Several years ago, Sharon Strover met with many local economic development people throughout various Texas towns. They all said, “I want this town to be attractive enough for my kids to come back here when they want to raise their families.” That was not going to happen without better connections to the world, specifically –without broadband Internet. More recently, on a project in rural Kansas, Dr. Strover heard about women crafting goods – in their kitchens, their gardens, their living rooms – to sell online, but they could not get a good connection to Etsy!
TIPI is spending the next year looking at the relationship between high-quality broadband services and economic outcomes in rural areas, with a view to how we might improve the situation.