In rural coastal communities, trade-offs between conserving and developing environmentally sensitive resources are acute. At the community level, part-time volunteers and citizen officials are asked to make complex decisions based on ambiguous and frequently contradictory "scientific" evidence of economic and environmental relationships.…

The Department of Commerce's Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program (TIIAP) is designed to address technology needs in the public and nonprofit sectors of the United States. This report is one of many ways that TIIAP is sharing the stories and the lessons that are being learned by recipients of TIIAP awards. The case…