Design the Future

Many communities may have similar goals and strategies, but each community will have a unique vision of their digital future.

Getting Everyone on the Same Page

The assessment process in the Prepare stage gives you an idea of where your community is now. Getting everyone to understand the value of being a connected community and creating a shared vision and strategies to get there are the next steps.

Here are some things for the “To Do” list:

1. Set a date for a community event to learn about being a connected community and decide about becoming one. Be inclusive — every segment of the community should be invited.

2. Determine how the community will hear about it. Advertise it. Create a 'community buzz.'

3. Invite a local or regional expert to help present at the meeting. This could be someone from a neighboring 'connected community' or a state or local educator or perhaps someone from an Internet Service Provider.

4. Use these PowerPoint presentations to help show the community what connected communities are and how businesses, organizations and individuals can benefit. Select from the following PowerPoint presentations, or modify them to create your own:

   • What are Connected Communities?
   • Case Studies of Connected Communities
   • Why Broadband Matters
   • Business Use of Broadband
   • Broadband in the Home
   • Types of Broadband
   • Community Technology Assessments
   • Broadband Delivery Models
   • Broadband Public Policy
   • Digital Development

Then, answer the question "Do we want to be a Connected Community?"

Assuming the answer is yes, move on to design solutions or set a date for a next meeting to design the solutions.

Design Solutions for Connecting Your Community

Once your community has decided to become digitally connected, the next step is to select specific ways to get there.

Seeding ideas about specific technology projects will help groups better understand what broadband is, how it is used, and how it can benefit the community. Individuals who see benefits in a technology are more likely to adopt and use it, especially if significant number of other community members are doing so.

Two strategies are suggested for your group use. Use the Card Game or the Community Projects Checklist.

1. The Card Game is a set of cards that have project ideas printed on them. Groups sort and prioritize the cards to come up with a set of project ideas that best lead to their idea of being a connected community. The card game takes a couple of hours to play.
   
   
2. The Community Projects Checklist is a set of statements that groups can decide which ones are true for their community. There are pre-defined projects associated with each statement. The checklist limits the number of project possibilities so groups can move quickly through the selection process; it could take as little as 1 hour.

The outcome of the designing the future meeting should be several doable tasks or projects, each with a team, a designated leader and timeline.

The projects may be in the categories of (1) access and infrastructure, (2) applications and education, or (3) community content.

• Access & Infrastructure: Connected communities make every effort to ensure all residents have access to digital technology tools regardless of social or economic status. This is usually accomplished by providing access to computers, printers, high speed Internet and productivity applications through organizations open to the public. Where is public access to information technology tools available in your community?
• Applications and Education: Education and training on using information technology tools and software is readily available to individuals and organizations in connected communities. What organizations provide basic education and training on using email, word processing, spreadsheets, databases and browsing the WWW in your community?
• Community Content: It is easy to find information about organizations and community life in connected communities. Connected communities may have a community portal that contains information about businesses, schools, social organizations, community events, local government and local issues. Does your community have a web site?

Access & Infrastructure

Form an Infrastructure Committee

Start by figuring out what infrastructure and access your community has now. Tasks for the committee might include:

• Create a map of broadband coverage in your community.
• Invite the local telephone companies and other broadband providers to a meeting to discuss what their near and long-term plans are and how they might help fill coverage gaps.
• Make a list of any public access locations in your community.

With a little bit of knowledge about your community's infrastructure, you can start to think about holding community meetings to discuss what the community broadband needs and wants are.

The availability of broadband infrastructure in the United States is growing but rural communities continue to trail suburban and urban areas according to reports from the Federal Communication Commission reports and Pew Internet research.

The barriers to expanding broadband services in rural areas include:

• The high cost of deployment due primarily to the low population density
• Lower return on investment required to deploy broadband infrastructure
• Lower customer demand for broadband services in rural communities versus more densely populated areas

Incumbent telephone companies, cable companies and other private sector broadband providers are often unwilling to upgrade or deploy broadband infrastructure because of these barriers. Even where it exists, broadband service often costs more in rural areas than equivalent service in urban and suburban communities.

Even faced with these barriers many rural community leaders have undertaken a variety of projects to increase the availability of affordable broadband services in their community. You will find brief sketches of several successful community projects in the case study section of this guide.

The strategies available for improving community broadband infrastructure range from:

• Doing nothing and waiting for the private sector to provide service
• Actively working with the local phone or cable company or a private Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP) to deliver the service
• Developing a public private partnership or municipal broadband delivery and many other solutions.

Any of the strategies other than doing nothing will require an investment in time at the minimum. Local leaders will need to mobilize a technology project team to assess the situation, identify the strategy that "fits" the community, develop and implement a plan of action.

Community Content

Form a Community Content Committee

Committee Tasks:

• Determine if the community portal, if there is one, meets community needs.
• Determine content categories for a portal
• Research portal software costs and types of content modules available.
• Enlist volunteers who will agree to keep content current.
• Create use policies for contributors to the portal.

What distinguishes connected communities is how they use technology to improve life in their communities. Creating and sharing community content is an essential part of the process.

Community content:

• Meets the needs of many audiences: citizens, visitors, newcomers, businesses, and local organizations.
• Is available from many sources: local government and non-profits, local business and community groups, churches, hobbyists, citizen-journalists, and individuals.
• Comes in many formats: calendars, faqs, checklists, polls, articles, reports, interactive maps, videos, podcasts, real-time webcasts.
• Is produced locally but made available worldwide via the Internet.

Most rural communities could benefit from having a community portal. A community portal is a downsized, localized, and editable version of the portals you see on the Internet. Common community portal features include:

• Event calendars
• Local news
• Free classified ads
• Discussion forums
• Links to local business and organization websites

Local organizations and registered community members can edit, and update their own posts.

The key to creating a successful community portal is creating a really useful and easy to use site for the local community and anyone who is interested in it. It doesn't really matter what organization runs or sponsors the portal. What does matter is up-to-date and accurate information!

Examples of connected community portals include:

• Blacksburg Electronic Village was the first community-based portal and a model that many projects follow.
• BlackHills Today is a commercially sponsored portal serving the Black Hills region of South Dakota, Wyoming, and Nebraska.
• goTriCounty.com is a local community portal for Beaufort, Hyde, and Washington Counties in North Carolina sponsored by a local telecom provider.
• Today in Ashland, Oregon uses software donated by a local portal developer to offer free community portal.
• Blaine.net is a community portal serving for the border city of Blaine, Washington.

A community may have a number of portal sites: city and county governments, Chamber of Commerce, local newspaper, local Internet Service Provider (ISP), or even a community site run by a single dedicated individual. Each offers its own view of the community.

Although community portals can be useful, they are rarely all that interesting to read.

There are three things that folks really like to do online: find information, shop for bargains and new or quirky products, and be entertained.

Some folks like the challenge of creating their own content and making it available on the WWW. Some write their own blogs, others hang out virtual communities like MySpace.com.

Other forms of content:

• News: WestportNow.com is a community news site not a community portal but it's eye-catching photography and excellent writing makes it a popular local destination. The site is a good example of community news site where veteran journalists mingle with citizen-journalists.
• Regional Blogs: Blogging in the Inland NW provides thumbnail sketches of bloggers in the Inland Northwest (Washington, Oregon, and Idaho).
• Podcasting and videocasting are becoming popular ways to share information and viewpoints — so now there are audio blogs and video blogs as well as blogs.
• Video Depositories: YouTube and Google Video let any one put their videos online for the world.

While many of us love our local community, sometimes our interests are so different it's hard to find kindred spirits. One way is to reach out online: put up a blog about collecting cruise ship decals, Irish stamps, or your trip to the Hockey Hall of Fame and you will find an instant community.

Applications & Education

Form an Education Committee

Almost every Connecting Communities project can benefit from establishing an Education Committee. Connecting Rural Community teams can develop educational projects that range from news articles or community events to increase awareness about the benefits of broadband service, small group hands-on training on using the Internet and one-on-one sessions for key individuals that will help individuals and organizations understand the benefits broadband services hold for them and improve their ability to use the technology. It is important to note that educational projects focus on how individuals and organizations can use the technology as tools to meet their needs. Programs should be structured to meet individuals where they are in their journey into the Information Age.

Education Committee Tasks

• Conduct an assessment to determine existing Information Technology (IT) training opportunities available in the community. The assessment should include information about the organization providing the training, the skill level necessary to participate in the training and cost. Maintain contact with these organizations as the education plan is developed. A good approach is to provide training that introduces participants to the technology and productivity tools and prepares them for the more advanced training often provided by technical schools and colleges.
• Identify training topics that meet the needs of individuals and organizations. Popular topics that help beginners learn how to use the tools and identify how technology can benefit them include: surfing the Web, email, and website development.
• Identify individuals with IT skills who could volunteer to conduct the training. Be creative. Your volunteer pool should include professional IT workers and professional educators as well as individuals who use the tools in their work or personal life. They may be retired seniors or high school students.
• Coordinate the training schedule with the Community Center facilities.
• Get the word out.

Community Awareness

Community projects provide the opportunity for community leaders to positively influence the community's future economic quality of life. Community awareness programs should be designed to increase awareness in at least three areas:

1. The impact of digital technologies on current and future jobs, education and training opportunities, healthcare, business opportunities and recreation
2. The benefits and opportunities digital technology provides to individuals, businesses and organizations
3. Opportunities for individuals to get involved in Connecting Communities projects

This information can be delivered in many venues including special community-wide meetings, events for key community leaders and presentations at community organization meetings such as service clubs, Chamber of Commerce, senior citizen meetings and local government meetings.

These meetings should include a combination of presentation, show and tell and small group discussion to actively involve the participants as much as possible. In addition to increasing awareness about the opportunities afforded by digital technology, these educational events also provide a way to gather additional project ideas, identify key volunteers who can help with additional projects, obtain valuable information that can be used to move projects along more rapidly, and identify situations or individuals who may slow down the connecting communities initiative.

Productivity Tool Training

Computers, the Internet, and productivity software provide a wealth of opportunities to increase business and government productivity, expand markets for products and services, gather and process information and help individuals learn new skills or improve on existing skills. Unfortunately, a significant portion of the population in most communities either doesn't have access to these tools or doesn't know how they can benefit from them.

Connecting Communities projects can be implemented to provide training on the use of computers, access the Internet and productivity software (browsers, word processing, spreadsheets, Web site development software, presentation software, etc.) The training should focus on the needs of those being trained, not the technology. This level of education shouldn't be trying to train people to design, manufacture, or repair computers. We all use tools called cars to improve our lives. Few of us fully understand how they work and even less know how to fix them when they break. We use cars to improve our quality of life and economic well-being.

The training should be hands-on and free or low cost. Use the training facilities in the local schools or other public entities and ask volunteers to conduct the training sessions. The Internet and a browser are great introductory training tools. As individuals find they can find information on just about any topic and stay in touch with friends and family across the world they quickly forget they are learning to use a computer and technology. Classes on word processing, spreadsheets, email, Web site development software and presentation software can be offered next as the demand rises.

Keep in mind many of the individuals may be novice computer users. Keep the focus on how the tools can help them meet their needs. Use the KISS method. Most beginners and even intermediate users don't need to know all of the features of a software package. Teach what is needed to accomplish the task they are interested in learning. Don't spend any more time than necessary on how the hardware works. Have the participants turn on the computer, run the mouse and use the keyboard. Hands-on means the learner's hands are on the computer. Not the instructors!

Organizations in Connected Communities use information technology effectively and efficiently to communicate, produce, deliver and access information and services. Training programs can also be offered as part of the Connecting Communities project to increase the ability of stakeholder groups in the community, to explore the benefits of and learn how to adopt information technology tools. Although some of these programs may not be free, they can be offered at a greatly reduced cost at times and locations convenient for the stakeholders.

Following are some examples of targeted programs:

1. Government Programs
   

   eGovernment programs are offered through University of Minnesota Extension and Penn State Cooperative Extension. These on-line guides provide information that helps local governments get started developing eGovernment sites or improve existing sites. Government officials and employees could be trained on eGovernment skills in the Community Center training lab. The Madison New Jersey Borough government used the Community Center training room to teach employees word processing, spreadsheets, databases and GIS software.

2. Business Programs
   

   For years, big business has used information technology to research, develop, manage, and evaluate products, services, and markets. Now, small businesses can too! Small businesses commonly use accounting software; with training, they can add additional tools to make or save money. The Internet can be used to research their competition, locate suppliers of products and services, interact with state and federal governments, market the products and services across the world and conduct business with other businesses (B2B). Community projects should provide educational programs to help small business owners learn how to benefit from the information technology.

   University of Minnesota Extension has an on-line eCommerce Guide. The curriculum that accompanies this guide has been adopted by several Cooperative Extension systems across the country to provide hands-on eCommerce training for small businesses.

   The Education committee should survey the business community to determine how they are using information technology and identify types of training that should be offered through the Connecting Communities Project. Search the Internet for on-line resources that can be used to meet business needs and work with the local Chamber of Commerce and other organizations that provide education and training to determine how the training can be delivered.

Create an Action Plan

The Action Plan helps make the Dream a reality. Encourage project teams to make it as concrete and specific as they can.

Create an action plan based on the goals and projects selected during the Dream the Future process.

Developing a plan and timeline for the objective you have decided to work on will help you identify the steps required to accomplish the objective.

• Each action step should be concrete and measurable.
• Identify the people and resources needed to accomplish the objective.
• Develop a realistic time frame for accomplishing the objective.
• Avoid giving in to "scope creep." A team doesn't have to do everything, just what is necessary to accomplish its objectives.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the action steps.

Note: Additional information on creating Action Plans is available in Penn State Cooperative Extension's Choosing Our Direction Work Book 4 (PDF).

Implement & Evaluate

Team building, learning about broadband, goal setting, and project planning all lead to this stage: Getting the Project Done!

The project teams work independently. The leadership team members check in with the teams and support them as needed.

Consider bringing all the teams together monthly to share their progress. Project teams can use a blog or wiki to document their progress and keep everyone working the project up-to-date.

Project teams use the Action Plan to guide them through the process of developing and implementing their projects. Use the Project Action Plan to develop your own action plan.

Document everything. Use this information to tell the story of your community.

It is important to be able to answer the following questions: What have we accomplished? What do we need to do? What have we learned?

Use the Project Progress Log to track each team's accomplishments.

Each project should have specific, measurable objectives that can be evaluated during and after the project implementation. The project action plan identifies these objectives.

The Connecting Communities project itself should be evaluated on an on-going basis to see how well it accomplishes the following objectives:

1. Raising the level of awareness among community leaders about the availability of broadband services in the community.
2. Increasing the level of adoption and diffusion of digital tools by organizations and individuals in the community.
3. Finding community leaders who are willing to take the next step in initiating Connecting Community projects.

The same tools used in the "Assess What You Have" section can be used to evaluate the progress a community makes toward achieving its goals.

The leader's role is not to run the project but to support those who do.

Strategies may include pointing the leadership team to financial resources, possible partners, educational resources, and skilled outside consultants or organizations.

It is important that the community itself implement the design, rather than rely on the leader or outside consultants. The leader, while not the implementer, needs to remain engaged with the leadership team to measure progress and intervene if necessary.

Tell Your Story

Connecting Communities projects can demonstrate open communication and generous sharing of information and strategies in their community and to the outside world.

The Connecting Community leadership and project teams need to keep the community up-to-date about their progress. Some tools they can use are:

• Blog on a free webserver like Blogger or Wordpress.
• Maintain a project bulletin board at a local library, community center, or government office.
• Publish articles in local papers.
• Give interviews on local radio and television.
• Report on progress at town meetings.
• Make presentations at community organizations like the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, garden clubs, etc.
• Distribute brochures about the project.

Once your Connecting Communities project is completed or some of the goals are accomplished, tell your story to a larger audience. Your community has accomplished a great deal — now it's time to enjoy your "bragging rights." By sharing your story, you are helping other communities build their digital future. You can share your story using these tools:

• Add your project to our list of Connecting Rural Communities Projects.
• Issue a press release.
• Make presentations at regional and national meetings.
• Make your project reports available online.