Rural Mississippi: The Land That the Internet Era Forgot (wired.com)

New submitter lesedeuezghe writes with this Wired story by W. Ralph Eubanks about the efforts of the Extension Service to broaden its scope from mostly agricultural information to bringing broadband to rural communities. "In sleepy public libraries, at Rotary breakfasts, and in town halls, he [Assistant Extension Professor Roberto Gallardo] gives PowerPoint presentations that seem calculated to fill rural audiences with healthy awe for the technological sublime. Rather than go easy, he starts with a rapid-fire primer on heady concepts like the Internet of Things, the mobile revolution, cloud computing, digital disruption, and the perpetual increase of processing power. ('It’s exponential, folks. It’s just growing and growing.') The upshot: If you don’t at least try to think digitally, the digital economy will disrupt you. It will drain your town of young people and leave your business in the dust. Then he switches gears and tries to stiffen their spines with confidence. Start a website, he’ll say. Get on social media. See if the place where you live can finally get a high-speed broadband connection—a baseline point of entry into modern economic and civic life."

Comments

Re:Not the typical hitpiece

[PopeRatzo]

Looks like maybe those backwards southerners aren't quite as stupid as everybody thinks.

Then why would they live in Mississippi?

hehe

[Ol Olsoc]

I'm trying to imagine anyone going anywhere and yapping about the internet of things, mobile computing, the cloud, and Moore's law at any Rotary meeing, much less one in Rural Mississippi.

Just make certain your of the right ummmmm, heritage, if you know what I mean. And don't shut off the car.

Re:hehe

[Ol Olsoc]

Oh, bullshit. I have lived in many areas of the country, and found one important thing - people are the same everywhere.

And, shut the hell up with the racist crap.

Yeah, I have often found myself having problems distinguishing people from rural Mississippi from say, people from Boston or New York. Like identical gaddamned twins, I'll tell you what!

So are you sayiong that a Black American citizen can just show up in some all white village in rural Mississippi, and everyone will shower him or her with gifts? Invite them into their home for a nice dinner? Ignore them?

Pointing out racism isn't racist, merely a description of what is.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/tw...

That's just from the recent past, you'd perhaps like to discuss going back a few years?

Re:hehe

[Ol Olsoc]

"So are you sayiong that a Black American citizen can just show up in some all white village in rural Mississippi, and everyone will shower him or her with gifts? Invite them into their home for a nice dinner? Ignore them?"

Hate to burst your stereotypical statement, but I've seen multiple Black (& other ethnic) folks "just show up" here in MS. They didn't get showered with gifts, but were treated very politely (yep, invited to, and attend local churches)--much better than how I've seen the same color folks treated in other "more enlightened" places. Maybe you better get your news from someone w/o an ax to grind...

Oh sorry, THere is no racism in Mississippi, and everyone is a kind person, accomodating to all other races and religions. A true REniassance state of the new south, where all men and women are created equal, and all creeds colors and sexual preferences ar etreated with the utmost respoect.

whereas those northeren states blacks and other minoritiys are merely kept around so we have someone to hang when we get out th bedsheets foro our Klan meetings.

These folks at ol Miss must have been celebrating Obama's 2012 win, no doubt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Oh wait. Hey, maybe it was a 50th Anniversary celebration of their riots when theyy were very happy that the first black student, James Meredith was enrolled in Ol Miss. Hopefully they invited him to church.

A former serviceman, y'all really wanted to thank him for serving his country I guess:

http://www.history.com/this-da...

Even your Governor welcomed him with open arms by a personal escort making certain he got to class. Oh wait, your governor was blocking the doorway to not allow him in the building. I guess your Governor wanted to be certain this man who risked his life for our country, got a lot of that fine Mississippi air.

Y'all liked him so much, one of ya gave him his very own personal bullet for his very own in 1966. Damn - southerners sure do know how to treat people who are different than you/

At Brandon High School, which is apparentlly a proud school that trains young men and women to invite African-Americans to come to church, in 2012, 19 year old Deryl Dedmon got two life sentences for killing a black man by running over him with his pickup truck:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

The official story is that he and some friends were partying, when they decised they were going to go look for some black guy to harass.

You and I both know it was an accident that happened when Dedmon, was trying to invite the dead guy James Craig Anderson to come to church with him and his friends.

This year was a minor thing with another Brandon Student tweeting stupid racist comments on school time. Not a huge thing, but between us chachalacas, I don't think tshe cares for people based on their skin color.

And in the spirit of being ahead of the curve, Mississippi did not outla slavery until february 7, 2013. Or maybe 1995. If you believe in States Rights, you could legally own a person in Mississippi. until 2013. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/he... See you in church.

Re:Obvious answer is obvious

[PopeRatzo]

Because they're too smart to live in whatever urban shithole you reside in, drone. Now get back on the hamster wheel and shut the fuck up.

Yeah, he mad.