Accomack County
Accomack County Report
Introduction 206K, about 30 seconds over 56K modem
Narrative 35 M, about 85 minutes over 56K modem
April- June '04 quarterly summary
Activity in Accomack this quarter focused on spreading the word about Community Connections and Virtual Business Incubator accounts that were made available through the Eastern Shore Virginia Portal through a cooperative agreement between Blacksburg Electronic Village (BEV) and Networked Futures Task Force (NFTF) which oversees the activities of the Portal.
On April 7, the Eastern Shore News carried an announcement of an upcoming Web site design workshop. Jaime Shetrone, Project Coordinator visited the Eastern Shore counties (Accomack and Northampton) on May 20 and 21 to hold informational sessions about Community Connections and Virtual Business Incubator accounts. This resulted in 5 Virtual Business Incubator signups and 3 Community Connections signups. One of these accounts, Deville Service, received Website development work under BEV's POWER (POWER Offers Web Economic Resources) internship program. This program is designed to give both local and remote volunteers real world experience working on Website designs for community organizations and businesses. Work on the Deville Service Web site was completed in June. Response to the Web site design workshops suggests that this TOP grant funded project has help bring local focus to technology related issues and attracting small business owners and organization members to the use of technology in advertising their services.
On June 22, Bill Sanders, the incoming Director of the BEV and Kevin Inman, (the newly hired) TOP Grant Program Support Specialist met with agent Pauline Milbourne at the Sunrise Grill in Accomack. Milbourne explained some of the difficulties presented by the project. Chief among them was the perception by some in the county that the TOP project duplicated efforts already made on easternshorevirginiaportal.com; the two projects were finally accepted as complementary in February 2004. She expressed frustration in mentioning the limited manpower and time available to work on the project and the Virginia budget cuts that eliminated VCE jobs. She also explained the logistical difficulty created by the Eastern Shore's common identity in working on a project divided up by county.
Sanders and Inman explained the POWER internship program and encouraged Milbourne to utilize it for any organizations that could use a starter Website.
The Networked Futures Task Force, with representative members from the former Accomack and Northampton County Technology Leadership Teams did not meet this quarter; their April and May meetings were canceled, and the June meeting was postponed to July 27.
January - March '04 quarterly summary
A source of concern over the life of this project has been the establishment of a working relationship that would bring together the Technology Leadership Teams formed in Accomack County and the Networked Futures Taskforce which includes representatives from Accomack County and provides guidance to the Eastern Shore Virginia Portal. Despite the best efforts of Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) and Blacksburg, Electronic Village (BEV) personnel to clarify the role of the Accomack community network in relation to the Eastern Shore Virginia Portal, and the fact that these programs were never intended to either duplicate effort or compete with each other, misunderstandings continued to exist.
At a meeting on January 14, 2004, attended by the Accomack and Northampton County Technology Leadership Team (TLT) members and the Networked Futures Task Force, it was decided that the Eastern Shore Virginia Portal would serve as the community Web site for Accomack County. The Accomack County Web site created through the TOP program and hosted by the BEV will provide a description of the TOP project, a listing of TLT activities in Accomack county, and a link to the Portal. The BEV will provide the Virtual Business Incubator and Community Connections services which are not currently offered through the Eastern Shore Virginia Portal. VCE staff will register county residents for these programs in the Accomack County Office. Oversight of the Portal will be provided by the Networked Futures Task Force which will be expanded to include the current members of the Accomack TLT. The Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce, the Eastern Shore Small Business Development Center, and the Eastern Shore Economic Development Council are currently represented on the Networked Futures Task Force.
A group of concerned citizens and business leaders have recently formed the Eastern Shore of Virginia Regional Partnership’s Broadband Initiative which has as its goal researching local demand for broadband and generating interest from providers. A meeting on February 10 brought together representatives of the TOP program, the Networked Futures Task Force (Eastern Shore Virginia Portal), and the Regional Partnership Broadband Initiative to discuss these access-related projects on the Shore and avoid duplication of effort. Discussion centered on DSL accessibility in local towns and how the groups might work on common goals. A list of stakeholders to be visited by J. Nichols of Communications Network Services (CNS) of Virginia Tech as a follow up of his Technology Assessment of the Eastern Shore was compiled. It was decided that all data collected as part of this assessment will be retained by the Eastern Shore Virginia Portal in order to assure its accessibility and use for the future. ARCExplorer may be a suitable program for data management.
Computer technology is being incorporated into conferences sponsored for child care providers on the Eastern Shore with the demonstration of software providing both educational and record-keeping resources for these home-based business providers. These child care providers will also be encouraged to establish a presence on the Virtual Business Incubator as a marketing tool in their community.
October - December '03 quarterly summary
The Accomack County Technology Leadership Team (TLT) met regularly through this quarter, although the level of attendance and agreement on goals for the project have been mixed. On Oct 20, M. Mathai, Project Director conducted a conference call training session on the community directories offered as part of the BEV in a Box services to some members of the Accomack TLT. A major point of indecision for the TLT over the past several months has been whether to establish the Accomack Electronic Village as an independent community network, or, alternatively, to join forces with the Eastern Shore Portal, a community network that was implemented to support economic development across the Eastern Shore region of Accomack and Northampton counties. Several members of the Accomack TLT also are members of the Networked Futures Task Force that serves as the advisory body to the Eastern Shore Portal. M. Mathai, Project Director joined the Accomack TLT meeting on Nov 4 via conference call and initiated a discussion centered on the options available and what might be the best course of action. He urged the members of the TLT to decide which of the options discussed would work best for Accomack. Following that meeting, TLT members decided that the Accomack community network would be represented by the Portal. Since the Portal presently does not offer online incubator services to businesses and community organizations, these services would be made available to the businesses and community organizations in Accomack County as part this project. On Nov 18 and 19, J. Haycock, Special Projects Coordinator with the Eastern Portal, received training from BEV staff on the Virtual Business Incubator and Community Connections services enabling her to assist those who wish to utilize these services in Accomack County. The Accomack County VCE office will serve as a central point for collecting content materials to be posted on the business incubator or village mall sites.
January 20, 2004
The following highlights are from the January 14th meeting of the Accomack TLT, Northampton TLT, and the Networked Future Task Force.
- From now on, the Accomack TLT and the Northampton TLT will both be represented by the Networked Future Task Force.
- All current TLT members will be invited to join the Networked Future Task Force.
- The Eastern Shore Virginia Portal was formally adopted as the community website for both Accomack and Northampton Counties.
- The domain name for the Virtual Business Incubator & Community Connections accounts for both counties will be "esvp.bev.net"
- Thom Henderson, ESVA.net, has set up an email listserv for the group. The address is nftf@esva.net.
- The next meeting of the Networked Future Task Force will be on Tuesday, February 17, 2004, from 8:30am to 10:30am, at the Eastern Shore of Virginia Chamber of Commerce in Melfa.
November 11, 2003
The following powerpoint presentation was given at the November 4th Accomack TLT meeting.
July - September '03 quarterly summary
The agent in Accomack County, P. Milborne, reported difficulties in getting project related activities completed in a timely manner. Some of this may be caused due to perceptions regarding potential duplication between the project sponsored Accomack Electronic Village and the Eastern Shore Portal site created by the Networked Future Task Force which has members from communities within Accomack County. The Eastern Shore Portal tends to focus on business interests and commercial listings and not on communities on the Shore. We have informed the Technology Leadership Team (TLT) in Accomack County that the project site could emphasize communities within Accomack County. It was suggested at a summer meeting that a technology teacher at an Accomack high school who serves on the TLT be approached about involving students in the collection and posting of local data listing community churches, civic organizations, and resources. This does not appear to have taken place. The Accomack TLT has viewed the draft Accomack site and made suggestions as to format; however, data collection and the training of TLT members required implementing the review of business and agency requests for posting has not occurred.
At a meeting of the Accomack TLT R. Roberts, a Blacksburg Electronic Village (BEV) staff member demonstrated the community discussion board that is part of the services provided as part of the Accmack County Electronic Village, and provided a hands-on opportunity for members to experience its capability. M. Mathai, Project Director, visited the Eastern shore in September to meet with the TLT in Accomack County and conduct training on the Directory Services provided as part of their Electronic Village. Additional community readiness trainings have not been conducted in Accomack as a result of scheduling problems and the need to hold meetings where Internet access is available.
The equipment (software and hardware) needed for running the Community Network in Accomack County has been deployed and is fully operational. It has been tested by members of the project team and the Accomack County technology leadership team.
April - June '03 quarterly summary
The Accomack County Extension Leadership Council and the TOP Technology Leadership Team (TLT) met on June 16th at the Eastern Shore Regional Chamber of Commerce in Melfa, VA, to review TOP progress. P. Milbourne, the Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) agent in Accomack, and J. Johnson, the VCE Area Technology Specialist, provided leadership for the meeting. Because many of the members of the Extension Leadership Council are also members of the TLT, it was decided that both groups would meet together. The major agenda item was the review of the real-time display of the Accomack County test site. Members were able to view the features and content of the Louisa Electronic Village and the King and Queen Information Trail community web sites to generate ideas and suggestions for the Accomack County site. The members present had several suggestions regarding final color schemes for their site as well as topic changes for the navigational tabs. These comments were shared with Jamie Shetrone, the Blacksburg Electronic Village (BEV) Project Coordinator, for incorporation into the final design now being prepared for public access.
April 2, 2003
Here is the final version of the Accomack County Take Charge powerpoint presentation.
January - March '03 quarterly summary
The Accomack County Technology Leadership Team (TLT) went through three sessions of the Take Charge process on 2/5/2003, 2/25/2003 and 3/4/2003. In these sessions they discussed where the TLT thought they were at present, where they wanted to be in 2020 and how they planned to get there. They summarized the outcomes of the Take Charge process as follows: - Continue efforts to create the grassroots community website to improve communication in all communities - Utilize technology and a community village to insure that all citizens have a computer or easy access to the Internet - Utilize existing resources (i.e. the TOP Initiative) to promote small or cottage industry development - Utilize community Web pages as a resource to existing programs and activities in Accomack County Actively participate with the TLT to develop a grassroots technology plan that supplements regional technology planning
Details of these sessions and activities of the Accomack County TLT can be found on the web site for this project at http://top.bev.net/counties/accomack.php
The TLT has started working with the project coordinator, Jaime Shetrone on using the insights gained during the Take Charge process for generating content for their community network Web site.
March 18, 2003
The following are the minutes from Accomack's 3rd Take Charge session.
March 10, 2003
Accomack county has put together a powerpoint presentation with the results of their Take Charge session.
October - December '02 quarterly summary
Technology Leadership Team (TLT) has been formed and is meeting on a regular basis. TLT received training on Nov. 20th. Take Charge is planned for February.
December 2, 2002
The following are the minutes from the November 20th meeting of the Technology Leadership Team.
October 24, 2002
The following are the minutes from the October 16th meeting of the Technology Leadership Team.
October 9, 2002
The following are the minutes from the September 26th meeting of the Technology Leadership Team.
July - September '02 quarterly summary
A team was formed consisting of members from two counties (Accomack and Northampton), but we did not find this acceptable according to the terms of the grant. Accomack County is currently in the process of recruiting the new Technology Leadership Team.
