While I was down in Minneapolis last week, enjoying conversation at my favorite coffee shop with Jack Geller of the Center for Rural Policy and Development, and Jack asked me about the Iron Range Community FTTH project. Thirteen Iron Range communities have come together to create a Joint Powers Authority to design, develop, and manage a state-of-the-art fiber Open Network. If completed, this project would spring board the Iron Range into a world class telecommunications environment. Not surprisingly, the estimated capital costs are very high, and to work, the project will need both private and public financing. Securing major public funding is a challenging proposition, for reasons both economic and philosophical. Jack pointed out how important it is to be able to talk to legislators in ROI terms – what are the concrete economic benefits this investment of scarce public resources will bring to my communities? How many jobs with house-hold supporting wages?

I’d had this conversation before. Lots of times. And so, I’m always looking for compelling evidence that IT infrastructure and literacy are really important and need our attention and investment, especially in low density and underserved rural areas.

Now, thanks to Jane Leonard, newly appointed as Executive Director of the State’s Sesquintennial Commission, I’ve just got my hands on some of the best evidence I’ve seen yet.

Jane circulated a copy of a brand new report by the non-partisan Washington DC-based think tank Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, “Digital Prosperity: Understanding the Economic Benefits of the Information Technology Revolution.” Authored by Robert D. Atkinson and Andrew S. McKay, the report’s main message is that in the new global economy, information technology is the major driver of economic growth and quality of life. The authors assert: “Investment in information technology and telecommunications hardware, software applications and services … [has] an impact on productivity three to five times that of non-IT capital (e.g. buildings, machines). … For most industries and organizations, IT is the principal tool they rely on to boost productivity and innovation.”

Hopefully, evidence like this can help inform public discourse and the decisions policymakers face in deciding where to invest scarce public resources.