🚀 go-pugleaf

FYI,
Don Richardson
Rural Extension Studies
University of Guelph
Guelph, Ontario, Canada

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 18 Nov 1994 16:09:08 -0500 (EST)
From: Rhana Jacot <rjacot@CIC.Net>
To: rurdat-info@cic.net, ruraldata-speakers@cic.net
Subject: CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

Please distribute the following call for participation as widely as
possible, especially to those who aren't on the Net.  Thank you!


	     ********** CALL FOR PARTICIPATION **********

	    THIRD ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RURAL DATAFICATION:
	   Routing the Information Highway Down Main Street

			   May 22-24, 1995
			   Indianapolis, IN
	     ********************************************

INTRODUCTION
------------

Established during the land rush of 1893, Gibbon, Oklahoma, soon
boasted a population of 478, with a school, a church, a bank, two
grain elevators, and a branch railroad.  The collapse of national
grain prices following World War I severely undermined the region's
economy.  Gibbon pinned its future on the county's new highway, part of
the national highway construction boom of the 1920's.  But when the
highway bypassed Gibbon, the town slowly died.  Today all that's left
of the once-thriving town is a single grain elevator and a cemetery.
(Adapted from "From Dust to Dust:  Gibbon, An Oklahoma Town.")

Seventy years later, it's not concrete and asphalt highways that
determine whether rural communities and inner-city neighborhoods
survive, but an "information highway" made of telephone wire and fiber
optic cable.  The Information Highway becomes every day less and less
the dream of science fiction writers and more and more just "business
as usual" in our homes and offices.  But for many of us, all this talk
of video on demand, interactive multimedia, and other gee-whiz
applications of information technology, now mentioned almost daily in
newspapers and on the evening news, remains just that--talk.  Even
electronic mail is too high-tech for communities that lack
inexpensive, high-quality telephone service.  As the nation prepares
to enter its third major "highway" construction boom this century, we
need to ask ourselves and our leaders:  What can we do to avoid making
a Gibbon, Oklahoma, out of every rural community and inner-city
neighborhood too poor to earn a stop on the national Information
Highway?  And since with new highways come traffic jams, smog, and
billboards, we also need to ask:  How can we keep our communities
pleasant places to live, once the Information Highway comes to town?


CONFERENCE INFORMATION
----------------------

Building on the success of the previous  Rural Datafication
conferences in Chicago (May 1993) and Minneapolis (May 1994), the
Third Annual Conference on Rural Datafication:  "Routing the Information
Highway Down Main Street" will focus on four aspects of the push to
"datafy" America, as they might be considered by an ordinary citizen:

-- How do I get on this Information Highway?
-- Where can I go once I'm on it?
-- Where will I be able to go in the next two years?
-- Once I'm on it, will I want to stay?

With the support of the National Science Foundation and in partnership
with the state networks of Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan,
Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, and
the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, CICNet invites you
to participate in this important conference.  Between now and January
15, 1995, we are soliciting proposals for presentations, posters,
discussions, panels, demonstrations, workshops, and birds-of-a-feather
sessions that address the following topics:

Session #1: How do I get on this Information Highway?

Very few communities have access to the high-bandwidth, inexpensive
connectivity that the research and higher education communities have
enjoyed for years.  What connectivity options--Information Highway
"on-ramps"--exist for rural communities and inner-city neighborhoods?
Of particular interest would be real-life stories of how communities
have provided network access to their members, including how they got
started, how they generated interest among potential users, how they
funded the network, what problems they encountered and how they solved
them, and what changes the communities have experienced as a result of
having access to a network.  Possible networking technologies and
implementations include Free-Nets, public library access, cable TV,
BBSs, and others, in addition to TCP/IP networking.

Session #2:  Where can I go once I'm on it?

How are individuals, businesses, state and local governments,
communities, and others really using networked information now?
Possible topics could include, but are by no means limited to,
examples of businesses that couldn't exist or function without network
access, or that use networks as an adjunct to standard services;
providing or using government and election information online; how
access to networks is reforming K-12 education, enhancing
the lives of shut-ins, or revitalizing inner cities or downtowns; and
any other topics that describe how real people are really using
networks and networked information right now.

Session #3:  Where will I be able to go in the next two years?

The only constant in telecommunications today is that nothing is
constant.  Technologies and services available now may be
unrecognizable next year, and replaced by something completely
different the year after that.  How will the Information Highway
change over the next two years?  Include planned projects, early
results of pilot projects, warnings of potential problems, and even
pie-in-the-sky projections of what people may encounter on the road
ahead.

Session #4:  Once I'm on it, will I want to stay?

Heavily used highways often develop potholes and collect trash along
the roadside, and information highways are no exception.  Now, during
the planning and early implementation stages, is the time to discuss
ways of keeping the national Information Highway clean and safe.  Of
particular interest are frank, realistic appraisals of and suggestions
for dealing with the "downside" of universal access to the Information
Highway--electronic junk mail, issues of privacy and security,
censorship vs. protecting children from undesirable information or
contacts, issues of copyright and intellectual property, and others.


SUBMISSION INFORMATION
----------------------

Deadline:  January 15, 1995

Submission address:
Rural Datafication '95 Proposals
CICNet, Inc.
2901 Hubbard Drive
Ann Arbor, MI  48105-2467

Fax:
313-998-6105

Electronic mail:
ruraldata-submit@cic.net
(ASCII, uuencoded enclosure, or MIME attachments only; no BinHex!)


PROPOSAL SUBMISSION FORM
------------------------

Please supply ALL information requested to help us evaluate your
proposal.

1. Title:

2. Primary Presenter (contact person):
Name:
Title:
Affiliation:
Address:
Phone:
E-mail:

3. Other Presenters (up to two):
Name:
Title:
Affiliation:
Address:
Phone:
E-mail:

Name:
Title:
Affiliation:
Address:
Phone:
E-mail:

4. Suggested Moderator (for panel or debate):
Name:
Title:
Affiliation:
Address:
Phone:
E-mail:

5. Proposal Category:

A. Focus
__ How do I get on this Information Highway?
__ Where can I go once I'm on it?
__ Where will I be able to go in the next two years?
__ Once I'm on it, will I want to stay?

B. Format
__ Single Presentation/Report
__ Panel
__ Debate
__ Discussion
__ Poster
__ Demonstration
__ Other:

C. Audience
__ General
__ Specific Group:

6. Abstract (25-50 words, to appear in final program):

7. What outcomes might be expected as a result of your proposed
presentation?

8. Have you made this presentation previously?  Do you plan to present
it elsewhere in 1995?

9. Audio-visual Requirements:

10. Summary (100-300 words; include your main points and conclusions,
or indicate the issues to be debated or discussed, with likely
outcomes):

---- Upon acceptance of this proposal by the Rural Datafication Conference
     Program Advisory Board, I agree to have my presentation professionally
     recorded and included in the Conference Proceedings.


			 ********************

For more information about the Rural Datafication Project, send your
e-mail address, surface mail address, and phone and fax numbers to
ruraldata-info-request@cic.net.