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Forks Community Network

What is The Forks Community Network?
The Forks Initiative serves the Albion, Michigan and the greater Calhoun county community. It is a community-wide project that provides local access to electronic information. Its mission is to research, develop and implement information technologies that help build a stronger community. The Forks offers a community information system in the form of an informative web page, but also takes the form of a more substantial public initiative. The Forks is an active, ambitious, and well funded initiative to bring the benefits of information technology to the greater Albion community.

What is the purpose of The Forks?
The Forks initiative notes the rapid change in American society in communicating information with computers and the Internet. The Forks believe opportunities exist for communities willing to embrace it, but are concerned their local community is not prepared to do so.

The objective of the Forks initiative, broadly stated, is to provide a means for building an infrastructure supporting economic development, improved educational opportunities and a better way of life for the community. In essence, their goal is a breath-taking attempt to transform the way the college, local government, schools, libraries, businesses, community centers and individuals alike access, acquire and use information. This is perhaps summed up well in the name of the full project given to the W.K. Kellogg foundation: "Enhancement of Communication and Educational Processes in the City of Albion and within Albion College."

About the Community
Albion College is located in Albion, Michigan, approximately ninety miles west of Detroit and one hundred seventy-five miles east of Chicago. The City of Albion is a small community of 10,000 inhabitants, and has been described as a post-industrial city. Its declining industrial base, and its high unemployment rate in comparison to other Michigan cities of its size, have caused rather severe economic distress. Its ethnic makeup is approximately thirty-one percent African American, five percent Hispanic-American, and sixty-five percent white.

Central to The Forks initiative is Albion College, a major provider of intellectual capital for the project, and physical housing of information resources. Albion College is a private liberal arts college founded in 1835 and affiliated with the United Methodist Church. It is a coeducational institution with an enrollment of 1,450, equally divided between men and women.

Accessibility
One of the major goals of The Forks initiative is the development of technology awareness and skills in the community. As a way of meeting that need, The Forks is providing computer and Internet access to the community, as well as training. Albion College, Albion Chamber of Commerce, Albion Public Library and the Albion Volunteer Service Center have or will establish and support public access sites for the Internet. Some of these sites have emphasis on special needs or groups, such as the business community and college students. In addition, The Forks is very interested in placing public access sites within some of the housing projects in the community.

Funding and Collaboration
The Forks Initiative is funded by grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the W.K. Kellogg foundation. It is in the third year of a 5-year grant from the Kellogg foundation. Collaboration includes major public and private organizations within the community. The list is impressive for a community of this size:
· Albion College
· Albion Public Library
· Albion Economic Development Corporation
· Albion Public Schools
· Chamber of Commerce
· Trillium Hospital
· Albion Volunteer Service Center
· City of Albion
· Starr Commonwealth
· Woodlands Library Cooperative

The Forks is funded for five full time professionals, and draws extensive assistance from the project collaborators, especially Albion College, the Public Library, the Albion Volunteer Service Organization and Trillium hospital. Much of The Forks volunteering comes from professionals, rather than average community members.

Content
The most visible aspect of The Forks initiative is its web site, http://www.forks.org/. This web site is still under content development. There are links to all the major collaborators. The web site is focused on traditional community information. Aside from detailed information on the Kellogg grant, little information is available on the larger initiatives of The Forks. Since much of The Forks efforts and objectives are apart from the community web page, content suffers a bit. It is not as rich as can be found in other community web sites, but this should also be taken in context of the community's size.

For local content, some is sparse, such as places of worship and links to the Public Schools, while other content is fairly rich, such as the City of Albion and the Albion Public Library. Within the Public Library pages, residents may use a very nice web interface for library searches. This is itself a result of The Forks initiative, automating the Public Library information system and linking it with Albion College Library's system.

A community calendar is kept up to date, with links to local events, and a web discussion board is available for residents. Information appears to be reasonably current and accurate.

Special Features
The Web discussion board is an excellent feature of The Forks web site. It has already been used to great advantage in bringing public awareness and participation in discussion of the city's water supply. Otherwise, limited special features exist in the web site. Within the overall initiative however, a number of innovative programs exist. Because of the small size of the community and the economic difficulties it faces, The Forks is a major Internet Service Provider to the community. In collaboration with Albion College, it is implementing a number of multimedia meeting and distance learning centers with limited available to the community. To support its goal of developing technology awareness and skills in the community, The Forks offers numerous public access Internet sites, engages in extensive training of community members, and fosters a technology purchasing cooperative.

What are the Major Initiatives of The Forks?

1. Expand the Albion College network and extend Internet access to the Albion community, especially for community members who otherwise could not afford Internet access;
2. Assist with providing a toll-free means for residents in eastern Calhoun County to connect with Great Lakes Free-Net, and to establish or identify two public sites for Albion residents and volunteer organizations to gain access;
3. Establish an access site for small businesses in the community;
4. Increase student access within Albion College;
5. Implement automated on-line catalog systems in the Albion Public Library and the Albion Public Schools libraries, and improve the Albion College Library's ability to coordinate and enhance access and sharing among the collections;
6. Link the Albion Volunteer Service Center to the Albion College network, and increase the coordination of volunteer services to the community;
7. Establish mediated facilities and a distance learning site at Albion College to enrich the learning environment and improve access to learning opportunities;
8. Develop an affordable and broad-based training and support program which will enable members of the college and community citizens to become technologically literate;
9. Develop an affordable and broad-based computer training and support program for employees of area businesses and organizations; and
10. Provide a multi-media training site, technical training and support for teachers, trainers, and student instructors in computer software, multi-media, and interactive classroom use.

Strengths of The Forks Initiative
The forks initiative would not be possible without the leadership of Albion College. Members of the college have been very involved in the founding of The Forks, acquisition of financial support, physical housing of equipment, research and planning. In fact, the collaboration between the college and the community is being looked at by the Kellogg foundation as a possible model for other, similar communities. It would be difficult to underestimate the valuable contribution of Albion College.

In addition, The Forks has been successful in attracting some of the most influential and active organizations in the community. The deep involvement of these organizations and their commitment to The Forks' mission is a source of great strength. Commitment to the initiative from city and county government is a strength. The substantial financial support from the two main donors are crucial, but given the ambitious nature of the initiative, required. It is unlikely the initiative would be possible without considerable finances.

Threats to The Forks Initiative
Given the strong involvement of Albion College, it is possible The Forks may become a greatly dependant organization. Influence of the college is substantial.

The Forks has been so effective in garnering organizational support, it is possible broad-based community support has suffered, especially among average citizens. The relatively small number of computers and training offered to citizens seem insufficient to change community culture, and may handicap The Forks in maintaining substantial community support.

Exceptionally low charges for Internet access ($25 a year or $100 a year depending on proximity to Albion) may make it difficult to expand sufficiently to meet dialup needs, while making rate increases unpalatable.

The ambitious agenda of The Forks will be difficult complete within the 5-year grant of the W.K. Kellogg foundation. The organization will need to find substantial sources of support in 2½ years, or face difficult decisions.

Overall Impression of The Forks
I was rather startled at the broad vision of The Forks. I found it marvelously refreshing. How can a community re-define itself and change the ways it approaches fundamental problems? These are the questions The Forks seeks to answer. However, a number of significant obstacles stand in the way. Given that the Internet and other electronic information sources are Internet-based and computer-based, the answer is inevitably expensive on a community-wide basis. The community can counter with only relatively modest resources. Its declining industrial base, and high unemployment rate in comparison to other Michigan cities its size, have caused rather severe economic distress. It is my hope that the broad support of this initiative, it's vision, the leadership of the college, hard work and innovation can make a real difference. I would like nothing better than to see Albion, Michigan raised as a national model of how difficult challenges can be successfully overcome.