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\rcsInfo $Id: technology.tex,v 1.6 1999/09/07 21:45:57 bernhard Rel $

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{\Large 	Geography Field Work (416-650) 
\\}
{\large		Summer 1999  \hspace{1cm} 
\\}
Instructor: Glen Fredlund\\
TA: Jean Kowal\\

\vspace*{3cm}
	
{ \Large \sffamily\bfseries
Final Paper and Report, Part II\\
New Media Technology in Carter County, Montana \\
}

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{
\raggedright \large
Bernhard Reiter \\
Applied System Scientist \\
{\small\ttfamily 
	\href{mailto:bernhard@uwm.edu}{<bernhard@uwm.edu>}
	\href{http://www.uwm.edu/~bernhard/fieldcourse/}
	     {www.uwm.edu/\symbol{'176}bernhard}
}
}

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\begin{flushright}
{\em
A new Age is dawning\\
New Media will reconfigure distance\\
{\small  Common Dream, New Information Society \cite{fiction}
}}
\end{flushright}

\section{Introduction}
The term {\em New Media Technology}
in this paper shall not be defined precisely, but will 
stand for what is currently considered new communcation technologies, 
such as videoconferencing,
cell phones, electronic mail and 
electronic data exchange through the internet.
Using these means for running a business nowadays falls under the 
broad term ``{\em e-commerce}''.

As these new keywords created a magnificent hype in the last few years, 
I was interested in the current implementation and usage in Carter County,
Montana, a place considered rural America and the destination of this Summer
field course from the Department of Geography. What do the people of Ekalaka 
think about this new technology and how do they use it?


\section{Context Review}
\subsection{Timeframe}
The field work was done from monday the 2nd August to friday the 13th, 1999.
Six days were spend in Ekalaka, where the group stayed at Camp Needmore in the
Custer National Forest. 

\subsection{Location}
Carter County lies in the south-east corner of Montana. 
The county capital and biggest down with about 440 inhabitants is Ekalaka
(45°53'20"'N 104°33'8"'W).
Ekalaka is not a freeway site attraction, but remains about 150 km south 
from Interstate 94. The next biggest town is Baker, in Fallon county to the
north with about 1800 people. Distances are easily measured in drive time
and the 55 km to Baker are easily worth half an hour. The next bigger city
is Miles City, about another hour away.

Carter County borders to Harding and Butte County in South Dakota in the East.
Extenting to the south is Crook County, Wyoming. Touristic brochures devide
Montana in six ``Countries''. Custer Country is the huge south west region
of Montana containing our county. 

Only about 1500 people live in Carter County.
But they have a highschool, a nursing home and a little library in Ekalaka.

\subsection{Literature}
A huge amount of literature was published about new media, ranking from
serious research to the written manifestation of dreams for a
new communication age. Nontheless to find precise information about 
practical implications in rural america and especially the South East Corner 
of Montana was not succesful. Research in the UWM Library 
did not reveal scholarly articles or good books about the issue. 
Mainly because of the spacial focus of this study and the fast recent 
development in the subject.

At least it could be found that Montana certainly was not a location
attracting a lot of High-Tech industry before the mid 1980s 
\cite{glasmeier:1991}.

Somebody concerned with new media like the author would do the
obligatory internet search. The results did not help in preparation of the
trip, as webinformation about and around Ekalaka are hard to find.
Once a starting poitn was found in the Montana State online pages
\cite{montanaonline},
you can find a lot of economical numbers about the region, 
but still a lot of webpages in the area are unlinked and
and cannot be reached by search engines.


\section{Field Methods}
Due to the short time frame of this study and the lack of experience
by the researcher, qualitative Interviews were the only suitable field method.
Personal observations and communications provided further insights.

The first days were used to get an idea who the key players are and whether 
some of them want to give away more information. The author of this paper also 
conducted research on another topic which gave him the possibiliy to ask
sidequestions about the regular use of new technologies.
The nature of this method is, that insights learned in the
converstation helps to focus the research and formulate better
questions.

The following topics were touched in most of the informal interviews:
\begin{itemize}
	\item{Usage of Computer?}
	\item{Frequency of the Internet use?}
	\item{Business use of the new technologies.}
	\item{Educational use of the new technologies.}
	\item{Satisfaction with the Provider?}
	
\end{itemize}


\section{Results}

\subsection{Community Online in South Dakota}
On the way to Ekalaka a roadside attraction catches the eyes of the traveller.
Visiting the Petrified Wood Museum in Lemmon, South Dakota bears a
suprise if you happend to read one of the flyers. Out there Lemmon has
a Community Website \cite{lemmononline} which even features a virtual tour of
the museum and the park. Additionally they also have a live webcam and
offer a CDrom with movies, sound clips and pictures of the local school.
And all that in a city with 1600 people far away from America's big cities!

\subsection{Government offices}
The office of the Nation Resources Conservation Service, our first
visit in Ekalaka showed relatively fresh computers. Some old PC were
still visible, but the new ones were bought at Gateway and running Windows.

The Nation Forestservice Bureau also uses Personal Computers running NT.
Standard office software noticed was Applixware. They are connected
using the internet to an AIX Unix server in a different office.
To run applications from there, the PCs were running a Hummingbird
X11 server. The graphical user interface standard was the 
Commond Desktop Environment.

Reportetly the forest service people are not entirely happy with the
office suite, though it works. And they were the last to get this sort
of computer installation and the connection to the network host and in that 
sense the headquarters using the
internet \cite{oedel:personal}.

\subsection{Small businesses}
\subsubsection{Saddle Shop}
The Saddle shop in Ekalaka \cite{lehmann:personal} recently went
``online''. They have a few webpages mostly with contact information
and business describtion.
People already called, emailed or dropped by finding the shop over the
world wide web, but they sold nothong online so far. 
The owner holds a college degree and moved back
to Ekalaka a few years ago. To the time of writing the webpages are still
partly under construction. 

\subsubsection{Outfitter}
The successful Outfitting business of Jamie and Juanita Byrne advertises
over the internet since january 1998. 
They are part of a hunting information website and
use the full advantages of being part of a bigger system. 
A lot of people seems to call them because
of the webpages.  There world wide web presentation is considered a success.
Other advertisment
means were subsequently cut. An agency, in contrast, would keep 
a 10 to 15 percent as margin \cite{byrne:personal}.


\subsubsection{Newspaper}
The local weekly newspaper does not have a webpage, but articles
sometimes get submitted by email. A webarchive of 
backissues is regarded useful, but as possible threat to the 
number of subscriptions. The paper is typesetted on elderly 486 PCs running
Windows 3.1 and Adobe Pagemaker. The used spreadsheet is Lotus 1-2-3.
The owner is satisfied wth the software, but plans to upgrade the
hardware sometimes. Another idea is to send the typesetted pages to
the printer using email, which would save them a long drive
\cite{lambert:personal}.


\subsection{Private Use}
Email and the world wide web are the most used internet applications.
They are heavily used for personal research and school .
Gateway computers seem to be popular
\cite{lehmann:personal,waterland:personal}. 


\subsection{Public use}
Since May 1999 the small Ekalaka library features an internet access for 
public use. It is very frequented. People use it for all kind of
research and email. Some even look for a job over the internet.
In a couple of hours visiting the libray the computer was almost
constantly in use by locals.


\subsection{Communication Provider}
The Mid-Rivers Telephone Cooperative was established in 1952 and
provides phone and other services to 20 counties in sout-east montana
and one in North-Dakota. They employ 110 people and the headquarters are
in Circle, MT. They have a small office in Baker \cite{midriversonline}. 

Mid-Rivers offers the full range of services to its customers and is still
enlarging their business range. They participated 
in building up the interactive television network in montana.
Besides that and the stationary phone service, they also offer cable,
wireless communication, long distance, internet and assorted service offerings. 
The cheapest dial-up account is available for 7.50 \$ including
10 online-hours. On a sidenote it is interesting that they limit the free
speech over their network in regard of sexually explicit images and they
also retain the right to monitor any conversation, when they
think it is necessary \cite{midriversonline:policies}. 

As access requirements for the latest ``Mid-Rivers Internet software''
they mention Intel 486 PC and Apple PowerPC/68030s hardware. 
Though only talking about
Microsoft's and Apple's operating systems, they are 
running RedHat GNU/Linux and Apache on
their company webserver.

People in Ekalaka are thinking positivly about the phone company.
They attributed them being modern and progressive. It certainly helped that 
they started out as a cooperative.

The phonebook published by Mid-Rivers even contains email addresses.

There ougth to be another Internet Service Provider(ISP) in Baker, called MCN.
More information were not aquired, because the author met no person which used
that ISP.


\subsection{Computer Service}
Commercial computer service cannot be found in Ekalaka directly and once
again Baker jumps in to help. In Baker about two companies
offer computer hardware or services. Hardware itself can easily be bought
using one of the direct PC vendors, but installation, training and networksetup
cannot.

The Nybbles 'n' Bits Computer Services Company \cite{nybblesandbits} 
was founded by an by a librarian
in 1997. They provide all kind of service in a 320 $km$ radius.
They serve about 800 customers and provide service for 35\$ an hour
or 45\$/h on weekends and holidays at client locations. 
Additional information about other computer service provider 
in the area was not gathered.

\subsection{Highschool}

A Federal Grant over almost 100,000\$ helped the Ekalaka schools to get
connected to the internet.  They got their network up in 1998 and also try to
connect the Elementary School with the Highschool. 
Aparently they have a computer in
every classroom and another 14 machines in a dedicated room.

Students are provided with some personal network diskspace and 
their own password. 
They do not get a school email address and most of them have access 
to a computer and internet at their home. 
To access the world wide web, a teacher has to
give a password and than has the responsibilitiy for the session. 
Otherwise highschool students
shall be taught the use of ``the basic applications''.

Software technology is limited to Microsoft. The person
responsible for the network and the computers, a teacher who taught
himself the computer skills, states that this is the best software
available. The Elementary school also looks into a few other educational 
programs.

The highschool runs a firewall and hides the sub IPs 
of the local area network.
They are connected via a 56kbit modem line by Mid-Rivers. Nybbles-n-Bits 
helped with the firewall and network software installation. The wireing
was done by the school themselfs. Computer hardware seem to have been ordered
by Gateway.

The school building also host the PBS public broadcasting hardware and the 
Interactive Television room.


\subsection{Interactive Television}
Interative Television (ITV) was installed ten years ago and basically consists
of a video conferencing system. The student can receive transmissions of
classes taught at different locations and interact back through camera and 
microphone. Experiences have been good with the system, which is not as
good as the real thing, but the next best. Considering the large distance
in Montana it is cost effective. The ITV installation, which by the
way was done my the Mid-Rivers Telephone Coop, is used a 
lot \cite{walker:personal}.

\section{Discussion}
\subsection{Interactive Television}
Interactive Television actually makes sense in this context, where
driving time it the largest access limit to education.
Videoconferencing is not really that successful in spite of what company's
marketing departments stated for years, but giving the setting
it very well could be a good thing here. This judgement lacks
a more detailed examination of the usage of this technology, though.

Giving that ITV exists in Ekalaka for a decade it might not really
be considered a completely new media. It will eventually 
be phased out by the internet, but not too fast, because bandwidth
for a usable videoconferencing for everyone is probably years away in
this area. 

\subsection{Computers}
How Ekalaker personally use their computers is still largely unknown.
It is clear though, that they have affortable access to hardware and service.
Education seem to prepare kids for use of these tools so they will
not fall behind their collegues in urban living situations.

It should be noted, that no person holding a computer science degree or 
otherwise formal education in computers was met during the study.
Obviously Mid-Rivers will have some experienced employess, but no such
expert is within easy reach of the people and the schools in Carter County.
The common knowledge therefore especially lies at the companies and the
state school system to teach people about recent development on the computer
market and give them a greater choise they might not see in the 
ad campaigns of major hard- and software vendors.

\subsection{Internet}
Thanks to the progressive telephone company, internet is largely and
economical available in the county. Hardware and software requirements
are reasonable and people use it for private email or research as well
as business advertisment.

The world wide web sites visited were mostly not state of the art, 
though in line with common approaches to internet presentation. 
It should be understood that poor webpage design mostly will not create much 
business, as the web has to be better as reality to allow you to profit
from this media \cite{nielsen:08031998}. 
Therein lies the danger, that it might take some time
before web develoepers in rural areas will have learned how to understand
Web business.

As example the outfitter's webpages replace his other advertisment and
to a certain extend the flyers. But it is only a bit better as reality, 
because people can get information faster. A significant improvement
would be to let people know what time spots are currently available and 
let them book the hunting trip right over the web.

The example of the saddle shop shows that the internet also brings back some
competitive edge to the country site. With their huge radius of operation 
and unique products they are now able to reach a wider audience, but still
stay in Ekalaka with the slow life and lower costs.
In an ideal case they might even ship their saddles out there to the rest
of the world.

\section{Conclusions}
There are certain ways to react to this wave of new technology
and new media coming over the country.
Thomas \cite{thomas:1996} uses five categories, namely ``denial, anger, deals,
acceptance and transcendence''.
No hints of denial or anger over new technologies in
this corner of Montana could be found.
Everybody was relatively positive about it and this is a good sign.
Internet and computer technology is accessible for all uses.
The new means of communication bring a bit of Montana closer to your
living room.


\begin{thebibliography}{[1]}
\bibitem{glasmeier:1991}
	Glasmeier, Amy K. (1991)
	{\em The High-Tech Potential:
	Economic Development in Rural America},
	Center for Urban Policy Research,
	New Jersey
	
	
\bibitem{lemmononline}
	Lemmon, South Dakota, \\
	Community Website:
	\href{http://www.dakota-web.com/lemmon/}
	{\ttfamily http://www.dakota-web.com/lemmon/}

\bibitem{midriversonline}
	Mid-Rivers Internet:
	\href{http://www.midrivers.com/}{\ttfamily http://www.midrivers.com}

\bibitem{midriversonline:policies}
	Mid-Rivers Internet Policies: \\
	\href{http://www.midrivers.com/Internet/policies.html}
	{\ttfamily http://www.midrivers.com/Internet/policies.html}

\bibitem{montanaonline}
	Montana Online: 
	\href{http://www.state.mt.us/}
	{\ttfamily http://www.state.mt.us}

\bibitem{nybblesandbits}
	Nybbles-n-Bits, 
	Computer Service, Baker MT \\
	\href{http://www.nybbles-n-bits.com}
	{\ttfamily http://www.nybbles-n-bits.com}

\bibitem{nielsen:08031998}
	Nielsen, Jakob (March 8, 1998)
	{\em Better Than Reality: A Fundamental Internet Principle} \\
	Alterbox Column:
	\href{http://www.useit.com/alertbox/980308.html}
	{http://www.useit.com/alertbox/980308.html}

\bibitem{fiction}
	Plausible but fictional quote. 
	It serves as an example of the promisses and of modern information
	technology and dreams people connect with it.

\bibitem{thomas:1996}
	Thomas, John C. (1996)
	{\em The Long-Term Social Implications of New Information
	Technology}
	Chapter 14 in 
	Ruby Roy Dholakia; Nortbert Mundorf; Nikhilesh Dholakia (Ed.)	
	{\em New Infotainment Technologies in the Home:
	Demand-Side Perspectives}
	Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc., Mahwah, New Jersey,
	ISBN:  0-8058-16-26-7
	

\bibitem{trailsend}
	Trail's End Ranch \\
	Webpage: \href{http://www.ter.org/}{\ttfamily http://www.ter.org}

\bibitem{cline:personal}
	{\em Personal communication} 
	4.8.1999 
	with Jerry D Cline and Wayne E. Yost,
	at the Natural Resources Conservation Service Office, Ekalaka 

\bibitem{oedel:personal}
	{\em Personal communication} 
	5.8.1999
	with Charlie Ödell,
	National Forestservice Bureau,
	Camp Crook, SD

\bibitem{lehmann:personal}
	{\em Personal communication} 
	6.8.1999 
	with Nelseena Lehmann,
	The Saddle Shop, Ekalaka \\
	Website: \href{http://www.puptown.com/}
	{\ttfamily http://www.puptown.com}

\bibitem{library:personal}
	{\em Personal communication} 
	6.8.1999
	at the Ekalaka Library, MT

\bibitem{waterland:personal}
	{\em Personal communication} 
	8.8.1999
	with Marlene Waterland, 
	Ekalaka, MT

\bibitem{byrne:personal}
	{\em Personal communication} 
	9.8.1999
	with Juanita Byrne,
	Mill Iron, MT \\
	Website: \href{http://www.huntinfo.com/jj/}
	{\ttfamily http://www.huntinfo.com/jj/}

\bibitem{walker:personal}
	{\em Personal communication} 
	9.8.1999
	with Jule Walker,
	Superintendent of the Ekalaka Highschool \\
	Website (experimental) at: 
	\href{http://www.ekalaka.net/}{\ttfamily http://www.ekalaka.net}

\bibitem{lambert:personal}
	{\em Personal communication} 
	9.8.1999
	with Bryce Lambert 
	at Ekalaka Eagle, Ekalaka, MT
	
\end{thebibliography}

\end{document}
