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Economic future rides on high tech highway Chris Barber, an installer with Ashland Fiber Network, cleans fiber optic strands with alcohol before splicing them during an installation in an Ashland business. The fiber network is part of new high-speed Internet access. Valley leaders build network for changing times By David Preszler of the Mail Tribune From booming dot-com stock prices to pitches for e-everything, technology's impact is growing daily. And Rogue Valley leaders are rushing to make a place for this region in what many consider the biggest economic shift since the Industrial Revolution. "We want to ensure that we have the economic growth, that we take advantage of this technology age," says Mike Stallcop, president of the Southern Oregon Telecommunications and Technology Council. "To prepare for the new economy, communities have to get their act together and work together." To that end, a wide range of community leaders gathered this week to figure out where the Rogue Valley is on the path to technological nirvana. Their conclusion? The journey has begun but there's a long way to go. "We're really in our infancy," admits Stallcop. "We're just beginning to take steps." With the help of a Silicon Valley consultant, leaders assessed the state of technology here, looking at everything from infrastructure, business and local government to education, health care and nonprofit organizations. The consultant, Seth Fearey of the communications consulting firm Connected Communities, says the Rogue Valley has definite bright spots but ranks somewhere in the middle of the pack when compared with other regions. For example, high-speed Internet access is just starting to become widely available in the Rogue Valley. The only service widely available now is Medford Internet's PerKinet, which offers high-speed wireless downloads but slower uploads that require a phone line. In the Ashland area, Falcon Cable is offering high-speed access to home and business users through cable modems. The Ashland Fiber Network is providing high-speed access to some businesses in Ashland and hopes to start connecting residential users soon, though no dates are being announced. Falcon plans to start offering high-speed connections to Medford, Central Point and elsewhere within the next few months. InternetCDS is offering high-speed two-way wireless connections to business users and will start testing its residential service within a month. Fearey says other communities are even with or ahead of this area in high-speed technologies such as cable modems, digital subscriber lines and wireless services. "The norm is for this stuff to be rolling out now," he says. The assessment also raised concern about the availability of high-speed services in rural areas. "We really noted major differences between the rural and the urban," says Kevin Talbert, Southern Oregon University's chief information officer and one of the infrastructure panel members. "In terms of a lot of the basic services, they are here. But we have a ways to go in providing them evenly." In the local government realm, the assessment found that while many entities _ including Jackson County and the cities of Medford and Ashland _ had informational Web sites, none of them are handling online transactions such as building permits. "That's pretty much normal but changing rapidly," Fearey says. "A city like Medford should have some transactions up within three months to stay at normal." Medford Mayor Lindsay Berryman says the city is pushing to make that happen soon. "We are moving ahead aggressively," she says. "We're looking at trying to do all your building permits online. Eventually, we hope to be doing a lot of our business electronically." Two areas in the Rogue Valley that Fearey expressed concern about were small businesses and community-based, nonprofit groups. "If we don't help our small businesses onto the Internet, we're going to lose them," he says. "We need to find ways to help small businesses take advantage of this technology. "Small businesses may have Web sites but have yet to begin doing business-to-business transactions, to understand how the Internet can build their businesses." As for nonprofits, he says the assessment showed that many organizations don't feel they have the computers or support needed to take advantage of the Internet for educational or fund-raising purposes. Fearey and others say the issue goes beyond just having high-speed access to the Internet. "The Internet is a tool, not a savior," says Jim Teece, owner of Ashland's Project A and president of the local chapter of the Oregon Software Association. "The technology is there but we haven't yet learned to use it for collaboration and cooperation." There's little question that the influence of the Internet is growing. Fearey says the capacity of computer networks nationwide grew 400 percent in 1998 alone. The 1998 Oregon Population Survey found that 53 percent of the state's households had a personal computer and that two-thirds of those with computers were using the Internet. Though local data on computer usage isn't available, Tuesday night's Silicon Orchard Evening attested to the growing influence of technology. The 3-year-old annual event was mainly a casual gathering of technology companies for its first two years. But this year's edition was larger and a bit more upscale, with far fewer pairs of blue jeans and more mainstream business leaders. For instance, Berryman and a half dozen Medford City Council members attended, as did business leaders without clear ties to technology, such as real estate developer Mike Burrill and Bank of Southern Oregon President John Anhorn. "We've sort of come of age," says Stallcop. "We're starting to get the attention of folks like Mike Burrill. The old establishment is realizing that the new economy is with us. We're starting to gain momentum." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA