Section 2 of the Access Minnesota Final Report includes the following:
Project Accomplishments
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Link to section 3 (Community Impact, Evaluation, Future Plans, Lessons Learned)
Statewide, the Access Minnesota computers were
used by nearly 1000 people a weekto access the Internet. The Access Minnesota project reached citizens
who would not otherwise have an opportunity to access the Internet.
The Access Minnesota users did not fit the typical profile of
the Internet user - that of the 'male under 30' profile. In fact,
44% of the Access Minnesota users were female, and 60% of the
users were over the age of 35. The users were located in 60 counties
within Minnesota, 90% were from rural areas. At an inner city
Access Minnesota site, 1/2 of their Access Minnesota users came
from households with annual incomes below $20,000 and more than
1/2 were minorities.
The Access Minnesota user profile:
- 56% of the Access Minnesota users were male
- 44% were female.
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- Over 1/2 (54%) were in the 35-55 age group
- 23% were between 18 and 34
- 11% were youth
- 12% were seniors
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- 1 in 5 was a government employee
- 20% were city, county, state or federal government
employees
- 16% were students
- 13% were educators
- 12% were business people
- 7% were farmers
- 5% were homemakers
- 4% were retired persons
- The remaining 23% includes small numbers of artists,
writers, clergy, health workers, news media, volunteers, moms,
and unemployed people among others.
- 1/2 were regular users of the Access Minnesota
computer.
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The value of the project may is evident from the
feedback from the users. The following comments are representative
of many of the 1000 Access Minnesota users that completed survey
forms.
- "The Access Minnesota Project/Internet
has provided our office with additional resource information which
has been of great benefit to our community."
- "I really enjoy having the Internet available
to the public. I believe that everyone should have the chance
to use it even if they can not afford to have it in their homes.
I do hope that this site will continue to be open to the public."
- "Thank you for the opportunity to explore
this resource at no cost through the MN Extension Service...this
is a wonderful opportunity!"
- "It's the greatest thing since sliced
bread. I've been down here at the Minnesota Extension Office about
20 different times to research information about my field. I hope
to use the information I am getting to open up a possible business."
The Access Minnesota project provided many people
their first introduction to the Internet. For 68% of the people
visiting the Access Minnesota site, it was their first visit to
the Internet.
Many people visited the Access Minnesota site to
look for specific information on the Internet, but most were simply
exploring.
Of those looking for specific information, 71% said
they found it on the Internet.
Individuals found the Internet to be valuable to
them, both in their professional and personal lives.
As of July 1996, when the grant funding ended,
50 of the 60 high speed Access Minnesota sites had obtained county
funding to continue public access terminals through high speed
connections. In order to sustain
high speed access to the Internet, the 50 sites had to ask their
county boards to increase their telecommunications budgets from
nearly zero to over $200 per month. 10 of the 60 sites will be
offering public access through dial-up modems and local internet
vendors. Several of the sites located in county courthouses are
continuing to contract with MNet and share service with other
agencies in the courthouse.
Through arrangements with the University of Minnesota
Networking and Telecommunications Services and US West, the Minnesota
Extension Service was able to offer 56K frame relay service to
its county offices at a reduced cost, beginning July 1996. In
addition, the MES Administration was able to provide some cost
sharing for monthly amounts greater than $212 for the last half
of 1996. The on-going commitment from the University of Minnesota
and the Minnesota Extension Service is an indicator of their enthusiasm
for the project.
As a spin-off of the Access Minnesota grant, a group
of Extension Educators have received a Creative Grant from the
Minnesota Extension Service to form an Information Technology
Leadership Team. In exchange for two days of training to further
develop skills in using the Internet and in working in the community
to apply the technology, team members are working with colleagues
in their offices, clusters or specializations to provide training
and consultation about information technology.
Another spin-off of the Access Minnesota project
is the creation of Minnesota's Telecommunications Collaboration
Project, a State of Minnesota effort to share the benefit of the
state's high-speed telecommunications network. MES staff were
instrumental in getting this project going by encouraging and
facilitating partnerships among county government units. This
project is being piloted in the Access Minnesota sites in Clay
County (Moorhead) and Sibley County (Gaylord).
- Access Minnesota received a gold award from the
Agricultural Communicators in Education for 'Information Technology
Education' for its quality training materials.
- Access Minnesota was named as one of the top
adult education programs of 1994-95 by the Minnesota Association
for Continuing Adult Education.
- Access Minnesota received a "Capitalizing
on Collaboration" award from Metronet, a multi-type library
organization, for exemplary partnership efforts. Wilma Behm, President,
Metronet Governing Board writes in her letter to award recipients
"the efforts described will, we hope, inspire others to
develop partnerships that address pressing needs in library services,
creatively respond to challenges of changing communities, and
enable all of us to reap the benefits of people joining together
to make a difference."
- Access Minnesota Resource Guide.
A three-ring binder full of information about the project, tips
on building community coalitions and assessing community telecommunications
needs, a description of the Internet, samples of information available
via the Internet, a list of Internet providers in Minnesota, a
glossary of terms, a bibliography of additional resources and
presentation materials.
- An Access Minnesota Update newsletter was
produced throughout the project to keep interested parties up
to date on the progress of the project.
- Access Minnesota home page features links to project partners,
a (clickable) map of Access Minnesota sites--several of which
have their own home pages, an on-line user feedback form and project
information and resources. Resource Information that can be found
on the Access Minnesota home page includes a web page titled "How
the Internet Can Help Minnesota County Government." This
web page suggests information that can be found on the Internet
that county governments might find useful and also provides links
to the Internet sites themselves. Selected web pages from the
Access Minnesota home page are included in Appendix A.
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Link to section 3 (Community Impact, Evaluation, Future Plans, Lessons Learned)
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