CTAC founder, Bill Coleman, writes about his experience working with Minnesota communities for the Blandin Foundation Broadband eNews…

New technologies put pressure on old rules and ways of doing things. Schools need to adapt to students with cell phones. Workplaces need to adopt new policies for dealing with personal email and web surfing. Political campaigns need to ensure that they are using technologies in ways that do not violate campaign laws. Sometimes, it is easier to just say no to new technologies than it is to thoughtfully develop new policies. I want to encourage you, as community technology leaders, to push your own organization forward and to support others in the community who are willing to work on these adoption issues. Our Lightspeed grantees are doing a great job pushing through these non-technical barriers. They are working with their own staff, regulators and clients to smooth the adoption of new technologies. Several of our grantees have paid extraordinary attention to these details and it is paying off as these technologies are deployed. Learn more about their efforts at the Connected Communities conference in December.