Project Purpose (20%)

PROJECT PURPOSE (20 PERCENT)

The Problem. Rural America represents 25 percent of the U.S. population and is in the midst of a severe economic crisis. Nowhere are today’s economic hard times felt more deeply than in rural America. Rising prices in land and machinery, continuing downturns in agriculture, and increased global competition have left rural communities throughout the United States at risk for their continued survival. There is an immediate need to revitalize the pioneering spirit that originally created them. Rural Ecommerce and telework development strategies are needed to combat the impacts of a rapidly shifting economy. Rural adults suffer from anti-technology attitudes, and lack appropriate motivation and training to utilize advanced Internet applications. The rural communities of Montpelier, Idaho, and Dillon, Montana, are examples of this. (See Appendixes A and B.)

The need exists to quickly establish a model for rural communities on how to develop a shared vision for a focused community action plan. This will enable communities to adapt to a changing economy to create a sustainable community – while there is still time to do so. Rural communities need to understand how to assess the value of intelligent use of collaborative Internet tools for leveraging the public good by gathering and sharing new knowledge to create new opportunities. The need exists to engage adults in understanding their immediate options to counter the negative impacts of a changing economy. Emphasis will be on the viable empowering opportunities represented by intelligent use of the Internet for building both social and economic value by generating new jobs through Ecommerce and telework.

In the 1980s and 1990s the perceived solution to the exodus of rural people to cities and the downturn in the economy was the installation of the “information highway.” “Build it and they will come,” was the coined phrase of the day. It is significant to note that the proliferation of dial-up Internet did not produce the promised social and economic benefits because rural citizens were not provided the knowledge or skills needed to benefit. The perception molded by mass media is that the computer and the Internet are commonly viewed as time-wasting toys best suited for children.

High-speed Internet infrastructure has become available in many communities, replacing the older, slow-speed dial-up technology. Montpelier, Idaho, has had high-speed wireless for several years and Dillon, Montana, has had it for three years. These communities now recognize the seriousness of learning how to take full advantage of the benefits available.

There is extensive and rapidly growing evidence that Internet infrastructure alone will not transform rural communities. Glowing promises of telecommunication companies have proven inadequate. Only personal, practical experience will prove to rural citizens that there are potential benefits of new technology. Barriers of learning new technology must be overcome. The fear of change and for “learning anything at all” must be addressed.

Rural communities are losing 3 – 5 percent of their population annually and the out migration of youth is decimating their future sustainability. To support rural communities nationally there is a dire need to continually gather and share the best new replicable models for sustainable Community Technology Centers. We propose the most sustainable model as being Ecommerce and Telework Incubator Centers – as a base for Ecommerce skills development. Effective community learning programs are necessary to support online learning about Ecommerce and telework, generating social value, peer mentoring, and improving local collaborative capacity. An entrepreneurial culture needs to be created.

Community members will tell visitors they love their rural lifestyles and do not want to leave their respective areas. But, there are too few jobs and due to the remote nature of their communities, there are few customers for their retail outlets. It is highly unlikely a significant number of new businesses will relocate in these rural communities with limited labor pools. Rural entrepreneurship in small rural communities with a minimal consumer base must emphasize the rapidly growing global market at our fingertips on the web.

Solution and Measurable Outcomes. Initial emphasis will be on creating widespread community awareness as to what is working for others like them, and fast-track skills development to generate visible measurable benefits to motivate citizens as to the value of new knowledge.

Implementation of the following project will create a low-cost, high-value, visible, community-learning program implementing advanced telecommunications applications. It has two major components: (1) A Community Ecommerce Awareness Campaign, and (2) an Ecommerce and Telework Incubator Center.

Community Ecommerce Awareness Campaign

This community-wide campaign will be an opportunity to generate new learning relationships and for-profit services by having local citizens showcase their talents and skills. It will raise community awareness regarding advanced computer and telecommunications applications and to market their skills and new services locally.

1. Multiple events including multimedia presentations on what’s already working in other rural communities. Working in cooperation with local sponsors, events will be held to articulate the purpose and goals of the centers and to stimulate interest in the planned development of new local service e-businesses. Annual celebrations will serve as community self-assessment events. A multimedia fair showcasing skills of local champions will be held to demonstrate new technology applications and to stimulate interest in planning a series of locally driven workshops. (See Appendix C for details on multiple community engagement events.)

2. Online lessons on Ecommerce and telework entrepreneurship based on proven success stories and strategies. Ten two-hour online lessons will be conveniently available to everyone interested which provide a hands-on overview of what is already working for other rural citizens. (See Appendix D.)

3. Creation of a Community Mentors’ Guide to generate fast-track ebusiness skills to create multiple self-employment businesses. A community skills assessment will connect those within each community who have skills they are willing to share with others needing mentoring to gain new skills. Development of new self-employment for-profit technology services to benefit the local community will be stimulated by incentives of advanced teleworker training in return for sustained peer mentoring. Having two communities in the project will be especially beneficial here as mentoring can be done online between communities effectively doubling the talent pool. (See Appendix E for Community Mentors’ Guide model.)

Ecommerce and Telework Incubator Centers

In both Dillon and Montpelier, the buildings, staff, computers, and high speed Internet are all in place. The Montpelier site has two centers. One is sponsored by the local hospital that seeks an Ecommerce training component as essential to community wellness. The other center in nearby Paris, Idaho, with considerably more space and computers, will work in partnership with the telemedicine center.

The problem is that today only 16 percent of rural citizens are entrepreneurial. This center program serves to accelerate creation of a rural entrepreneurial culture, an evolution which has just begun as evidenced by the majority of rural citizens who have used online auctions or know someone who has. To achieve the primary goals of new income and social value, “Ecommerce and Telework Incubator Centers” will be created to assist both communities in initiating the following entry-level Ecommerce activities: (See Appendix F for expanded explanation.)

1. Entry level online auction and Ecommerce services to engage potential new entrepreneurs. To raise curiosity, commission-based online auction services will be offered to the community to turn items brought to the center into cash. At this level, no technical experience will be necessary.

2. Fast-track e-business skill development to include entry-level online auction and Ecommerce entrepreneurship training. Essential Internet skills will be taught at each center to those who are afraid of the Internet or otherwise have a lower skills level. Hands-on online auction skills will be taught along with computer entrepreneurial and Ecommerce skills.

3. Creation of an Ecommerce incubator (e-mall) to bring local new and existing businesses online. A web-raising event will launch an e-mall as the local web community content resource for e-business and collaboration. Existing and emerging new businesses will be offered the opportunity to get on the web quickly using web templates and/or low-cost Ecommerce store builder services.

4. E-marketing initiatives for the community, its new Ecommerce businesses and the new Community Cooperative Skills Registry. Using the marketing skills and services of the regional Small Business Development Centers, a priority will be collaborative e-marketing of local businesses, emerging new businesses, the skills of local citizens, and the community as a whole. A Community Cooperative Skills Registry similar to an example from a successful telework business in Scotland (See Appendix G) will be created along with electronic resumes. Both communities will maintain a local online newsletter as an ongoing e-marketing strategy and self-evaluation mechanism for the community to monitor its own progress throughout the project’s timeline.

Creating an Entrepreneurial Culture in Rural America

The initial attraction of the “Incubator Centers” will be demonstration of how online auctions can easily turn common items into cash to generate self-employment businesses; employability skills using digital photography, art, and music; and learning to "learn and earn" in a friendly, non-threatening environment. Continuing motivation and enthusiasm will be ongoing as people begin to tutor/mentor others, develop new for-profit services and develop and sell new products via online auctions, e-malls, and individual web sites. “It is the perfect idea at the perfect time,” says the author of “EBay Drop-Off Centers Sprout on Main Street USA.” (See Appendix H.)

Essential skills needed to benefit from the Internet will be made available during open hours as short training sessions. These sessions like those listed above will be presented for self-directed learning. People whom initially just “drop off products” for sale will soon become hands-on users mentoring others in the use of the public resources of the computer lab. These learning skill units (after browsing and searching) can be addressed in any order depending upon the specific needs and interests of the participants.

Training will be made available in a variety of forms so people can apply whatever method best suits their needs. Building upon extensive existing curriculum for essential Internet skill development as well as online Ecommerce and telework lessons, Lone Eagle Consulting will customize training materials specifically for this project. (See Appendix K.)

Essential skills needed to benefit from the Internet will be made available in the form of individualized training using computer-based training (CBTs) and one-on-one, small groups in more formal settings with instructions for hands-on learning, mentoring others, and developing learning circles.

Modules using these delivery systems will be developed and include but are not limited to the following:

· Browsing Basics

· Searching Basics

· Email Basics

· Listserv Basics for Group Collaboration

· Web-Authoring Basics

· Digital Photography and Photo-Manipulation Basics

· Digital Art Tablet Basics Multimedia Basics

· Downloading and Installing Software Basics

Help will be available for those wishing to have their own web site. Participants need only to learn a few basics and then have someone help them, show them, or do it for them depending on the participant’s needs and levels of motivation to learn. These sites will be linked back to the e-mall to create a community of learning and assistance to everyone. For example, the e-mall could supply the expertise for collecting money and helping to distribute the goods. Once again by people looking at other sites, they will gain an understanding of what’s working for others.

By working together on these learning projects, it will become evident that not all people will have to learn everything. By pooling their expertise and by collaborating with each other, it will take less time for people to start using the more useful aspects of the Internet for their own individual purposes.

As people learn Internet skills and learn what others are doing, there will be a need to provide lessons in small business start-up, home-based businesses, and entrepreneurship. Lessons will be offered in a similar way as the skills lessons. These skills will be offered via the Internet, by two-way distance learning, or by classroom work.

INNOVATION (30 PERCENT)

The simplicity and common sense of the low-cost, high-value community activities of this project, combined with the immediate opportunity for replication due to the online availability of curriculum, mentors, and peers from a sister community make this project unprecedented in preparing for high impacts and widespread dissemination.

Citizens will be able to learn skills in the short term to take them from being rote beginners with computers and Internet to being confident Internet self-directed learners as well as being able to mentor others, online and offline, for a profit or just out of their own goodwill. Demonstrated enthusiasm from previous technophobes will be a significant innovative outcome of this project.

The Center’s plan for future sustainability will include an online community auction house service, an Ecommerce incubator, and a community e-mall to generate its own income while at the same time serving the needs of the community.

The incentive of additional skills training to develop for-profit services will continue to stimulate participation in this unique community program in partnership with the Centers. Citizens will offer many services including digital photography applications, digital art, web authoring, music recording, family multimedia scrapbooks and more. As awareness grows for the products and services that can be produced with computers, new opportunities to offer for-profit services will emerge to provide the support for an economically sustainable center.

Collaboration with people living in similar circumstances many miles away will prove the benefits of working and sharing. As ideas are exchanged and people learn what’s working for people in other locations, online collaboration with different countries and the world could emerge thereby benefiting many cultures and opening even wider markets than previously thought.

One of the more innovative aspects of this project is other rural communities interested in emulating this project will have direct online access to the project’s full plan, the extensive Ecommerce curriculum, and the ongoing progress posted online as regular newsletters by the participating communities.

Innovations of this project build upon the knowledge and resources created by past projects including previous Technology Opportunities Program incubator grants and other past major rural development projects such as ACEnet, the Kellogg’s “Managing Information in Rural America” project, the MIT Camfield Estates project and Hewlett Packard’s digital community initiative.

DOING FOR OURSELVES – TOGETHER – COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT (10 PERCENT)

The premise of this entire project is “Doing for Ourselves – Together.” There are many built-in incentives in this project for community involvement at both the individual and group levels. The project presents small bite-size learning blocks in a very logical succession of methods whereby the community will prove to itself what it can achieve. Very specific multiple measurable outcomes provide for community ongoing self-assessment.

This project will involve the four main pillars of rural communities – education, business, health care, and government encouraging citizen engagement at all levels. The superintendent of schools in the Bear Lake School District (Montpelier) arranged a full-day workshop for approximately one hundred district teachers and continues to support learning activities. Successful Ecommerce businesspeople will share their success stories with both communities. Bear Lake Memorial Hospital, recognizing a positive economy is vital to community wellness, has offered continued support to Ecommerce training. The Governor of Idaho has set aside incentives for capital investment in broadband capacities in rural areas. (See Appendix I – Letter from Trent Clark.)

Citizens will receive incentives to mentor and involve others, to create new web-based content, and to increase new service businesses. Conversations with local citizens indicate that after years of innovations raising local awareness, the rural citizens in Dillon and Montpelier are at last ready for the robust scope and scale of this project.

EVALUATION (10 PERCENT)

Mr. Steve Cisler has agreed to be the external evaluator for this project. He currently is a librarian and telecommunications consultant who has been involved with community networks since 1986. In the 1990s, while at Apple Computer, Inc., he made grants to libraries and communities that were building Free Nets and other community networks. He convened two community networking conferences, Ties That Bind, in 1994 and 1995 that brought together networkers from the United States, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Mexico, and Germany. He headed a project to free up unlicensed wireless spectrum (5 GHz band) for public use. In 1996 he helped found what is now the Association for Community Networking and since then has been active in rural United States and in Latin America to help grow community technology information projects.

A graduate assistant from the College of Business will be employed to gather ongoing data for evaluation purposes. This position will be supervised by Lone Eagle Consulting.

The first six months of the project will be used to design and conduct a pre-assessment for community readiness to use as a baseline.

Throughout the project as indicated in the Timeline (Appendix L) evaluations will be taken for all ongoing activities. A variety of instruments will be used including measuring server traffic, enrollments, the mentors’ roster, the skills register, individual resumes, etc. All instruments will be developed with the assistance of the external evaluator.

A post-assessment will be conducted at the end of the project. The data will be summarized and compared to the pre-assessment and the compared to business trends in Idaho, Montana and the U.S.

As the Timeline indicates (Appendix L), at the end of the project, these reports will be compiled and distributed.

EXTENSIVE RESOURCES AND PROVEN EXPERTISE – FEASIBILITY (20 PERCENT)

Primary partners for this project include with Idaho State University’s Special Programs office in the College of Technology, the Montana Job Training Partnership, (MJTP) Lone Eagle Consulting, the Greater Bear Lake Valley Chamber of Commerce in Montpelier, Idaho, and the Beaverhead County Commissioners in Dillon, Montana. Long-term relationships already exist between key partners and multiple existing projects and resources support the sustainability of this project. The primary organizations that will provide support for the project include the following: Monsanto Company, Bannock Development Corporation, Idaho’s Workforce Training Network, Eastern Idaho Development Corporation, Bear Lake School District No. 33, Bear lake Memorial Hospital, ISU Institute of Rural Health, Partners for Prosperity, The Greater Bear Lake Valley Chamber of Commerce, Beaverhead Chamber of Commerce, and Beaverhead County Commissioners. See Appendix K for their letters.

The Idaho State University Special Programs office has participated in economic development projects to identify ways to bring economic relief to Idaho’s economically depressed communities. A pilot project was funded in FY02 with state rural economic development funds to create an Ecommerce project in Montpelier for individuals to develop personal skills and a plan of action for self-sufficiency. The success of this project has inspired this proposal.

This project’s design is based on direct grassroots implementation and decades of seeing what has and has not worked in dozens of other projects. The sheer volume of the community planning resources (see Appendix K – Major Training Resources from Lone Eagle Consulting) available to participating communities at the beginning of this project is in itself noteworthy. The social recognition and attention to the direct and immediate benefits to individuals as well as to their communities make this project believable and exciting to potential participants. (See information on successes in both communities in Appendixes A and B.)

The Montana Job Training Partnership (MFTP), through a new five-year demonstration grant from the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Disability Employment Policy, addresses the needs of Montanans to understand the many ways they can earn income through Internet Ecommerce and telework strategies. This project is redefining workforce education by addressing systemic change and is summarized at http://lone-eagles.com/MJTPChoiceProject.htm. This project’s premise is that Ecommerce opens a global market and can start with something as simple as eBay, an online auction site. Our rural communities are suffering out-migration of youth, representing the loss of future citizens and the vitality of a rural way of life. Further, people with disabilities have little to no job opportunities. To determine their own destinies, they will have the opportunity to quickly learn the rural Ecommerce and telework strategies, which are already working for others. The demonstration project has benefited from online courses and printed training resources developed by Idaho State University and Lone Eagle Consulting. The partnership between MJTP, ISU, and Lone Eagle Consulting has already resulted in yet another innovation: the Lone Eagle Self-Employment Incubator at http://lone-eagles.oldcolo.com .

Individuals who will carry out the project, Ms. Margaret Phelps and Mr. Frank Odasz, (See Appendix J) collectively have had years of experience in conducting these types of projects. Both have rural backgrounds and understand the difficulties facing rural citizens. Mr. Odasz has many years of experience in community networking and Ms. Phelps routinely does education and training in rural communities and is involved with economic development in Idaho.

Timeline

Both communities will engage in planning during the first six months of the project to involve as many local citizens and organizations as possible. The Centers will open six months after the project begins. At the same time the centers open, major presentations/events will mark the grand openings.

Beginning with the seventh month, the e-malls will be established. Technology fairs, multimedia events, and tutoring/mentoring will take place. At the beginning of the second year, the Community Cooperative Skills Registy will be developed and teleworker resumes will be posted online documenting new marketable skills. Emphasis will be to learn e-marketing techniques and work on Ecommerce business plans. Workshops for small business development and entrepreneurship will be offered.

At the end of eighteen months, data will be summarized for the final reports and evaluations. (See Appendix L for a full graphical timeline.)

Conclusion and National Impact (Working Together – We’ll All Have Access to All Our Knowledge)

As an immediate dissemination strategy, the evaluation, curriculum, and anecdotal information will be available online for replication by communities who can self-identify their readiness. These additional communities will be supported as partners via a subscription online newsletter designed to become a sustainable resource after the project’s completion. Separate from the two local community newsletters, a national/international newsletter will serve the mission to empower all rural communities by providing a serious collection point for ongoing success stories, community curriculum, key resources, and specific inclusion strategies designed for rural communities.

APPENDICES

Montpelier, Idaho

Homesteading the Ecommerce Frontier in Montpelier

http://lone-eagles.com/montpelier-story.htm

Idaho’s population is 1,193,953 and encompasses a total of 82,747 square miles. There are 15.6 people per square mile. The population of Montpelier is 2,785 with a per capita income of $12,364. Montpelier has had high speed wireless for several years, but only after one year of community Internet awareness-raising events co-sponsored by Idaho State University and Lone Eagle Consulting have the local leaders interested in the cause for creating a community Emall and hosting their own community awareness-raising events.

The following is the trail of stories, events, and resources showing how a small Southeast Idaho town is coming to understand the potential of local high-speed wireless Internet for citizen involvement, capacity building, and Ecommerce- to create an economically sustainable community. Our hope is this story will serve to inspire others to take action to determine their own destinies.

In February 2002, presentations on "True Community Internet Empowerment" were given in four Southeast Idaho communities. Five persons attended the Montpelier presentation. This included the president of the Greater Bear Lake Chamber of Commerce. As a result, the president helped in a follow-up presentation.

In February and March 2002, Margaret Phelps, director of the Idaho State University College of Technology Special Programs Office, contracted with Frank Odasz, of Lone Eagle Consulting, to create a low-cost online class specifically intended to be a first online learning experience for rural citizens to raise their awareness. An article was written to set the context for the current challenges under discussion: "Homesteading the Ecommerce Frontier" http://lone-eagles.com/Ecommerce-homestead.htm

In April 2002, a presentation was held at the local Oregon Trail Museum Theater with 35 persons attending. At the conclusion, over a dozen individuals signed up for the online course "Rural Ecommerce and Telework Strategies" which was announced for the first time at this event.

In May 2002, a special presentation was given to the local hospital staff. (Hospital Presentation Flyer – http://lone-eagles.com/montpelier-hospital.htm) The Bear Lake Hospital administrator supported this local Ecommerce awareness as a component of community wellness and, requested a special presentation for his staff to explore its possibilities.

In June 2002, after several follow-up visits by Idaho State University staff - an event was planned as a fundraiser for a local community improvement project and to help raise local awareness regarding entry-level Ecommerce opportunities represented by ebay.com. The event was titled "A New Age Garage Sale."

As time passed, a steering committee was organized in November 2002 to define future directions. And in January 2003, forty-two persons attended an "Introduction to Ebay" workshop presented by local Ebay expert, Jared Caldwell.

In February 2003, three days of awareness and training events were hosted by the first Bear Lake Technology Fair using primarily local experts. These events included: A hands-on exploration of existing Rural E-mall models and related web sites; training students to use search engines to gather graphics and create web pages; and, Family Multimedia Scrapbooking sessions, teaching digital photography, digital storytelling, web authoring, CDROM authoring, and other family-oriented multimedia applications. Other workshops presented by local experts included: Photographs Restored Digitally; Digital Music; Digital Art; Internet for Dummies; Internet Ecommerce Success - Tips For Getting Started; and, Ebay Questions and Answers

There were outreach presentations to neighboring communities presented shortly after the Technology Fair. The first "Kick-off" three-hour presentation was given in Soda Springs in direct response to the interest created by Montpelier.

In February 2003, the Ecommerce steering committee decided to create a community E-mall. They have volunteered many hours finding shopping carts, registering as a non-profit business, setting up checking and credit card accounts, and finding business partners who would like to begin selling their products online. “Clover Creek Mall" will soon be open for business at http://clovercreekmall.com with approximately ten businesses selling products ranging from handmade quilts, lotions, jewelry, and woodcarvings.

In March 2003, the first formal rural development Ecommerce grant was submitted. Local Ecommerce success stories have begun to be identified and shared regularly in the local newspaper along with motivational articles to raise awareness on how rural citizens are learning to benefit from Internet opportunities. Most were surprised at how many success stories existed just down the street!

A Rural Ecommerce Success Story (http://batsbatsbats.com and
http://lone-eagles.com/montpelier-bats.htm) has evolved. The janitor from the high school retired after creating a successful Ecommerce business selling baseball bats globally. This model can be replicated for many other products. There are 50-120 packages shipped daily, both nationally and internationally. He has successfully homesteaded his global niche and is expanding with five new websites.

As of February 2003, the number of interested leaders has grown significantly and neighboring communities have begun to request presentations to help them better understand what they, too, can do on behalf of their own futures. The Montpelier Ecommerce steering committee is defining a mission statement and meets regularly. A community Ecommerce grant has been written and submitted, and an E-mall is being created to host local business web sites. A major three-year grant project is under development to bring Montpelier's success to other Idahoan communities.

APPENDICES

Montpelier, Idaho

A Beginners Guide to Profiting from the Internet

Community Mentors’ Guide