Community enterprise networks

Abstract

A Community Enterprise Network (CEN) is an alliance of many stakeholders, including Community Access sites, libraries, schools, municipalities, local businesses and other interested groups. Public access Internet sites are not likely to stimulate significant economic activity as isolated units. However, when these nodes come together to form a CEN, they form both a distribution network for the delivery of government, educational and corporate services (e.g., Job Banks, Health information, Internet banking, Distance Education, Telework), and a flexible network for matching and coordinating available resources to specific production contracts. Such a coordinated network would enable types of work and jobs now limited to urban areas to be decentralized to rural areas, and would enable a higher quality of delivery of services at lower cost than present distribution systems. Activities of these CENs need not be limited to Information and Communications Technology (ICT) products and services. ICT could also be used as an "enabling technology" to facilitate decentralized, distributed production, management, and the marketing and distribution of a wide variety of goods and services. In addition, on-line library services could be made accessible from any node in the network.