Community Conversations

The Vermont Council on Rural Development (VCRD) was lead partner in the e-Vermont Community Broadband Project. Community Directors at VCRD coordinated partner activities in e-Vermont communities and worked with local leaders to develop projects that responded directly to local interests. Examples of these individualized projects include:

• Developing wireless Internet zones and hotspots to increase public Internet access, and building a toolkit to help any interested community create their own access points.
• Providing equipment to expand online video streaming and assist in developing online videos at community access television stations in Ludlow and Bristol.
• Creating a community led e-training center at the Martha Canfield Library in Arlington, VT.
• Publishing a digital collection of historical Vermont papers, records, and photographs housed in the Russell Collection in Arlington; bringing lessons learned in Arlington to create a digitization project at the Bridgewater historical society.
• Partnering with Front Porch Forum to create a community calendar tool for use in all e-Vermont towns.
• Developing a local network of organizations with Internet access that can help Bristol area residents navigate new online platforms for receiving state benefits.
• Responding to requests from community organizations in Bristol and Morristown to collaborate with the Community College of Vermont in creating the iConnect training in skills for working with Internet beginners.
• Funding start up of the Artists and Entrepreneurs online guide to community resources in Cambridge.
• Funding improvements to the Yourfarmstand.com electronic farmers' market, which has a presence in the e-Vermont communities of Fairfield, Morristown, Vergennes, Grand Isle County and Jeffersonville.
• Helping Middletown Springs host open houses to introduce the ways local residents use the Internet to support the creative economy.
• Partnering with the Vermont Department of Libraries to create mobile computer labs in Fairfield and Bristol.
• Upgrading equipment at the Morristown rescue squad for remote trainings.
• Launching pilot projects for opening school computer labs to community access in Bristol and Middlesex.