In this National Science Foundation Advanced Technician Education program (NSF ATE) project, we aimed to explore factors that would strengthen the rural IT employee workforce and improve educational support related to broadband, telecommunications, and networks in rural settings. Using multiple methods to triangulate rural IT program curricula…

In enacting legislation that impacts on rural areas or is directly related to telecommunications, Congress has rarely considered the role of communications in rural development. Neither the House nor the Senate Agriculture Committees considered the role of telecommunications in drafting the 1972 Rural Development Act. While no specific provisions…

In April 2000, over 250 rural leaders from around the nation gathered in Kansas City, Missouri, to discuss rural America's future, its challenges, and policies to meet those challenges. Conference participants agreed that the current pattern of uneven rural growth is likely to persist and that agriculture will remain a key sector in the rural…

American rural communities are decaying, the underlying causes being chronic unemployment and inadequate infrastructure. The information age can cause the ultimate demise of rural America by further eroding local institutions or it can be its savior by revitalizing the sense of community. The link between community development and the information…

Communications can play an important role in rural development. Especially promising are programs to reduce the cost of transportation and to extend services to dispersed rural populations, especially education, health, and entertainment services. There is a strong presumptive case that broadband communications can do a great deal to promote rural…

The Economic Development Administration (EDA) requested working information to help determine national policy regarding the future course of telecommunications research and development as related to rural economic development. A review sought to identify various opinions, demonstrations, programs and proposed pilot projects which indicate that…

Assessing the potential impact of telecommunications technology upon rural economic development, this study for the Economic Development Administration (EDA) employs data assembled and analyzed from the following: "informed experts;" research information and demonstration projects; and federal legislation, research, and agency interests.…