Rural Community Broadband - can we become local and sustainable through new funding?
Now is the time for action. We are making a very important effort to expand rural broadband access through the new funding made available by USDA and the Department of Commerce. There will be many important new programs initiated over the next year to expand rural Internet access and establish a diversity of Organizations providing access which will create new competition and new alternatives to the limited Corporate Telecommunications companies which currently provide access. There is a real need for competition to drive forward the quality and quantity of broadband access for rural Americans.
How will it work this year as we see these new programs unfold?
There are two possible directions in the new funding.
The first direction will see many small rural broadband projects funded, creating diversity, regional sustainability and a serious new market challenge to the limited services provided by large Corporate Internet. This direction will create locally managed rural projects which will establish new resources, create new jobs in the communities being served and empower rural communities to begin taking a more direct, active role in the management and design of their broadband systems. Important here is the challenge which this presents to the USDA and Department of Commerce. These new projects will not create the theoretical large number of jobs and broad range of services proposed by large, much more expensive proposals, but they will establish smaller programs that will in all likelihood have much more rapid start up and a much higher level of local involvement increasing the positive impact on local communities.
The second direction is that we will see large Organizations receive the bulk of funding, creating the possibility of State wide and multi-State rural broadband access to begin taking shape. This will create, at least on paper, a larger number of jobs and larger numbers of individuals served, but at a much, much greater cost and with far less local involvement. Also, the jobs created by these larger projects will not be in the rural communities, instead they will establish large companies that hire where their operations centers are. The larger projects will not create local involvement but once again leave rural communities to wait for large ISP Networks to find their way to the small rural areas.
Based on my experience over the past 18 years of working with rural technology projects the large budget proposals will take far longer to get underway and once again leave rural community residents, small businesses and farms hoping they will be noticed.
I believe it is critically important that we have serious discussion and review of these two possible directions. The history of technology build out in the United States has shown that the very large projects are too often given preference, if for no other reason than because they provide, on paper, much larger statistics. But our experience has also shown that this generally leads to rural communities having little say in the design and application of the services. And the cost is tremendously higher, running into millions of dollars per project, whereas more local, small efforts create new local businesses with sustainable budgets and real local involvement.
So the main question comes up as to whether we are striving for sustainable, achievable rural broadband projects that are built up from the local level or are we going to see projects selected for the statistics?
I began working with rural Internet technology projects in 1991 through National Science Foundation funding and later through 5 USDA RUS distance learning and telemedicine grants. One of the most difficult issues during this time was the shift towards large, Corporate telecommunications services. A tendency that is all to common. Small, locally supported Internet service providers have been gradually forced out of the market because of the larger corporate systems, leaving rural America greatly underserved, if served at all. The new ARRA funding gives us a chance to turn that around and put seriously needed resources into the hands of local organizations. This will encourage new rural business models, give rural communities a real say in what is developed and take us back to the traditional model of American small business as the mainstay of our rural telecommunications systems.
If we take the small, local approach much less tax money per project will be required and far greater local accountability will be established to ensure the success of the projects.
Are we up to this change in approach to American Internet growth? Or will we return to the old model that so far has not worked, giving preference to large projects to give us better statistics on paper?
Through the small, local approach I have seen RAIN Network bring telemedicine and distance learning services to over 150 rural communities since 1997. I know from experience that this approach works and creates a level of local involvement that makes a real difference.
Those of us working at the local level should do all we can to encourage USDA and Department of Commerce to consider the value of small American businesses and not let the new rural broadband funding act as a tool to push small Internet Service Providers out of the market, leaving rural communities with little input and few choices as they endeavor to achieve equal access.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
New Interviews on the California Story Video Web
The California Rural Community Story Project and Video Web has great new video online.
The California Rural Community Story Project brings together rural youth, experienced Farmers and community leaders from 10 communities. The project is focused on the daily life of families who work on small farms and ranches in the tri-counties area of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties.
The Video Project is a new way to tell the Local History of our Rural Communities through a focus on working farm families.
Participating in the videos so far this year have been:
• The San Marcos Honey Farm in Buellton.
• Quailspings Permaculture teaching center and farm in New Cuyama.
• The Rio Gozo Farm and Permaculture Center in Ojai.
• The Orella Ranch in Gaviota, (a 5th generation ranch that now practices sustainable agriculture and Permaculture).
• The Growing Ground Farm in Santa Maria.
• The Filkins Ranch in Santa Paula.
• The City of Guadalupe, (with a special interview with the Mayor).
• Buttonwood Farm in Santa Ynez.
• The Santa Barbara Permaculture Network Farm in Santa Barbara.
All together we have created over 40 hours of video on local farming history.
New in the Fall of 2009 will be interviews with Buellton's oldest Chimney Sweep, a Santa Ynez 4th generation Alfalfa farmer, a Solvang Banker who specializes in work with small Farms, and a special series documenting 3 migrant farm families who have worked in the Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo County area for 15 years.
Visit the CA Rural Story Video web often. We add new videos every week.
Here is some history of the project:
The Rural Community Story Project is designed to provide the tools and motivation to help youth to become involved and take pride in their local communities and farms and at the same time gather new local history that will add to the understanding of rural California life.
The Project encourages students to see agriculture, especially local farming, as a career goal that has a real future.
My Future / Mi Futuro works to create a new multi-media literature which will help re-weave traditional local values which have kept rural families working together for generations.
Our goal is to help build Rural social and economic sustainability through a new understanding of local history.
The project encourages rural youth to recognize that there are important family models and profitable farming models, which do not require migration to urban employment.
The Project leverages new information and video technologies to develop an online documentary about the families, rural communities, farmers and farm workers. The stories, agricultural skills, and community history we explore through the Rural California Story Project build pride in the essential role their families have played in building rural agricultural economies. Economies which are central to the American way of life.
The California Rural Story Project is Produced by Visible Light Distance Learning Network. Founded in 1991, Visible Light has received a Smithsonian Institution Technology Innovation award for work with community schools and 5 USDA distance learning grants for work with rural communities in California and the Southwest.
The goal of the Visible Light Network is to bring youth education, rural development, and sustainable agricultural resources and opportunities together through innovative use of new technologies and learning projects designed for rural youth, families and seniors.
Many American small farmers and farm workers are seeing their children turn away from the tradition of working the land in search of urban education and employment. The California Rural Community Story project unites youth and families in a local history story project that reminds all of us of the values of rural life and lets us learn the story behind the successes that have created one of the most valuable parts of American History, the American small farmer, rural life and rural communities which have shaped the American Story.
Send us your comments on the videos and let us know what you would like to see!
The California Rural Community Story Project brings together rural youth, experienced Farmers and community leaders from 10 communities. The project is focused on the daily life of families who work on small farms and ranches in the tri-counties area of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties.
The Video Project is a new way to tell the Local History of our Rural Communities through a focus on working farm families.
Participating in the videos so far this year have been:
• The San Marcos Honey Farm in Buellton.
• Quailspings Permaculture teaching center and farm in New Cuyama.
• The Rio Gozo Farm and Permaculture Center in Ojai.
• The Orella Ranch in Gaviota, (a 5th generation ranch that now practices sustainable agriculture and Permaculture).
• The Growing Ground Farm in Santa Maria.
• The Filkins Ranch in Santa Paula.
• The City of Guadalupe, (with a special interview with the Mayor).
• Buttonwood Farm in Santa Ynez.
• The Santa Barbara Permaculture Network Farm in Santa Barbara.
All together we have created over 40 hours of video on local farming history.
New in the Fall of 2009 will be interviews with Buellton's oldest Chimney Sweep, a Santa Ynez 4th generation Alfalfa farmer, a Solvang Banker who specializes in work with small Farms, and a special series documenting 3 migrant farm families who have worked in the Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo County area for 15 years.
Visit the CA Rural Story Video web often. We add new videos every week.
Here is some history of the project:
The Rural Community Story Project is designed to provide the tools and motivation to help youth to become involved and take pride in their local communities and farms and at the same time gather new local history that will add to the understanding of rural California life.
The Project encourages students to see agriculture, especially local farming, as a career goal that has a real future.
My Future / Mi Futuro works to create a new multi-media literature which will help re-weave traditional local values which have kept rural families working together for generations.
Our goal is to help build Rural social and economic sustainability through a new understanding of local history.
The project encourages rural youth to recognize that there are important family models and profitable farming models, which do not require migration to urban employment.
The Project leverages new information and video technologies to develop an online documentary about the families, rural communities, farmers and farm workers. The stories, agricultural skills, and community history we explore through the Rural California Story Project build pride in the essential role their families have played in building rural agricultural economies. Economies which are central to the American way of life.
The California Rural Story Project is Produced by Visible Light Distance Learning Network. Founded in 1991, Visible Light has received a Smithsonian Institution Technology Innovation award for work with community schools and 5 USDA distance learning grants for work with rural communities in California and the Southwest.
The goal of the Visible Light Network is to bring youth education, rural development, and sustainable agricultural resources and opportunities together through innovative use of new technologies and learning projects designed for rural youth, families and seniors.
Many American small farmers and farm workers are seeing their children turn away from the tradition of working the land in search of urban education and employment. The California Rural Community Story project unites youth and families in a local history story project that reminds all of us of the values of rural life and lets us learn the story behind the successes that have created one of the most valuable parts of American History, the American small farmer, rural life and rural communities which have shaped the American Story.
Send us your comments on the videos and let us know what you would like to see!
Monday, June 29, 2009
RAIN's Permaculture and Rural Community Projects
Work with Small Farmers, Ranchers and our friends who are helping shape new Permaculture projects has become central to our California Story video project. We have added over 6 hours of new video materials this spring and summer to the project's web site.
Permaculture represents a holistic technique for re-shaping modern communities which embraces all aspects of community life.
• Water management
• Food production and distribution
• Energy creation and distribution
• House design
• Time management
• Re-integration of the Family as a core part of a sustainable community and economy
• Creation of Rural and Urban food forests and neighborhood gardens.
• Socially Responsible Media
All of these represent components of Permaculture Design that will give us the tools to re-weave the fabric of a sustainable world.
There is a need, now, to put in place the tool-kits which will allow us to begin a new education process to help bring permaculture design into our communities.
RAIN Network represents one of the parts of that new tool kit. Using new technologies to expand the range of education and communication RAIN brings to the table essential resources to help us build new jobs, new alternative energy sources and new participatory communication tools.
RAIN’s California Story web site is part of the process bringing new video and learning resources forward for easy access through the Internet. Beginning in 1989 RAIN has worked with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Department of Education, USGS and the National Endowment for the Arts to shape a new media, building an ever-growing Public Internet Broadcasting Network.
Stay close to our core web sites at :
http://www.rain.org/california-story - rural community, Permaculture, small farm and ranch video web - sponsored by the California Foundation for the Humanities
http://www.rainnetwork.ning.com – RAIN’s social networking web
http://www.rain.org/video-magazine - RAIN’s Telemedicine web
http://www.campinternet.net – RAIN’s Smithsonian Institution award winning online education web
https://twitter.com/rain_ca - join RAIN’s Twitter web site to stay in touch as we add new videos and new content
http://www.rain.org – RAIN’s Community web
Send email to rain@rain.org with questions and ideas
Permaculture represents a holistic technique for re-shaping modern communities which embraces all aspects of community life.
• Water management
• Food production and distribution
• Energy creation and distribution
• House design
• Time management
• Re-integration of the Family as a core part of a sustainable community and economy
• Creation of Rural and Urban food forests and neighborhood gardens.
• Socially Responsible Media
All of these represent components of Permaculture Design that will give us the tools to re-weave the fabric of a sustainable world.
There is a need, now, to put in place the tool-kits which will allow us to begin a new education process to help bring permaculture design into our communities.
RAIN Network represents one of the parts of that new tool kit. Using new technologies to expand the range of education and communication RAIN brings to the table essential resources to help us build new jobs, new alternative energy sources and new participatory communication tools.
RAIN’s California Story web site is part of the process bringing new video and learning resources forward for easy access through the Internet. Beginning in 1989 RAIN has worked with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Department of Education, USGS and the National Endowment for the Arts to shape a new media, building an ever-growing Public Internet Broadcasting Network.
Stay close to our core web sites at :
http://www.rain.org/california-story - rural community, Permaculture, small farm and ranch video web - sponsored by the California Foundation for the Humanities
http://www.rainnetwork.ning.com – RAIN’s social networking web
http://www.rain.org/video-magazine - RAIN’s Telemedicine web
http://www.campinternet.net – RAIN’s Smithsonian Institution award winning online education web
https://twitter.com/rain_ca - join RAIN’s Twitter web site to stay in touch as we add new videos and new content
http://www.rain.org – RAIN’s Community web
Send email to rain@rain.org with questions and ideas
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
California Rural Community Story video log - May 2009
The California Story
A video local history of Rural California sponsored by the
California Council for the Humanities
Spring 2009 – from the video production log:
Notes on the beginning of video editing for the California Story –
The Chimney Sweep, the Bee Keeper and the Farmer – our story begins -
The Spring/Summer video editing work is underway. New local history interviews will be taking place during May and June and then we will begin weaving all the materials together.
As video interviews have progressed we have been looking at rural life in this part of California from many different points of view. The memories of local growth and personal success, on the farm and within our rural communities, are diverse and explore the economics, the family and the communities which create Rural Central California.
We are learning our own local history from the eyes of a chimney sweep, a small farmer working to make organic vegetables and fruit a successful business, from the eyes of a rural community Mayor and from the eyes of men and women who have worked the land to make the small farms and ranches succeed. We have begun to explore life and work in the rural zone with a family that has kept bees and made honey for two generations and with families who have created model Permaculture farms and urban farms/orchards that show new ways to build Agriculture and Sustainability into the community.
New understanding and renewed memories have come into our video, sometimes from the most unexpected sources. Farmers, rural community residents, farm workers, each take their place in these videos.
Our experience, in bringing these videos of rural life together, has come to be very much focused on small farms and ranches. Stories from the families who have made these farms and ranches weave an important part of the fabric of this story. Grandparents, parents and grandchildren all have a part of the story to tell
Work on the farms is another issue. The reality of life for farm workers who are the backbone of whatever economic prosperity comes the way of each farm, how does that reality line up with the life of rural community residents and farm owners?
In many respects life in the fields is very influenced by the Catholic faith, very family oriented, very survival oriented. Life in the rural communities is more diverse, although the issues of survival and family are sometimes closer than either the farm worker or the rural community resident would imagine.
Food – we’re not making a Food Channel video, but you can not get very far into rural America without realizing where all the food comes from. The small family farms we have come to know produce organic produce, honey, native and heirloom plants, herbs, olive oil, wine, roasted and flavored nuts, lavender, fruits of all sorts and remarkable new cheeses. Food is, indeed, a central part of the history of rural life.
Along side the farmers are the ranchers. The videos have begun to explore small, multi-generation ranch families working to find new ways to keep working cattle and horse operations going. And such a tremendous role in the shaping of the rural communities the small ranch families have made. Their history has been one of shaping and defining the land and the rural communities which have grown along side the ranches.
These videos explore a unique and historic heritage immortalized in John Steinbeck’s writings and Dorothea Lange’s photographs. Generations of farmers working to carry on a threatened agricultural tradition, remembering their history and imagining their future as they pioneer new crops and products, and innovate new organic growing and processing techniques and new sources of renewable energy. How quickly, in the making of these videos, we have seen the recording of local history pull us straight into the future.
We dedicate these videos to the California Heritage Growers who are agricultural producers and workers on the Central Coast of California in the Counties of Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura. These videos tell the story of their essential role in creating the rural communities in this part of California..
====================================================================================
The California Story is a one year video project sponsored by the California Council for the Humanities and the RAIN Network.
A video local history of Rural California sponsored by the
California Council for the Humanities
Spring 2009 – from the video production log:
Notes on the beginning of video editing for the California Story –
The Chimney Sweep, the Bee Keeper and the Farmer – our story begins -
The Spring/Summer video editing work is underway. New local history interviews will be taking place during May and June and then we will begin weaving all the materials together.
As video interviews have progressed we have been looking at rural life in this part of California from many different points of view. The memories of local growth and personal success, on the farm and within our rural communities, are diverse and explore the economics, the family and the communities which create Rural Central California.
We are learning our own local history from the eyes of a chimney sweep, a small farmer working to make organic vegetables and fruit a successful business, from the eyes of a rural community Mayor and from the eyes of men and women who have worked the land to make the small farms and ranches succeed. We have begun to explore life and work in the rural zone with a family that has kept bees and made honey for two generations and with families who have created model Permaculture farms and urban farms/orchards that show new ways to build Agriculture and Sustainability into the community.
New understanding and renewed memories have come into our video, sometimes from the most unexpected sources. Farmers, rural community residents, farm workers, each take their place in these videos.
Our experience, in bringing these videos of rural life together, has come to be very much focused on small farms and ranches. Stories from the families who have made these farms and ranches weave an important part of the fabric of this story. Grandparents, parents and grandchildren all have a part of the story to tell
Work on the farms is another issue. The reality of life for farm workers who are the backbone of whatever economic prosperity comes the way of each farm, how does that reality line up with the life of rural community residents and farm owners?
In many respects life in the fields is very influenced by the Catholic faith, very family oriented, very survival oriented. Life in the rural communities is more diverse, although the issues of survival and family are sometimes closer than either the farm worker or the rural community resident would imagine.
Food – we’re not making a Food Channel video, but you can not get very far into rural America without realizing where all the food comes from. The small family farms we have come to know produce organic produce, honey, native and heirloom plants, herbs, olive oil, wine, roasted and flavored nuts, lavender, fruits of all sorts and remarkable new cheeses. Food is, indeed, a central part of the history of rural life.
Along side the farmers are the ranchers. The videos have begun to explore small, multi-generation ranch families working to find new ways to keep working cattle and horse operations going. And such a tremendous role in the shaping of the rural communities the small ranch families have made. Their history has been one of shaping and defining the land and the rural communities which have grown along side the ranches.
These videos explore a unique and historic heritage immortalized in John Steinbeck’s writings and Dorothea Lange’s photographs. Generations of farmers working to carry on a threatened agricultural tradition, remembering their history and imagining their future as they pioneer new crops and products, and innovate new organic growing and processing techniques and new sources of renewable energy. How quickly, in the making of these videos, we have seen the recording of local history pull us straight into the future.
We dedicate these videos to the California Heritage Growers who are agricultural producers and workers on the Central Coast of California in the Counties of Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura. These videos tell the story of their essential role in creating the rural communities in this part of California..
====================================================================================
The California Story is a one year video project sponsored by the California Council for the Humanities and the RAIN Network.
Monday, November 3, 2008
California Rural Community Story
Welcome to the California Rural Community Story Project. Through a special grant from the California Council for the Humanities and the RAIN Network we will be taking you on an exploration of the life, economics and values of rural communities in California. For the next year we will be talking with farmers, ranchers, farm workers, rural community leaders and the families who make up one of the most important parts of America.
RAIN Network is one of the oldest non-profit Internet Networks in the United States. Since 1991 RAIN Network has been working to bring technology, especially the Internet, into rural communities in California. Despite the challenges from large corporate networks, we’ve found ways to ensure that Internet has become part of the daily life for schools, health clinics and farmers who otherwise would have been left off the grid because they just don’t represent enough profit to warrant the effort by larger Internet providers.
We’re going to be interviewing youth, seniors, and the families who make the farms and small rural communities in California work.
We’ll be digging into the economics of rural life and most importantly the values that make small farms and small rural communities such an important part of today’s world.
Why do so many young people from rural areas decide to move to big cities?
Why does it take so long for new technologies, like the Internet, to become available to rural communities?
Why is there such a major difference in the availability of health care in rural areas compared to urban centers?
How effectively are new alternative energy resources, like solar and wind power, being brought into rural communities?
The California Rural Community Project will let us explore these issues and see how agriculture, especially local farming and small business, is still a career goal that has a real future for the economy, families and culture of America.
As you watch this program over the next year you’ll learn how we can all help re-weave into our lives traditional local values which have kept rural families working together for generations in ways that help build social and economic sustainability. We will see that there are important family and community models and profitable small farming models, which prove that we do not all require migration to urban centers to survive and thrive in modern America.
Rural America continues to shed its stereotypes: It is no longer a bucolic hinterland inhabited just by farmers, nor is it necessarily economically distressed, though rural poverty remains an entrenched part of the landscape in some areas. Many rural locales are diversifying their economies by attracting unusual new industries and offering amenities that draw in new residents including urbanites eager to escape the stresses of city living.
Do these developments represent a temporary turnaround or is the rebound real.
The number of declining non-metro counties was cut in half during the 1990s, from over 1,200 to about 600.
There is a change taking place. As we watch the decline of Urban economy in the U.S. we are, at the same time, seeing a new growth in rural population and rural economy. Some of the root values of American Society are coming back into play and the California Rural Community Story project will demonstrate just how strong and important rural life is becoming.
If you have comments about Rural Communities in modern America send them to us at www.rain.org. Go to the rural community web http://www.rain.org/california-story and leave us your thoughts and comments.
RAIN Network is one of the oldest non-profit Internet Networks in the United States. Since 1991 RAIN Network has been working to bring technology, especially the Internet, into rural communities in California. Despite the challenges from large corporate networks, we’ve found ways to ensure that Internet has become part of the daily life for schools, health clinics and farmers who otherwise would have been left off the grid because they just don’t represent enough profit to warrant the effort by larger Internet providers.
We’re going to be interviewing youth, seniors, and the families who make the farms and small rural communities in California work.
We’ll be digging into the economics of rural life and most importantly the values that make small farms and small rural communities such an important part of today’s world.
Why do so many young people from rural areas decide to move to big cities?
Why does it take so long for new technologies, like the Internet, to become available to rural communities?
Why is there such a major difference in the availability of health care in rural areas compared to urban centers?
How effectively are new alternative energy resources, like solar and wind power, being brought into rural communities?
The California Rural Community Project will let us explore these issues and see how agriculture, especially local farming and small business, is still a career goal that has a real future for the economy, families and culture of America.
As you watch this program over the next year you’ll learn how we can all help re-weave into our lives traditional local values which have kept rural families working together for generations in ways that help build social and economic sustainability. We will see that there are important family and community models and profitable small farming models, which prove that we do not all require migration to urban centers to survive and thrive in modern America.
Rural America continues to shed its stereotypes: It is no longer a bucolic hinterland inhabited just by farmers, nor is it necessarily economically distressed, though rural poverty remains an entrenched part of the landscape in some areas. Many rural locales are diversifying their economies by attracting unusual new industries and offering amenities that draw in new residents including urbanites eager to escape the stresses of city living.
Do these developments represent a temporary turnaround or is the rebound real.
The number of declining non-metro counties was cut in half during the 1990s, from over 1,200 to about 600.
There is a change taking place. As we watch the decline of Urban economy in the U.S. we are, at the same time, seeing a new growth in rural population and rural economy. Some of the root values of American Society are coming back into play and the California Rural Community Story project will demonstrate just how strong and important rural life is becoming.
If you have comments about Rural Communities in modern America send them to us at www.rain.org. Go to the rural community web http://www.rain.org/california-story and leave us your thoughts and comments.
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