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.
Buhr, Brian L. (author), DiPietre, Dennis D. (author), Wheatley, W. Parker (author), and Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota, St. Paul.
Format:
Report
Publication Date:
2001
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 142 Document Number: C21979
Wilde, W. David (author / Swinburne University of Technology) and Swatman, Paul A. (author / Swinburne University of Technology)
Format:
Paper
Publication Date:
1997
Published:
Australia
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 147 Document Number: C23538
Notes:
19 p., The farming community, in many parts of Australia, is widely dispersed and heavily dependent upon communication both within the community and outside. In this preliminary paper, we explore the information needs and information flows of the rural sector and consider the farm as the potential focus of a virtual community. A virtual community may form a basis both for electronic commerce, in the traditional sense, and for rich telecommunications-mediated social activity. We describe factors apparently inhibiting the implementation of rural virtual communities in Australia and finally, we introduce a research project that will evaluate a model of inhibiting factors for the development of virtual communities within a real-world rural setting.
