Rural America Starting To Close Broadband Gap

Rural America is starting to catch up with urban America when it comes to broadband. A new Pew Foundation report indicates that rural areas showed faster growth in home broadband uptake duringthe past two years and the gap between rural and non-rural America in home broadband adoption, though still substantial, is narrowing.

By the end of 2005, 24% of rural Americans had high-speed internet connections at home compared with 39% of adult Americans living elsewhere. In 2003, 9% of rural Americans had broadband at home, less than half the rate (22%) in urban and suburban American. For overall Internet use – by whatever connection from any location – the penetration rate for adult rural Americans lagged the rest of the country by 8 percentage points at the end of 2005 (a 62% to 70% margin). This is about half the gap that existed at the end of 2003. Click to read report.

Satellite Broadband Advancing

Satellite-based broadband connectivity may be a truly viable option for states such as West Virginia thanks to continued advancements in the technology.

Telecom giant Inmarsat is weeks away from launching the second in a series of two super-satellites -- designed to be among the most powerful commercial communications spacecraft in orbit -- that will beam broadband data and voice services to almost any location on the planet.
The I-4 satellites will serve as switchboards in the sky for Inmarsat's Broadband Global Area Network, or BGAN, service, scheduled for rollout in 2006.

BGAN subscribers will be able to use a portable terminal as small as their laptop computer to surf the web -- or connect with the office LAN -- at broadband speeds of up to 492 Kbps. Company officials say their network will cover 88 percent of the globe's landmass.
Source: Wired Magazine

Web Site To Help Teach Small Business Technology

The West Virginia Chamber of Commerce and the West Virginia High Technology Consortium Foundation have created a new Web site designed to educate small businesses on beneficial technologies and applications. The site, www.wvconnectivity.net, is part of an ongoing statewide program to encourage small business people to use broadband and Web-based technologies to improve business performance, expand market opportunities and enhance competitiveness, according to a chamber press release.

The new program is called the West Virginia Small Business Technology Education and Competitiveness Initiative. The Web site is designed to:

• Generate greater demand for and use of broadband connectivity options among West Virginia small businesses, and
• Expand awareness, adoption and use of new Web-based technologies and business-solution technological applications that are available to improve West Virginia's small business competitiveness, performance capabilities and market reach.

"We have compiled a great deal of useful technology information on this site to make it easy for small business people to explore and consider new uses of cost-effective technologies," said Steve Roberts, President of the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce." Most small business people do not have the time nor the capabilities to keep up with the latest business technologies and applications, so this site makes it easy for them to learn and stay informed," Roberts said.

"The site also will have a searchable of technology companies and service providers in West Virginia so small businesses can link with these technology solution providers." The site also has information that showcases how broadband connectivity can benefit community improvement, education, public safety, health care, economic development, "home-sourced" jobs, Roberts added.

The Coming Commoditization of Processes?

Provided is an excerpt from a thought-provoking article:

"However, a new world is coming, and it will lead to dramatic changes in the shape and structure of corporations. A broad set of process standards will soon make it easy to determine whether a business capability can be improved by outsourcing it. Such standards will also make it easier to compare service providers and evaluate the costs versus the benefits of outsourcing. Eventually these costs and benefits will be so visible to buyers that outsourced processes will become a commodity, and prices will fall dramatically. The low costs and low risk of outsourcing will accelerate the flow of jobs offshore, force companies to look differently at their strategies, and change the basis of competition. These changes are already happening in some process domains, and there are many indications that they will spread across virtually all commonly performed processes."

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/news/management-focus/the-coming-commoditisation-of-processes/2005/08/08/1123353247508.html?oneclick=true#

Indiana Schools Enrolling Open Source

Schools in Indiana have started a Linux pilot project that could lead to every secondary-school student in the state using the open-source operating system, according to software company Linspire. The Indiana Access Program is designed to provide affordable classroom computers for every secondary student. This program makes these systems available with the partnership of Indiana-based companies, benefiting the local Indiana economy.

Linspire, which sells a version of Linux aimed primarily at consumers, said "dozens" of classrooms across Indiana have already deployed the open-source operating system on desktops. If the trial is successful, around 300,000 Linux PCs could be deployed over coming years. This would allow every secondary-school student to have access to a Linux desktop in each classroom they visit during the day.

Proponents of open-source operating systems say school systems can save money by not having to pay the licensing fees associated with non-open source systems, such as those from Microsoft and Apple.

Technology Combines Pen, Paper & Internet

Several European companies are collaborating on a new pen-and-paper technology that will allow users to digitally record and transmit everything that is written down or drawn. What makes it different from similar systems is that all of your notes, drawings or handwritings are stored and then can be seamlesslly available to you - or the friends or colleagues you designate - from anywhere that you can access the Internet. Or they can be sent to your mobile phone. Medical professionals, architects, graphic artists - or anyone who works with pen and paper, or needs to share written information quickly - could find this a more convenient system than keeping notes with a hand-held organizer, tablet PC or anything else with a keyboard. Another possible market fis companies that use paper forms, such as insurance companies and pharmaceuticals. (Click to read full story.)

Fiber Project Announced For West Virginia

Fiber to the home may be coming to West Virginia communities in the near future. A Virginia company has announced plans to build a series of open-access broadband networks in communities across West Virginia.

Using ultra-high-capacity fiber optic cables, iTown Communications Inc. can deliver telephone, video, high-speed Internet, home security and other data services to homes, school and businesses, company President and CEO Keith Montgomery said.

The first network will be built in Beckley and in Raleigh and Fayette counties, Montgomery said. Parkersburg and Bluefield signed on last month and other communities are in discussions with what the company calls the West Virginia First Project.

The company plans to install its own fiber network in communities, stringing cables along utility poles with individual drops to homes and businesses, just as telephone and cable companies have done. In each community, iTown would set up a separate public/private company to build the network, he said.