7.1 Geographic Area and Population Density
It is important to consider the geographical area and population density of the municipalities represented in the community network. Boulder County encompasses 753 square miles, and includes a mix of urban and rural communities. The following cities in the county are represented and served:
The diverse composition of semi-rural and urban communities in Boulder County complicates the situation. Resources and attention have focused largely on the City of Boulder and to a somewhat lesser extent the City of Longmont. Two central reasons contribute to the centralization of our efforts: the current location of public access kiosks, and the concentration of BCN volunteers in the Boulder City limits. Boulder City and Longmont City libraries each house Apple Macintosh kiosks donated through the Apple Library of Tomorrow grant for public kiosk use. At the Boulder Main Library, ethernet connectivity already existed, so looping out to the kiosk required little expense. At the Longmont Library, no ethernet existed; however, the Longmont City Manager's Office funds a dial-up connection with a local Internet provider.
BCN is now launching a search for additional kiosk locations throughout the County. Locating sites that could provide ethernet connectivity is a priority; however, this approach limits the kiosk locations to government sites. While citizen traffic in municipal and educational facilities is high, we are concerned that the populations frequenting these sites are not representative of the overall community. BCN is exploring the use of kiosks in locations where dial-up connections could be used.
Because most of the active volunteers live in close proximity to the University of Colorado at Boulder, and most of the public access sites are in the City of Boulder, we have only been moderately successful in marketing BCN or recruiting volunteers in the rural areas. Assisting the smaller rural communities in developing a strategy for Internet connectivity is something we need to give attention to so that we can facilitate the use of public kiosks. We have learned a lot regarding the need to do outreach in surrounding cities in Boulder County and are currently in the process of developing a marketing strategy for the more rural elements of Boulder County. Towards this goal, we anticipate summer orientation sessions in the communities of Lyons and Nederland.
7.2 Representation for Participating Cities
It is important that municipal entities existing within the geographic boundaries of the community network have an easy system for contributing to the public information available on the network. Staffing decisions for community networks should include representation for each city included in the coverage area. If representation could not be provided for by a part-time employee position, it is key that they provide a decision maker who could contribute meaningfully to either the Policy or Technical Advisory Boards. The point of contact would be responsible for streamlining the process of efficiently getting the municipal information to the server. While it is ultimately up to each municipality to determine what types of information are appropriate for uploading to the server, the point of contact is the liaison between network staff and individual municipal departments. This liaison should be familiar with the existing system, process and political climate of the offices that contribute information.
7.3 Collaboration Within the County
Because of the size of Boulder County, we've had difficulty coordinating efforts between the various cities. Independent efforts are emerging that should be working in concert. For instance, Lafayette, Louisville and Broomfield have begun their own public kiosk efforts aimed at improving the effectiveness of local government. Developing a relationship with surrounding cities within the county needs to be a priority.
7.4 Lessons Learned: Community Issues
BCN may have claimed too large of a geographic area for successful inclusion of the Citys' information resources. We are beginning to include more and more community groups that are located in cities outside of the City of Boulder, but it will take time. To review the point made:
1. Develop a marketing and implementation strategy to include all sectors of your target audience.
2. Staff the community network appropriately for maximum efficiency.
3. Work with municipalities to identify a liaison.
4. Involve participants from media (public radio, TV, newspapers, etc.), and learn from their experiences. The technology is different, but the issues are very similar.
5. Participation needs to be reciprocal: invite others to participate in your efforts, but also find out about and get involved in other efforts already going on in your community.
6. Find out who else in the community is also working on similar goals and work together as much as possible.
7. Work within existing structures as much as possible; but don't be limited by them. Always be willing to suggest ways in which existing processes can be improved.
8. Try not to feel deflated when hearing, "others have tried to do this before, and it didn't work, and let me spend the next hour telling you why it won't work again."
Comments: Catherine Weldon or Madeline Gonzales