Submitted by acohill on Mon, 10/10/2005 - 14:10
Pete Johnson, the Federal co-chair of the Delta Regional Authority (the Mississipi delta of several states and 10 million people) spoke at lunch abou the importance of infrastructure to the health and vitality of communities. He made several points in the early part of his talk:
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Communities are competing in a global economy, not a local or regional economy.
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A key role of government is to provide basic infrastructure, and telecommunications is now basic infrastructure.
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Communities must look to the future (with the implication that too many are trying to hold on to the past).
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Technology is and must lead the way for every kind of initiative in rural America.
Johnson gave a brief history of the Delta region starting with the War Between the States, and up to the present day. He has been heavily involved in dealing with the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which caused heavy damage to infrastructure in the Delta region as far as 200 miles inland.
Johnson enumerated four areas of technology and telecommunications infrastructure investment that he sees as critical for rural communities.
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Distance learning has great potential to improve educational outcomes for youth in rural areas.
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Telehealth can similarly overcome disparities in the quality and quantity of services available in rural areas, which are typically underserved.
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GIS mapping systems are vital to rural communities to better manage infrastructure, help visualize buisiness and customers clusters as economic conditions change in rural areas, and to help focus where extra effort is needed, especially if a region is suffering from population contraction.
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Interoperability of first responder and public safety telecom systems, which have changed little over the past 40 years. The hurricanes revealed serious communications weaknesses in the current, very old system.