US:PA-1: Assignment for week one
Assignment for week one
Barbara Zaborowski (bzabor@mail.ccacc.cc.pa.us)
Wed, 17 Sep 1997 14:43:26 -0400
I am located in the Johnstown area which is situated in a corridor that
is the easternmost of Western PA and the westernmost of Central PA. The
telecommunication problems that face us are, of course, related to cost
and access. To be functional in this area both schools and libraries
need to have access to cost effective options. In simply trying to
network schools in the north of the county with schools in the south of
the county we encountered the "mason-dixon" line of phone service areas.
The north being serviced by Bell Atlantic and the south by GTE. Neither
vendor was able to provide a cost effective method of delivery because
of tariffed services. In this regard there is no difference between the
needs of schools and libraries. Both are trying to get to the great
open areas of cyberspace. However, when phone companies reply to
requests for increased bandwidth and ISDN lines with the retort that
"it's too expensive to provide you with the service" there are not a
whole lot of other options.
In regard to rural versus urban, I believe that the word "access" needs
to be defined when examining the needs of these two areas. In speaking
with teachers in the City of Pittsburgh, one relayed the story that
students on the North Side did not have access to the Internet. Their
level of access is different when you consider that high bandwidth
communication lines may exist in their area but they are not able to
access them because of hardware constraints. Rural areas do not have
access to the telecommunication lines even if they had the hardware.
It's an interesting dilemma.
Barbara Zaborowski
Associate Dean
Library and Educational Technologies
Cambria County Area Community College