June 13th, 2006, the new YMCA will hold its first Ecommerce Web-Raising in the new Community Technology Center with ports for 18 Internet connections donated by Qwest. The following history of community technology projects might be of interest, perhaps as inspiration for the next chapter in Dillon's story of community technology innovations.

Donations of used computers are needed to equip the new Center!

The Story of the Impact of Internet on Dillon, MT, 1988-2001:

The front page story of Silicon Valley's premier newspaper, the San Jose Mercury News, (October 31st, 2000) was on the impact of the Internet in Dillon, Montana, http://lone-eagles.com/dillonarticle.htm

The Dillon Web-Businesses Directory at http://lone-eagles.com/dillonbusdirectory.htm  lists which local businesses are online. If yours isn't listed, please give us the link!

The article heralded Dillon-net, (no longer online) as a model Community Technology Center.  The Dillon-net Community Technology Center closed its doors in 2001, after having been an awards finalist for the International Rural Innovation Bangemann Challenge 2000 competition held by the King of Sweden. Dillon-net was also an awards finalist two years in a row for the America Online Rural Innovations Competition. Perhaps Dillon is ready to take the next step in demonstrating how the collective will of a community can create a model community center for realizing the potential of the Internet?

NOTE: Read more about Dillon's Internet innovations in this chapter from "The Good Neighbor's Guide to Community Networking" at http://lone-eagles.com/chap2.htm  and "Community Networking - Leveraging the Public Good Electronically"  http://lone-eagles.com/articles/networking.htm This guide was written on contract for the state of Texas and the guide's table of contents is at http://lone-eagles.com/cnguide.htm While this guide is seven years old, the following article and others listed  below are quite recent.

Fall 2006 article: What is Community Networking; And Why You Should Care
http://www.comtechreview.org/fall-2005/000347.html  Many related links are listed in the overall publication.

Rural Community Ecommerce Grant Templates
http://lone-eagles.com/rural-grant-templates.htm

Community Networking Best Practices and Global Citizenship:
A Knowledge Management Trend Report
http://lone-eagles.com/global-citizenship.htm

Many Montana community organizations enjoy having a fulltime VISTA volunteer for a full year for only $3500. The CTC VISTA program specializes in placing volunteers with technology expertise in community technology centers.

The next round of VISTA applications are due at the beginning of July. <http://www.cpcs.umb.edu/vista/guidelines/>  

The CTC VISTA Project Home Page
www.cpcs.umb.edu/vista

Spring 2006 CTC VISTA Project Digest and Articles
http://www.cpcs.umb.edu/vista/digest

Peer-to-Peer Social Networking; The Next Big Thing
http://www.cpcs.umb.edu/vista/digest/?q=node/67

Empowering Americans: CTC VISTAs in Community Networking
http://www.cpcs.umb.edu/vista/digest/?q=node/64

The Power of All of Us? — The eBay Lesson for Community Development
http://comtechreview.org/winter-2004-2005/000261.html

From 1988-1998, the Big Sky Telegraph Network was a national model, based at Dillon's University of Montana, Western campus.  The Big Sky Telegraph Network was created to engage teachers in determining how the online medium could help them share curriculum resources and generally determine how good people can learn to support one another, online. During this same ten year period, the community networking movement rose, and fell, while technologies changed and experimental community-building applications of the online medium were conducted nationally.

When the Big Sky Telegraph project was created, few people accepted getting online was something important to learn. The Dillon-net project created a local community gathering place where young and old could have access to their first hands-on Internet experiences, and could learn from each other about the benefits. Both projects have prepared Dillon for what might be considered the next chapter for how a community can learn about the self-empowerment potential of online learning and collaboration.

Resources in Support of Our Writing the Next Chapter in Dillon's Self-empowerment Story

Grantwriting Tutorials and Funding Sources for Rural Communities
http://lone-eagles.com/granthelp.htm
Multiple existing community grants are listed, such as the Community Bootstrap Initiative, and are intended for reuse without restriction.

The New Goldrush; Mining Raw Human Potential Using Free Web Tools
http://lone-eagles.com/mining.htm
Communities and nations will soon compete on their ability to develop latent human potential.

Creating People-Centered Community Knowledge Networks
http://lone-eagles.com/smart.htm
Exceptional rural community network models and articles.