The Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities is presenting the 2014 IAMU Broadband Conference on March 26 - 27. The event will be held at the Ramada Tropics and Resort Center in downtown Des Moines. (Psst! Take your swimsuit - there is a water park in the Resort Center!)

Christopher Mitchell will be presenting on March 26 along with Craig Settles at 10:15 a.m. Central. The discussion will focus on economic impacts of broadband. Check out the schedule to see the broad range of topics, speakers, and vendors.

You can register online or contact Curtis Dean at IAMU for more info on the event.

The 2014 Broadband Communities Summit is scheduled for April 8 - 10 in Austin, Texas.

Chris Mitchell will be speaking at 3 p.m. on April 8 during the Economic Development Program as part of the talk titled "Economic Development: The Killer App." Chris will be back on April 10th to speak during the Rural TeleCon segment. He will present information on the state of broadband in regions that continue to struggle with connectivity. The "Envisioning a Future for Broadband Deployment" panel from 11:00 a.m. - 12:20 p.m. CST.

Other panel discussions in the Rural TeleCon segment will be:

• The Bandwidth of the States: Where They Stand in 2014 (a quick review of broadband in all 50 states as stimulus projects roll out)
• Financing Future Bandwidth
• Disruptive Technology Is Spurring Learning In the Classroom
• Measuring Prosperity from Rural Broadband Utilization
• Cool Things Rural Communities Are Doing With Broadband

You can view the entire summit agenda online, review details about free workshops, and plan your trip. You can also register online for the event, to be held at the Renaissance Hotel in Austin.

On Friday, February 21, 2014, Christopher Mitchell will be speaking in Stockholm at the Stockholm Waterfront Congress Center. The event, titled Fibre: The key to creating world-class IT regions, will begin at 8:30 a.m. in Sweden (1:30 a.m. CST for viewers in the U.S.) and will be livestreamed.

Chris will be providing an update on fiber efforts in the U.S. He will join a distinguished line-up of speakers including Benoit Felton. Felton joined us for Broadband [no-glossary]Bits[/no-glossary] podast episode 21 to talk about his work in Stokab.

From the announcement:

The 21st century has presented a major shift into the digital age and enabled us to make fundamental progress in areas such as connectivity and sustainability. Access to the digital age is to a great extent made possible thanks to high-speed connectivity through fibre infrastructure.

Experience and international rankings show that fibre roll-outs and open networks are crucial in order to fully exploit the possibilities a connected society offers – stronger regional development, increased growth and sustainability. We can also see that when public and private sectors cooperate competitive, affordable and sustainable infrastructures have been accomplished.

Mark your calendar to attend Boarder to Boarder Broadband: A Call to Action on February 4 - 5 in St. Paul, Minnesota. The event is sponsored by the Blandin Foundation and a long list of organizations concerned with connectivity, economic development, and education ni Minnesota.

ILSR's Chris Mitchell will be presenting on February 5 as part of 9:15 CST Breakout Session, Broadband Infrastructure Development. Other Breakout Sessions are Digital Inclusion, Business and Economic Development, and Applications. A detailed agenda and speakers list is available [PDF].

A description of the conference from the registration page:

The time is ripe for Minnesota legislators and residents to have a “So what? Now What?” conversation about our shared aspirations for Border to Border Broadband:

• The Governor’s Broadband Task Force is issuing their 2013 report and recommendations soon.
• The director of the Office of Broadband Development will be in place in January 2014
• Minnesota state legislators have been touring rural areas to hear directly from Minnesotans about their technology needs and dreams.

Conversations have been happening but…What does it all add up to?

The event will be at the RiverCenter in downtown St. Paul. Attendee tickets are $120 ($60 per day) and Exhibitors pay $300 or $60 if your organization is a nonprofit. You can secure your ticket by registering online. See you there!

On December 19, 2013, TechFreedom is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Kingsbury Commitment with lunch and policy analysis. The event will include a luncheon keynote address by FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai followed by a panel of policy leaders moderated by TechFreedom President Berin Szoka.  

The panel:

• Harold Feld, Public Knowledge
• Rob Atkinson, Information Technology & Innovation Foundation
• Hance Haney, Discovery Institute
• Jeff Eisenach, American Enterprise Institute
• Fred Campbell, Former FCC Commissioner

From the announcement:

Join TechFreedom on Thursday, December 19, the 100th anniversary of the Kingsbury Commitment, AT&T’s negotiated settlement of antitrust charges brought by the Department of Justice that gave AT&T a legal monopoly in most of the U.S. in exchange for a commitment to provide universal service.

The Commitment is hailed by many not just as a milestone in the public interest but as the bedrock of U.S. communications policy. Others see the settlement as the cynical exploitation of lofty rhetoric to establish a tightly regulated monopoly — and the beginning of decades of cozy regulatory capture that stifled competition and strangled innovation.

So which was it? More importantly, what can we learn from the seventy year period before the 1984 break-up of AT&T, and the last three decades of efforts to unleash competition? With fewer than a third of Americans relying on traditional telephony and Internet-based competitors increasingly driving competition, what does universal service mean in the digital era? As Congress contemplates overhauling the Communications Act, how can policymakers promote universal service through competition, by promoting innovation and investment? What should a new Kingsbury Commitment look like?

Earlier this month we alerted you to Alex Marshall's upcoming appearance at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs. We want to remind all of you "policy wonks, economists and planners of all types" that the event is quickly approaching.

If you haven't already, you can register for the event scheduled for 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. on Thursday, October 24. The lecture will be held at the Freeman Commons at the Humphrey on the U's West Bank.

Marshall recently released The Surprising Design of Market Economies. From an interview and in the Atlantic Cities:

The Surprising Design of Market Economies debunks the notion that free markets are "natural." Indeed, Marshall explains, market economies are about as natural as the "completely human-made and -maintained" Prospect Park near his Brooklyn apartment.

"City leaders didn’t just leave nature as is," he writes. "They constructed it." The same is true for market economies, Marshall explained…

For more of Marshall's writings and appearances, visit his website. 

In a thesis that has implications for policy wonks, economists and planners of all types, Marshall shows how government creates the essential institutions necessary for economic life, and how the typical debate between those who value the market and those who value government regulation is a false one. Marshall, a Senior Fellow at the Regional Plan Association in New York, is the author of two other books on urban planning, and is a former newspaper reporter. He was also a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University. His work has been published in many places, including The New York Times Magazine, Bloomberg View and The Washington Post.

The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition (SHLB) will present a webcast via BroadbandUS.TV tomorrow, October 1. The event focuses on broadband in schools and libraries. The webcast, titled The Importance of High-Capacity Bandwidth for Schools and Libraries runs from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET. 

Presenters from schools, libraries, vendors, and broadband coalitions will address some of the issues most pressing for schools and libraries. The discussions provide a special emphasis on E-rate as the FCC reviews the program during the current Notice of Proposed Rule Making [PDF]:

Panel #1: How Can the E-rate Program Support High Capacity Broadband?

Panel #2: Wireless and Internal Connections; What Options Are Available to Bring Broadband into the Classroom and Out to the Community?

Panel #3: How can the E-rate Program be Strengthened for the Long-Term?

In addition to panel discussion, Tom Power, Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Telecommunications, Office of Science and Technology, Executive Office of the President, will speak.

Register here for the event. (There is a charge to attend whether in person or by stream.)

In November 2012, Broadband Communities Magazine hosted the first of its Economic Development Conference Series in Danville, Virginia. The second conference, scheduled for November 5-7, 2013, will bring another group of leaders together in Tinley Park, Illinois, just outside of Chicago.

This year, the conference will focus on the Midwest with discussions about Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

As usual, our own Christopher Mitchell will speak there and will be generally available to discuss community owned networks with those who attend.

From the announcement:

We are assembling an outstanding multi-disciplinary roster of national, regional, and local experts who have extensive experience in using advanced communications capabilities to foster economic development and create jobs. We will examine what is working well, what is not, and what lies ahead, particularly as federal stimulus funding ends.

Our speakers will provide attendees a wealth of economic research, case histories, how-to materials, and other practical information that they can use effectively in their communities. We will address the latest "hot" topics, including Google Fiber, FirstNet, the Connect America Fund, the FCC's new Health Care Connect Fund, emphasizing their potential to foster economic development and job creation. We will also provide ample time for networking and learning about relevant cutting-edge products and services.

The leadership panel includes: