Paper presented at the colloquium "Implementing HortBase: Horticulture global information system for decision support" held July 23-26, 1997, Salt Lake City, Utah. Includes references
The potential for rural areas to benefit from telecommunications technology is a persistent question. This article examines data for the USA concerning the "digital divide" and access of residences and businesses, which tend to suggest that all is (or will soon be) well. The article also presents data on aspects of digital infrastructure in rural America, including points of presence and digital telephone switches, which suggest that there are major shortcomings in most rural communities. Demand aggregation is a possible solution, but more serious pitfalls are those related to shortages of human capital. These might be resolved in some rural places, where immigration and return migration bring needed cerebral inputs to rural areas. A final set of improvements concerns how businesses use the Internet and e-commerce. In the end, telecommunications is not a "quick fix" solution for rural development, and the desired improvements will be limited to a fraction of rural places.
Sammis, Theodore (author), Sitze, Donald (author), Fitzpatrick, David (author), and Mott, Paul (author)
Format:
Paper
Publication Date:
1998
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C24680
Notes:
Pages 579-594 in Fedro S. Zazueta and Jiannong Xin (eds.), Computers in agriculture: proceedings of the 7th international conference on computers in agriculture, Orlando, Florida, October 26-30, 1998. St. Joseph, Michigan: American Society of Agricultural Engineers. 999 pages.
