Challenge:

Recent developments:

• De-regulation of cable television (local competition; no required community access)
• De-regulation of telephony (local competition; open to new business areas such as cable, Internet)
• Minimal regulation of Internet services for quality, cost, community access, etc.
• Rapid growth of Internet services and connectivity for individuals and organizations; decreased costs

Near-term developments:

• Strong competition for cable, telephone, and Internet services, frequently by the same companies
• Further integration of media production and delivery services (e.g., Time-Warner supplies cable and Internet connectivity but also owns the TV shows and movies)
• New partnerships spanning: telephone service, ISDN and other data service, dial-in Internet use, newspapers, radio, film, cable, etc.
• Many new small companies focusing on local services and local content
• Small companies being bought out or driven out by larger companies
• Focus on unregulated free-market growth with little guidelines for community access and use, ethics, local content, etc.

Strengths in our community

• UIUC, including
  • Media (WILL-AM/FM/TV, also strengths in print journalism)
  • Cooperative Extension Services
  • NCSA
  • CCSO
  • many others...
• Large media businesses with a local interest
  • Time-Warner: Cable-based data communication
  • Ameritech: ISDN
  • MCI: Network supplier to UIUC
• CCNet (project of the Chamber of Commerce)
• Local hi-tech businesses and services
• Area schools on the Internet
• City Government on Cable-TV & the Internet
• Many active community groups
• Parkland College cable production & broadcast facilities
• Prairienet

How to be become a model community

• Provide for community access to modern production equipment (TV and other media production cannot be done at home with a computer!).
  • Video recording and production
  • Audio production
  • Multimedia production
  • Internet/World Wide Web production
  • Training, support, equipment, services, broadcast/distribution
• Develop community access for Internet and computing facilities; ensure the 'have-nots' may become 'haves'
• Commit to community-wide education about new media services. For media, literacy is a precursor to empowerment
• Support development projects for use of cable and telecommunications for area agencies and organizations (below)
• Continue to develop strengths
• Foster better communication, cooperation, and integration among community strengths and projects

Results

• Children and others will be more highly employable and eligible for the best colleges and universities.
• C-U will be desirable for business development, including new businesses
• C-U will be assured to have leading-edge cable and telecommunications access, but will also have a broad base of use and access for mainstream technologies
• We can have the best community for access and use of media including cable, telephony, data connectivity, and the Internet

Possible Areas of Development

• Government & Democracy: Get city/county/state information online and interactive (lots of progress already!). Use media for the political process. Educate and train government employees.
• Education: Upgrade schools, insure equity of access for students, employ media across the curricula where appropriate, enable at home access, support and train parents
• Social Services: Get better performance out of social services by further integration and faster access to information. Insure users of social services have ready access to the necessary technologies (cable TV, VCR, computer, phone, etc.)
• Business & Commerce: Provide low-cost options for data connectivity, encourage use of local media, look for corporate support/donation as quid pro quo for use
• Agricultural Services: Implement advanced information systems for agriculture

Challenge (again)