Illustrations

Acronyms and Abbreviations

Part I Theory, Policy, and Practice: Setting the Stage for Rural Telecommunications

Rural America and the Information and Communications Revolution

Peter F. Korsching

Patricia C. Hipple

Eric A. Abbott

Policy Initiatives and Rural Telecommunications

Dom Caristi

Telephone Companies: Providing All the Right Connections for Viable Rural Communities

Peter F. Korsching

Sami El-Ghamrini

When Public Leadership Outperforms Private Leadership: The Case of Public Telecommunications Utilities

Montgomery Van Wart

Dianne Rahm

Scott Sanders

Part II Using Telecommunications in the Rural Community

Rural Business and Telecommunications Technologies

G. Premkumar

The Community Newspaper in an Online Society

Eric A. Abbott

Walter E. Niebauer, Jr.

Rural Libraries: Conflicting Visions and Realities in the Information Age

Eric A. Abbott

Bridget Moser Pellerin

Municipal Governments' Use of Telecommunications: Leading the Charge or Lagging Behind?

Erin K. Schreck

Patricia C. Hipple

Telecommunications: A Complex Prescription for Rural Health Care Providers

Patricia C. Hipple

Melody Ramsey

Farmers, Computers, and the Internet: How Structures and Roles Shape the Information Society

Eric A. Abbott

J. Paul Yarbrough

Allan G. Schmidt

Part III Making the Connections

What Happens When Information Technologies Are Forced on Rural Community Organizations? The Case of Iowa State University Extension

Eric A. Abbott

Jennifer L. Gregg

Telecommunications and Economic Development: Chasing Smokestacks with the Internet

Brent Hales

Joy Gieseke

Delfino Vargas-Chanes

On-Ramps and Road Blocks to the Information Superhighway

Peter F. Korsching

Eric A. Abbott

Patricia C. Hipple

Glossary

References

Index

About the Contributors