Greetings
As an aside, here's a great web site telling the story behind 14 telecenters on the slopes of Mt. Everest in Nepal: http://www.nepalwireless.net/network.php and a similar project at http://www.linkingeverest.com
Lone Eagle Report on Open Space Austin - the 7th Annual Community Networking Conference for the Association for Community Networking (www.afcn.org)
In short, the event was successful and certainly reinforces everyone�s belief in the value of meeting face-to-face. We had a near perfect mix of attendees � ISP�s, rural community leaders, project directors, consultants for telecommunications and economic development, activists, academics, and many new faces representing expertise in community media, mesh wireless, as well as several of the old guard of community networking. Our only regret is that many good folks were unable to join us in these lean economic times.
This was the first time I�ve attended a conference that focused 100% on supporting the networking among attendees. Typically, most conferences are competing presentations where most presented information is missed by most attendees, and everyone struggles to network in the halls during the limited time between sessions.
Jon Lebkowsky�s report at
<http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/002641.html>http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/002641.html does a fine job covering the themes discussed and you might enjoy his blog, too, <http://weblogsky.com/>http://weblogsky.com
Attendees committed to generating new partners, resources, energy, and fresh ideas. The bottom line is never has there been a greater need for good people to come together to make good things happen.
By working together we can build collaborative capacity that benefits everyone involved.
This is the core challenge for ALL community technology organizations � to come
together to walk-the-talk and create - at a minimum - an organized, if informal, advocacy consortium to jointly address national and state policy issues as a first priority as well as more efficient sharing of resources and expertise as a second priority.
Tidbits of Internet:
Richard MacKinnon <http://www.austinwirelesscity.org/>www.austinwirelesscity.org has sustainable venues with many organizations serving 40,000 persons with wireless in Austin. A model well worth further exploration.
Sascha Meinrath shared his community wireless innovations � listed with other wireless resources at <http://lone-eagles.com/wireless.htm>http://lone-eagles.com/wireless.htm
Ana Sisnett represented the Austin Freenet <http://austinfree.net/>http://austinfree.net and ably represented the diversity issues and opportunities.
Inspiration for articulating how AFCN can work more closely with RTC, CTCnet and many other com-tech orgs is found in essays at <http://movementasnetwork.org/>http://movementasnetwork.org
Texas telecom policy bill 789 threatens to outlaw rural communities installing wireless for their citizens even when the telcos refuse to deliver service. Kudos to
<http://savemuniwireless.org/>http://savemuniwireless.org for carrying the torch of opposition on this goofy legislative pitch.
Will Reed and Jim Forester represented <http://www.techforall.org/>http://www.techforall.org and social enterprises.
Peter Miller and Paul Hansen share the exciting new VISTA project which will have a community networking project component and other new innovations.
<http://www.cpcs.umb.edu/vista/projectbasics.htm>.
Fred Johnson has a new full-time faculty position with the U. Mass. Community Media and Technology program <http://www.cpcs.umb.edu/cmt/>http://www.cpcs.umb.edu/cmt/ which is working with the VISTA program.
Richard Cutler is working with innovative Forum 9000 �smart social networking� software systems.
Christopher Jowaisas <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED] represented the library projects of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation � libraries having an unshakeable role to play in community learning programs at all levels.
Literally every participant has a passion and story to tell and I won�t attempt to reference everyone here, but I�ll encourage everyone to share their passions and visions via the AFCN listserv and elsewhere.
Spring is the season of renewal and may we all renew our commitments to what we believe we can make happen together!
All the best,
Frank
Report on the Rural Workforce 2005 Conference <http://www.tocowa.org/>www.tocowa.org
Spring was in full bloom in Austin, Texas during the Rural Workforce conference. But, with the Bush budget expected to eliminate much of the needed rural workforce and economic development budgets - there was an air of gloom anticipating the lean days ahead.
Presented with a spirit of optimism, there were several sessions on online learning programs for one-stop staff and job-seekers that promise to deliver convenient ongoing training opportunities and at a reduced cost. A couple such businesses are <http://www.business-access.com/>www.business-access.com The Dynamic Works Institute <http://www.dynamicinstitute.com/>www.dynamicinstitute.com Other sources of online courses are <http://ed2go.com/>http://ed2go.com and <http://newhorizons.com/>http://newhorizons.com
The Montana Choice project was well represented:
Cori DiBiase presented Good Bridges Make Strong Partnerships to an enthusiastic crowd.
Ron Doore presented Community Web-Raisings A Bootstrap Solution to Rapidly Generating New Ecommerce Business to a similarly enthusiastic group.
And Frank Odasz presented two sessions: Future-Proofing Our Rural Communities and Rural Community Technologies and 21st Century Workforce Development.
A number of keynote speeches centered around the fact that our rural communities are facing International competition and that we need to quickly become more innovative and creative yet the fact that the Internet plays a key role in the ability of international rural communities becoming competitive in a global economy was barely referenced in passing.
Rural entrepreneurship training is a hot topic these days and Craig Schroeder, senior associate of the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship presented on their fine initiatives. <http://www.ruraleship.org/>www.ruraleship.org They are working to develop programs to stop youth out-migration and have a new Hometown Competitiveness Workshop initiative. They work with several partners including <http://www.rupri.org/>www.rupri.org A document was referenced on the need for creating rural centers <http://www.ncruralcenter.org/>www.ncruralcenter.org
A Virtual One-Stop business <http://www.geographicalsolutions.com/>www.geographicalsolutions.com was of particular interest. They offer an online software system managing job postings along with job-seekers. Kris Latimer, the key planner of the Rural Workforce conference says her one-stop staff love the ease-of-use of this online system. Card scanners are used to track client office visits, too.
Heres a few factoids: Well average 9-15 careers in a lifetime, only 22% of congresspersons represent rural America. 60% of youth would prefer to return to their hometowns if good jobs were available. The product cycle from inception to obsolescence is 7-8 months. One in ten Americans is entrepreneurial. Rural America needs to grow an entrepreneurial culture able to adapt to these changing times.
Most rural Montana communities have a consumer base of roughly 1000 persons, unless they learn to use the Internet to access a consumer base of one billion, soon to grow to seven billion. Thus far, innovations from rural communities outside America have demonstrated the very real potential. It is time for Americans to roll up their sleeves and learn to survive in the new global innovation economy! Ebay's income from International sources via their presence in 31 countries will exceed domestic profits for the first time this year. Ebay "Live" is a conference this June in San Jose. Details accessible at <http://www.ebay.com/>www.ebay.com
The most current listing of Lone Eagle's Internet empowerment resources related to the above are at http://lone-eagles.com/future-proofing.htm *To be shared without restriction.
All the best,
Frank
Frank Odasz Lone Eagle Consulting Web: http://lone-eagles.com Ph/Fax: 406 683 6270
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