Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[mdthomas AT mindspring.com]

InterNetWorkers <internetworkers AT franklin.oit.unc.edu> wrote:
> ... for broadband access in rural areas 
>is under attack by the phonecompanies.

>See: http://www.news-observer.com/daily/2000/03/28/biz05.html


>But does this help bridge the "digital divide"?

Good question... This issue puzzles me. The article doesn't
make it clear if the broadband is meant to reach the remote
farms or the remote factories.... This starts to make more
sense to me if they are trying to build a network aimed
at business consumption, so that somebody could set up an
e-business or response center in Wilbar, NC as easily as
Raleigh, NC. Or else, why is broadband so much better than
dialup? I definitely don't see the difference to be "as 
important to economic development today as rural                              
              electrification was in the 1930s."

Regardless, I still have two issues with this:

*I agree with the phone companies that education and
training are at least as important in addressing the
"digital divide" problem, or else no one from Wilbar
will be able to work at the Wilbar e-business. Without
an equal commitment to education, N.C. will drive it's
"first in roads, last in education" reputation right
on to the Information SuperHighway.

*I'm from a rural N.C. county -- the "Great State of 
Wilkes." I always know when I've arrived back in
Wilkes County b/c the road gets bumpy and narrow. This
is true of many of the state's "politically incorrect"
counties. I'm very interested in knowing how the 
"underserved" counties we're selected by Gov. Hunt.

...But then, Wilkes county tried to secede from N.C.
back in the early 19th century, and we sat out of the
Civil War, so maybe Wilkes and Raleigh still have some 
bad blood... :-) We're not un-American though... every
elementary schooler from Wilkes knows what the branches
of the Tory Oak behind the courthouse were used for..