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If you are an individual interested in technology growth in your community and in Tennessee, you should become a member of your county’s eCommunity Leadership Team. Contact Michael Ramage to learn how at [email protected]

One of the important aspects of Connected Tennessee’s approach to technology growth is the eCommunity Leadership Teams and the members on those teams. We are working to ensure that each community in Tennessee will have a local leadership team to plan for their unique technology growth. Members of the local team come from each sector within the community including: healthcare, K-12 education, higher education, business and industry, agriculture, libraries, community-based organizations, tourism and parks, and government.

Your investment in Connected Tennessee is very important as rural areas are those where broadband is least likely to be deployed. It’s crucial that rural communities cross the digital divide and become connected to the wired world. Too many rural areas of our nation are being overlooked by broadband providers, but you can change that by creating the demand that is necessary to drive a broadband movement in your neck of the woods.  Broadband and the work of Connected Tennessee will create an information highway, putting rural areas on equal footing with the more urban areas.

It’s great news that you already have broadband at home, but that doesn’t exempt you from reaping the benefits of having a “connected” Tennessee.  Assuring that broadband is available to everyone in the state will have a ripple effect economically and socially, creating a better place to do business and a better place to live. In addition to the availability of broadband, Connected Tennessee will be working with public and private organizations to improve current applications so that all Tennesseans can take advantage of the infrastructure that will be in place.

Though we work closely with state government, our employees are not employed by the state. Connected Tennessee is part of a larger entity, Connected Nation, a national non-profit organization that partners with other state-centric non-profit organizations as they promote the acceleration of technology and broadband Internet across their states.
 

Our broadband inventory maps help us to know where broadband is, and more importantly, where it is not. By engaging providers of broadband in a manner that preserves the intent of their business plans, Connected Tennessee is able to build coalitions of private sector broadband providers who agree to share their deployment data for the greater communal and public sector benefit. Our approach creates an inventory of existing services while providing a detailed picture of where broadband gaps need to be addressed.

Connected Tennessee began under the umbrella of Connected Nation, a non-profit organization based in Washington who specializes in increasing technology access and literacy towards greater digital inclusion for all.  The national model is based on Connected Nation’s success in Kentucky.  ConnectKentucky and the Prescription for Innovation have helped that state realize remarkable broadband and technology expansion since the launch of the initiative in late 2004.