The USDA Economic Research Service is holding a Workshop on Broadband in the Rural Economy in DC on September 29-30 (Monday and Tuesday), 2008. Here’s a quick description:
The workshop highlights current research on the value of information technology (IT), with specific focus on the agriculture, food, and rural sectors. A host of questions will be addressed on the economic effect of IT use in the rural economy, including the household, business, education, and health sectors. Broadly, the questions addressed include:
• Who uses IT or broadband Internet? which businesses? which households?
• For what purpose is IT used?
• How is IT used?
• What are the economic effects?
You can see more, such as proposed speakers, on their web site. (Unfortunately they won’t be videocasting the workshop or archiving it – but they do plan to create a report after the fact.)
