Rich has already posted about it, and Donica' has posted her pictures, but I guess I should report "officially" that the ONE Ohio Statewide Gathering yesterday was a smashing success. Eighty-plus people turned up from at least sixteen counties, including most of Ohio's big cities as well as lots of rural towns and townships. They included local public officials and development officers, legal services attorneys, library administrators, college and university representatives, private broadband developers, and dozens of community technology and community media activists. We also had folks from the PUCO, the Farm Bureau, USDA, Ohio State's Supercomputer Center, and other statewide groups and agencies including the Governor's office.
We covered a lot of ground in four hours. Dave Matusoff of Whiteboard Consulting brought everyone up to speed on Governor Strickland's "BroadbandOhio" strategy and the role of community-based training in the plan. We met Terra Goodnight, the Governor's Special Assistant for Economic Development, whose "portfolio" includes the BroadbandOhio plan. In a session called "What's your digital divide?", the whole gathering spent an hour making a list of the various digital gaps, goals and opportunities that need to be addressed in our varied communities across the state. Three energetic breakout discussions looked more closely at issues in rural broadband development, big-city network plans, and digital inclusion training collaborations among, CTCs, colleges and libraries around Ohio.
Most important, a whole lot of one-on-one networking happened.
We'll be posting the whole attendance list, along with notes from the plenary and breakout sessions, at the Ohio Community Computing Network website as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, thanks to everyone who came, to all the people who worked on this, and to the folks at the State Library of Ohio for their hospitality.
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2 comments:
Congratulations, Bill. And thank you.
While preparing a note for our staff on the announcement, I came across this timely blog. To clarify, the "Ohio Supercomputer Center" is chartered to serve all of the state's higher education, research, and governmental organizations. While Ohio State is our fiscal agent, we are a separate entity from that venerable institution.
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