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There’s big news in the
county for computer geeks like me. DSL has been made accessible to more
than just the few, now available or coming soon to Big Bend, Five Forks,
Big Springs, Ayers, Arnoldsburg, Chloe, Adam/Altizer, Letherbark, Mt.
Zion and (drum roll, please) Stumptown.
Dial up service in
Stumptown is worse than Chinese water torture. I have actually
experienced upload speeds of “one” and “two” on a 56K modem. My average
was 45. It was time consuming, an annoyance to even the patient, and was
similar to being stuck in a continual traffic jam on the information
superhighway that inched along slower than a snail’s pace.
I could have
crawled thought the phone lines to hug the guy who called to pitch the
service to me. Imagine, wanting to hug someone who calls after
8 p.m.
on a school night to ask if you want to buy a service. He called right
after I got home from this month’s town council meeting. Can you imagine
what other telemarketers would get from me if they had called right
then? When you spend at least 40% of your life on the Internet--high
speed access is a really big deal.
In this age
of information, it could also be a big deal for the community and our
economy.
I
have stated publicly several times that
Calhoun
County
and West
Virginia would
be investing more wisely if they put money into the information
superhighway instead of cement and asphalt highways. In a time when the
social trends have people traveling less, gas prices increasing, and
growth of the internet as a commercial tool in our economy, I have
always believed we should leap forward and invest in technological
advances instead of running from behind to catch up with structural
improvements that may or may not bring economic development.
People are
leaving the cities for rural environments to escape traffic, and strip
malls, and fast-paced city life, but they have become dependent on their
cell phones, iPods, satellite, cable and high-speed Internet access.
While manufacturing jobs decline in our country, computer-knowledge jobs
become the standard. Telecommuting (working at home over the Internet)
is becoming an accepted option in the corporate business world, and
across the nation, professionals are leaving the cities to run their own
businesses and companies from a rural home--using the Internet.
They would
find it quaint that we have only one traffic light in the county, but
tell them that they have to make their income or send photos at one or
two or even 45K? They’ll run. We may not be getting a parkway or a
highway soon, but by golly, the information superhighway just improved a
bunch of roads.
Of course, high-speed costs more than dial up, and is not available to
everyone. Still, I predict that we’ll see a rash of community email
addresses change in the near future, so be ready to make edits to your
address book. It’s a bittersweet celebration for me. I’ve had the same
personal email address for 10 years. For some reason, I have always
taken pride in that, but for a release from the “slow connection torture
chair,” I’ll give it up in a heartbeat. |