Connecting Rural Communities Local Leader FAQ

1. How do I get started?
   
   Start by going through the “Learn Key Concepts” section to help you learn about the steps to take to become a connected community and the advantages of having and using broadband technology. In the “Facilitate a Team” section, you’ll begin to think about your community and who might be a good champion for leading the community through the process.
   
   
   
2. Can I team with others?
   
   
   Absolutely. A really great team might include a person who knows about technology and a person who is a good community facilitator.
   
   
   
3. Who should be invited to be on the core team?
   
   
   Community members with enthusiasm about the Internet are key players. Consider inviting a different group of people than the same ones that get asked to help with every other project. Try connecting with youth and older adults, educators, non-profits groups, places of worship or the volunteer fire department. Be inclusive and make sure that all segments of the communities' population are represented.
   
   
   
4. What is a suggested timeline for doing a Connecting Rural Communities project?
   
   
   Start with a small project that your community can accomplish in a few months. Even if your community goal is to increase the broadband infrastructure in the community, you'll need to start by introducing residents to the benefits first. Offering some demonstrations or classes, or facilitating individuals and groups sharing how they are using technology with each other is an important first step to getting more technology in the community.
   
   
   
5. What if I don't know enough about the technology?
   
   
   You don't have to be the expert. Learn the basics through the online guide and presentation materials on the website and then find others who are knowledgeable and can work with you to help others learn.
   
   
   
6. Is there a minimum or maximum size of a community to work in?
   
   
   You need a critical mass of people in the community to be interested enough to show up for events and discussions. A very small community may not have enough people to be able to change their current infrastructure situation. Large metropolitan areas probably have pretty good Internet infrastructure overall, but maybe the Internet is not being used much in a given neighborhood. These 'pockets' might benefit from some of education and content creation projects.
   
   
   
7. Can a community be a region, or a community of interest?
   
   
   Yes. Small adjacent communities may benefit from joining together to get a greater number of participants. You could also work with groups from a specific neighborhood, ethnic background, age group, etc., although you will most likely work with education and content creation projects or possibly creating community technology centers for these groups.
   
   
   
8. Why is Extension involved?
   
   
   Extension has always aimed to create better homes, better citizens, better communities, better rural living. Knowledge and use of broadband service has become a necessary infrastructure for economic and community development in the 21st Century global economy.
   
   
   
9. What is expected of an Extension Educator?
   
   
   Get the conversation started. Find a team of people and invite the community to start thinking about their future. Find a local champion who can carry the community discussions and projects forward. An Extension Educator is not expected to be the person to oversee all the community projects that get designed.
   
   
   
10. What results do you expect from this?
    
    
    Communities include the Internet as part of their visioning and economic development processes; and broadband is considered necessary infrastructure in the same sense as roads, water and sewer.

Find a Team

Most Connecting Rural Communities projects start with an individual or a small group of individuals who realize how important broadband services and the use of digital technologies are to their community's economic and social well-being.

Whether you are only going to work on a few small projects or undertake a multi-year initiative to build digital capacity across the community, you need to recruit and organize people that will energize and guide the project from start to finish. You will need both a project champion and a leadership team.

Most successful connecting communities projects will have one or two individuals who acts as project champions. The champion should understand how digital technologies can benefit individuals and organizations in the community. The champion needs to be able to communicate these benefits in non-technical terms. The champion will:

• Recruit Leadership Team members.
• Organize Leadership Team meetings.
• Arrange for one-on-one or small group discussions with key community leaders.
• Identify and recruit residents to serve on Connecting Rural Communities project teams.
• Attend meetings of community organizations such as governmental boards, service clubs, non-profits to discuss the Connecting Rural Communities project and its role in moving the community into the Information Age.

Do you have a few people in mind who might be your PROJECT CHAMPION? If so, type their names in the Brainstorming section below.

The Leadership Team

You will need a team of community members to help you start this process. These should be people that strongly believe that information technology is crucial to the future of the community. Be inclusive; everyone has a stake in creating a connected community. Team members should represent:

• Government
• Public safety services: police, fire, and EMTs
• Citizens
• Health Providers & Services
• Youth groups
• Education: K-12 to College, both public and private
• Businesses: large and small
• Work at home moms and dads
• Nonprofits
• Economic Development
• Telephone Companies, Cable Companies, Electrical Utilities, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and other existing or potential broadband vendors
• Anyone with a interest in the project

The leadership team of 3 to 9 members will direct and coordinate the process of identifying potential connecting rural communities projects. They should understand (or be willing to learn about) the benefits that digital technology will bring to the community's children and families, schools, businesses, government, libraries, and non-profits.

Members don't have to be technology experts. The team will be more effective if there is a mix of community experts and technology experts. Community experts are individuals who are influential and know the community power structure. Technology experts include IT directors and staff from community-based organizations including government, business, healthcare, and education.

Leadership Team Responsibilities

Leadership team members will network with the formal (governmental, business, religious and non-profit/foundation) and non-formal (social organizations, service clubs) leaders in the community.

The key responsibility of the leadership team is to guide the process of increasing digital development in the community. Because digital development is a process that occurs over time their responsibilities and activities will evolve. The leadership team will likely be directly involved in the initial projects. As the project evolves - engaging additional organizations and the number of projects grows - the leadership team will take on other roles including coordinating communication between project teams and facilitating teams through the process

Here is a blank Leadership Team Identification Worksheet (PDF) that can also be used to identify potential leadership team members.

Assess What You Have

Assessments are an important part of the Connecting Rural Communities process — use them but don't get stuck in assessment mode for too long.

Before you start calling people to work with you on Connecting Rural Communities projects, it will be helpful to do some assessments to answer as many of the following questions as possible.

• How ready is the community to undertake connecting rural communities projects?
• Who are the formal and non-formal decision makers in the community?
• How widely is information technology used by organizations in the community (public and private)?
• Are there any on-going community projects focusing on the digital divide or information technology (public access through schools or libraries, training, improving access to broadband, etc.)?

Engaging community leaders is a critical element of successful Connecting Communities projects. The key is to identify community leaders and technology experts who are willing to work together to increase the diffusion and adoption of digital tools across the community.

A quick assessment of the community's history of working together on issues will help you gauge how the community leaders will come together to develop and implement connecting community projects. The Community Readiness Assessment (PDF) is designed to gauge the level at which community leaders and organizations will collaborate to identify, develop and implement Connecting Communities projects. If your community has a history of not working well together on projects, this project will likely have the same outcome.

Benchmarking assessment tools provide a snapshot of your community use of the Internet and digital tools. These tools provide information critical to setting goals for your Connected Community and identifying projects that you can implement to reach those goals. The Connecting Communities project champion, leadership team, or a group of community leaders can use the following tools:

• Community Internet Access and Infrastructure Assessment (PDF)
  This quick start assessment tool identifies the types of Internet connections and bandwidth available to the community's residents, businesses and the public sector.
• Community Use of Digital Technology (PDF)
  This tool provides a quick assessment of how individuals, businesses and the public sector are using digital technologies.
• Community Digital Initiatives Inventory
  This tool provides a quick assessment of what digital initiatives are underway or being discussed in the community.

A quick assessment of the technology infrastructure and use of digital technology in your community will give you a starting point before you begin to get goals and identify projects. What connectivity is there? What training is there and how is it being used?

What if you don't know what's available in your community? Ask others — city or county government personnel, colleagues, or community members who might know. Ask the local Internet service providers what they offer locally. If you don't know who the service providers are, look in the yellow pages of the local phone book under "Internet" or search the internet for "internet services providers" in your state.

Don't get bogged down with the assessments. The assessment tools in this guide are designed to provide a lot of information but do not require a consultant. Remember that connecting your community is a process and it is more important to get started than have very detailed information. As your Connecting Communities project gathers momentum you will be able to identify the appropriate tools to gather the information you need and conduct more extensive assessments.