Rural, Urban and Suburban Communities

Suburbanites are significantly more satisfied with their communities than are residents of cities, small towns or rural areas, but that doesn't mean Americans want to live there.

James Fallows writes in the current Atlantic Monthly about the power of blogging... in rural China.

In China, the internet cafe has overtaken the workplace as the second most popular place after their own homes for internet users to go online. Most of the increase in internet café use is in rural areas.

Rural Americans are less likely to log on to the internet at home with high-speed internet connections than people living in other parts of the country.

In December 2005 24% of adult rural Americans went online at home with high-speed internet connections compared with 39% of adults in urban and suburban areas.

This slide show presents trends from 2002 to 2004 in adoption of high-speed internet connections at home among Americans living in rural parts of the country.

52% of rural adults go online.

This report provides a portrait of rural America’s Internet users, the activities they pursue online and their attitudes about the Internet compared to online Americans in urban and suburban communities

SELECTED KEY FINDINGS ON FIVE CITIES PORTLAND, OREGON Real changes in communities are evident in Portland as a result of a wide range of community Internet projects, some of them long-established. Portland”s Neighborhood Pride Team, initially founded to revitalize a community in southeast Portland, has grown from one computer in 1995 to a skills center […]

This report examines how institutions in five cities (Austin, Texas; Cleveland, Ohio; Nashville, Tennessee; Portland, Oregon and Washington, D.C.) are adapting to the Internet as an economic development and community-building tool. The experiences in these communities suggests that the Internet is best used to encourage bottom-up initiatives, encourage and nurture catalytic individuals in communities, encourage public funding for technology programs, encourage “bridging” among groups, and encourage experimentation.