LDI Continues to promote rural broadband adoption in NE Louisiana

Dear Louisiana Delta Initiative Members:

Please be aware of several grant writing assistance workshops in July and August. These grants will be accessible by local governments and non-profits to improve broadband (high speed Internet) infrastructure and other uses. Please distribute to local government officials and announce in your networks. We need to get the word out to our rural communities to take advantage of this assistance.

Registration and workshop location information can be found here: http://lagic.lsu.edu/BroadbandWorkshopsRegistration.asp. If you should have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Also, please be aware of our continued effort to promote rural broadband adoption as part of the LDI core mission. You can follow the new developments on our blog and website.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

James

James N. Barnes, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Director &

State of Louisiana Broadband Advisory Council Member

Louisiana Center for Rural Initiatives

Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness

Louisiana State University Agricultural Center

Web site: LSU AgCenter’s Delta Rural Development Center

Blogs: Rural Broadband Education, Rural Leadership and Governance, Regional Economic Development

Office: 318.428.4029 | Cell: 318.334.2352 | E-Mail: jbarnes@agcenter.lsu.edu

Global Challenges and Local Solutions: How Education and Broadband Technology Can Strengthen the Louisiana Delta, April 19-20, 2011

Dear Louisiana Delta Initiative Member:

On April 19-20, 2011 at the Louisiana Delta Community College in Monroe, LA, a conference will be held entitled “Global Challenges and Local Solutions: How Education and Broadband Technology Can Strengthen the Louisiana Delta.”

During this conference, a new project aimed at improving the educational awareness of broadband adoption benefits in rural areas will be announced (Connect My Louisiana) along with new grant funding that each of our LDI parish governments can access to further develop broadband connectivity in our LDI region. The funding will be provided by the Louisiana Division of Administration, Office of Information Technology. A full agenda will be distributed soon.

Please save the date, April 19-20, 2011, and join us for this exciting announcement. Thank you for all of your support to continue to move the LDI forward in our region.

Kind Regards,

James N. Barnes, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Director &

State of Louisiana Broadband Advisory Council Member

Louisiana Center for Rural Initiatives

Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness

Louisiana State University Agricultural Center

Web site: LSU AgCenter’s Delta Rural Development Center

Blogs: Rural Broadband Education, Rural Leadership and Governance, Regional Economic Development

Office: 318.428.4029 | Cell: 318.334.2352 | E-Mail: jbarnes@agcenter.lsu.edu

Strengthening Agribusiness and Rural Development Opportunities in Northeast Louisiana

Through a collaboration among the LSU AgCenter’s Delta Rural Development Center, University of Louisiana at Monroe Social Science Research Lab, USDA, SU AgCenter and the Northeast Educational Foundation, an agribusiness and rural development workshop will be provided to the public on October 28th at the LSU AgCenter's Delta Rural Development Center located in Oak Grove, LA.

The purpose of this workshop is to provide information about grant opportunities in value-added agriculture and renewable energy to entrepreneurs in northeast Louisiana.

"We're glad to have partnered with Kevin Boone and Judy Meche (USDA-Louisiana), John Sutherlin (ULM), Sheila Pepmiller (Northeast Educational Foundation), and Glenn Dixon (SU AgCenter) to provide a dynamic presentation of grant opportunities in value-added agriculture and renewable energy. We think this is appropriate for a wide variety of entrepreneurs throughout northeast Louisiana. We're excited about this new collaboration and hope to offer additional workshops similar to this one in the future", Barnes said.

Dr. Barnes is an Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness and Director of the LSU AgCenter's Delta Rural Development Center located in Oak Grove, LA.

Registeration is required due to limited space. Register HERE or call the LSU AgCenter's Delta Rural Development Center at 318.428.3571 or 318.428.7444.

Agenda

9:00 a.m. Introduction and Welcome

(James Barnes, LSU AgCenter)

9:10 a.m. USDA Value-Added Producer Grant Program

(Judy Meche, USDA- Louisiana)

9: 40 a.m. Value-Added E-Business Opportunities & Market Maker

(James Barnes, LSU AgCenter & Glenn Dixon, SU AgCenter)

10:00 a.m. USDA Federal Solar Programs

(Kevin Boone, USDA- Louisiana)

10:30 a.m. Break

10:45 a.m. Overview of Louisiana Solar Technology Programs

(John Sutherlin, University of Louisiana-Monroe)

11:15 a.m. On-site Solar Technology Company Demonstration

11:45 a.m. Question and Answer Session

12:00 p.m. Adjourn

LSU AgCenter's DRDC Credited for Acquiring $80 Million Broadband Grant for Northeast Louisiana

Through the collaboration with the Louisiana Broadband Alliance, the LSU AgCenter's Delta Rural Development Center recently received credit for being one of the institutions who has contributed to the acquisition of an $80 million broadband grant to bring fiber optic to 21 parishes, primarily in northeast Louisiana. Read more.

"This is a great collaboration to be part of and we're glad the LSU AgCenter's Delta Rural Development Center could play a contributing role. We look forward to seeing how access to a high-tech backbone of fiber optic will bring about economic development opportunities in the Louisiana Delta area, "said Barnes, Associate Professor and Director of DRDC located in Oak Grove, LA.

The $80 million broadband grant will provide resources to lay fiber optic in some of the poorest areas of Louisiana, and the U.S. - the Louisiana Delta. The new network would connect to the Louisiana Optical Network Initiative (LONI), a more than 1,600 mile fiber-optic network that connects Louisiana and Mississippi research universities to National LambdaRail and Internet2.

Broadband Economics in Rural Louisiana

Access to broadband technology in rural areas remains limited. In the United States, broadband refers to the set of technologies that provide a connection to the Internet, such as phone lines, satellite, fixed and mobile wireless and cable. The February 2006 Pew/Internet and American Life Project reported that only 24 percent of rural Americans have a broadband connection at home compared to 39 percent of urban and suburban residents. Further, adoption of broadband technology in rural areas continues to lag. Between 2001 and 2005, U.S. home adoption of broadband services in urban and suburban areas grew by 30 percent. However, adoption in rural areas grew by only 21 percent. Less access to and lower adoption of broadband inhibit significant economic opportunities for rural Americans. Unfortunately, these same trends hold true for rural Louisiana. Read more here.

Video Documentation of the LDI Effort in Northeast Louisiana

For more about the LDI partners who are actively involved, please view a recent video here.

If you have questions about LDI, please don't hesitate to contact me at jbarnes@agcenter.lsu.edu.

LDI Signatures Projects 2010

Connect Carroll – a broadband infrastructure project designed to map the areas of high speed Internet connectivity in East and West Carroll parishes.

Bricks to Clicks – an entrepreneurship project that supports rural entrepreneurs with computer technology, technical support and other assistance to establish an e-business presence on the Internet (e.g blog, website) to increase business profits. The Bricks to Clicks project also supports local governments in their effort to provide increased access to broadband or high speed Internet services to further support rural entrepreneurs.

Connect Rayville – a results demonstration project whereby local school, economic development, Mayor’s office, police jury and many other organizations in the town of Rayville receive technical assistance to improve access to broadband through the establishment of wireless network systems.

CAMP – Community Asset Mapping Project provides high school students with training in geographic information system (GIS) technology applications. Students then work with community leaders to develop digital infrastructure maps to improve coordination of local services.

What is the Louisiana Delta Initiative Mission?

The LSU Agricultural Center’s Delta Rural Development Center and the Southern University Agricultural Center were charged with the responsibility to discover and implement a set of best practices to eradicate poverty in the parishes located in the Louisiana Delta Initiative (LDI) according to legislation passed in 2007 (R.S. 3:333). Caldwell, Catahoula, Concordia, East Carroll, Franklin, Madison, Morehouse, Ouachita, Pointe Coupee, Richland, Tensas and West Carroll parishes were identified as part of the LDI region.

The LDI is a regional network of community and economic development organizations cooperatively working together to discover and implement a set of best practices to address such poverty issues as improving access to affordable health care, strengthening public educational systems, creating jobs and entrepreneurial communities and developing infrastructure to support economic growth, especially broadband.

What is CAMP?

The Community Asset Mapping Program (CAMP) provides students with training in geographic information system (GIS) technology applications. The goal of the program is to provide students with employable GIS skills. Students use GIS skills to then work with local leaders to create digital infrastructure asset maps to improve the delivery of community services. Students map fire, water and sewer, roads, bridges and broadband infrastructure assets in single and multiple parish regions in Louisiana.

The CAMP is available at the LSU AgCenter’s Delta Rural Development Center (DRDC) located in the Thomas Jason Lingo Community Center in Oak Grove, Louisiana. The CAMP is a signature project of the Louisiana Delta Initiative, a twelve parish regional economic development network located in northeast Louisiana.

The LSU Agricultural Center team members working on this project include: Drs. James Barnes, R.L. Frazier and Myrl Sistrunk. The Oak Grove students involved in this project include Seth Strong, Dustin Waits and Charles Dupree.

Funding for the CAMP has been provided by Dr. Paul Coreil, Director of the Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service and Entergy Louisiana LLC. For more information, please contact Dr. James Barnes at Jbarnes@agcenter.lsu.edu or visit http://louisianadeltainitaitive.blogspot.com.

CAMP results have been generated for the following parishes:

- West Carroll Parish – October, 2009

Richland Parish – September, 2010

CAMP Richland Signature LDI Project Completed

Economic development interns at the LSU AgCenter's Delta Rural Development Center have completed the CAMP Richland project. Students gathered data on the parish's fire infrastructure and created digital maps to increase the responsiveness during fire and other emergencies in the parish.

These digital maps will soon be given to fire chiefs, mayors and many more in Richland Parish in August, 2010.

Please find below a sample of their work to be distributed to this parish community in northeast Louisiana.

Thank you,

James Barnes, Ph.D.

Associate Professor & Director

Louisiana Center for Rural Initiatives

Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness

LSU AgCenter

318.428.3571

jbarnes@agcenter.lsu.edu