Welcome to Universal Service: Pennsylvania

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Welcome to the Universal Service: Pennsylvania online seminar.  
This seminar provides a forum for discussions of the Universal
Service discount program for schools and libraries (or "E-Rate")
as it applies to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  The seminar
has been organized by Information Renaissance with help of
the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PaPUC), the Pennsylvania
Department of Education (PDE) and the Governor's Office of Administration,
Office for Information Technology.

There are many things you can do in the seminar:

	1) Learn about the E-Rate program as it applies to
	   Pennsylvania schools and libraries

	2) Inform the PaPUC about the needs of Pennsylvania
	   schools and libraries so that the PaPUC can shape
	   Universal Service policies in the state to best
	   meet those needs.

	3) Begin to build effective collaborations in your
	   community so as to use new telecommunications
	   technology for the effective support of educational
	   programs.

	4) Develop strategies to maximize complementary resources
	   available through the E-Rate, Link-to-Learn and
	   other technology initiatives.

	5) Help the PDE target its programs where the needs
	   are greatest and where state support can be most
	   effective.

Please visit the seminar Web site,

	/projects/us-pa/

regularly to keep up with information made available through
this site and to follow the online discussion on a minute by minute
basis.  From the seminar's home page you can follow the link
"SEMINAR ACTIVITIES WEEK BY WEEK" to find the latest developments
in the seminar.

Please post at least one comment each week to the seminar mailing 
	
	us-pa@info-ren.pitt.edu  [NOTE: seminar is over! this will fail!]

list, and help us keep the discussion moving along by participating 
in the online surveys that will be posted on the Web site each week.

Thanks for your interest in the seminar.  We hope it will meet
the high expectations expressed in comments on your registration 
forms.  We look forward to three productive and exciting weeks.
This type of forum, where practitioners come together to discuss
effective implementation strategies, with state officials listening
in and helping to shape new state initiatives, is an unusual
opportunity to demonstrate the effectiveness of networking technology.
We're all making history in this effort.

Bob Carlitz, Moderator
Laurie Maak, Facilitator

• Next message: Bob Carlitz: "Assignment for Week One"