The Connected Nation Blog: March 2008

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Connected Nation Joins U.S. Delegation to Asia-Pacific Cooperation’s Telecom Working Group in Tokyo

Tokyo, Japan: As part of the U.S. delegation to APEC, Connected Nation joined with delegates from 21 international economies to provide expert testimony in the seminar "Using ICT for Rural Community Capacity Building," part of the 37th meeting of the APEC Telecommunications and Information Working Group. Brian Mefford, CEO of Connected Nation, presented the experiences of Connected Nation in promoting ICT tools and applications to expand broadband adoption and capacity building in rural communities.

“It is an honor to present the Connected Nation model to the distinguished APEC delegations representing numerous economies around the world,” Mefford said. “The need for broadband-enabled opportunity is a universal concern. Advanced technologies allow people to connect to the global economy to conduct commerce, share cultures and promote sustainability.”

APEC is committed to connecting rural and indigenous communities through ICT tools and applications “to create opportunities to learn new livelihood skills, access information, develop skills and make more use of existing information infrastructure that would facilitate their integration into the global information societies.” The seminar is designed to discuss and present best practices to bring technology capabilities to rural communities. This year’s seminar is a continuation of past meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation discussing the rural technology expansion.

As part of the meeting’s expert testimony, Mefford discussed the successful tools and applications that Connected Nation has implemented in various parts of the United States to build capacity in rural communities. The presentation also highlighted a successful demonstration project that is ongoing in partnership with IRMA India to build capacity in rural villages in the country’s southeastern region. Connected Nation has developed numerous programs to increase the availability of technology and improve technology literacy towards promoting rural capacity building.

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