Northampton County
Northampton County Report
Introduction 219K, about 30 seconds over 56K modem
Narrative 13M, about 30 minutes over 56K modem
April- June '04 quarterly summary
Northampton County focused its energy this quarter in planning the deployment of broadband infrastructure, seen as a key component in bringing investment dollars into the region. As part of this, Northampton sent out a broadband interest survey to 700 Eastern Shore residents. They also worked to spread the word about TOP services that have been made available on the Eastern Shore Virginia Portal in partnership with BEV. On April 7, Eastern Shore News published an article publicizing classes that would help local businesses and community organizations establish a Web presence.
On May 21, Jaime Shetrone, Project Coordinator conducted a Community Connections and VBI workshop at Northampton's Extension office. At the end of the workshop, five people signed up for Virtual Business Incubator accounts and one person signed up for a Community Connections account.
Bill Sanders, incoming Director of the Blacksburg Electronic Village (BEV) and Kevin Inman, TOP Grant Program Support Specialist met with Brenda Holden on June 22 in the Northampton County Extension office to discuss the direction this project was going to take over the coming year as well as 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. Holden described some of her initiatives, including the development of after school and day care programs, and discussed the foundations of the Eastern Shore Virginia Portal.
Holden reported that one of her motives in participating in this project was to funnel energy and awareness towards the project which eventually became the Eastern Shore Virginia Portal. She sees widespread use of broadband via the Electronic Village model as critical to the economic competitiveness of her region. She views the Community Connections and Virtual Business Incubator programs as complementary to the tourism and business- oriented Portal. She is interested in employing POWER interns to get a number of Northampton micro-businesses online and stressed her desire to maximize the county's return on investment in this project.
Holden has met with representatives of Verizon Virginia and Virginia Commonwealth University to discuss deployment of a WIFI network similar to the one deployed in Dickenson County which is also participating in this project.
The Networked Futures Task Force, which serves as the Technology Leadership Team (TLT) in Accomack and Northampton counties, 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
Technology Leadership Team (TLT) members of Northampton County share the same concern about duplicating efforts of the Networked Futures Task Force as their colleagues in Accomack County.
At a meeting on January 14, 2004, attended by the Accomack and Northampton 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 Northampton counties. The Northampton county website created through this project will provide a description of the TOP project, a listing of TLT activities in Northampton County, and a link to the Eastern Shore Virginia Portal. Since the Portal doesn’t offer Virtual Business Incubator and Community Connections services, these services will be offered through this project by the Blacksburg Electronic Village (BEV). Northampton County Extension staff will sign people up for these services. Oversight of the Portal will be provided by the Networked Futures Task Force which will be expanded to include the interested members of the Northampton County TLT. At this time there are some TLT members already serving on the Networked Futures Task Force. 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 BEV as part 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. An online parenting course for children of middle school age is also available on the web site of the Northampton Extension Office.
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.
October - December '03 quarterly summary
The Northampton County Technology Leadership Team (TLT) has been meeting with members of the Networked Futures Task Force (NFTF) to support the development of an integrated community network combining the Northampton site, Accomack site and the Eastern Shore Virginia Portal.
In support of the business incubator that is being established as part of this project, the Business Advisory Committee of the Northampton County VCE, in cooperation with the Eastern Shore Community College, the Hampton Roads Small Business Development Center, the Virginia Eastern Shore Economic Empowerment and Housing Corporation, and Experiential Consultants in Management offered a seven session course on How to Prepare to be Your Own Boss. The class met one evening each week at the Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce. Content included the legal requirements for starting a business, successful selling and marketing, developing a business plan, and what does it take to be an entrepreneur. Another goal of the program was to point participants in the direction of other resources on the Shore that could support their efforts. The program began on October 13, 2003 and students graduated on December 3, 2003. The Northampton County Extension Service also held a 6-week basic e-business series of classes from October 6th-November 14th. J. Haycock, Special Projects Coordinator with the Eastern Shore Portal, who will assist with the development of the business incubator, spent Nov 18 and 19 in Blacksburg receiving technical training on the operation of the BEV network model to facilitate her work with business owners developing web pages.
July - September '03 quarterly report
The Northampton County TLT which includes representatives from the Network Future Task Force which oversees the Eastern Shore Portal and related technology, has met during this quarter. Meetings included review of the proposed Northampton web site and a presentation by M Mathai, Project Director, on September 11, 2003 describing the community directory feature of BEV in a BOX, the technology assessment to be undertaken by John Nichols from Virginia Tech, and the development of a technology plan. A community discussion board has been implemented in Northampton as part of the TOP-Eastern Shore Portal link and plans are underway to use this tool extensively to collect data for a county-wide situation analysis now being conducted across the VCE system. Questions and surveys will be posted relating to both the Northampton and Accomack analyses. Robert Roberts demonstrated the discussion board at the TLT meeting on August 20th.
As an outgrowth of the emphasis on economic development, which is integral to the TOP initiative, the Northampton County VCE is partnering with local community businesses and the Eastern Shore Community College to offer an 8-week course entitled Prepare to be Your Own Boss, for support of new businesses and those considering a business start. Topics will include developing a business plan, legal issues, marketing, Internet marketing, obtaining financing, accounting, and customer service. Brenda Holden, Family and Community Initiatives agent in Accomack, has obtained from several community groups recycled computers that are being refurbished and will be made available for technology classes in the local Extension office. A major audience for this program will be child care providers on the Eastern Shore who will learn improved business practices and budgeting using computer software, and will receive assisted access to reliable and appropriate web sites presenting continuing education opportunities in child development, appropriate discipline, disaster planning, and health.
The equipment (software and hardware) needed for running the Community Network in Northampton County has been deployed and is fully operational. It has been tested by members of the project team and the Northampton County technology leadership team.
October 6, 2003
The Northampton County TLT has sent along the following information about their September 12th meeting.
September 2, 2003
The Northampton County TLT has sent along the following information about their August 20th meeting.
April - June '03 quarterly report
Work is continuing on the development of the community network for Northampton County, under the direction of B. Holden, the local VCE agent. The Network Future Task Force and the Northampton TLT met in June to review the proposed community network site and provide input for revisions and additions. The minutes of this meeting were forwarded to J. Shetrone, the BEV Project Coordinator, for posting on the TOP public web site. These groups are evaluating the possibility of linking the TOP site developed for Northampton County to the Eastern Shore Portal, a business web site designed to spur economic development and serve as a source of information on employment opportunities in the counties of Accomack and Northampton. The expansion of regional tourism and developing links with the Virginia Tourism Corporation is a specific goal of the Portal. The community network arising from the TOP program and the Eastern Shore Portal can each play a cooperative role in the technology development in this region. Several public forums being planned to encourage use of both web sites and support new entrepreneurs include Advertising on the Internet, International Sales, Effective Spam Blocking, and Internet Technology Budgeting and Resources.
April 11, 2003
The Northampton County TLT has sent along the following information about their Take Charge sessions in January.
Take Charge Session 1
Take Charge Session 2
Take Charge Session 3
January - March '03 quarterly summary
This quarter the Northampton county Technology Leadership Team (TLT) went through the Take Charge workshops on Jan. 15, 22, and 29, 2003. Jon Johnson, VCE Area Specialist conducted TLT training and presented Introduction to Community Networks and Introduction to Basic Telecommunications to the TLT on March 5, 2003. Program coordinator Jaime Shetrone met with the TLT to discuss the Web site component of their Community Network on March 13, 2003.
October - December '02 quarterly summary
Technology Leadership Team (TLT) is formed and has begun meeting. Take Charge is scheduled for January.
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. Northampton County is currently in the process of recruiting the new Technology Leadership Team.
July 26, 2002
Brenda Holden has been comprising a list of individuals to serve on a steering committee. Dianne Dalton, is one of those individuals. She is provides web page design services and other e-business consulting services. Another gentleman works with the Accomack-Northampton Planning Commission (Paul Berge).
