State Broadband Capacity Building:

Under the direction of the state, this project will provide staff support to the Iowa Broadband Deployment Governance Board and provide oversight of planning teams, field validation, research, and crowd sourcing activities. The Board currently exists, but has no staff to support its work.

Technical Assistance:

This funding will support a county-level survey in the second year of the project and a state-level survey in the fourth year. Connected Nation has already received funding through the initial SBDD award to support state surveys in the third and fifth years of the project. With this funding, Connect Nation will have the ability to track broadband adoption rates, and the causes for non-adoption, over five years.

Local Regional Technology Planning Teams:

This project will provide training to and support the coordination of 14 regional planning teams across Iowa. The teams will benchmark technology use across relevant community sectors; set goals for improved technology use within each sector; and develop a plan for achieving its goals, with specific recommendations for web-based application development and demand creation. The teams will attend the annual Iowa Broadband Summit to share best practices across localities and community sectors.

Data Collection, Integration, and Validation:

This project was originally funded for broadband planning activities and two years of data collection. In September of 2010, this project was amended to extend data collection activities for an additional three years and to identify and implement best practices.