Monday, February 22, 2021

AN INTRODUCTION OF WHY SOCIETY VALUES COMMUNICATION

 These blog postings have focused on the changes in agriculture in Vermont since after the French and Indian Wars and the Treaty of Paris that ended the conflicts.  Vermont was quickly settled after that period by those who moved into the area seeking new land and opportunities.  Communications were in their infancy, relying on personal contact, messages and printed material.  Looking back to that time and to where communications are today, is a witness to a revolution.

 

In an article “1851 was the year of the Communication Boom,” published in the Brattleboro Reformer by the Brattleboro Historical Society on September 6, 2019, is information on major changes that took place in that period.  According to the article, in 1784 the State legislature established five post offices at key locations in the state: Brattleboro, Bennington, Rutland, Windsor, and Newbury.  Rider’s rode horses between the locations, and there was a connecting route between Bennington and Albany so that mail could be sent and received from other locations.   It is interesting to read this historical piece on the purpose of this action by the State Legislature then: “These post offfices will open a regular communication through the State by which the inhabitants on each side of the mountain will be relieved from the inconveniences they have heretofore labored under in keeping up a mutual correspondence, so necessary to a Union.”

 

Much has followed.  The first electric telegraph was invented in 1831 making it possible to send information long distances in a short period of time.  Apparently, it came to Brattleboro, according to the article by the Brattleboro Historical Society, in 1851 and eventually led to the creation of the Vermont and Boston Telegraph Company

 

After Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876, communications expanded. It did not reach rural areas in the U.S. until much later.   In my youth in the 1950’s and early 1960’s, we had party lines for the telephone and a local telephone exchange in the nearby town.  We did not have a T.V. until later and often ventured to the neighbors to watch the Mikey Mouse Club on a very small black and white TV, with poor reception as there was not any cable connections or satellite technology. In College we had to use pay phones and would only call on Sundays when the rates for calling home were much lower.  When I was stationed in Germany in the Army in the late 1960’s we had to go to the local German Post Office to arrange a call to the United States.  Before my mother passed away in 2013, we took our iPad and connected her to her youngest granddaughter then living in Ohio.  My mother was born in 1916 and grew up with a hand crank phone and without TV, but with a small family radio that they all set around in the evening to listen to.  When we connected her to her granddaughter who she could see on the screen, she kept saying, what will come next, what will come next!  So much had happened just in her lifetime.

 

As Tom Freeman indicates in his book The World Is Flat, people and businesses can connect almost instantly from almost anywhere in the world today. Video conferencing more recently is also changing how people interact.  It is used with virtual learning and with many businesses today.  It is having an impact at all levels in our society.                                                     

 

BRINGING BROADBAND TO VERMONT, ADDRESSING THE CHALLENGES 

 

Bringing new and effective technologies to rural America is not a new challenge as noted above.  I once asked my late mother about when did electric power come to the small southern Vermont rural town where I grew up.  She answered that the year was 1938, and they brought one electric line into our house. We had one fifteen-watt bulb, and I said to your dad who was farming with his dad, this is awfully bright, we will never need anything brighter!  She went on the say that they were afraid to put the electricity into the barn as it might start a fire.

 

We all know today of the impact that rural electric had in changing things on the farm and in rural communities. It would not have happened without the creation of the Federal Rural Electric Administration (REA) in 1935.  Its purpose was to initiate, formulate, administer, and supervise projects for the generation, transmission, and distribution of electric energy to rural areas.  It took until the 1960’s for some towns in northern Vermont to get power, decades after the rest of America. 

 

Like electrical power, farmers and rural residents in many areas developed their own telephone companies on a mutual or cooperative basis in the early 1900’s.  Some of us remember party lines and the local telephone exchange.

 

Bringing Broadband to rural Vermont is reminiscent of that past.  When my wife and I moved back to Vermont and the area that I grew up in, in the 1990’s, we were told that internet service would be available soon.  We quickly found out that our only way to have internet service was to go to the local library or to the hospital parking lot with our computer.  Likewise, years later when I was CEO of our local hospital and healthcare facility in Southern Vermont, even though we did have internet service at the hospital, we lacked the ability to connect with many of the patients in the nearby rural towns where internet service was still lacking.  Cell service in the area is still a problem.  At the hospital we did not have cell service until we created our own cell tower.  Vermonter’s have repeatedly been assured by various Vermont Administration’s that access for all is being aggressively addressed.

 

It is encouraging to hear of the formation of Communication Union Districts, that allow two or more towns to join together as a municipal entity for a means of building communication infrastructure together, like the rural electric and telephone cooperatives that existed in the past.  There are now about 11 CUD’s in Vermont, as towns turn to public options to provide coverage of areas that the private sector has passed over just as they did early on with electric and telephone service.  With some 61,000 Vermont households estimated to lack internet or have poor service, new options are needed.  We also hear of the goal of Elon Musk’s effort with Starlink to launch thousands of small satellites able to transmit fast internet signals down to Earth and the interest by some in our state in this technology.

 

Helping people connect to technology is always a challenge, especially for an older and rural population like we have in Vermont.  As with rural electric and telephone service of the past, institutions and programs are in place to assist with the adaption of these new technologies.  As a student of Vermont’s agricultural history, I am often reminded of the role of the federal, state, and county extension services which were established in 1914 as a way then to increase agricultural productivity, food security, and to address rural livelihoods as well as to be an engine to address economic growth.   The county agent, home economist, and 4-H leader were looked to as the go to people in the community. They became agents for change, for innovative ways to introduce new agricultural technologies and other new methods.  It was known that the young people in the community often adopted new ideas before their parents and other community members.   The 4-H clubs became one way to help make this education more connected to the countryside and to those that lived there.

 

Bringing Broadband to communities in Rural Vermont is more than just a connection. It is also a way to create a community of learning and a way of helping individuals and communities put knowledge to work to stimulate innovation.  While CUD’s and service providers are focused on bringing technology to rural locations in our state, there is a need for a community of learning.   Perhaps it is again time to reinforce the role and mission of 4-H and other Extension programs in putting this technology to work.  It is a way to stimulate innovation in schools, homes, and in business establishments in the community.  As one noted Vermont Extension Specialist has said about their role, “we marry technology and social capital to create a true community of learning…. it’s pretty magical.”

 

 

By Roger Allbee of Townshend, Vermont, is a former CEO of Grace Cottage Healthcare and also is a former Vt Secretary of Agriculture, Food and Markets.