Responsive Countryside: The Digital Age and Rural Communities

Sept. 29, 2016

Roberto Gallardo is the author of Responsive Countryside: The Digital Age and Rural Communities. Two members of the Nebraska Broadband Initiative, Anne Byers and Connie Hancock, asked Roberto a few questions about his book. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Anne: Why are you so passionate about expanding the benefits of the digital age to rural communities?

Roberto: I have been in a rural setting for the past 13 years and have seen the potential that exists in rural communities. I believe that it is a matter of education and awareness and strategic planning efforts to make sure that rural communities are not left behind in this digital age. I think that they have a lot of potential and have a lot to benefit if they participate fully in the digital age and its implications. That is why I am passionate about it. I enjoy it. I just like it when a community really embraces this digital mindset and runs with it, because I believe it will make rural communities stronger, more vibrant and sustainable in the long-term.

Anne: What is the difference between smart and intelligent communities?

Roberto: Well, it depends on who you ask. I was at a conference in Ohio this month and I met a European colleague. They define it a different way or backwards actually. To me, there is a difference between smart and intelligent communities. A smart community is one that deploys mostly sensors and open data portals and policies and stuff like that that help the community reduce costs and be more efficient when it delivers services to citizens. That to me is a smart community. It is basically one which relies on the Internet of Things to better increase service and decrease cost.

The Intelligent Community is more than that. Of course the Internet of Things is one of the components that the Intelligent Community may focus on, but the Intelligent Community is more proactive and more long-term in the sense that it takes a holistic view. It kind of understands what the forest is, and it can pick up on the specific trees. In this case, it would be the Internet of Things. It could be civic engagement. It could be digital equality. It could be broadband connectivity. It could be a lot of other things that are just not narrowed down to being a smart community.

Connie: How does this relate to demographic renewal in rural communities?

Roberto: There are preliminary studies showing that the loss of younger folks from rural communities is slowing down among those that are adopting broadband at a higher rate and have better broadband connectivity. I think that this the beginning of something. And that is another thing that can distinguish a smart community from an Intelligent Community

Anne: What are the characteristics of an Intelligent Community?

Roberto: The concept of an Intelligent Community is taken from the Intelligent Community Forum. They identified six indicators: broadband connectivity, innovation, knowledge workforce, advocacy and marketing, sustainability, and digital equality.

An Intelligent Community is one that understands the challenges and benefits of the digital age and takes conscious steps to prosper in it. The key words there are understands and conscious. They are more proactive in nature. They are not so much reactive, because—in reality in the digital age—if you are trying to play reactive or catch up, it is more than likely that you will not catch up. It is a point that I bring up in the book as well. So an Intelligent Community is one that understands this and deploys strategies to accomplish that. What does an Intelligent Community look like? It is going to vary tremendously, because every community may take a different route. But once you peel off those layers, you will find a fundamental common denominator among them which is that they engage with their citizens digitally and face-to-face. The common denominator is that they get it. They act and they think in a digital mindset. They make sure that they promote broadband adoption and activity. They take a leading role or they partner with the carriers to do that. They understand that a knowledge workforce is critical. They understand that digital platforms can help communities be a better community.

Anne: I love this quote about transitioning to the digital age:

“Don’t scratch your head wondering where in the world you will get the money to pay for it. Often, all it takes is time and passion for your community. Resources will surface if true partnerships are established, volunteers are utilized, and the community commits to the priority of transitioning to the digital age. The important question really is does the community want to make the transition.”

Anne: Can you talk more about the importance of community leadership and partnerships? I’ve seen that once communities get started, there is a lot they can do without a lot of money.

Roberto: The communities that I deal with are small. Some of them have a part-time mayor. You cannot always expect these communities to jump on board, because the first thing that they have on their mind is lack of manpower and lack of resources. But if they have the will and the motivation and they understand that it is a critical step that the community needs to take, then I have seen that the resources will surface. But if you don’t have that will—that motivation—you will not build the partnerships that are critical. You will not be able to tap into volunteers. You will not be able to sell the idea. You will not be able to motivate others. And if you don’t accomplish that, then of course that lack of resources is going to hit you hard. But if you do manage to do that, then you will be able to find resources that many times you did not know existed in your community because you were able to motivate your co-leaders and co-residents to go ahead and take this step.

I’ve been in multiple meetings where the effort and all the discussion revolves around why we can’t do it. In community development, we talk about CAVE citizens—Citizens Against Virtually Everything. And you will run against those. But once they see the light and understand that it is important and they truly believe it, then that mindset shifts and then you start to look at how you can get it done—not how you can’t get it done.

Like I mentioned in the book, my dad had a saying that I still remember very clearly: “You better tell me how to solve the problem. Don’t tell me how not to solve it, because I already know that.”

That is why the key question is: “Does the community really want to make this transition?” Because if they do, then they will find a common ground to be motivated and to find resources to pull it off.

Anne: That’s great advice.

Connie: Absolutely. And it goes along with the whole concept of community engagement and how do we engage with communities using digital tools so we don’t always have to have a town hall meeting to know what people are thinking and the kinds of things that they want from the community.

Anne: The Intelligent Community Institute has developed a process for working with communities. Can you briefly describe the process?

Roberto: The process is not set in stone. It is going to vary. It is not linear necessarily. I’ve identified four steps that come up time and time again. The first one is awareness. That has to do with that change of mindset that I was talking about earlier. You’ve got to make sure that the residents and the leaders understand why this is important. That awareness is key, because if you are not on the same page, you will not be able to discuss things in a meaningful way—much less plan and implement those strategies. We have to agree on the problem for us to even remotely think of agreeing on the solution. If we do not agree on the problem—then believe me then you will not agree on the solution—so that awareness component is very important.

How this is accomplished varies by community. It can be an informal conversation. It can be a formal presentation. It can be just discussions with the leaders. That is step 1.

Then comes the asset mapping. The asset mapping is just a really simple checklist. It is a conversation starter, because it makes people go, “Oh I didn’t realize we had to be doing this or we had this opportunity or this option.” And more importantly, it showcases and documents what assets exist in the community. I’ve seen it time and time again, when the community discusses the checklist and the assets, they tell me, “I didn’t realize we had all these things going on.” That is step 2.

Once you identify those assets and needs, you can employ Extension and non-Extension resources to move to implementation. Extension can play a huge role, because they can facilitate the process. I believe that the community ownership part is what really distinguishes this program from others where consultants come in, identify community assets and needs, and then leave. Here is where Extension becomes very active, because those agents are trusted.

Then down the road, if the community is interested, comes the fourth phase which is just recognition. Everybody likes to be recognized for their achievements. For that you have to document the impacts that you have had. But more importantly, you have to really build a strong case that your community is now really thinking and acting digitally. But that one is optional. Many communities may prefer not to do that. They argue that recognition will come on its own.

Again this is not a linear process. Sometimes I meet with a group of community leaders, and they prefer to do the checklist first. Once the assets and the needs and all that comes together, then they like to promote that. So they kind of swap steps 1 and 2. But the key thing here is that you are changing that mindset through the awareness part so that we can get this done. It is not impossible. It is not expensive. The asset mapping is also important. It changes the dialog when you are tell them, “Did you know your small town has all of this going on?” That changes the mentality. Then third, you implement—with the help of Extension or non-Extension partners—whatever is needed. Then the community truly values that because you made them aware, you made them identify their assets and their needs, but you are also with them in the trench implementing.

Anne: Connie, could you share how Extension is working with Nebraska communities?

Connie: Here in Nebraska we have several communities that are aware that they don’t have the broadband or the connectivity that they would like to have. We have facilitated some conversations with stakeholders around what is that they need. We have actually utilized the checklist that Roberto mentioned in one of the communities. We used that checklist and prioritized it, so that the community knew where to focus their efforts.

We’ve also got—through the broadband planning initiative—the technology planning workbook which goes into little bit deeper conversation than the checklist that Roberto is talking about. The workbook can really help communities think about the action steps, and Extension is here to help facilitate that conversation so that the community really does specify where they want to be and what they want to address initially. We have been working with providers as well in that conversation. That has really been a helpful component from a Nebraska perspective. I think that it is critical from a technical perspective.

Resources and Links

• Leveraging Broadband in Your Community: A Workbook to Help Communities Stimulate Broadband Development
• Responsive Countryside: The Digital Age and Rural Communities by Roberta Gallardo is available from Amazon.com.

Contacts in Nebraska:

• Connie Hancock, Nebraska Extension, chancock1@unl.edu, 308–254-4455
• Charlotte Narjes, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, cnarjes@unl.edu, 402-472-1724
• Anne Byers, Nebraska Information Technology Commission, anne.byers@nebraska.gov, 402-471-3805
• Cullen Robbins, Nebraska Public Service Commission, Cullen.robbins@nebraska.gov, 402-471-0230

From the September/October 2016 issue of Nebraska Broadband