North Carolina has in place an effort to address just the issues you raise in your e-mail. Check out www.e-nc.org <http://www.e-nc.org/> for an introduction to the e-NC Authority. For the past six years e-NC has been working through primary research, adoption of best practices in technology-based economic development, community engagement, and connectivity incentive grants to improve access and utilization of broadband-based resources in the state's 85 rural counties and disadvantaged urban communities. We have found that our efforts and resources have been about equally divided between improving the supply and the demand sides of the connectivity equation. There has been significant improvement over this six-year span, moving NC from among the lowest tier in connectivity to the top quartile. We have distilled to practice some of the lessons learned in the form of on-line toolkits and research reports. We have funded 7 telecenters in the most distressed regions of the state, centers that are truly transforming the perceptions and prospects of the regions they serve. Each telecenter is customized to the particular situation of its local economy and leadership. Collectively, they have created over 1,000 high-value jobs and provided critical technical support services to local government, education and businesses. Sustainability of the telecenters remains a challenge but they continue to surmount obstacles and gather growing local and national recognition. You may be interested in an e-NC program where we partnered with the US Department of Commerce's Technology Opportunities Program in an 24 month long structured e-government effort. This initiative, called LEG-UP for Local E-Government Utilization Program, delivered training and technical assistance and provided equipment and connectivity grants that funded the development of interactive and transactional e-government functionality to almost 60 municipal and county governments in North Carolinas' rural regions. We have learned a lot and are still learning as much remains to be done.
Deborah Watts Sr. Director, Research and Grants, The e-NC Authority. [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of Dave Jenkins Sent: Sun 4/29/2007 3:42 PM To: digitaldivide@digitaldivide.net Subject: [DDN] U.S. State Level Digital Divide Policies I am interested in state government efforts to ensure that government remains accessible to all as we transition to more technology centered access points as is the case with modern e-government. I am particularly concerned about people who for one reason or another do not own computers and have little or no access to e-government services. Some solutions could be the establishment of telecenters, internet literacy programs and policies that ensure services and forms remain available through traditional off-line access points. Is anyone aware of any state policies and/or programs that address this issue? I would appreciate any insight. Thanks, Dave Jenkins _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
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