RAHALL REPORT: The Internet Can be a Powerful Economic Tool
From the desk of U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV)Representing West Virginia's 3rd District
Washington, D.C. (HNN) -- Last week, McDowell County, in cooperation with Carnegie Mellon University, unveiled www.McDowellbusiness.org, an online hub that will enable McDowell County businesses and corporations to communicate and coordinate via the World Wide Web.
As many of you know, I have been promoting the three T's -transportation, tourism and technology- for some time now. I firmly believe that these components come together to create a formula for economic growth and job creation in McDowell County and in all of southern West Virginia. So naturally, any time we can come together to celebrate an advancement in one of these areas, it is a happy day for me. McDowellbusiness.org is full of promise and potential. And, yes, it is also essential.
Over the past 10 years the Internet has become a crucial part of the business world. Vincent Cerf, the father of the Internet, made an excellent point when he said a year for the Internet is like is like a dog year ... equivalent to seven years in a regular person's life. In other words, the Internet is evolving faster and faster.
At the same time, access to the Internet has grown throughout our region. Our young businessmen and women work with the Internet all the time and it is necessary to them for both communication and competition. The Internet is quite truly capable of moving mountains. It enables people in southern West Virginia to do business anywhere in the world, without ever having to leave the beauty and calm of our quiet hills.
Just as business folks are trading the fast-paced West Coast city living for a quiet, safer family life in the Great Plains, so to are city-dwellers coming to West Virginia to work. The Internet is making this possible. But to fully take advantage of this important tool at our disposal, we must have both access and instruction. As a member of the Congressional Rural Caucus, I am working with both my Democrat and Republican colleagues in Washington to help ensure West Virginia and all of rural America is guaranteed a first class telecommunications infrastructure. We are working to protect the technological infrastructure which makes advanced telecommunications services, including broadband, possible.
And I am particularly pleased with an important development initiative I announced in March of this year that is helping small businesses across southern West Virginia learn more about Internet opportunities.
This initiative, which I have worked hand-in-hand with ARC to develop, puts technology to work to put West Virginians to work. Through hands-on, interactive classes, small businesses can begin taking advantage of the economic opportunities available through the worldwide Web.
This is a small business builder for all of southern West Virginia. It will create new jobs in our area and help our local businesses reach the global marketplace. I encourage anyone with a small business to take advantage of this program.
We are seeing great economic progress in southern West Virginia, but as all of us know, there is much work yet to do. This Internet is an important tool we can ALL use in the building of a brighter future. Let's take advantage of it.