There’s a terrific multimedia report that’s just been completed on the ‘digital divide’ in rural America, providing a glimpse of what life is like in some rural communities without high-speed Internet access.
The report has been released by InternetforEveryone.org, which is a broad-based iniitative to connect every American to fast, open and affordable Internet.
“More than 14.3 million rural homes across the country — 61 percent — are not connected to high-speed Internet,” said Megan Tady of Free Press, author of the report. “This isn’t just a statistic. It’s a daily reality for the millions of people who can’t go online to apply for jobs, attend classes, start home-based businesses, get news and information, and participate in the global economy.”
To examine life without high-speed Internet access, Tady traveled across North Carolina, my home state, and one hit hard by manufacturing losses over the last decade as well as our current economic downturn.
In ‘Five Days on the Digital Dirt Road’ Tady visited five very different rural counties across North Carolina. I live within seventy miles of three of the counties featured, and have conducted small business training in the fourth (Robeson County) and fifth (Person County).
And as someone who now only has to pay $79.95 a month for DSL speed of a whopping 1.5 megabits per second, let’s just say I understand their challenges all too well.
Tady’s selection of individuals within each of these counties really mirrors the diversity of rural America. She lets homeowners, a farmer, a writer, a job-seeker, and an IBM telecommuting researcher describe how their current level of Internet access limits their lives and livelihoods, and how they believe they would benefit from broadband.
Five Days on the Digital Dirt Road offers short, documentary-style videos in a five-part series:
* Day One: In Robeson County, a rural area devastated by textile plant closings, members of the local Lumbee Tribe cannot afford the high-speed Internet connections that would lead to other economic opportunities.
* Day Two: One hour north of Durham in rural Person County, farmer Jay Foushee is stuck using a slow dial-up connection to check market prices and sell his crops. His teenage daughter Julia has to leave the house each night in search of a broadband connection to do her homework.
* Day Three: Living in the Smoky Mountains outside of Asheville, writer Brooks Townes gave up his freelance career because his dial-up connection made him uncompetitive. And bed-and-breakfast owner Martha Abraham fears that her slow and unpredictable satellite connection hurts her small business.
* Day Four: In remote Spring Creek, residents are trying to revive their town by building a community center that offers a computer lab and space for local businesses, an effort that could prove futile without high-speed Internet.
* Day Five: In Rutherford County, Sam Adams, a senior IBM researcher, was forced to spend thousands of dollars to erect his own broadband tower so he could continue telecommuting.
This report will be showcased at the InternetforEveryone.org town hall meeting on the future of the Internet in Durham, N.C., on Saturday, March 7, 2009.
“High-speed Internet is a lifeline to the outside world, and a chance to overcome the limits of geography, poorly funded schools and a sinking economy,” Tady said. “Five Days on the Digital Dirt Road puts a human face on the urgent need to expand broadband across the nation to ensure the health of our rural communities and our country as a whole.”
Read and watch Five Days on the Digital Dirt Road: http://www.internetforeveryone.org/americaoffline/nc
Learn more about the North Carolina town hall meeting: http://www.internetforeveryone.org/events/durham
{ 0 comments… add one now }