|
Carnegie Mellon University and Glenville State College are creating a partnership to build a wireless broadband network in Glenville.
Larry R. Baker, Associate Vice President of Technology at GSC, will be the lead from Glenville working with the CMU team.
Through a $250,000 grant, funded by the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) and the Benedum Foundation, CMU's Center for Appalachian Network Access (CANA) will implement the new broadband network, connecting the Glenville community to the world through high speed Internet connectivity.
On July 12, "Camp Glenville" will begin on the campus of GSC. This "camp" will bring faculty and students of CMU's H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management, School of Computer Science and Graduate School of Industrial Relations to Glenville to begin the process of building the new network and gathering information from the Glenville community.
"This partnership shows regional cooperation at its best as universities, foundations and agencies ⦠work together to provide access to high speed broadband for enterprises in rural Appalachia," said ARC federal co-chairwoman Anne Pope. "This access is critical to their remaining competitive in a national and global economy that is increasingly utilizing the Internet to do business."
Broadband high-speed connectivity will allow high-speed transmission of large amounts of data, including multimedia and video. This new high speed connectivity will bring new commerce possibilities to Glenville and will have a lasting impact on its economy.
The hardware installation, which will allow Glenville to have high speed connectivity not usually available to rural areas, should be complete before the end of 2003.
"The resources aren't there for small communities to do these projects on their own," said GSC Interim President Robert Freeman. "GSC is excited to partner with CMU in this wireless implementation. This is a project that will touch everyone in this community."
"I have great praise for GSC, its Office of Technology and community leaders," stated John Whitehill, CANA Project Originator. "GSC was chosen for the project because Glenville chose itself with its dedication to be involved."
While in Glenville, the members of the CMU team hope to become well acquainted with Glenville and all that it has to offer. They will be taking advantage of many of the wonderful and exciting activities that Glenville and central West Virginia offer.
The new broadband network marks the beginning of many great projects that will help the Glenville community. Members of the community and the College will continue to look for additional partners as they move forward with additional project implementations.
In addition to the initial broadband network, Whitehill hopes that GSC can become the lead in West Virginia to adopt Internet2, a not-for-profit consortium, led by over 200 US universities, developing and deploying advanced network applications and technology, accelerating the creation of tomorrow's Internet.
The Appalachian Regional Commission was established by Congress in 1965 to support economic and social development in the Appalachian Region. Appalachia is a 200,000 square-mile region from the spine of the Appalachian Mountains in Southern New York to Northern Mississippi. The ARC program's region includes parts of 13 states, including all of West Virginia.
| 
