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A Web Tour of Opportunities for Rural Innovation
by Frank Odasz, Lone Eagle Consulting
Email: frank@lone-eagles.com

Click through this web tour at http://lone-eagles.com/bresnaninvitation.htm

Take a minute and go to http://searchme.com and enter  "Frank Odasz"  and see the Flash display as one example of a more compelling way to display search results. Note the extensive rural resources, too.  Add the keyword "native" and you'll see only the Lone Eagle Native resources displayed. Please consider helping share these resources and those at http://lone-eagles.com  along with supporting the creation of new distance learning opportunities to help rural folks understand what broadband offers them for e-learning, supplementing their family incomes, and preserving their cherished rural lifestyle.

One quick example of the quality of resources online is anyone can get a rural telework job quickly at http://contractxchange.org 
There is a short video, and features to check the suitability of your connections for telework, etc.  The other quick demos below are suggestive of what rural folks need to become acquainted with, perhaps in a style customized for rural and Native Montanans.

This Australian model of free distance learning is a great example of using free tools and video instruction. www.thirtydaychallenge.com We could do something similar for Native Entrepreneurship, but more focused on cultural self-expression through digital storytelling. (Ignore any fee-based product offerings at the Australian site and you can still learn a great deal about web 2.0, ecommerce, and search engine optimization.)

Since I created the Big Sky Telegraph in 1988 to connect one-room schools "online" I've been innovating in Montana regarding e-learning, community networking, and since 1998, as Lone Eagle Consulting with online courses and projects teaching rural ecommerce and telework strategies.

 The www.fcc.gov/indians  site will soon host a Lone Eagle Broadband Training Best Practices Clearinghouse, in case Bresnan would like to be the first corporate sponsor. Below is a brief Lone Eagle update and Bresnan’s potential sponsorship of broadband training best practices in Indian country, and for rural communities is invited. 

I trust you're familiar with www.eleutian.com (rural Wyoming telework centers teaching English to Koreans via 2-way video/fiber optics, courtesy of their partner in innovation: TCTWest? ) 
Take a quick look at this first short article with photos below - as an example.
Daily Yonder Rural E-newsletter Article: Wanted: Broadband and Broader Minds
http://www.dailyyonder.com/wanted-broadband-and-broader-minds  Rural Telework, Youth E-entrepreneurship, and rural broadband benefits.

Rural Community Economic Sustainability and Global Competitiveness
This was shared at the Montana Economic Development Association conference. Share this online at:  http://lone-eagles.com/meda2008.htm  A short article with Ecommerce success stories, a Smart Community Quiz, and has details on the Fort Peck Community Ecommerce Project http://lone-eagles.com/fort-peck.htm   and the pending Wyoming Ecommerce Network - http://lone-eagles.com/wyomingrcdproject.htm    both as models for how Bresnan can grow rural demand for Broadband services.

Take a quick look at http://ted.com and imagine Bresnan sponsorship of rural Montana Ecommerce and telework success stories in a brief videos format along with online instruction and services designed for rural and Native citizens. The Kevin Kelly video (19 minutes) on the next 5000 days of the web is a great example of what rural folks don’t know they need to know. (Strongly Recommended)
Can we simplify these trends and help guide rural folks to the best of the best “broadband benefits” which meet rural needs?

A draft letter for rural communities in Montana and Wyoming, and beyond, which Bresnan and Lone Eagle Consulting could send out is at http://lone-eagles.com/rural-solutions.htm .

If you're at all interested in growing the number of rural citizens able to benefit from the promise of broadband in these difficult economic times, let's talk about it.

Yours,

Frank
PH: 406 683 6270

The Lone Eagle letter to Senator Tester has details on my DC, FCC, Tokyo and other major events - with emphasis on rural and Native American Internet training.  http://lone-eagles.com/tester.htm    Lone Eagle has presented on Indigenous broadband applications for international conferences in Canada, Mexico, Australia, Jamaica, and Japan.

Lone Eagle September 2008 Update

I'm very interested in creating online courses for educators and all rural citizens addressing youth E-entrepreneurship, Global Citizenship, online service learning, and more, as noted below.

Briefly, Lone Eagle presented on rural broadband applications for 21 nations in Tokyo March 2008, presented on the same topic for the FCC Indian Training Initiative in July, and would like to create an online course titled "Global Citizenship" to help K12 educators teach students about  21st Century workforce skills and trends as noted below.

July 2008: Completed creation of a 3 credit graduate course for K12 Educators for New Mexico State University's RETA Program: 

"Web 2.0 for K12 Classrooms."
If you'd like to explore this new online course - go to http://reta.nmsu.edu/moodle and login in as ID: franko  PSWD: moodle1  and scroll down to "Web 2.0 for K12 Classrooms."  It covers social media basics; blogs, wikis, podcasting, social networking, widgets, and many multimedia formats. The lesson text for lessons 11 and 12 addresses global themes related to poverty reduction, teaching entrepreneurship in primary grades to grow a global entrepreneurial culture in 5-10 years, and the commercialization of online learning. In short; how we'll learn to earn, online as part of a global information society and economy.

This is what I'd like to create and teach next - noting I've been teaching K12 educators online since 1988: 
(For ten years I've taught the courses at http://lone-eagles.com/teachercreated.htm  )

Online Course Proposal: Global Citizenship: 21^st Century Workforce Basics
Designed for K12 educators, parents, and including hands-on activities for youth of all ages, this course covers the essential concepts for global citizenship with emphasis on meaningful participation in the global information society and economy. Global citizenship demands an appreciation for cultural diversity, and an understanding of the emerging social media dynamics for social entrepreneurship, youth E-entrepreneurship, rural revitalization, global service learning, and establishing trusted relationships.

Simple things like coining the term "broadband entrepreneurship" could be huge in the short term with the sudden national interest in rural communities.  It is inevitable someone has to address WHY current rural BB hasn't resulted in significant E-entrepreneurship innovation and the question will soon loom large due to the 20 Billion FCC spectrum auction that will result in new rural BB offerings. "What's the best a rural community with BB can do for itself?"  It is timely to begin asking the common sense questions such as "Do BB Training Best Practices Exist?" Where can we find examples of success?

Presenting these issues for 21 nations in Tokyo, March 2008:
The Global Rural ICT conference context is described at http://lone-eagles.com/tokyo-report.htm

The Lone Eagle formal 15 page whitepaper is quite readable, and has MT and AK case studies:
Social Engineering  http://lone-eagles.com/social-engineering.htm

A short summary of the draft report advising global collaboration regarding rural telecenters best practices is http://lone-eagles.com/tokyo-summary.htm The formal final report will be completed very soon and I'll forward a copy to you.

These are vitally important and timely global issues and I'm in touch with many international opportunities for which Montana could become THE showcase for how to engage rural citizens and Native Americans in motivated engagement in innovation.
(The Indigenous Commission for Communications Technologies in the Americas http://www.iccta-citca.org/ENG/home.html  and www.telecentre.org )

The question stands: Where does the promise of broadband meet rural needs?

Below are examples of the synergies between broadband entrepreneurship and the Green revolution.

This site http://www.nextgenweb.org/broadband-is-green/  suggests an emerging synergy between energy issues, green businesses, and broadband connections to solutions as they emerge - all to be ideally complemented with an Egov and smart communities component.

National Extension Ecommerce Initiative  (grants for Ecommerce curriculum authoring)
http://srdc.msstate.edu/ecommerce/

Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution-and How It Can Renew America
by Thomas L. Friedman   (This is the sequel to "The World is Flat.")

www.one-economy.com   promotes broadband poverty reduction training applications and presents best practices in video at their beta site  www.pic.tv

http://www.intelligentcommunity.org    "The broadband economy?"  I don't see rural solutions specifically, but they allude to having them.

Capturing the Promise of Broadband for North Carolina and America
http://www.e-nc.org/2008/pdf/Broadband_report_composite.pdf   June 2008 (100 Pages)

September Articles by Lone Eagle:

Health Information Technology, Rural Broadband, and Common Sense
http://lone-eagles.com/hit.htm

The New Digital Citizenship Imperative:
Engage to Create Positive Change, Locally and Globally
Now that we can, we must!  
http://lone-eagles.com/citizenship.htm