Print Version 

Welcome to Connecting Rural Communities

A guide to community information technology

Connecting Rural Communities is a guide to enhancing the use and adoption of information technology tools and infrastructure in rural communities.

Cooperative extension educators and community leaders can use this guide to:

• Help communities understand what connected communities are and their potential
• Conduct community capital and technology assessments
• Engage the community in a visioning process to identify goals for the adoption and use of technology
• Design projects that help the community reach their goals
• Facilitate the implementation of the community projects
• Help communities document their progress and tell their story

The Guide

Getting Started

What are Connected Communities?

Connected Communities have high-speed Internet infrastructure and community members who have the skills and knowledge to use the Internet effectively. These communities understand the economic and social benefits that are possible as a result of being digitally connected.

Connected Communities seek these benefits in different ways. Some want to use digital technologies to enhance their local workforce or attract new workers, tourists or businesses. Others look to the future and seek to provide an environment where their youth will want to return to live and work. Other communities seek to use digital technologies as a way to help build community within their community, using it as a way to help individuals with like interests find and associate with each other.

Broadband service has become a necessary infrastructure for economic and community development in the 21st Century global economy. The availability of affordable broadband services in a community does not ensure the community is truly connected. Connectivity also depends on the ability of organizations and individuals in the community to use the Internet and digital tools (computers, video teleconferencing, etc.) to meet their goals. Leaders in connected communities undertake projects that focus on developing all three components of connectedness:

• Broadband infrastructure
• Adoption and use of digital tools by residents
• Adoption and use of digital tools by organizations

Connected communities are proactive. They are not sitting back ignoring digital opportunities or waiting for the opportunities to come to them. They organize themselves, carefully consider their future, and go after it.

An Example of a Connected Community

One of the most commonly cited examples of a connected community is the Blacksburg Electronic Village (BEV) in Montgomery County, Virginia. Blacksburg Electronic Village began in the early 1990s as a partnership of the Town of Blacksburg, Virginia Tech, Bell Atlantic, and interested members of the community. BEV opened for business in 1993 using the Internet services available at that time: mainly email and gopher. In 1994, BEV put up its first webpage. Today the BEV is an online community center serving the needs of a diverse population.

In 2001, Blacksburg Electronic Village partnered with Virginia Cooperative Extension to help other rural communities in Virginia establish their own community networks with "BEV in a Box."

How to Become a Connected Community

The process of becoming a connected community can take a few months or a number of years. It all depends on what the community leaders want to accomplish. A community that already has a fairly strong broadband infrastructure may spend just a few months educating community members about using the Internet. A community with no broadband connection may need years to design, fund and deploy a high-speed network before moving on to other goals.

No matter the size of the project a community undertakes, the process is the same: Learn, Assess, Vision, Design, Implement, Evaluate.

The Guide

Find a Team

Most Connecting Rural Communities projects start with an individual or a small group of individuals who realize how important broadband services and the use of digital technologies are to their community's economic and social well-being.

Start With A Shared Interest

Find a small core team of community members to help you start this process. They should represent:

• Government
• Public safety services: police, fire, and EMTs
• Citizens
• Health Providers & Services
• Youth groups
• Education: K-12 to College, both public and private
• Businesses: large and small
• Work at home moms and dads
• Nonprofits
• Economic Development
• Telephone Companies, Cable Companies, Electrical Utilities, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and other existing or potential broadband vendors
• Anyone with a interest in the project

Be inclusive; everyone has a stake in creating a connected Community.

Invite people to join you to learn about broadband and consider how your community can take advantage of it.

The Leadership Team

A leadership team will make or break a connecting rural communities project. Whether you are only going to work on a few small projects or undertake a multi-year initiative to build digital capacity across the community, you need to recruit and organize a leadership team to energize and guide the project from start to finish.

Connecting Rural Communities Project Champion

Most successful connecting communities projects will have one or two individuals who acts as project champions. The champion should understand how digital technologies can benefit individuals and organizations in the community. The champion needs to be able to communicate these benefits in non-technical terms. The champion will:

• Recruit Leadership Team members.
• Organize Leadership Team meetings.
• Arrange for one-on-one or small group discussions with key community leaders.
• Identify and recruit residents to serve on Connecting Rural Communities project teams.
• Attend meetings of community organizations such as governmental boards, service clubs, non-profits to discuss the Connecting Rural Communities project and its role in moving the community into the Information Age.

Successful champions should be charismatic, have good communication skills, understand the importance of digital technologies for the future of the community and be able to build commitment for the effort among members of community organizations.

Connecting Rural Communities Leadership Team

The leadership team will direct and coordinate the process of identifying potential connecting rural communities projects. The leadership team will be most effective if these individuals understand or are willing to learn about the benefits digital technology will bring to the community's children and families, schools, businesses, government, libraries, and non-profits.

The leadership team should have from 3 to 9 members. Members must strongly believe that information technology is crucial to the future of the community.

The members don't have to be technology experts. The leadership team will be more effective if there is a mix of community experts and technology experts. Community experts are individuals who are influential and know the community power structure. Technology experts include IT directors and staff from community-based organizations including government, business, healthcare, and education.

The members must be willing to learn and work together to bring the community's leadership and resources to focus on helping move the community into the Information Age.

Leadership team members will have to network with the formal (governmental, business, religious and non-profit/foundation) and non-formal (social organizations, service clubs) leaders in the community. Task Force members should represent as many of the following groups as possible.

The Leadership Team Identification Worksheet (PDF) can help you identify potential leadership team members.

The key responsibility of the leadership team is to guide the process of increasing digital development in the community. Because digital development is a process that occurs over time their responsibilities and activities will evolve. The leadership team will likely be directly involved in the initial projects. As the connecting communities project evolves - engaging additional organizations and the number of projects grows - the leadership team will take on other roles including coordinating communication between project teams and facilitating teams through the process. The connecting rural communities process – Learn, Assess, Vision, Design, Implement, Evaluate – will become second nature to leadership team members.

The Guide

Learn About Broadband

Once the Connecting Communities core leadership team is in place, it's time to hold some public informational meetings about connected communities. These meetings will help your community learn what connected communities are all about. You may find additional core team members at these meetings. Let people know about the upcoming visioning meeting you will coordinate.

What is broadband?

Broadband is a term you may be hearing a lot about lately. Broadband is shorthand for any type of high-speed Internet access. The FCC's definition of broadband is any system capable of transmitting data in excess of 200 Kbps upstream and downstream.

Communication systems that operate at a slower speed than broadband are called "narrowband." Usually consumers associate DSL and cable modems with broadband and dial-up services with narrowband.

Access to broadband opens up many possibilities such as voice services, high-speed data services, video services, and interactive information delivery services. These services can change how communities connect to each other, work, process information, and provide services.

Broadband technologies fall into two categories; wired and wireless. Wired technologies include cable, DSL, fiber and broadband over powerline. Wireless technologies include fixed wireless, satellites, wi-fi and wi-max.

Broadband in the USA

Broadband is such an essential part of the telecommunications infrastructure that the President considers it a national priority.

"This country needs a national goal for the spread of broadband technology. We ought to have universal, affordable access for broadband technology by the year 2007, and then we ought to make sure as soon as possible thereafter, consumers have got plenty of choices when it comes to [their] broadband carrier."
— President George W. Bush, March 26, 2004

For most of urban centers and suburban communities, this goal has already been achieved. Unfortunately, broadband deployment in rural America lags behind the rest of the country. Accurate statistics on broadband availability in rural areas are sorely lacking, but there is no doubt that broadband options are more limited and more costly in many rural areas.

According to the Government Accounting Office (GAO) factors influencing broadband deployment include:

• the population in the area;
• the population density in the area;
• the percentage of the population residing in an urban area;
• the per capita income in the area;
• the educational attainment of the population in the area;
• the population teleworking in the area; the age of the population in the area;
• the distance to a metropolitan area with a population of 250,000 or more; and
• whether the state in which the area is located imposed a tax on Internet access in 2005.

Factors influencing broadband adoption include:

• the income of the household;
• the education attainment of the heads of the household;
• the age of the heads of the household;
• the presence of children in the household;
• the racial composition of the household;
• the occupation of the heads of the household;
• the number of people in the household;
• whether the household resides in an urban, suburban, or rural location;
• the number of companies providing broadband service in the area; and
• whether the state in which the household resides imposes a tax on Internet access.

Source: "Telecommunications: Broadband Deployment Is Extensive throughout the United States, but It Is Difficult to Assess the Extent of Deployment Gaps in Rural Areas," GAO-06-426, May 5, 2006

Rural communities need to make broadband access a priority for homes and businesses. The same GAO report found:

We also found that strong leadership within a community can help promote broadband deployment by, for example, enhancing the likely market success of companies' entry into rural markets.

This sounds like a mandate for Connecting Rural Communities projects...

Other Considerations For Comparing Types of Delivery

After determining what types of connections are available it can still be confusing to select a delivery method. Despite the confusing options, acronyms, technical terms, and statistics, the choice simply boils down to two criteria: price and speed. Generally speaking, faster connections correspond with higher bills. Before making any final decision about broadband options, it is important to consider how you or your organization will be using the Internet.

When thinking about delivery methods for Internet it is important to think about available speeds for downloading and uploading. Most services are asymmetrical meaning they offer faster download speeds than upload speeds. This model made sense when most users were heavy downloaders. Those patterns are changing and many users and businesses are demanding higher upload speeds.

From the previous section you saw several comparisons of broadband in terms of price and speed. It is important to realize that definitions of what constitutes broadband differ around the world. In general people in the United States pay more for slower speeds. Following is another way to think about broadband differences.

The above chart comes from the International Telecommunications Union an international organization within the United Nations responsible for coordinating global telecom networks and services. This chart is simply showing which countries have the most broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants as of January 2005. This chart shows that the United States ranks 16^th, a huge decline from being 4^th in 2000. This speaks to the importance of federal polices.

Source: Broadband Bargains 2005

The above chart is also from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). The purpose of this chart is to show that different countries have different expectations for broadband speeds as well as different prices charged per kilobit per second. Japan offers the most megabits for the dollar whereas the United States is lagging not only in broadband penetration but also in available speeds and affordability. In order for the United States to compete in a global economy availability as well as price and speed need to be considered by top policy makers.

The ITU also pointed out that countries that lowered their prices also have higher broadband penetration. The United States could learn from this example and seek to increase broadband availability by offering increased speeds and decreased costs.

Broadband – Expectations Differ

As you can see from these discussions, all broadband is not equal. Not only do we have issues of unequal access within the United States but when considered from a global perspective we can see more inconsistencies. Despite the technology used to deliver service it is clear that different countries define broadband differently.

The Guide

Broadband Technology

There are many different types of broadband technologies, such as cable, DSL, powerline, satellite, and wireless. Each of these implementations can provide similar services to consumers and businesses.

Generally speaking broadband service delivery can be separated into two main categories: wired and wireless. Wired broadband delivers services over some type of wire connected to your home or office. Wireless broadband uses the electromagnetic spectrum and does not require a wire running to your home or office.

Wired Broadband Technologies

Homes and businesses have many different wires or connections for telephone, cable and electricity. For many years these were separate networks and could only deliver one type of service. Telephone lines delivered phone service, cable delivered video service, and electric lines delivered electricity. Today it is technically possible to deliver broadband service and digital content (voice, video, data) using any of these wire connections or "pipes." Your phone company might also be your cable company and vice versa or your electric company might be delivering broadband and phone services. Each of these connections or pipes has pros and cons relative to broadband delivery.

Broadband Over the Telephone Network (DSL)

The telephone network is one of the oldest and most ubiquitous communications infrastructures. Without any upgrades the same network that brought your grandparents a party line can give you access to the Internet through a dial-up modem. The telephone network can also provide broadband service using Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL). DSL is available through the local phone company. Call your local phone company to find out if DSL service is available in your community or neighborhood.

Advantages: A major advantage of DSL service is that it works with existing wiring. The only equipment needed is a modem plugged into an existing phone jack and filters for each telephone in your home or office. Another benefit of DSL service is that each user has a dedicated link and the speed is constant and will not diminish if more people in your neighborhood are also using DSL. DSL provides reliable broadband service for residential and small business customers but is unlikely to be adequate for large businesses.

Disadvantages: A major disadvantage of DSL service is the inability to deliver the service further than 18,000 feet from the central phone office. DSL cannot be delivered to homes or businesses beyond this distance. Another disadvantage is that upload speeds do not match download speeds.

Broadband Over the Cable Network (Cable Modem)

Another pipe running into most homes is the coaxial cable that traditionally provides television programming. According to the National Cable and Telecommunications Association cable passes by 99% of occupied homes in the United States. Most cable companies have upgraded their networks to deliver cable modem broadband service over the same network that delivers video programming.

Advantages: A major benefit of cable modem service is its availability to all customers of cable companies in communities where the cable network has been upgraded to deliver cable modem service.

Disadvantages: An obvious disadvantage of cable modem service for rural communities is the lack of cable service beyond the edges of the larger towns. Another disadvantage is that the connection speed may vary greatly at different times of the day. Residents in neighborhoods where cable modem penetration is high may notice a significant increase in the time it takes to upload and download information in the evening when people return home from work and school. Another disadvantage is that upload speeds never match download speeds.

Cable modem service is adequate for residential service and many small businesses. However, like DSL it is not adequate for large businesses.

Broadband Over the Electric Network (BPL)

Another pipe that goes to every house is from the electric company. It is now possible to deliver broadband service through a technology called Broadband over Powerline or BPL. BPL is a relatively new entry in the delivery of broadband service. Several electric companies have developed pilot projects to determine the economic feasibility of using BPL to deliver broadband. Technically BPL service allows customers to simply plug a special modem into any outlet in their home to access high speed Internet.

Advantages: BPL can leverage existing powerlines decreasing the cost of installing a new transport infrastructure and the ability to connect a modem to any electric receptacle. BPL also sends and receives data at the same high speed. You can upload mail, video files, and business data as quickly as you can download similar files.

Disadvantages: A major hurdle for BPL in rural areas is the cost of equipping the powerlines to carry the broadband signal. Financial analysis of several pilot projects determined that there would need to be between 4 and 6 homes/per transformer to deliver broadband service a prices equivalent to DSL or Cable Modem service.

Recommended Resource: CURRENT Communications Services has an excellent online video about Broadband over Powerline.

Fiber to the Home (FTTH)

Fiber optic cable is another type of wired broadband delivery technology. Fiber optic cables carry digital information in the form of light pulses and are capable of delivering very high levels of broadband. The Internet backbone runs across the world on fiber optic cable.

There are many acronyms associated with fiber cable build outs. Below is a brief list of the common fiber acronyms you may encounter.

• FTTH – Fiber to the Home, also know as FTTP – Fiber to the premise
• FTTN – Fiber to the neighborhood
• FTTC – Fiber to the curb
• FTTx – Fiber to everyplace

Fiber to the home networks connect a fiber optic strand the diameter of a hair to each home or business. The high bandwidth available through fiber technology enables delivery of the Triple Play (voice, video and data) over the same network infrastructure.

The number of fiber to the home networks is growing. Several large telephone companies are in the process of building fiber to the home networks to deliver video services in addition to voice and data services. Most new fiber to the home connections are located in suburbs and new developments where companies get enough subscribers to pay for the network deployment or government supported projects such as UTOPIA in Utah that involves several cities.

Advantages: Fiber optic cable can deliver more bandwidth than other broadband technologies at a lower cost of maintenance.

Disadvantages: The cost of installing and lighting the fiber cable.

Examples: Buffalo, Minnesota and Columbus, Kansas. In addition to fiber to the home projects several rural communities and counties such as Pickens County, Georgia are building "fiber rings" to improve the availability and affordability of broadband services to businesses and residents.

Wireless Broadband

As the name implies, wireless broadband delivers broadband service without using wires to connect to a home or businesses. Wireless broadband is delivered over radio frequencies through transmitters and receivers. Wireless broadband can be categorized into two basic categories: satellite and wireless networks.

Satellite Broadband Service

Satellite Internet service is provided through the same small dishes used to deliver video services, such as DirecTV and Dish Network. Users send and receive information to the Internet via a satellite dish to a receiver on a satellite in space. The satellite retransmits the signal to and from the network operation center that is connected to the Internet. Satellite broadband service is available to nearly any location in the United States that has a clear view of the southern sky.

Advantages: Ubiquity! A major advantage of satellite broadband is its ability to deliver service to any location in the United States with a clear view of the southern sky.

Disadvantages: Satellite broadband offers lower broadband connection speeds than typical DSL, Cable modem and terrestrial wireless broadband services. Upload speeds are also relatively slow on most systems. Satellite broadband costs more to install and monthly fees are usually higher than wired broadband.

Recommended Resource: Satellite Signals provides links to satellite Internet providers serving the United States. Information available through this site includes installation costs, broadband service levels and broadband Internet service costs for satellite Internet service.

Broadband Over Wireless Networks

There are two basic types of wireless networks. The first is a small wireless local area network, commonly known as a Wi-Fi Hotspot. These networks are designed for indoor use with a broadcast range of several hundred feet and include both public and private networks. Hotspots are often deployed by businesses to provide broadband access to their employees. Hotspots are also found in many retail environments such as coffee shops to provide service for customers who use built-in wireless cards in their computer to connect to the Internet.

The second type of wireless network is a Wireless ISP (Internet Service Provider). This type of network is designed to serve very large coverage areas using a point-to-multipoint network topology and broadcasts wireless data up to 20-miles. Unlike Wi-Fi networks where the customer uses their own Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) antenna, a Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP) broadcasts a signal from a base station and the signal is received by a fixed wireless antenna mounted on the customer's premises. Most WISP systems are based on proprietary systems that do not allow roaming.

In between a Wi-Fi Hotspot and a WISP, there is a hybrid version of the first two systems, which is called a Neighborhood Internet Service Provider (NISP) or Wi-Fi Hotzones. Wi-Fi Hotzones use a group of access points to cover a large outdoor environment such as a neighborhood, marina, shopping mall or campground.

What advantages are provided by wireless broadband?

Wireless networks can cover wide geographic areas efficiently, providing the first available broadband service, or a competitive service, into many communities. Networks of varying sizes can be deployed in places where it would be prohibitively expensive to run wires. The lower cost of deploying wireless networks is enabling rural communities and the private sector to build out wireless broadband. Because trenches do not have to be dug, there may be less overall disruption and visual impact to communities. Wireless also has opportunities for mobile uses that other technologies do not.

Examples: Many communities such as Stevenson, Washington are also deploying hotspots in downtowns to serve tourists.

Recommended Resource: Broadband Wireless Exchange.

The Guide

Broadband Applications

Applications For Broadband – I'm connected, now what?

Infrastructure and geography will be very different for every community. Different infrastructure technologies will work better in some areas than others. Regardless of what broadband technologies are available in your community or what infrastructure projects your community may decide to undertake, the applications made available by broadband service will benefit all citizens.

Common Broadband Uses

• Send / receive large files including software updates
• Participate in multiplayer network games
• Work from home, a local coffee shop, or on the road
• Share an internet connection
• Research at lightning speeds
• Make free phone calls to anywhere in the world (voice-over-IP)
• Access video-on-demand
• Use Interactive TV
• Create and share content
• Store backup files online

Applications that Require Broadband

Many of today's applications require broadband to work properly. The table below shows the minimum and ideal speeds necessary for some of the more popular applications. (From the Canada Broadband Task Force)

Of the applications on this list only online gaming, shopping, banking, and reading electronic newspapers are even possible using dial-up Internet connections.

Commercial Broadband Applications

Telemedicine enables health care professionals and patients to take advantage of digital communications to save money, time, and travel and most importantly, improve the quality of care. The range of telemedicine applications includes:

• Simple and relatively easy to implement applications like patient ordering medications or scheduling appointments online.
• Remote reading and monitoring of data generated by devices implanted in patients.
• Advanced applications such as a remote, rural health care clinic being able to send test or lab results to a larger health care facility for instant readings and diagnosis.
• Using video conferencing for a doctor in a distant location seeing the patient and making a diagnosis.
• Using video conferencing for doctor-to-doctor consultations or continuing education.

Telemedicine can improve the quality of health care and lower health care costs in rural communities. Other telemedicine applications using monitoring and surveillance equipment can be used to safely allow older adults to remain in their homes instead of being placed in a long-term care facility.

Example: The Alaska Tribal Health System (ATHS) wide area network (WAN) is a state-of-the-art, secure telehealth network designed to meet the telehealth needs of the Alaska Tribal Health System organizations in all areas of Alaska.

Resources:

• Telemedicine Information Exchange
• American Telemedicine Association

Teleworking or telecommuting is working from home or outside the traditional office or workplace using a digital device and an Internet connection. Telework benefits employers who see savings in office overhead costs as well as increased productivity and motivation of their employees. It also allows business to continue running when events such as a major snowstorms close roads and keep employees at home. Employees benefit from teleworking by saving time and costs for commuting. It also offers flexibility for those who also care for older parents or younger children.

Telecommuting can be a boon to rural and small communities that offer a high quality of life but few high paying jobs. Fast and affordable broadband connections allow people the flexibility to live and work where they want.

For more information about the economic and social benefits of telecommuting for both workers and employers refer to FAQ: What are the benefits of Telework - Telecommuting.

Resource:

• The Telework Coalition

E-Government refers to the increasing push for government at all levels to make more services available online. Local governments use e-Government to deliver services and information to their residents and customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They can also save considerable expenses and make processing paperwork and documents more efficient. Citizens like e-Government services because they go online instead to get the information and services they need of standing in line.

Resources:

• University of Minnesota Extension's Access eGovernment educational program
• Making a Case for Local E-Government (PDF), University at Albany's Center for Technology in Government

Agriculture: One of the biggest benefits broadband offers to agriculture is to connect buyers and sellers. Connectivity allows farmers to keep up-to-date on prices and find buyers for their commodities. Once farms are connected a world of additional possibilities opens up such as allowing farmers to telecommute and earn additional income, distance education also allows for improvements in crop planning and pest management. Tele-veterinary services and virtual livestock auctions also become possible with broadband. Wheatland Broadband is a wireless Internet service provider in Kansas that offers special services to farmers and other agricultural customers.

Distance Learning enables students of all ages and from any geographic location to take advantage of educational opportunities in schools, universities and other educational institutions. The United States Distance Learning Association is a non-profit organization with many resources available.

Public Safety: Broadband networks can assist police, fire and other law enforcement personnel in many crisis situations. Some applications include:

• Large streams of data can be transferred securely and quickly.
• On-site personnel can upload information to coordinators.
• Internet voice communications (VoIP) can supplement or replace disrupted landline phones.
• Video conferencing can save travel time and decrease response time.
• Video surveillance can be used to monitor almost any location: borders, airports, ports, train stations, crisis scenes and work places.

One example of how broadband communications plays a role in public safety was demonstrated after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf coast in August 2005. Long before landline phones, cable, cellular phones and other emergency communications services were back in operation, wireless broadband networks were being used to provide phone and Internet services to public safety officials and relief workers.

Resources:

• Project MESA - an international partnership using mobile broadband for public safety
• Wi-Fi Policing Comes to Georgia
• Wireless networks give voice to evacuees
• Hurricane Katrina

National Security: Using broadband technologies for national security offers benefits similar to the public safety benefits mentioned above. To understand the importance and necessity of a national security broadband network we only need to recall memories of September 11, 2001 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Broadband can be used by national, state and local authorities for surveillance, videoconferencing, data mining, pattern matching and other applications to assist law enforcement and medical services. The Multi-Sector Crisis Management Consortium (MSCMC) was formed in 2000 to advance the research, development, knowledge, and application of information technology (IT) in emergency situations and to meet the needs of the crisis mitigation, response, and consequence management communities.

Applications For Persons With Disabilities: A 2002 report titled Broadband and Americans with Disabilities (PDF) details the many ways broadband benefits those with disabilities.

"Broadband makes possible remote interpreting, which greatly enhances the quality of life for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. It also supports peer-to-peer signing, a revolutionary development that for the first time allows people who are both deaf and limited in reading and writing to engage in meaningful and rewarding communication at a distance."

This study repeatedly mentions how the Internet can erase disabilities in the eyes of others. Communicating online or virtually allows people to explore ideas, thoughts and relationships without being labeled as handicapped. Broadband communications also help people with disabilities feel less isolated. Rather than feeling as though they are trapped at home or maybe a hospital, people with disabilities can be brought together with others and explore options of distance learning or telecommuting.

Utility Applications: Broadband provides two main benefits for utilities. First, broadband enables utility companies to use applications for load monitoring and balancing, electric network management, automatic meter reading, automatic outage reporting, automatic tampering and theft avoidance reporting. SCADA refers to supervisory control and data acquisition that reports information at the customer or meter level. Second, utility companies already own and have access to rights of ways and in some rural areas they are the only infrastructure that has full coverage of the community. These companies could be a realistic solution to providing broadband services via Broadband over Power Line (BPL).

Small Business Assistance: Many small businesses are using broadband to thrive in the global economy. Common uses of broadband include communications with customers and suppliers, sharing information, expanding their customer base beyond one geographic area by selling online and saving time finding suppliers, advertising, etc. University of Minnesota's Access eCommerce guide is a good resource for learning how small businesses are using broadband to improve their bottom line.

Information Gathering: More and more people are using the Internet to gather information for anything from medical information to job searching and news and information and shopping. A Pew Internet and American Life survey, Counting on the Internet (PDF), found that most Internet users expect to find information online. Americans are using the Internet to get more information or services from government agencies, electronic commerce, news and health care. It is not surprising "google" was added to Webster's dictionary in 2002 as a verb to describe searching for information online.

Tourism: Broadband and community content allow people to find out what is available in tourist destinations and also helps people to see events or exhibits they might otherwise never be able to visit in person. Online travel services allow people to research areas they will be visiting, book reservations, make travel plans or map driving directions. Tourism has become a popular economic development strategy for many rural communities and access to broadband technologies only increases the bottom line for tourist-based businesses. Many travelers are so accustomed to having Internet access in coffee shops, hotels and airports that high-speed access has become a common hotel amenity just like room service or a pool. Some communities like Stevenson, Washington found that having a web portal and making Internet access available to tourists has increased business.

E-Commerce & Entertainment: It is hard to separate the categories of e-commerce and entertainment because many entertainment services purchased online are also considered e-commerce. Many people use the Internet for fun, to play games, gamble, download movies, music, TV shows, books or information and services. As technology advances the applications and opportunities for e-commerce and entertainment expand exponentially. Not only are these services and applications available on home or work computers but increasingly people are getting this content on mobile devices. For example you can download TV shows from the Internet to watch on an iPod, cell phone or other mobile device. The devices are becoming more integrated and one small gadget can be used for phone calls, to surf the web, as a calendar, address book, camera, watch TV, download and listen to music, play games, e-mail and send and receive files.

Resources:

• A National Imperative: Universal Availability of Broadband by 2010 (PDF) TechNet 2020
• Broadband and Americans with Disabilities (PDF)

The Guide

Delivery Models

Bringing affordable broadband to rural communities in America has proven to be a difficult task. Leaders in many rural communities look to their local telephone company (Verizon, AT&T, Alltel, Qwest, etc.) or local cable company to deliver the service. These providers often respond that they have no plans to upgrade their system because of the low population densities or demand for broadband services will not pay for the investment required to deliver the service. With such a high initial investment, private Internet providers are not able to recover their costs in a reasonable time frame.

In short, there is little financial incentive for the large private companies to extend high speed Internet to many rural communities. In many communities local entrepreneurs deploy wireless broadband networks to fulfill the need.

Community leaders faced with the inability to obtain broadband service through the phone or cable company look to two other models, municipal (local government) delivery or public private partnerships to bring the service to the community.

Understanding the business structures and financial models for these three delivery models will provide invaluable insight to individuals interested in identifying and implementing projects in rural communities to increase the availability of affordable broadband service.

Private Sector Broadband Delivery Model

Traditional private sector providers such as telephone and cable companies are profit driven. Private sector providers only make infrastructure investments in communities where there is a reasonable return on investment within a short period of time to support stockholder value. In 2000, the National Exchange Carriers Association estimated that it would cost $10.9 billion to upgrade the 3.3 million rural telephone lines that would not already be capable of carrying broadband by 2002 (Bell et al., 2004). There simply is very little financial incentive for telecommunications or cable companies that deliver services over cables to upgrade or extend their infrastructure in many rural communities.

The incumbent telephone providers also operate as regulated monopolies. These companies face additional requirements to provide universal telephone service and meet other requirements of state and federal laws and regulations. The FCC and state Public Utility Commissions regulate only the video content delivered by cable companies. As of early 2006, the FCC does not regulate broadband and telephone (Voice over IP) services delivered by cable companies.

The challenges associated with improving the rural telecommunications infrastructure have given rise to two alternative delivery models, each of which is designed to overcome some of the problems faced by private providers. These include the municipal model and public/private partnerships.

Municipal Broadband Delivery Model

Municipal governments get involved in the provision of advanced telecommunications services when the private sector fails to deliver or when the cost of service is appreciably higher than in other locations. Local governments attempt to fill the gap by leveraging community resources such as right of ways, infrastructure, and other government property.

Municipal broadband is normally delivered through a municipal utility or authority. The local government builds, owns, and operates the utility to deliver broadband service to customers within the government's or authority's geographical boundary. Municipal utilities can either be operated by a single municipality or by several municipalities on a regional level.

This service delivery model is typically found in large cities or in smaller municipalities that provide electric or telephone service. The municipality owns the customer and the infrastructure and competes directly with the private sector. Anecdotal evidence suggests that municipalities with a history of delivering utility services are more likely to be successful deliverers of advanced telecommunications services, largely because of experience with billing and the organization of delivery departments.

Most broadband municipal authorities operate much like the traditional private sector models with the key difference being that they often have access to other revenue and can justify a longer term return on investment than the private sector. Sources of revenue available for government broadband projects include bonds and grants. Government utilities may also have the luxury of having more time to pay off debts as compared to the private sector. Governments often select wireless options such as fixed wireless or Wi-Fi because the start up costs are much lower than connecting wires to each and every home.

Municipal delivery models face a number of potential obstacles.

Private sector providers consider public sector competition to be unfair. As of early 2006, fourteen states have passed legislation that prohibits or limits public sector delivery of broadband services. The Freepress website provides up-to-date information on current and pending state and national telecommunication policies.

Municipal utilities or authorities also face problems associated with high startup costs and low population density, especially if delivery is limited to a small population within municipal boundaries. In this situation, municipalities, like their private counterparts, find it difficult to amortize the cost of facilities and make the return on investment necessary to sustain and upgrade facilities.

Public-Private Delivery Model

Traditional public-private partnerships are contractual arrangements where the resources, risks and rewards are shared between the public and private sectors to provide greater efficiency, better access to capital, and improved compliance with a range of government regulations regarding the environment and workplace. Through this agreement, the skills and assets of each sector (public and private) are employed to deliver a service or facility for the use of the general public. Public-private partnerships can take a wide variety of forms. Definitions of the various forms of public-private partnerships can be found on the General Accounting Office website.

In addition to sharing resources, each party typically shares in the potential risks and rewards associated with the delivery of the service and/or facility. The public's interests are fully assured through provisions in the contracts that provide for on-going monitoring and oversight of the operation of a service or development of a facility. Examples of telecommunications public private partnerships are found across the country.

The following links provide specific examples for the following states:

• Minnesota: Connecting Minnesota
• Colorado: The Multi-Use Network Service (MNT)
• Oregon Public-Private Partnerships for Telecommunications in Oregon (PDF)

While each of these partnerships involve state or large city governments working with incumbent broadband providers, there are a growing number of projects being implemented in rural areas including the BRAIN project in rural central Pennsylvania, the Regional Fiber Consortium and Fiber South Consortium in west central Oregon Oregon Rural Fiber Network.

Groups including the Yankee Group, In-Stat, Forester and Jupiter are promoting a newer public private partnership model. Under this public private partnership the public sector builds, owns and operates the transport network and provides open access to ISP's, cable providers and other service providers in the private sector. Examples of this type of partnership include:

• UTOPIA in Utah is building an open access fiber optic network in member cities throughout the state and private sector partners are delivering services through this transport network.
  
  
• Rural Allegany County, Maryland delivers transport services to public organizations (government offices, schools, police, fire departments and ambulance services) via a licensed wireless network. Private sector partners use the transport network to deliver services to businesses and consumers.

The Guide

Public Policy

Public policy is "messy" but understanding federal, state and policies and how they interrelate is important to community leaders interested in improving the availability of affordable broadband services in their community. The following information is intended to give you a basic understanding of telecommunication policy in the United States.

Public policies enacted at the federal, state and local levels affect the availability and delivery of broadband services to your community. These policies set the rules and regulations that impact how private businesses (phone companies, cable companies, Wireless Internet Service Providers, etc.) and governments can be involved in increasing the availability of broadband services across the country.

Public Policy Players

Public policy impacting broadband services (telecommunication law) is created at the federal, state and local levels. Federal laws supersede state and local regulations.

Federal Government

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 is the law dealing with broadband infrastructure. This act was created to increase competition in the telecommunication industry and increase the availability of advanced (broadband) telecommunication services. Robert Crandall's "Competition and Chaos: U.S. Telecommunications Since the 1996 Telecom Act" is an excellent resource to understand the impact of the 1996 Telecommunication act on the delivery and availability of broadband services.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is the federal agency that has the most direct impact on broadband policy. This agency writes the rules to enforce the telecommunication act, collects and analyzes data to predict future policy issues surrounding policy issues.

State Government

Many states have created legislation that covers areas not specifically touched on in federal law. Examples of state laws that influence broadband include allowing or prohibiting local government to deliver broadband services, laws dealing with the use of public right of ways for broadband infrastructure and spelling out the rights of local governments to require franchises for delivery of video and broadband services. The FreePress web site tracks broadband policy activities in across the country.

Every state has a public utility commission that regulates the rates and services of utilities. Faced with issues of unequal access and price many local officials are thinking of ways to get their communities connected without waiting for the traditional providers. Efforts to implement municipal broadband delivery have sparked a great deal of state level information policy activity. Some states, such as Pennsylvania, have passed bills that prevent local communities from offering competitive broadband services. The FreePress site maintains a page that tracks policy debates in every state.

Private Sector

The telecommunication industries are very active players in the policy arena. Larger telephone, cable companies and telecommunication equipment companies hire lobbyists to represent their interests to federal and state policy makers and administrations. Some argue that lobbying by special interest groups results in laws that benefit large corporations and do not take the public into consideration. Citizens groups representing the public argue that they cannot afford full-time lobbyists and policy making tends to be influenced more by corporations than by average citizens or small groups. Some lawmakers argue that lobbyists actually help to inform those voting on pending bills about the impact on various segments of society. Lobbyists have been part of politics our political system for more than 200 years and will likely continue. The Center for Public Integrity maintains a Web site that tracks lobbying activities on broadcast, cable and telecommunication industries in each state.

Citizens

Citizens can impact telecommunication policy by staying informed about the issue, contacting their elected representatives, and at the ballot box. Citizens can become involved in the policy process through public interest groups. These groups often claim to be non-partisan but each group has its own agenda and may have a political leaning. The following public interest groups focus on telecommunications and information policy:

• Media Access Project
• Benton Foundation
• New America Foundation
• Aspen Institute
• Heritage Foundation
• American Enterprise Institute
• Brookings Institution
• Free Press

The Guide

Assess What You Have

Assessments are an important part of the Connecting Rural Communities process — use them but don't get stuck in assessment mode for too long.

Before you start calling people to work with you on Connecting Rural Communities projects, it will be helpful to do some assessments to answer as many of the following questions as possible.

• How ready is the community to undertake connecting rural communities projects?
• Who are the formal and non-formal decision makers in the community?
• How widely is information technology used by organizations in the community (public and private)?
• Are there any on-going community projects focusing on the digital divide or information technology (public access through schools or libraries, training, improving access to broadband, etc.)?

Community Capacity Assessments

Engaging community leaders is a critical element of successful Connecting Communities projects. The key is to identify community leaders and technology experts who are willing to work together to increase the diffusion and adoption of digital tools across the community.

A quick assessment of the community's history of working together on issues will help you gauge how the community leaders will come together to develop and implement connecting community projects. The Community Readiness Assessment (PDF) is designed to gauge the level at which community leaders and organizations will collaborate to identify, develop and implement Connecting Communities projects. If your community has a history of not working well together on projects, this project will likely have the same outcome.

Community Benchmarking Assessments

Benchmarking assessment tools provide a snapshot of your community use of the Internet and digital tools. These tools provide information critical to setting goals for your Connected Community and identifying projects that you can implement to reach those goals. The Connecting Communities project champion, leadership team, or a group of community leaders can use the following tools:

• Community Internet Access and Infrastructure Assessment (PDF)
  This quick start assessment tool identifies the types of Internet connections and bandwidth available to the community's residents, businesses and the public sector.
• Community Use of Digital Technology (PDF)
  This tool provides a quick assessment of how individuals, businesses and the public sector are using digital technologies.
• Community Digital Initiatives Inventory
  This tool provides a quick assessment of what digital initiatives are underway or being discussed in the community.

A quick assessment of the technology infrastructure and use of digital technology in your community will give you a starting point before you begin to get goals and identify projects. What connectivity is there? What training is there and how is it being used?

What if you don't know what's available in your community? Ask others — city or county government personnel, colleagues, or community members who might know. Ask the local Internet service providers what they offer locally. If you don't know who the service providers are, look in the yellow pages of the local phone book under "Internet" or search the internet for "internet services providers" in your state.

A Word of Caution

Don't get bogged down with the assessments. The assessment tools in this guide are designed to provide a lot of information but do not require a consultant. Remember that connecting your community is a process and it is more important to get started than have very detailed information. As your Connecting Communities project gathers momentum you will be able to identify the appropriate tools to gather the information you need and conduct more extensive assessments.

The Guide

Design the Future

Many communities may have similar goals and strategies, but each community will have a unique vision of their digital future.

Getting Everyone on the Same Page

The assessment process gives you a clear idea of where your community is now. Getting everyone to understand the value of being a connected community and creating a shared vision and strategies to get there are the next steps.

• Set a date for a community event to learn about being a connected community and decide about becoming one.
• Determine how the community will hear about it. Advertise it. Create a 'community buzz.'
• Be inclusive — every segment of the community should be invited.
• Use the PowerPoint presentations in the Tools section to help show the community what connected communities are and provide examples of how businesses, organizations and individuals can benefit.
• Invite a local or regional expert to help you present this material. This could be someone from a neighboring 'connected community' or a state or local educator or perhaps someone from an Internet Service Provider.

Then, answer the question "Do we want to be a Connected Community?"

Assuming the answer is yes, move on to design solutions or set a date for a next meeting to design the solutions.

Design Solutions for Connecting Your Community

Once your community has decided to become digitally connected, the next step is to select specific ways to get there.

Seeding ideas about specific technology projects will help groups better understand what broadband is, how it is used, and how it can benefit the community. Individuals who see benefits in a technology are more likely to adopt and use it, especially if significant number of other community members are doing so.

Two strategies are suggested for your group use. Use the Card Game or the Community Projects Checklist in the Tools section.

1. The Card Game is a set of cards that have project ideas printed on them. Groups sort and prioritize the cards to come up with a set of project ideas that best lead to their idea of being a connected community. The card game takes a couple of hours to play.
   
   
2. The Community Projects Checklist is a set of statements that groups can decide which ones are true for their community. There are pre-defined projects associated with each statement. The checklist limits the number of project possibilities so groups can move quickly through the selection process; it could take as little as 1 hour.

The outcome of the designing the future meeting should be several doable tasks or projects, each with a team, a designated leader and timeline.

The projects may be in the categories of (1) access and infrastructure, (2) applications and education, or (3) community content.

• Access & Infrastructure: Connected communities make every effort to ensure all residents have access to digital technology tools regardless of social or economic status. This is usually accomplished by providing access to computers, printers, high speed Internet and productivity applications through organizations open to the public. Where is public access to information technology tools available in your community?
• Applications and Education: Education and training on using information technology tools and software is readily available to individuals and organizations in connected communities. What organizations provide basic education and training on using email, word processing, spreadsheets, databases and browsing the WWW in your community?
• Community Content: It is easy to find information about organizations and community life in connected communities. Connected communities may have a community portal that contains information about businesses, schools, social organizations, community events, local government and local issues. Does your community have a web site?

The Guide

Access & Infrastructure

The availability of broadband infrastructure in the United States is growing but rural communities continue to trail suburban and urban areas according to reports from the Federal Communication Commission reports and Pew Internet research.

The barriers to expanding broadband services in rural areas include:

• The high cost of deployment due primarily to the low population density
• Lower return on investment required to deploy broadband infrastructure
• Lower customer demand for broadband services in rural communities versus more densely populated areas

Incumbent telephone companies, cable companies and other private sector broadband providers are often unwilling to upgrade or deploy broadband infrastructure because of these barriers. Even where it exists, broadband service often costs more in rural areas than equivalent service in urban and suburban communities.

Even faced with these barriers many rural community leaders have undertaken a variety of projects to increase the availability of affordable broadband services in their community. You will find brief sketches of several successful community projects in the case study section of this guide.

The strategies available for improving community broadband infrastructure range from:

• Doing nothing and waiting for the private sector to provide service
• Actively working with the local phone or cable company or a private Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP) to deliver the service
• Developing a public private partnership or municipal broadband delivery and many other solutions.

Any of the strategies other than doing nothing will require an investment in time at the minimum. Local leaders will need to mobilize a technology project team to assess the situation, identify the strategy that "fits" the community, develop and implement a plan of action.

The Guide

Applications & Education

Form an Education Committee

Almost every Connecting Communities project can benefit from establishing an Education Committee. Connecting Rural Community teams can develop educational projects that range from news articles or community events to increase awareness about the benefits of broadband service, small group hands-on training on using the Internet and one-on-one sessions for key individuals that will help individuals and organizations understand the benefits broadband services hold for them and improve their ability to use the technology. It is important to note that educational projects focus on how individuals and organizations can use the technology as tools to meet their needs. Programs should be structured to meet individuals where they are in their journey into the Information Age.

Education Committee Tasks

• Conduct an assessment to determine existing Information Technology (IT) training opportunities available in the community. The assessment should include information about the organization providing the training, the skill level necessary to participate in the training and cost. Maintain contact with these organizations as the education plan is developed. A good approach is to provide training that introduces participants to the technology and productivity tools and prepares them for the more advanced training often provided by technical schools and colleges.
• Identify training topics that meet the needs of individuals and organizations. Popular topics that help beginners learn how to use the tools and identify how technology can benefit them include: surfing the Web, email, and website development.
• Identify individuals with IT skills who could volunteer to conduct the training. Be creative. Your volunteer pool should include professional IT workers and professional educators as well as individuals who use the tools in their work or personal life. They may be retired seniors or high school students.
• Coordinate the training schedule with the Community Center facilities.
• Get the word out.

Potential Education Projects

Community Awareness

Community projects provide the opportunity for community leaders to positively influence the community's future economic quality of life. Community awareness programs should be designed to increase awareness in at least three areas:

1. The impact of digital technologies on current and future jobs, education and training opportunities, healthcare, business opportunities and recreation
2. The benefits and opportunities digital technology provides to individuals, businesses and organizations
3. Opportunities for individuals to get involved in Connecting Communities projects

This information can be delivered in many venues including special community-wide meetings, events for key community leaders and presentations at community organization meetings such as service clubs, Chamber of Commerce, senior citizen meetings and local government meetings.

These meetings should include a combination of presentation, show and tell and small group discussion to actively involve the participants as much as possible. In addition to increasing awareness about the opportunities afforded by digital technology, these educational events also provide a way to gather additional project ideas, identify key volunteers who can help with additional projects, obtain valuable information that can be used to move projects along more rapidly, and identify situations or individuals who may slow down the connecting communities initiative.

Productivity Tool Training

Computers, the Internet, and productivity software provide a wealth of opportunities to increase business and government productivity, expand markets for products and services, gather and process information and help individuals learn new skills or improve on existing skills. Unfortunately, a significant portion of the population in most communities either doesn't have access to these tools or doesn't know how they can benefit from them.

Connecting Communities projects can be implemented to provide training on the use of computers, access the Internet and productivity software (browsers, word processing, spreadsheets, Web site development software, presentation software, etc.) The training should focus on the needs of those being trained, not the technology. This level of education shouldn't be trying to train people to design, manufacture, or repair computers. We all use tools called cars to improve our lives. Few of us fully understand how they work and even less know how to fix them when they break. We use cars to improve our quality of life and economic well-being.

The training should be hands-on and free or low cost. Use the training facilities in the local schools or other public entities and ask volunteers to conduct the training sessions. The Internet and a browser are great introductory training tools. As individuals find they can find information on just about any topic and stay in touch with friends and family across the world they quickly forget they are learning to use a computer and technology. Classes on word processing, spreadsheets, email, Web site development software and presentation software can be offered next as the demand rises.

Keep in mind many of the individuals may be novice computer users. Keep the focus on how the tools can help them meet their needs. Use the KISS method. Most beginners and even intermediate users don't need to know all of the features of a software package. Teach what is needed to accomplish the task they are interested in learning. Don't spend any more time than necessary on how the hardware works. Have the participants turn on the computer, run the mouse and use the keyboard. Hands-on means the learner's hands are on the computer. Not the instructors!

Targeted Programs

Organizations in Connected Communities use information technology effectively and efficiently to communicate, produce, deliver and access information and services. Training programs can also be offered as part of the Connecting Communities project to increase the ability of stakeholder groups in the community, to explore the benefits of and learn how to adopt information technology tools. Although some of these programs may not be free, they can be offered at a greatly reduced cost at times and locations convenient for the stakeholders.

Following are some examples of targeted programs:

1. Government Programs
   

   eGovernment programs are offered through University of Minnesota Extension and Penn State Cooperative Extension. These on-line guides provide information that helps local governments get started developing eGovernment sites or improve existing sites. Government officials and employees could be trained on eGovernment skills in the Community Center training lab. The Madison New Jersey Borough government used the Community Center training room to teach employees word processing, spreadsheets, databases and GIS software.

2. Business Programs
   

   For years, big business has used information technology to research, develop, manage, and evaluate products, services, and markets. Now, small businesses can too! Small businesses commonly use accounting software; with training, they can add additional tools to make or save money. The Internet can be used to research their competition, locate suppliers of products and services, interact with state and federal governments, market the products and services across the world and conduct business with other businesses (B2B). Community projects should provide educational programs to help small business owners learn how to benefit from the information technology.

   University of Minnesota Extension has an on-line eCommerce Guide. The curriculum that accompanies this guide has been adopted by several Cooperative Extension systems across the country to provide hands-on eCommerce training for small businesses.

   The Education committee should survey the business community to determine how they are using information technology and identify types of training that should be offered through the Connecting Communities Project. Search the Internet for on-line resources that can be used to meet business needs and work with the local Chamber of Commerce and other organizations that provide education and training to determine how the training can be delivered.

The Guide

Community Content

What distinguishes connected communities is how they use technology to improve life in their communities. Creating and sharing community content is an essential part of the process.

Community content:

• Meets the needs of many audiences: citizens, visitors, newcomers, businesses, and local organizations.
• Is available from many sources: local government and non-profits, local business and community groups, churches, hobbyists, citizen-journalists, and individuals.
• Comes in many formats: calendars, faqs, checklists, polls, articles, reports, interactive maps, videos, podcasts, real-time webcasts.
• Is produced locally but made available worldwide via the Internet.

Community Content Portals

Most rural communities could benefit from having a community portal. A community portal is a downsized, localized, and editable version of the portals you see on the Internet. Common community portal features include:

• Event calendars
• Local news
• Free classified ads
• Discussion forums
• Links to local business and organization websites

Local organizations and registered community members can edit, and update their own posts.

The key to creating a successful community portal is creating a really useful and easy to use site for the local community and anyone who is interested in it. It doesn't really matter what organization runs or sponsors the portal. What does matter is up-to-date and accurate information!

Examples of connected community portals include:

• Blacksburg Electronic Village was the first community-based portal and a model that many projects follow.
• BlackHills Today is a commercially sponsored portal serving the Black Hills region of South Dakota, Wyoming, and Nebraska.
• goTriCounty.com is a local community portal for Beaufort, Hyde, and Washington Counties in North Carolina sponsored by a local telecom provider.
• Today in Ashland, Oregon uses software donated by a local portal developer to offer free community portal.
• Blaine.net is a community portal serving for the border city of Blaine, Washington.

A community may have a number of portal sites: city and county governments, Chamber of Commerce, local newspaper, local Internet Service Provider (ISP), or even a community site run by a single dedicated individual. Each offers its own view of the community.

Who Needs Portals?

Although community portals can be useful, they are rarely all that interesting to read.

There are three things that folks really like to do online: find information, shop for bargains and new or quirky products, and be entertained.

Some folks like the challenge of creating their own content and making it available on the WWW. Some write their own blogs, others hang out virtual communities like MySpace.com.

Other forms of content:

• News: WestportNow.com is a community news site not a community portal but it's eye-catching photography and excellent writing makes it a popular local destination. The site is a good example of community news site where veteran journalists mingle with citizen-journalists.
• Regional Blogs: Blogging in the Inland NW provides thumbnail sketches of bloggers in the Inland Northwest (Washington, Oregon, and Idaho).
• Podcasting and videocasting are becoming popular ways to share information and viewpoints — so now there are audio blogs and video blogs as well as blogs.
• Video Depositories: YouTube and Google Video let any one put their videos online for the world.

While many of us love our local community, sometimes our interests are so different it's hard to find kindred spirits. One way is to reach out online: put up a blog about collecting cruise ship decals, Irish stamps, or your trip to the Hockey Hall of Fame and you will find an instant community.

The Guide

Create an Action Plan

The Action Plan helps make the Dream a reality. Encourage project teams to make it as concrete and specific as they can.

Create an action plan based on the goals and projects selected during the Dream the Future process.

Developing a plan and timeline for the objective you have decided to work on will help you identify the steps required to accomplish the objective.

• Each action step should be concrete and measurable.
• Identify the people and resources needed to accomplish the objective.
• Develop a realistic time frame for accomplishing the objective.
• Avoid giving in to "scope creep." A team doesn't have to do everything, just what is necessary to accomplish its objectives.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the action steps.

Note: Additional information on creating Action Plans is available in Penn State Cooperative Extension's Choosing Our Direction Work Book 4 (PDF).

Sample Completed Project Action Plan

Goal: We want more choices of broadband vendors or types of broadband.
Objectives: Find out what's currently available in the community. Contact vendors to learn what plans they have for improving or expanding the broadband operations and options in this community. Report back to the leadership team and community.
Timeline: Four to six weeks — it's important to complete this project quickly because other projects depend on the results.
Follow-up tasks: Although this task should be completed early in the Connecting Communities project, it may be useful to update the results each year.
Tools: Connecting Communities Broadband Vendor Comparison Checklist
Specific Actions		Team Member(s)	Target Date	Completed
1.	Project team meets and assigns tasks.	Team	9/20
2.	Contact local phone company	Mary Gabsalot	10/4
3.	Contact local cable company	Don Watcher	10/4
4.	Contact local ISPs	Mike Knows	10/4
5.	Contact satellite broadband vendors (Wild Blue, AT&T)	Charlie Outback	10/4
6.	Search online for other vendors serving the community	Marion Finder	10/4
7.	Meet and discuss results	Team	10/4
8.	Report back to leadership team	Project leader	10/11

The Guide

Implement & Evaluate

Team building, learning about broadband, goal setting, and project planning all lead to this stage: Getting the Project Done!

Implement the Plan (Just Do It!)

The project teams work independently. The leadership team members check in with the teams and support them as needed.

Consider bringing all the teams together monthly to share their progress. Project teams can use a blog or wiki to document their progress and keep everyone working the project up-to-date.

Project teams use the Action Plan to guide them through the process of developing and implementing their projects. Use the Project Action Plan from the Tools Index to develop your own action plan.

Document Your Progress

Document everything. Use this information to tell the story of your community.

It is important to be able to answer the following questions: What have we accomplished? What do we need to do? What have we learned?

Use the Project Progress Log to track each team's accomplishments.

Evaluate

Each project should have specific, measurable objectives that can be evaluated during and after the project implementation. The project action plan identifies these objectives.

The Connecting Communities project itself should be evaluated on an on-going basis to see how well it accomplishes the following objectives:

1. Raising the level of awareness among community leaders about the availability of broadband services in the community.
2. Increasing the level of adoption and diffusion of digital tools by organizations and individuals in the community.
3. Finding community leaders who are willing to take the next step in initiating Connecting Community projects.

The same tools used in the "Assess What You Have" section can be used to evaluate the progress a community makes toward achieving its goals.

Local Leader

The leader's role is not to run the project but to support those who do.

Strategies may include pointing the leadership team to financial resources, possible partners, educational resources, and skilled outside consultants or organizations.

It is important that the community itself implement the design, rather than rely on the leader or outside consultants. The leader, while not the implementer, needs to remain engaged with the leadership team to measure progress and intervene if necessary.

The Guide

Tell Your Story

Connecting Communities projects can demonstrate open communication and generous sharing of information and strategies in their community and to the outside world.

Tell Everyone About It

The Connecting Community leadership and project teams need to keep the community up-to-date about their progress. Some tools they can use are:

• Blog on a free webserver like Blogger or Wordpress.
• Maintain a project bulletin board at a local library, community center, or government office.
• Publish articles in local papers.
• Give interviews on local radio and television.
• Report on progress at town meetings.
• Make presentations at community organizations like the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, garden clubs, etc.
• Distribute brochures about the project.

Share Your Story with Other Communities

Once your Connecting Communities project is completed or some of the goals are accomplished, tell your story to a larger audience. Your community has accomplished a great deal — now it's time to enjoy your "bragging rights." By sharing your story, you are helping other communities build their digital future. You can share your story using these tools:

• Add your project to our list of Connecting Rural Communities Projects.
• Issue a press release.
• Make presentations at regional and national meetings.
• Make your project reports available online.

The Guide

Case Studies

Several communities that have undertaken projects to improve their digital access and development were selected as case studies by the developers of this guide. We tried to find communities with a population of less than 15,000 so that the lessons learned could be applied to many other rural communities.

Each community's story is unique; each community uses the broadband technology that best meets their needs. However, similar themes repeat themselves during every interview with project leaders.

• The key thing these communities have in common is that they did not wait for someone else to help them.
• They all recognized a need to improve their access and skills and found a solution that worked for their situation.
• In each of these stories we heard about one person or a small group with a vision, commitment, and persistence.
• Every community had to go through their own process highlighted in the Connecting Rural Communities manual including visioning, assessments, leadership recruitment, and constant communication to keep revising as the projects developed.
• Many communities share success stories and repeatedly mention how competition has benefited residents.

The Case Studies

• Broadband Over Powerline - Princeton, IL
• Use & Adoption of Broadband- Potter County, PA
• Fiber Optic Cable - Saint Peter, MN
• Fiber Optic Cable- Columbus, KS
• Fiber Optic Cable- Pickens County, GA
• Hybrid Fiber/Coaxial Cable - Coldwater, MI
• Wireless Broadband - Buffalo, MN
• Wireless Broadband - San Diego County, CA
• Wireless Broadband - Stevenson, WA
• Demand Aggregation - Southern Tier Region of New York
• Grants and Mentoring - Forks, WA

The Guide

-Broadband Over Powerline: Princeton, IL

Princeton, Illinois has received national attention with its high-speed Internet service using electrical lines. Princeton is a historic town of about 8,000 that looks much the way it did 100 years ago. Its brick streets and many historic homes remain unchanged.

What is changing is the technology being used to attract industrial development. In August 2003, the town's largest electric customer and largest employer moved out of town and took 450 jobs. Two months later, the second biggest employer was considering leaving due to a lack of communication services.

When asking about high-speed communication services, Princeton received the same answer many small, rural communities get from the traditional telephone and cable companies, they are simply too small to serve. Knowing more jobs would leave and it would be harder and harder to attract new employers Princeton decided to take matters into its own hands.

Since Princeton already had their own electric utility, it could test Broadband Over Powerline (BPL) technologies. The electric line connections get their Internet signals from a 12-mile loop of fiber installed by the city of Princeton. Typical of so many areas, once Princeton invested in the fiber loop suddenly the local cable and phone operators upgraded their systems and cut service rates. The competition will benefit residents and businesses that now have three providers to choose from for high-speed Internet service.

As Princeton moves from the test phase to offering full service other communities across the state and nation are watching with interest. The lessons Princeton has learned so far are that elected officials need to support a project 100% in order for it to be successful and that rural areas have a high demand and need for affordable, high-speed Internet access.

For More Information:

Contact: Jason Bird, Superintendent of Electric and Telecommunications
Phone: 815-875-1231
Email: jbird@princeton-il.com

The Guide

Use & Adoption of Broadband: Potter County, PA

• Volunteers can make a difference
• Every community can improve use of technology
• Celebrate every success

Potter County, Pennsylvania encompasses 1092 square miles and about 50% of the land is state owned with State Parks, State Game Lands, State Forrest Trails and Fish Commission Land.

The county is made up of small "pods" of population separated by state land and rough terrain. It is said there are more deer and bears than people in Potter County.

The Potter County Community Network project is designed to increase the diffusion and adoption of information technology in Potter County. The project is led by volunteers representing K-12 education, higher education, business and government.

In 1998, project partners led by the Potter County Education Council began providing computer classes, mostly basic classes focusing on the Microsoft Office suite of programs. In the past 3 or 4 years more advanced classes have been offered including the A+ programming language. Project partners are working with local school districts to make the training available across the county. Since the program began, 400-500 classes have been offered and more than 3,000 people have participated. They recently added McKean County to the programs.

A MTAP (Municipal Technical Assistance Program) grant helped to fund Microsoft Office training for about 50% of municipal employees. Potter County has surpassed 5 other surrounding counties in the number of employees who have had computer training.

Courses teaching FrontPage have also been important to help local businesses understand the importance web sites have for online visibility. Open hours in schools have made it possible for residents who do not have a computer or an internet connection to go online.

One of the outcomes of the project is increased awareness of information technology and broadband among local government, business and community members. The business community is 95% mom and pop establishments and currently almost all of them see the importance of web presence and how essential high-speed networks are to compete in today's marketplace.

This project has been successful because everyone involved understood the importance of increasing the adoption and use of information technology and shared a sense of urgency about bringing the county up to speed. Any time wasted in making broadband available was only going to hurt community members in the long run. It was the need and urgency that made everyone involved understand the need to work together to get anything done.

It is important for everyone involved to leave egos and negativity at the door. The leadership team needs to collaborate and focus on working with those who understand the goals. Don't waste time or energy on naysayers, they will eventually join.

Rural areas shouldn't wait for help to come to them. They need to reach out for help. Towns that don't have strong local leadership acting as a champion to encourage the adoption of information technology and broadband do not provide an incentive for investment and will be left behind. It is also important for the leadership team to have fun and celebrate successes.

For More Information:
http://www.pottercountyedcouncil.org/

Contact: Helene Nawrocki, Executive Director, Potter County Education Council
Email: helene@pottercountyedcouncil.org

The Guide

Fiber Optic Cable: Saint Peter, MN

Tornado turns to Technology

• 1998 tornado caused extensive damage
• Decided to rebuild with underground utilities including fiber
• Local vision and leadership
• Competition benefits consumers

Saint Peter, Minnesota is a community of approximately 10,000 that suffered a devastating tornado in 1998 that severely damaged much of the city. As Saint Peter was rebuilding FEMA decided to pay for all wired utilities to be placed underground. At the time, the city was forward thinking enough to decide to put fiber conduit underground and saved hundreds of thousands of dollars. It took five years to rebuild after the tornado and in 2003 Internet services delivered over fiber began.

This project was funded by borrowing from the municipal electric utility. One of the main lessons learned is that leaders need to communicate a consistent message to citizens and keep communicating throughout the process of implementing the project. Saint Peter was able to keep the trust of the community during the rebuilding process.

For More Information:
http://www.saintpetermn.gov and http://www.saintpeteradvantage.com/

Contact: Todd Prafke, City Administrator, City of Saint Peter
Phone: 507-934-0663
Email: barbaral@saintpetermn.gov

The Guide

Fiber Optic Cable: Columbus, KS

• Communities need to be healthy for business to succeed
• Small communities need to invest in themselves because traditional broadband providers will always overlook smaller communities
• Communities can't sit and wait for help

Columbus, Kansas is a small town of approximately 3,370 residents located in southeast Kansas. At a first glance, Columbus may seem to be just like any other small town that is trying to attract new business and residents as well as retain their current population. Columbus is not unique in its struggle to find successful community economic development polices.

What makes Columbus unique is that the entire town is served by a fiber optic network that provides voice, video, and high-speed data to residential and commercial users in the community.

Columbus has a member-owned telephone cooperative and recognized the need to upgrade the old copper facilities. As the co-op was considering which technology made the most sense for their upgrade they considered hybrid fiber coax that would have met their initial goals to become an Internet service provider capable of offering higher speed service. However, the telephone cooperative realized that the economic success of their community depended on the ability to offer high-speed Internet access at competitive prices. The cooperative decided to replace the entire network with fiber optics, justifying the expense as a necessary investment in the future of their community.

The project began in January 2004 and took about 24 months to complete. The telephone cooperative is focused on economic development and has started "operation back home again" which is trying to draw young professionals who grew up in the region back to the area by offering affordable living, broadband access and a reasonable commute to more urban areas. The community continues to look for opportunities to attract e-businesses to local incubator space. They offer several hundred square feet of manufacturing space with fiber to the door. Columbus believes that investing in the fiber network was investing in the future and that once people and business start returning to Columbus more retail and service investments will follow.

Contact: Jim Dahmen, General Manager, Columbus Telephone Company
Phone: 620-429-3132

The Guide

Fiber Optic Cable: Pickens County, GA

• A fiber ring initially connected 4 county schools
• County schools are saving $140,000 a year after all expenses
• Connected courthouse & jail to use for video arraignment and telemedicine for additional savings

Pickens County, Alabama is a poor rural county with a total population of less than 23,000. None of the towns in the county has more than 3,500 residents.

The school superintendent had a vision of a digital future and contacted the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA). A representative from ADECA worked with the superintendent. They heard that the local cable company was going to upgrade its system to fiber in order to eliminate 3 of their 4 cable headends. They negotiated with the cable company to extend the fiber to the schools for a reasonable monthly fee. With the schools connected the county was able to offer courses they previously couldn't afford.

For example, none of the schools had the resources to hire foreign language teachers. With the fiber network and full motion video equipment, they were able to hire one teacher who teaches to all 4 schools at the same time. Distance learning has saved the school district $140,000 a year after all expenses for equipment.

Recently the county also connected the courthouse and jail to offer video arraignment capabilities. They expect this will save the county the expense of transporting inmates. They can also use this system for telemedicine to also reduce expenses transporting inmates to medical facilities. This program has not been running for an entire year so they don't have exact numbers for savings.

The county is also taking advantage of broadband for economic development.

The Pickens County Medical Center is working with the medical center in neighboring Fayette County to connect via fiber to the regional hospital in Tuscaloosa. This would offer both of the rural medical centers advantages of full motion video and tremendous opportunities through telemedicine.

For More Information:
Contact: Ned Butler, State Radio Plans Director Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs
Phone: 334-424-5474
Email: nedb@adeca.state.al.us

The Guide

Hybrid Fiber/Coaxial Cable: Coldwater, MI

• Competition benefits local economy
• Persistence pays off
• Focus on future for sustainability
• Residents prefer local services

Coldwater is located in south central, Lower Michigan and has a population of 10,000. It is the county seat and home to many county and state offices.

The Coldwater Board of Public Utilities (CBPU) is an operating agency that provides electric, water, wastewater and now communications services. Recognizing the need for high-speed services and interconnection to remain competitive the CBPU chose to engineer and construct its own hybrid fiber/coaxial (HFC) broadband communications network. The municipally owned "information superhighway" has promoted competition in Internet and cable television services.

CBPU's success did not occur overnight and several lessons were learned along the way.

The first step CBPU took was to conduct a feasibility study and several focus groups to determine overall satisfaction with CBPU, measure and assess the demand for current and potential services and to find the relative "market position" of the CBPU compared to other service providers in the area. CBPU's infrastructure was not able to offer cable or Internet services and needed to be upgraded.

Before they could begin, citizens needed to vote and approve a revenue bond. Fearing competition the incumbent cable company spent a lot of money to scare residents into thinking if they approved this measure their property taxes would increase. The first vote in July 1997 was unsuccessful.

However, there was a core group of supporters who asked the CBPU not to give up because they believed this project would benefit the community. The CBPU enlisted the help of educators, news people, friends in other areas of the government, and supporters from the community to get the message to the people that:

• A revenue bond would only put bondholders at risk.
• Municipal ownership of competitive communication and entertainment services would benefit the citizens of Coldwater through not-for-profit rates and would mean that more money would remain in the local community.

The CBPU put the issue before the voters a second time and were successful.

Benefits of the CBPU HFC system are aggregation and resale of long distance telephone service, resale of local dial tone, high-speed Internet access for business and industry, data transport for business and industry and some basic customer services.

In addition, all schools and libraries have been connected so they can communicate with each other.

All city, county and state offices located in Coldwater have been connected along with numerous other local businesses. Video arraignment services for the sheriff's department and courthouse are used and save taxpayer dollars.

The important benefit of this project is the economic impact of competition. Competition for entertainment services alone has, by some estimates, put as much as three and a half million dollars back into the pockets of Coldwater consumers since August 1998.

For More Information:
http://www.cbpu.com

Contact:
Lindy Cox, Communications Manager, Coldwater Board of Public Utilities
Phone: 517-279-6910
Email: LCox@muni.cbpu.com

The Guide

Wireless Broadband: Buffalo, MN

• City council willing to invest in technology
• Wireless is an affordable solution for many communities

Buffalo, Minnesota is located about 40 miles northwest of Minneapolis/St. Paul and is a rapidly growing city of about 15,000.

Buffalo did not set out to provide high-speed Internet services to the community. Originally the city was concerned with internal data transmission between local government offices. Before the city thought about creating its own network, the city invited the local telephone and companies to provide services. Like many small communities they were told they were too small to provide a return on investment and were not even on the radar. The city went to the state public utility commission and became registered to be an Internet Service Provider.

The city administrator, city council, a few IT people, some local bankers, and the local schools provided leadership for the project. Each of the people involved in the technology committee realized the importance of high-speed Internet access and had the vision to set their goals to create carrier class entity.

They believe their success has been, in part, because they spent the money to do things right from the beginning and had the support of the community.

For More Information:
http://www.bwig.net/ and http://www.ci.buffalo.mn.us/

Contact:
Merton Auger, City Administrator
Phone: 763-684-5406
Email: merton.auger@ci.buffalo.mn.us

The Guide

Wireless Broadband: San Diego County, CA

Rugged Terrain and Sparse Population is No Excuse

• Technological solutions exist for every type of terrain
• Focus on more than connectivity

The Southern California Tribal Chairman's Association, representing 18 tribal nations in San Diego County California obtained a Hewlett-Packard Digital Village grant and created the Tribal Digital Village. The original goal was to establish at least one high-speed Internet connection for each of the tribes.

Due to the mountainous terrain and sparse population density, line of sight antennas were placed on top of several mountains. Many of them are powered by solar energy because they are so remote electricity is not available.

The $5 million grant from Hewlett Packard was enough to get started. $4 million was used to purchase computer and printer equipment. The remaining $1 million was given incrementally over a 3-year period in cash to help build resource centers and to supply Tribal operations with updated computer hardware. Some of the money was also used to start building the infrastructure for the wireless network.

Resource centers at each tribe were created and 14 of the 18 tribal centers are supported via a wireless network. The others have stand-alone connections.

The Tribal Digital Village goal is to be able to offer high-speed Internet service for every household. In addition, 65 community buildings are connected, including Tribal Administration Buildings, EPA, Schools, Libraries, Fire Stations, and Sheriff Substations.

One of the successes of this project has been the shadow project to develop the Tribal Youth involvement. The TDV Shadow Project has been created to be a mentoring program that provides community youth with training and mentoring on current technology. Youth training opportunities provide experience in web design, web management, tower placement and network configuration. In fact, one point-to-point link on the network was created by youth. The purpose is to train the community that it represents and empower them to take the tools of the technology and operate and manage the Tribal Digital Project for the future.

For More Information:
http://www.sctdv.net/

Contact:
Matthew R. Rantanen, Director of Technology, Southern California Tribal Chairmen's Assoc.
Acting Director of Southern California Tribal Technologies, LLC
General Manager, Hi Rez Digital Solutions
Phone: 760-742-0582 x 130
Email: mrantanen@sctdv.net

The Guide

Wireless Broadband: Stevenson, WA

Wi-Fi for Tourists

• Wireless Mesh Network
• Promote tourism
• City funded
• Local vision & leadership

Stevenson, Washington is located along State Highway 14, approximately 45 miles east of Portland, Oregon and 40 miles east of Vancouver, Washington. Stevenson is a small community in the heart of the Columbia River Gorge with a history of logging, world-class fishing and salmon runs.

With the vision and leadership of one local businessman Stevenson now boasts a Wi-Fi network that blankets the entire downtown area. This service is free and guests may log in for up to one hour at a time. Each time someone logs in they are directed to a "Welcome to Stevenson" page that links to local lodging and dining establishments.

Stevenson's city funded wireless network was the first municipal funded mesh network in the country. The city's Tourism Promotion Fund funded and maintains the network to help promote tourism in the downtown area and along the waterfront. This project has two main goals:

1. The primary goal is to provide an amenity to tourists and encourage them to stay longer due to connectivity.
2. Another goal is to show Stevenson as a forward-thinking, tech-savvy community that understands what people need in the 21^st Century is digital access.

The lessons learned from this project are that if one person or a group decides to do something there are ways to get it done without spending a lot of money. Taking things one step at a time is not beyond the abilities of a small group.

In the future, customized websites could be developed for each Wi-Fi coverage area featuring tourist information and ads for the businesses in that area. This could generate additional revenue needed to pay for equipment upgrades.

Website: www.cityofstevenson.com

Contact: Joseph Schlick, Founder and System Administrator, Stevenson Wi-Fi Project
Email: jschlick@stevensonwifi.net

The Guide

Demand Aggregation: Southern Tier Region of New York

This project is a bit different from the other ones mentioned in the Connecting Rural Communities guide for two reasons. First, it did not involve a particular technology but rather focused on needs assessments and aggregation of demand. It is also unique to the other case studies because it involves three counties working together. The counties are Chemung, Schuyler and Stueben which make up the Southern Tier region of New York State.

This region has pockets of population concentration but is mostly rural and broadband is not available to most homes or businesses. In 2003 the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) held a workshop and invited representatives from health, education, government and business for the three counties to discuss aggregation for demand possibilities for the three counties. After the workshop it was decided that the region needed money to conduct a study to see what was available and where potential for aggregation existed. They received a grant from the state senator and ARC in 2004 to hire a consultant.

A consultant was hired to measure all existing fiber, cell towers and work with service providers to determine what was available. Next, the consultant held focus groups to see what was needed. One of the ways the region has been able to use this information is to negotiate better service and price from the providers. The survey demonstrated that the area may have enough resources to leverage rather than undertaking the expense of building a new network. This is a good example of how communities can work together to find low cost solutions rather than several small areas trying to build new networks or reinventing the wheel.

When this process started the only broadband option for the community was offered through the cable provider. Since then the incumbent local exchange carrier also gave some money to do a diffusion study. They found that one phone company was overcharging and had to put money back into the communities. This was used to provide high speed service to the school districts, hospitals and local government offices.

One of the many lessons learned in this project is that communities need perseverance. These projects can be frustrating but are worth while and once people recognize the benefits they want to help. Another outcome of the project is that GIS maps from the study can be used to show where business development and infrastructure development can happen and encourage economic development.

For More Information:
Contact: Marsha Weber, Executive Director
Southern Tier Central Regional Planning Development Board
Phone: 607-962-5092
Email: weber@stny.rr.com

The Guide

Grants and Mentoring: Forks, WA

Apply for grants; all funding sources help

Forks, Washington is a rural community of 5000 including the outskirts of town. Located on the peninsula, Forks is remote the closest town large enough to have a movie theatre is a 90 minute drive and Seattle is 4 hours away.

Forks High School was the first rural school to receive a High Tech High Grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The money was used to improve broadband service at the school and the technology was DSL simply because that was the only broadband option for this remote area. The funds have also supplied computers in every classroom and library.

The grant began in 2002 and was set up to provide funding for four years. Some of the lessons learned are that buy in from community members and key leaders is critical ahead of time. When the community learned their school district was the recipient of the grant they were very excited but it has been difficult to maintain the excitement and interest over time. Other lessons learned are that attitude is just as important as hardware. Simply adding boxes and wires does not mean a community or a school will instantly change. A desire to learn is just as essential as the connections and hardware.

The Mentoring Project

A mentoring program was set up for students in 4^th through 8^th grades. The students targeted are facing an academic risk of failure. Due to economic downturns in logging and fishing industries many of the students also live in high poverty. The local economy is starting to improve as they shift their focus towards tourism. This project is a partnership between the school district and a non-profit community organization that began in 2004. The goal is to have 30 mentors in 3 years. One of the biggest challenges for this program is finding enough adults who would like to mentor students. The mentoring brings community members to the school and increased communication and understanding benefits everyone.

One unintended consequence is that many mentors are finding they can learn a lot from the students especially regarding technology. The staff and mentors have participated in online courses and training. This unique project shows that not every community project has to focus on technology and that the more different groups work together the greater benefits for the community.

For More Information:
http://www.forks.wednet.edu/
Contact: Dave Demiglio, Director of Connecting Schools and Communities
Quillayute Valley School District
P.O. Box 60
Forks, WA 98331
Phone: 360-374-6262 ext. 229
Email: demiglio@esd114.wednet.edu

The Tools

Leadership Team Assessments

• Community Readiness Assessment Worksheet (PDF)
• Leadership Team Recruitment (PDF)
• Leadership Team Identification Worksheet (PDF)  

A useful plug-in: PowerPoint Viewer 2003

The Tools

Community Technology Assessments

• Community Use of Digital Technology (PDF)
• Community Internet Access and Infrastructure Assessment (PDF)
• Community Telecommunications Inventory (PDF)
• Broadband Vendor Comparison Checklist
• Community Digital Initiatives Inventory

A useful plug-in: PowerPoint Viewer 2003

The Tools

Broadband Vendor Comparison Checklist

Most of the items listed refer to both home and business broadband services.

The Tools

Community Digital Initiatives Inventory

The existence of or discussion about potential Information Technology (IT) initiatives indicates some level of understanding about the importance of the diffusion and adoption of IT to the community's future. The more items that are checked the higher the likelihood that the community will engage in a connecting community's project. Individuals that are involved in these projects are likely candidates to serve on a Connecting Communities leadership team.

Are any of the following Information Technology (IT) related initiatives in progress or been discussed in the community?

The Tools

Community Projects

• Card Game (HTML), (Word), or (PDF)
• Community Projects Checklist (HTML) or (PDF)
• 50 Ideas to Connect Communities (PDF)
• Project Action Plan
• Project Progress Log

Useful Plugins

• Acrobat Reader for PDF files
• Word Viewer 2003

The Tools

Card Game

The Card Game is one way of helping groups determine what kinds of local projects will help them meet their goals. The game is meant to be played after the group has set one or more goals. This game has been adapted from the work of Drew Mackie, David Wilcox and Terry Grunwald at Making the Network.

Purpose: The game is designed to help groups identify doable tasks or projects for their community. Each project needs to assign a team, a designated leader and timeline.

Time required: Approximately 2 hours.

Directions:

1. Divide into groups

   If there is more than one technology goal, assign each goal to a different part of the room and have people move to the goal they want to work on. Make sure there are at least 2-3 groups and that groups are roughly equal in size.

   If the group is working with only one technology goal, divide the group into subgroups of 2-8 people.

2. Introduce the card game
   

   Infrastructure & Access

   #13 EXPERIENCE BROADBAND

   Provide opportunities for people to experience the Internet over a high speed connection. Arrange open access times at places that already have broadband, e.g. schools.

   
   Introduce the cards (PDF). Each group gets a set of cards. Each card has category, such as Community Content or Applications and Education. Each card has a title and a brief description of a project. Finally, each card is numbered 1, 2 or 3 in the lower right corner. The numbers are a relative rank of how much time or resources the project is likely to take. Cards with the number 1 will take much less time or resources than cards with the number 3. Blank cards are included so groups add their own project ideas.
3. Groups choose and prioritize cards

   Each group chooses project cards that they believe are doable and can help the community reach towards its goals. Groups may choose as many cards as they like as long as the total of the numbers in the lower right corner don't add up to more than 15. Groups can spend up to 30 minutes discussing and choosing their cards.

   

   Once the cards are selected, the groups start planning by prioritizing the cards as high, medium or low priority and determining the time scale as short, medium or long. Making the Network has an excellent planning sheet in Word or PDF format. See the instructions for additional tips on using the planning sheet.

   Prioritizing the cards will take 15 minutes. When each group has completed their plan, they should present their solution to the entire group.

4. Large group reaches consensus on project cards

   This will take at least 30 minutes or longer if there are many goals to discuss.

   If the group was working towards a single technology goal, the leader posts all the chosen cards on a large version of a planning sheet, placing them in the same time scale and priority place each small group used.

   The leader facilitates a group discussion of what cards have been chosen and how many times. Next do a reality check with the group about how doable each project is within their community. The large group chooses which of the project cards chosen by the smaller groups they wish to work on. Usually, the cards given the highest priorities are chosen. This time, in order for a project card to be chosen, one or more participants must agree to take the lead on developing the project.

   If the group was working towards multiple technology goals, first discuss how many projects can be reasonably accomplished. Does the community have the capacity to carry out many projects at once? Consider only looking at projects that were given a high priority. Do a reality check with the group about how doable each project is within their community. Again, in order for a project card to be chosen, one or more participants must agree to take the lead on developing the project.

5. Create project work teams

   For each project that was chosen in the final round, post a sign up sheet on the wall with the project card taped to it, the name of the participant(s) that agreed to take the lead, and the approximate time the project will take. Participants should sign up for one or more projects before leaving.

The Tools

Community Projects Checklist

Community statements provide a way for groups to see possible projects for common community goals. The statements and suggested projects are grouped by Infrastructure and Access, Applications and Education, and Community Content.

Purpose: To help groups decide which goals and projects they will undertake. The checklist limits the number of project possibilities so groups can move quickly through the selection process.

Time required: This suggested time for this activity is one hour.

Directions: To use the checklist in a community meeting, divide the group into 3 groups and give each group a different set of statements. Instruct each group to circle each numbered statement they agree with and check off any projects they would like to consider undertaking. After 30 minutes, get back together as a large group. Have each group present their statements and suggested projects. Discuss the feasibility of the number and types of projects. Prioritize them and ask for volunteers for each project.

Community Statements about Infrastructure and Access

1. We're not sure what broadband infrastructure we have here.

   __ Learn about broadband.

   __ Conduct an in-depth infrastructure assessment for each type of broadband.

   __ Create Internet-based maps to provide information.

   __ Ask the broadband vendors for coverage maps of your community.

2. We want broadband available within town or outside town limits, wireless access or fiber optic broadband.

   __ Discuss broadband options and costs with broadband vendors.

   __ Develop a public/private partnership with vendors

   __ Develop a municipal-owned infrastructure.

   __ Find out what grant funds or loans are available for infrastructure, hardware/software or community technology projects.

3. We want more choices of broadband vendors or types of broadband.

   __ Learn about broadband.

   __ Invite current and potential vendors to propose what they can bring to the community.

4. We want more affordable broadband for consumers and businesses.

   __ Invite current and potential vendors to propose what they can bring to the community.

   __ Develop a public/private partnership with vendors

   __ Develop a municipal-owned infrastructure.

5. We want help financing broadband projects.

   __ Discuss broadband options and costs with broadband vendors.

   __ Find out what grant funds or loans are available for infrastructure, hardware/software or community technology projects.

6. We want locations where businesses, government and organizations can access state-of-the-art technologies.

   __ Discuss broadband options and costs with broadband vendors.

   __ Find out what grant funds or loans are available for infrastructure, hardware/software or community technology projects.

   __ Develop and support local community technology, business or development centers.

   __ Develop a videoconferencing center.

7. We want public locations where residents can use computers and access the Internet.

   __ Discuss broadband options and costs with broadband vendors.

   __ Find out what grant funds or loans are available for infrastructure, hardware/software or community technology projects.

   __ Work with a local retailer to create a cyber café that offers internet access and a place where people can meet.

   __ Create public access sites to the Internet at libraries or locations within easy access of all homes.

   __ Create a mobile lab equipped with computers and internet access.

   __ Train volunteers who will staff public access sites to assist users in using the Internet, author articles on Internet basics, or provide classes.

   __ Create a digital audio / video / imaging studio for developing projects.

   __ Provide opportunities for people to experience the Internet over a high speed connection. Arrange open access times at places that already have broadband, e.g. schools.

Community Statements about Applications and Education

1. We don't know enough about this to get started.

   __ Provide community presentations on what broadband is and how it works.

   __ Provide presentations that show examples of communities that are digitally connected.

   __ Hold a technology fair where vendors demonstrate technology, hardware, or applications that aren't currently available or used in the community.

   __ Hold live or online events where local businesses share how they use the Internet with each other.

   __ Provide opportunities for people to experience the Internet over a high speed connection. Arrange open access times at places that already have broadband, e.g. schools.

2. We want to help our businesses benefit from the Internet.

   __ Hold live or online events where local businesses share how they use the Internet with each other.

   __ Hold a technology fair where vendors demonstrate technology, hardware, or applications that aren't currently available or used in the community.

   __ Develop and support local community technology, business or development centers.

   __ Develop a videoconferencing center.

   __ Offer classes to help owners of small businesses develop a web presence or buy or sell online.

   __ Provide opportunities for people to experience the Internet over a high speed connection. Arrange open access times at places that already have broadband, e.g. schools.

   __ Create a volunteer helpline where residents can call upon a technical team to deal with problems at home or in their office.

   __ Offer presentations on how businesses can save on long distance telephone with Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol (VOIP).

3. We want local government, organizations and agencies to provide information and services online.

   __ Offer classes to help local government agencies determine content for their websites.

   __ Conduct online debates and voting on local issues.

   __ Offer classes to help non-profit organizations maximize their use of the Internet.

4. We want to be able to get help locally for computer, Internet, and technology questions.

   __ Train volunteers who will staff public access sites to assist users in using the Internet, author articles on Internet basics, or provide classes.

   __ Create a volunteer helpline where residents can call upon a technical team to deal with problems at home or in their office.

   __ Help technology-savvy youth start a local computer support business.

   __ Sponsor online computer training for interested residents to acquire technology skills and certification.

   __ Offer classes to help individuals learn to design websites.

5. We want our residents to be smart users of the Internet.

   __ Offer classes on how to shop online and avoid possible problems.

   __ Offer classes for youth to learn to protect themselves from Internet predators.

   __ Offer classes to help people learn to efficiently search the Internet.

   __ Periodically offer presentations on "What's New on the Internet."

6. We want our residents know how to use computers.

   __ Offer classes on computer basics, operating systems, email, word processing, connecting to the internet.

   __ Offer classes for residents to learn how to reduce the size of their digital photos for e-mail.

   __ Offer classes on how to create music and video CDs and DVDs.

7. We want our residents to further their education or employment through the Internet.

   __ Offer classes to job seekers to get help searching for opportunities on the Internet and advice on resumes and applications.

   __ Provide presentations that highlight distance learning opportunities that community members may be interested in.

   __ Encourage local colleges to provide course material online.

8. We want all sectors of our community to use the Internet.

   __ Offer classes about the Internet for a specific population in the community.

   __ Offer classes to residents to learn how to trace their family history through online resources.

   __ Generations learn together through projects where they have shared interests.

   __ Offer Youth Cyber Camps.

Community Statements about Community Content

1. We want to use the Internet to tell everyone about our community.

   __ Create Internet-based maps to provide information.

   __ Create webpages, blogs, audio or video podcasts about the community.

   __ Research and publish the local history of the community on the Internet.

   __ Offer classes for local government, chambers of commerce, tourism groups or nonprofit agencies to help them place local content on their websites.

   __ Offer classes on how to tell a great story.

2. We want to use the Internet to share information with each other in our community.

   __ Hold live or online events where local businesses share how they use the Internet with each other.

   __ Create audio, video, web pages or blogs to raise issues of personal and community interest.

   __ Develop an online local volunteer matching system.

   __ Local neighborhood watch volunteers use email, web and webcams to support their work.

   __ Conduct online debates and voting on local issues.

   __ Create online discussion lists/forums where people can add ideas for improving their community.

   __ Develop a website of local information with links to all key local projects.

   __ Create Internet-based maps to provide information.

3. We want to help our local organizations, groups or clubs to put their information on the Internet.

   __ Offer local web hosting

   __ Offer classes on developing websites, blogs or podcasts.

   __ Create a digital audio / video / imaging studio for developing projects.

   __ Offer classes on how to tell a great story.

   __ Offer classes about privacy on the Internet.

   __ Offer classes on working with digital photos or video.

4. We want to showcase content developed by the youth in our community.

   __ Host a local website where youth can display artistic content they've created.

   __ Have youth teach classes on how to remix content found online.

   __ Provide opportunities for entrepreneurial youths to develop online businesses.

5. We want to create content for mobile devices.

   __ Offer classes on how to create audio and video material for iPods and PDAs.

   __ Host a local website where residents can share downloadable content they've created.

The Tools

Project Action Plan

Use this form to get ideas for preparing your team's action plan. Update it when necessary.

The Tools

Project Progress Log

Don't wait until the project is complete to start documenting it. Use the following form or something like it to make quick notes about your progress.

The Tools

PowerPoint Presentations

The facilitator and leadership team can use the PowerPoint presentations to share information about:

• What are Connected Communities?
• Case Studies of Connected Communities
• Why Broadband Matters
• Business Use of Broadband
• Broadband in the Home
• Types of Broadband
• Community Technology Assessments
• Broadband Delivery Models
• Broadband Public Policy
• Digital Development

A useful plug-in: PowerPoint Viewer 2003

The Tools

Connecting Rural Communities Local Leader FAQ

1. How do I get started?
   Start by reading through the online guide. Numbers 1-7 on the left navigation bar are the steps to take to become a connected community. Learn about the advantages of having and using broadband technology. Think about your community and who might be a good champion for leading the community through the process.
   
   
2. Can I team with others?
   Absolutely. A really great team might include a person who knows about technology and a person who is a good community facilitator.
   
   
3. Who should be invited to be on the core team?
   Community members with enthusiasm about the Internet are key players. Consider inviting a different group of people than the same ones that get asked to help with every other project. Try connecting with youth and older adults, educators, non-profits groups, places of worship or the volunteer fire department. Be inclusive and make sure that all segments of the communities' population are represented.
   
   
4. What is a suggested timeline for doing a Connecting Rural Communities project?
   Start with a small project that your community can accomplish in a few months. Even if your community goal is to increase the broadband infrastructure in the community, you'll need to start by introducing residents to the benefits first. Offering some demonstrations or classes, or facilitating individuals and groups sharing how they are using technology with each other is an important first step to getting more technology in the community.
   
   
5. What if I don't know enough about the technology?
   You don't have to be the expert. Learn the basics through the online guide and presentation materials on the website and then find others who are knowledgeable and can work with you to help others learn.
   
   
6. Is there a minimum or maximum size of a community to work in?
   You need a critical mass of people in the community to be interested enough to show up for events and discussions. A very small community may not have enough people to be able to change their current infrastructure situation. Large metropolitan areas probably have pretty good Internet infrastructure overall, but maybe the Internet is not being used much in a given neighborhood. These 'pockets' might benefit from some of education and content creation projects.
   
   
7. Can a community be a region, or a community of interest?
   Yes. Small adjacent communities may benefit from joining together to get a greater number of participants. You could also work with groups from a specific neighborhood, ethnic background, age group, etc., although you will most likely work with education and content creation projects or possibly creating community technology centers for these groups.
   
   
8. Why is Extension involved?
   Extension has always aimed to create better homes, better citizens, better communities, better rural living. Knowledge and use of broadband service has become a necessary infrastructure for economic and community development in the 21st Century global economy.
   
   
9. What is expected of an Extension Educator?
   Get the conversation started. Find a team of people and invite the community to start thinking about their future. Find a local champion who can carry the community discussions and projects forward. An Extension Educator is not expected to be the person to oversee all the community projects that get designed. In the 7 step process, a local champion needs to be the lead person by the end of the Design the Future stage (Step 4.)
   
   
10. What results do you expect from this?
    Communities include the Internet as part of their visioning and economic development processes; and broadband is considered necessary infrastructure in the same sense as roads, water and sewer.
    
    

About the Project

The Connecting Rural Communities guide is designed to provide the information and tools community leaders need to identify, develop and implement projects that improve:

1. The availability of access to broadband connectivity across the community;
2. The ability of organizations in the community to use digital technology to achieve their mission and goals; and
3. The ability of individuals in the community to use digital technology to improve their social and economic well-being.

Connecting Rural Communities is sponsored and funded by the Southern Rural Development Center through their 2005 Rural E-Commerce Extension Initiative Grants Program.

Connecting Rural Communities was developed by:

• William Shuffstall - Senior Extension Educator, Penn State Cooperative Extension - shuffy@psu.edu
• Sheila Sager - Candidate for PhD in Mass Communications, The Pennsylvania State University - sss2@psu.edu
• Rae Montgomery - Extension Professor, University of Minnesota Extension - rae@umn.edu
• Dana Noonan, Internet Consultant (www.infomaven.com) under contract with University of Minnesota Extension. Dana is also the author of the Access eCommerce, Access eGovernment, Access eNonProfit, Access eInternet, and Access eBroadband tutorials.

Print Version

Resources

Assessment Tools

• CENIC Self Assessment Guide for Communities
  Resources and supplementary materials to aid in conducting a successful community assessment. PDF format or HTML
• Conducting a Community Assessment
  A good tool to read and understand why we need assessments and how communities can use them for more than just technology. This particular reference focuses on schools, children and family, however, there are good suggestions for where to get data, how to engage community members, questions to ask when conducting focus groups, community forums, interviews and surveys.
• Connect Kentucky - Community Benchmarking Tool
  This guide is designed to provide a benchmark for your community's current readiness to participate in the changes that high-speed communications entail. More importantly, this guide provides a vision of specific steps and actions for your community.
• Preparing for a Collaborative Community Assessment
  A good resource that explains why assessments are important for communities and identifies the steps involved in the process.

Benefits of Broadband

• The Telework Coalition
  The Telework Coalition provides resources and information about the practice and benefits of Teleworking.

Broadband Applications

• Accela, Inc.
  After the Storm: How New Orleans Leveraged Accela Software for Disaster Recovery

Broadband for Business

• Broadband Use by Rural Small Business
  Business needs broadband and rural America has less access
• How E-commerce Works

Case Studies

• Columbus Internet
  Community site for Columbus, KS
• Columbus Telephone Company
  A rural telephone cooperative builds a fiber network and has been offering triple play since December 2004
• National Center for Small Communities
  Click on new resources on the left sidebar to access the Thriving Hometowns Network, a searchable database of more than 50 community and economic development case studies drawn from small communities.
• Saint Peter Advantage
  A site devoted to attracting business and investment for the community of Saint Peter, MN.

Community Networks

• Association for Community Networking
  Resources and tips to help communities effectively use information and communication technologies
• Communities of the Future
  A network of people working in collaboration to develop new concepts of governance, economic development, and education/learning for a fast-paced, interconnected, and increasingly complex society
• New Democracy
  Communities, technology, and local governance issues
• The BEV Digital Library
  Community network design and development information
• UTOPIA: Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency
  UTOPIA is a consortium of 14 Utah cities engaged in deploying and operating a 100% fiber optic network to every business and household (about 140,000) within its footprint.

Globalization/International

• Click Z Stats
• Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
  OECD's section on "Telecommunications and Internet Policy" including statistics, publications and information by country
• United Nation's Benchmarking Tool
  Tools to assess a countries information communication technology capability and compare indicators with other countries

Glossaries

• Glossary of Frequently Used Telecommunications Terms
• Glossary of Telecommunications & Technology Terms

Guides

• Access eBroadband
• Applied Rural Telecom Resource Guide
  The Guide provides rural communities throughout the United States and the world a toolkit of resources to help them meet their economic and community development goals using telecommunications.
• Making the Net Work
  Resources to help organizations or communities plan and use the Net effectively. This site offers sets of workshop games, a routemap for planning development, and other tools.

Law

• BitLaw: A Resource on Technology Law
  A comprehensive Internet resource on technology law, containing patent, copyright, trademark, and Internet legal issues.

Other Resources

• Charting the Future of Our Community
  This resource can help you understand and implement events that will build consensus for planning your connected community's future.
• Design Nine
  Site offers broadband and telecom planning, design, and project management services, the resources section is a great tool for anyone who wants to learn more.
• Digital Divide Network
  "The Internet's largest community for educators, activists, policy makers and concerned citizens working to bridge the digital divide"
• NTCA: National Telecommunications Cooperative Association
  The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association (NTCA), "the voice of rural telecommunications," is the premiere non-profit association representing more than 560 small and rural telephone cooperatives and commercial companies.

Policy

• Exploring Policy Options for a New Rural America
  Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City resource section inluding several articles focused on policy for Rural America
• Federal Communications Commission
  Federal regulatory agency that has the most direct impact on broadband policy
• How a bill becomes a law
  How a bill becomes a law and other links related to policy and regulation
• National Telecommunications and Information Administration
  The NTIA is the President's principal adviser on telecommunications and information policy issues
• U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet
  News and hearings related to telecommunications and broadband policies
• U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
  News and updates from the subcommittee on Technology, Innovation and competitiveness

Public Interest Groups

• Aspen Institute
  Aspen's Communications and Society Program promotes integrated, thoughtful, values-based decision making in the fields of communications and includes several good resources.
• Benton Foundation
  The mission of the Benton Foundation is to articulate a public interest vision for the digital age and to demonstrate the value of communications for solving social problems.
• Media Access Project
  A public interest telecommunications law firm which promotes the public's First Amendment right to hear and be heard on the electronic media of today and tomorrow
• New American Foundation
  The New American Foundation sponsors a wide rang of research, one program of interest is the Wireless Future Program.

Statistics

• Broadband reports from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration
  A Nation Online: Entering the Broadband Age is the sixth report released by the NTIA examining the use of computers, the Internet, and other information technology tools by the American people. The previous five reports issued in 2002, 2000, 1999, 1998 & 1995 are also linked to this site.
• Broadband Use by Rural Small Business
  A report issued by the U.S. Small Business Administration provides detail on the rural digital divide. The results indicate that without increased broadband access rural economies could miss out on higher levels of growth and job creation.
• Broadband Wireless Exchange
  Information about wireless ISPs, Wi-Fi and broadband wireless technology
• Pew Internet & American Life Project
  Ongoing surveys and topical studies

Technology

• Cable Modem Basics
  Several links about cable modem and DSL technology
• Current Communications
  Site includes online video about broadband over power lines
• Daily Wireless
  Wireless broadband information
• How Cable Modems Work
• How DSL works
  A simple explanation of how DSL works
• How fiber optics work
• How Internet infrastructure works
• How Satellites Work
• ISP PLanet
  Resources and information for ISPs and Internet Access Providers
• National Cable and Telecommunications Association
  The principal trade association of the cable television industry in the United States, resources and statistics provide more information about cable technologies as well as policy and legal affairs.
• Packet Switching
  A demo of packet switching
• Satellite Signals
  Information and additional links about using satellite internet
• The Basics of Fiber Optic Cable
  Brief overview of the advantages of fiber optic cable over copper wires
• The evolving national information network: technology primer
  Commission on Preservation and Access technology primer
• WISP Centric
  Great resources for Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPS) on anyone thinking about starting a WISP