Wednesday, November 16, 2011

SCTA Conference Provides Opportunity to Explore USF Reform and its Impact on South Carolina

By Wil Payton, Communications Specialist, Connected Nation

The South Carolina Telecommunications Association (SCTA) recently held the SCTA Fall Conference in Columbia. The event provided an opportunity for attendees to share ideas and insights about telecommunications technologies with other provider colleagues and peers.

Corey Johns, senior stakeholder relations manager for Connected Nation, presented at the conference and provided updates on the Connect South Carolina mapping and research efforts, the Universal Service Fund (USF) reform implications for the state, and the Connect South Carolina community engagement programs which are modeled on documented success stories regarding broadband growth.

Johns underscored the importance of provider participation in the broadband mapping program. “The Connect South Carolina broadband inventory will inform policymaker decisions about which areas are eligible or ineligible for future USF support,” said Johns.

The FCC now places more weight on Community Anchor Institution (CAIs) support as a criteria for USF funding. Johns outlined ways that Connect South Carolina can assist providers with future requirements to account for the connectivity needs of CAIs. “Connect South Carolina’s community engagement process makes it easy for USF recipients to meet these requirements,” said Johns.

Help us continue to bring broadband to more homes and businesses in South Carolina by getting involved. Follow Connect South Carolina on Facebook or Twitter.

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Monday, November 7, 2011

Protecting Children Online

As a follow-up to National Cybersecurity Awareness Month,
below are tips to help you stay safe online:

1. Keep the computer in a family room where you can monitor computer use (under 10).
2. Use parental controls. Parental Controls to help manage how your children use the computer. For example, you can set limits on your children's access to the web, the hours that they can log on to the computer, and which games they can play and programs they can run.
3. Teach children never to meet an online friend offline unless you are with them.
4. Find out what e-mail and instant messaging accounts they have and (while agreeing not to spy on them) ask them for their passwords for those accounts.
5. Teach them what information they can share with others.
6. Check your children's profiles, blogs and any social-networking posts.

Other Useful Sites and Information Sources

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Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Don't need broadband? Think again as providers look to educate consumers

By Samantha Bookman | Fierce Telecom
Published: October 28, 2011

A couple of years ago I was having dinner with my uncle during a stopover in San Francisco. The conversation, as it is wont to do, turned eventually to the Internet, specifically to Facebook, which my uncle had joined but was not posting to very much. Why? I asked.

"Because it takes too long to load," he replied. "I have dialup."

I found this pretty amazing, considering he lives close enough to the city to get high-speed Internet, so I quizzed him a bit more about his reasons for staying with a dialup service. He had fairly sound ones: the price was very affordable; he wasn't locked into a service contract--important because his carpentry work often took him out of town for weeks at a time; the service was reliable; and he didn't see much use for Internet access beyond checking his email.

That conversation took place just as the Obama administration's broadband stimulus effort was gearing up, an initiative that now is in full swing, with broadband rolling out--at various speeds--well beyond urban areas and into rural ones. So I was very interested to see the results of a recent study that found that not only did 28 percent of Minnesota residents not subscribe to a broadband service, a significant portion of them weren't that interested in subscribing: 29 percent of those without broadband said there wasn't enough Internet content worth viewing.

Only 8 percent of the survey participants said that they didn't have access to broadband, so in the parts of Minnesota surveyed, which included rural areas, broadband access was not the biggest issue.

Minnesota wasn't the only state surveyed as part of an effort by Connected Nation. In South Carolina--where a battle for municipal broadband regulation was fought recently--around 43 percent of residents do not subscribe to broadband. Again, only 8 percent said broadband was not available to them.

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10 Ways to Avoid Phishing E-mails and other E-mail Scams

As a follow-up to National Cybersecurity Awareness Month,
below are tips to help you stay safe online:

1. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
2. Be suspicious of unsolicited e-mail messages. If an unknown individual claims to be from a legitimate organization, try to verify his or her identity directly with the company.
3. Treat e-mail attachments with caution.
4. Don’t click links in e-mail messages.
5. Do not reveal personal or financial information via unsecured e-mail.
6. Don't send sensitive information over the Internet before checking a website's security.
7. Take advantage of any anti-phishing features offered by your e-mail client and web browser.
8. Configure your e-mail client for security.
9. Learn the e-mail policies of the organizations you do business with.
10. Take your time. Resist any urge to "act now" despite the offer and the terms. Once you turn over your money, you may never get it back.

Other Useful Sites and Information Sources

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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Connect South Carolina Releases 2011 Residential Broadband Adoption Survey Results

Access the Findings

43% of South Carolina residents still do not adopt broadband at home

Columbia, South Carolina – Today, Connect South Carolina released new residential broadband adoption survey results revealing the top trends in technology use among key demographics in South Carolina. The preliminary indicators from the survey are available online, which gives a comprehensive view of the challenges and opportunities for expanding broadband in targeted sectors. Approximately 43% of South Carolina residents are not subscribing to broadband at home. Most notably, the majority of low-income, rural, senior, disabled adult, Hispanic, and African-American households are without broadband at home, leaving them facing an uphill battle in keeping up with essential online resources, job and educational opportunities, and social services.

This survey is conducted in support of Connect South Carolina’s efforts to close South Carolina’s digital gap. The survey explores the main barriers to adoption – cost, digital skills, and relevance – and also provides unique insights into the national broadband landscape.

“The broadband adoption gap affects us all – it affects the economic future of our communities, it affects the education of our children, and it affects the economy’s potential for job growth,” said Tom Koutsky, chief policy counsel for Connected Nation, Connect South Carolina’s parent organization. “But there are no simple solutions to what is a multifaceted problem. Our South Carolina-based research into the demographic, economic, and digital skill barriers to adoption is a crucial first step that will help communities and policymakers tailor and target effective broadband adoption solutions.”

This survey reveals that:

• 53% percent of people living in rural areas do not subscribe to broadband service at home.
• When comparing to the 57% of all households that do subscribe, there remain large gaps among key demographics:
       o 74% of low-income households;
       o 51% of Hispanic households; and
       o 69% of seniors are without broadband.
• Approximately 170,000 children in low-income households are without access to this essential tool at home.
• 252,000 South Carolina adults say a lack of digital skills and knowledge of how to use a computer and broadband is the main reason they don’t have broadband at home.
• The biggest gap is among low-income seniors. Only 9% of low-income seniors subscribe to broadband and only 24% have a computer at home.

These results and comparisons to many others are available on Connect South Carolina’s new consumer trends widget. This interactive tool gives people the ability to view, share, and download the results. Connect South Carolina will use these survey results to target solutions in communities based on the demographic and economic barriers that the surveys indicate are most relevant to those communities.

This release comes on the heels of the FCC’s newly released plans to launch a comprehensive public-private initiative called Connect to Compete, aimed at extending digital literacy training and providing employment assistance to communities. Connect South Carolina’s parent organization, Connected Nation, is one of the top strategic advisors in the national initiative.

Connect South Carolina’s 2011 residential survey was conducted in the summer of 2011 and includes responses from 3,601 residents. The survey was conducted as part of the South Carolina Broadband Initiative (SBI) grant program, funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment of 2009.

Download the Press Release
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Monday, October 24, 2011

5 Tips for Protecting Your Identity Online

October is National Cybersecurity Awareness month.
Below are tips to help you stay safe online:

1. Look at a Website’s privacy policy - Before submitting your name, e-mail address, or other personal information on a website, look for the site's privacy policy.
2. Look for evidence that your information is being encrypted - To protect attackers from hijacking your information, any personal information submitted online should be encrypted so that it can only be read by the appropriate recipient.
3. Do business with credible companies – Work with websites certified by an Internet trust organization such as BBBonline, TRUSTe, or WebTrust? Sites that display these logos have agreed to follow certain practices like providing a comprehensive privacy statement
4. Do not use your primary e-mail address in online submissions - Submitting your e-mail address could result in spam. If you do not want your primary e-mail account flooded with unwanted messages, consider opening an additional e-mail account for use online
5. Take advantage of options to limit exposure of private information - Default options on certain websites may be chosen for convenience, not for security. For example, avoid allowing a website to remember your password. If your password is stored, your profile and any account information you have provided on that site are readily available if an attacker gains access to your computer. Also, evaluate your settings on websites used for social networking.

Other Useful Sites and Information Sources

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Wednesday, October 19, 2011

State and District Measures Require Students to Take Virtual Classes

By Michelle R. Davis | Education Week
Published: October 17, 2011

Two years ago, Tennessee’s Putnam County school system adopted an online-learning graduation requirement for its high school students. But district officials realized that not all students had high-speed Internet access at home, or even computers, so they came up with a variety of options to allow students to fulfill the requirement.

The state of Tennessee already mandated that all students take a class on personal finance, so Putnam County put its version online, complete with the district’s own online teachers. Students can complete the course independently before they enter 9th grade; do it at school, in a computer lab with the support of an in-house coordinator, during their four high school years; or take the course in a computer lab that includes both an in-class teacher and an online instructor. Students can also fulfill the requirement with online Advanced Placement courses or online credit-recovery classes, says Kathleen Airhart, the director of the 11,000-student Putnam County schools, based in Cookeville, Tenn.

The goal is to make sure students get an online-learning experience in a low-risk, supportive environment, Airhart says. “The reality is, when a student leaves us, whether they’re going to a four-year college, a technical college, or going into the world of work, they’re going to have to do an online course,” she says. “This helps prepare the students.”

More districts and a handful of states are starting to agree with this notion. They’re requiring students to get some form of online learning on their résumés before leaving high school.

But concerns remain about issues of student equity, particularly in rural areas, where high-speed Internet access may be uncommon or difficult.

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