the case that broadband is important to local businesses and residents.\u00a0For local leaders looking at broadband, I think knowing the concern for jobs and belief that technology can help\u00a0can help hone messages to promote local broadband investment.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week the Blandin Foundation released the 2013 Rural Pulse, a research study that has been commissioned by the Blandin Foundation since 1998 to gain a real-time snapshot of the concerns, perceptions and priorities of rural Minnesota residents. It\u2019s always good for gauging trends and attitudes in Minnesota, especially rural Minnesota. I am always most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-657989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657989\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}