Building an Internet Bridge

Building an Internet Bridge

A community-based multi-agency model
For the creation and exchange of information

The RAIN Network is the Regional Alliance for Information Networking. RAIN is one of the oldest non-profit Community Internet systems in the U.S., founded in 1991, and dedicated to developing Internet-based applications for information sharing that improve technology services to Rural Communities. RAIN Network has received awards for Projects involving Professional Technology Skills Training for Teachers, Physicians and Nurses, for Rural Distance Learning and Telemedicine, for GIS development as a Public Education and Health resource as well as for E-Commerce training programs and Agricultural Education and Ag-Tourism Economic Development programs.

RAIN was founded when a group of librarians in California foresaw the potential of the Internet as a public information access tool, and decided to work to bring the Internet out of the halls of academia and into the hands of the public. As a result, RAIN became one of the first pioneers of public Internet access in the world, and is one of the enduring early pioneers. RAIN is now working on developing Public Internet Broadcasting as a public education medium, and is incorporating new programs that include Community Wellness and Telemedicine, Rural Community distance education and GIS mapping for Emergency Services. RAIN’s Camp Internet online learning and professional development program has received a Smithsonian Institution Technology Innovation Award and provided online learning curriculum for over 25,000 4th-12th grade students.

I have been asked to comment on the original Goals and Mission for RAIN Network when the project first began as the Pacific Rim Business and Education Network, (which then became RAIN, the Regional Alliance for Information Networking). Here are some notes on one of our goals, as we began to bring the Internet out to the Community some 17 years ago, (1990/91). It had to do with “Building an Internet Bridge” out to the Community. That early Goal became a Hallmark of RAIN Community Internet.

One of the hallmarks of RAIN has been it’s emphasis on applications for technology that bring multi-agency consortiums together to develop and deliver Public Internet Broadcasting services of notable benefit to the public. RAIN’s ongoing efforts are to create a Bridge to the Community to help make valuable federal, state, university and local resources accessable, as well as to provide education resource for the public which develop Technology Literacy Skills that make it easy for regular, working class Americans, to understand and utilize these information resources effectively for Education, Community Wellness and Telemedicine, Economic Development, and Emergency Management.

In accomplishing this task, RAIN has sought to demonstrate the important role of a Public Technology Services NGO – non-governmental organization – which can serve as an interpretive bridge between government, scientific and academic resources and the public these resources are destined to serve.