The Initiative Gets Coverage at Cornell

Shannon Lane, Coordinator of the National e-Commerce Extension Initiative recently made the journey to Hyde Park, New York to present at the 2010 Strategic Marketing Conference hosted by Cornell University Cooperative Extension. Addressing an audience of both Extension professionals and businesses looking to adopt technology into their marketing plans, Lane's presentation focused on an overview of the National e-Commerce Extension Initiative including the Initiative's online learning modules, grants programs, and training opportunities for Extension Educators and the clients they serve.

The National e-Commerce Extension Initiative Awards More Mini-Grants

On November 12, the Initiative's Advisory Board selected two more mini-grant applicants who will receive funding for their e-commerce based workshops. Dr. Allison Davis, Director of the Community and Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky was awarded a mini-grant for a "train-the- trainer" program based on the Helping Artisan Reach Global Markets learning module. Her application stressed an engagement and awareness focus among Extension Educators in Kentucky. With a large and active artisan population in the region, the success of targeting educators to implement this learning module into their community programming efforts is almost certain.

The second funded mini-grant application came from Dr. Abelardo Rodríguez, Community and Economic Specialist with the University of Idaho. His request for workshop funding centers on the first ever bilingual e-commerce workshop offering, using the learning curriculum, Web site Basics: A Primer for Hispanic Small Business. Rodríguez will be focusing in on a four county area of Idaho that has shown to have a rapidly growing Hispanic population and will be in partnership with The Latino Economic and Development Center, Inc. (LEAD Center) who has been awarded federal funds to operate public computer centers in the region. With such a strong partnership and a clear need for bilingual learning in e-commerce, this project is sure to have some outstanding participant outcomes.

Please don't forget that the next round of applications will be accepted until Wednesday, January 26, 2011 with award notification issued on Friday, February 11, 2011. For further information and the complete RFP please go to: http://srdc.msstate.edu/ecommerce/grants/minigrants.html

The Impact of Broadband Speed and Price on Small Business

The availability, speed and price of broadband services vary significantly between metro area and rural businesses, according to a study released today by the SBA Office of Advocacy. The study, entitled The Impact of Broadband Speed and Price on Small Business, found that when prices are held constant, rural small businesses get less service compared with metro small businesses. When services are held constant, rural small businesses pay higher prices than metro small businesses. The Office of Advocacy was directed to conduct this study by Congress under the Broadband Data Improvement Act, Public Law 110-385 Section 105. The study surveyed small businesses to evaluate their options to broadband services. Follow this link for the complete article issued by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Broadband divide still exists, study finds

by Grant Gross

Low-income, rural and some minority groups continue to lag significantly behind other U.S. groups in broadband adoption, according to a new report from the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

Sixty-four percent of U.S. households had broadband service at home as of October 2009, up from 51 percent in 2007, said the report, based on a survey of 54,000 households by the U.S. Census Bureau. Another 5 percent of households connected to the Internet through dial-up service, compared to 11 percent in 2007. Please click here for Gross's complete report summary.

Broadband Maps

Mapping broadband in America connects consumers and industry with useful information about broadband where they live and work. Use the interactive map below to learn more about a range of issues related to broadband deployment as discussed in the National Broadband Plan . You can browse detailed information by clicking on "Tabular Data" at the bottom of the page. The map is based on the FCC's best estimate today, and is built on public and commercial data sources. Click here to read more.

Economic Opportunity Highlights

While broadband enabled technologies have clearly brought tremendous economic benefits, the benefits have not reached enough businesses, communities and American workers. Ensuring innovation flourishes across all aspects of the broadband system—broadband networks, devices, and applications—is crucial to the future of the country. The FCC will partner with businesses, including women-owned and minority-owned enterprises, as well as investors and entrepreneurs from all backgrounds to support a flourishing digital economy, and ensure that all Americans can enjoy the benefits of broadband opportunity. Follow this link for a complete listing.

Broadband usage grows in U.S., but gaps persist

by Joelle Tessler

The U.S. still faces a significant gap in residential broadband use that breaks down along incomes, education levels and other socio-economic factors, even as subscriptions among American households overall grew sevenfold from 2001 to 2009.

What's more, even when controlling for key socio-economic characteristics, the U.S. continues to confront a racial gap in residential broadband use, with non-Hispanic white Americans and Asian-Americans more likely to go online using a high-speed connection than African-Americans and Hispanics. Click here to follow Tessler's report.

Why Isn't the Price of Broadband Obeying Moore's Law?

by Christopher Mims

The U.S. government doesn't keep an index of broadband internet prices by which to evaluate the success of its broadband promotion policies - the statistics they do have are mushed together with prices for dial-up access - so a couple of researchers at Northwestern University decided to build their own.

What they discovered is that broadband internet prices have remained nearly stagnant since 2004, despite the explosive pace of adoption since then - from approximately 20 percent of U.S. households in 2004 to more than 65 percent today. Click here for the complete article.