• Wanted: Broadband and Broader Minds

    The success of rural e-commerce requires fast connections to the Internet, but according to educator Frank Odasz, flexible leadership is just as critical as technology.

    08/27/2008

    eleutian logoLogo for Eleutian.com: based in Wyoming, training Koreans to speak English with online instruction
    Image: eleutian.com

    As a technology professional in rural Montana, I had thought rural broadband was all about technology. And it’s true that the infrastructure needed to support most rural communities is subpar at best. So with that thought in mind, I sat down with Frank Odasz of Lone Eagle Consulting to discuss rural broadband and e-commerce.

    Odasz's company, based in Dillon, Montana, offers a culturally diverse set of Internet training guides and online courses in e-business. Lone Eagle Consulting specializes in what Odasz calls "instructional entrepreneurship." Resources available on the Lone Eagle website are vast and deep, with information on development, education, and technology in rural communities. Talking with this expert on rural technology education issues has changed the way I think about rural life.

    For over ten years, advocates and government officials have been pushing to increase the availability of rural broadband Internet service. The Pew Foundation has estimated that, as of 2007, 47% of urban/suburban Americans had broadband Internet access at home, and 71% have some kind access to the Internet. In rural areas, the broadband percentage drops to 31%, and only 60% of all rural residents have any Internet access at all.

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Arts and Culture | People to Know
My Near Brush with Bluegrass

fiddler thumbLearning a few fiddle tunes, you can move off to California and never surrender "Appalachian citizenship."

08/22/2008
Health
AIDS Is Spreading Faster in the Rural South

aids map thumbThe Centers for Disease Control underestimated new cases of AIDS by 40%. And many of those newly infected with the disease are rural people who have not considered themselves at risk.

08/25/2008
  • Democrats In Denver Wonder If Obama Can Win Rural

    Can Barack Obama win rural American voters? That's the question Democrats face at their convention in Denver.

    08/26/2008

    Sen. Barack Obama campaigned in Emporia, Virginia, in mid-August.
    Photo: Obama Campaign

    We at the Yonder are well aware that the most fascinating news of the day is that cattle tend to point north/south when grazing. Researchers don't know exactly why — maybe it's to help even out body temperature — but two-thirds of most herds are oriented according to the N on the compass.

    Democrats are not nearly so orderly. The party is gathered in Denver this week and they are, at this stage, pointed all directions. In particular, there is much discussion about how rural residents will vote. It's an important question. Bill Clinton was the last Democrat to win a plurality of rural votes, and he was the last Democrat to win the presidency. Both Al Gore and John Kerry lost the election in overwhelmingly Republican votes outside the cities. Now it's Barack Obama's turn and the consensus is that he will have a hard time winning in most of rural America.

    There are several stories out today about Democrats' chances of winning again in rural communities. The Democratic keynote speaker, Mark Warner (former Virginia governor and now campaigning for the Senate), told The Politico that in order to win Virginia, Barack Obama must connect in the rural parts of the state. Warner was pleased that Obama had campaigned recently in Lynchburg, Emporia and Martinsville — that the last presidential candidate to come to Martinsville was Dwight Eisenhower. "There are some cultural connections that you've got to make, guns being one of them," Warner advised.

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Yonder Flash

From Mark Warner's Keynote, a Rural Success Story

There haven't been many mentions of rural America in the major speeches at the Democratic Convention. This story, however, come's from Mark Warner's keynote address:

"Let me tell you about a place called Lebanon—Lebanon, Virginia. Lebanon is in the coalfields of southwest Virginia, and everyone in that whole town could fit right here on the convention floor. Lebanon is like many small towns in America. It has seen the industries that sustained it downsized, outsourced, or shut down. Now, some folks look at towns like Lebanon and say, "Tough luck. In the global economy, you've lost."

"But we believed that we shouldn't—and couldn't—give up on our small towns and expect the rest of the state to prosper. And that's what brought me, towards the end of my term, to the high school gym in Lebanon to announce that we were going to bring over 300 high-tech jobs, jobs that paid twice the county average.
One student told a reporter from The Washington Post that before this, he always thought he'd have to move away to get a good job and raise a family. I just heard from this young man, Michael Kisor. Today, he is a junior at Virginia Tech. His older brother just moved back home to Lebanon because there was an information-technology job open for him, that was just too good to pass up.

"That's a story worth rewriting all across America."

08/27/2008