Connecting All Americans

by Joan Durrance
Community Connector Faculty Advisor

Ever notice how conferences in Washington and in other locations that include a senator or a member of Congress always note in the fine print that the presence of the elected official will be reconfirmed at conference time?

Not so with the recent conference, Connecting All Americans for the 21st Century (http://www.pulpny.org/CAM/), co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Commerce: National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Public Utility Law Project. This conference, which focused on telecommunications links in low income and rural communities, brought together an incredible mix of government officials, telecommunications leaders, non-profit organizations, and citizen leaders.

Connecting All Americans promised--and delivered--one Vice-President (Al Gore), two senators (Robert Kerrey, Nebraska, and Conrad Burns, Montana), three members of Congress (Sheila Jackson Lee, Texas; Robert Menendez, New Jersey; and Major Owens, New York), one Cabinet officer, William Daley, Secretary of Commerce, the head of the FCC, and numerous high-ranking governmental officials and representatives of the private sector. The glue that held the conference together was clearly Assistant Secretary of Commerce, Larry Irving. Real Audio versions of the speakers' presentations are available on the conference's website.

The conference delivered even more as it brought together, from across the nation, people who represent projects which show how collaborative efforts in communities are working to connect low-income and rural communities to the Internet and to educational and economic development opportunities.

The featured projects were:

Adirondack Area Network, a rural community network in upstate New York.

Buffalo CityNet, featuring 14 interactive video centers around the Buffalo, New York, area.

The RECA Foundation, featuring the Columbia Basin Public Information Network (CBPIN), which includes the Columbia Free-Net; Community Technology Centers targeting certain populations or locations like the blind, a family learning center, and a low-income housing project; a computer recycling center; and Adopt-a-Page, telementoring, and TeachWeb programs.

Partnership IDEAS Network

Dakota Interconnect

Logan Online at Logan Elementary School in Baltimore County, Maryland,

Hays Medical Center

Conferees heard from speakers whose presentations covered such topics as the Universal Service policies and infrastructure grants provided by the Department of Commerce, problems associated with making information technology equally available to all citizens, and examples of the use of specific technologies as well as models which have been developed to bridge the gap for particular groups of people.

Folks were wined and dined by conference sponsors CISCO Systems, Microsoft, Vtel, WINStar, WIT, Bell Atlantic, Bell South, AT&T and MCI.

Conferees had the opportunity to talk with representatives of ten projects which had been chosen to demonstrate "successful, cutting-edge, urban and rural, large-scale and small-scale, advanced 'on-line' and interactive video, community networking projects that use an array of advanced telecommunications platforms."

The conference showed that if Americans work collaboratively it will be possible to connect all Americans for the 21st Century.