Broadband access is important for communities to be politically, culturally, and technologically connected. A digital ecology framework looks at how communities interact with and shape their digital environment. The document outlines an agenda for a meeting discussing broadband's role in communities, challenges faced, and opportunities that exist based on presentations and small group discussions.

1. Broadband and Rural Communities Creating a Healthy Digital Ecology and a Community Vision for Federal Funding Main Street Project www.mainstreetproject.org Media Action Grassroots Network (MAG-Net) www.mag-net.org

2. Communication Rights Communication is an essential human need and fundamental human right Our communities deserve to be politically , culturally and technologically connected We need community-based, people-centered communications technologies and policies

3. Digital Ecology Ecology: 1. The study of how living things and their environment interact with one another. 2. A system of such relationships within a particular environment. Digital Ecology: 1. An active and multidisciplinary inquiry into, and exploration of how living things interact with, are shaped by and shape, a digital environment ( i.e., “infosphere” ) and the mechanisms through which information, stories, and cultural knowledge are produced, accessed, shared and received. 2. The study of key ecological issues concerning the quality of life in an environment increasingly based on digitized information. 3. A community-based, and people-centered, information system rooted in the belief that we deserve a healthy and just political, economic, cultural and technological environment in the digital age.

4. Agenda Welcome and Intro Panel Presentations Small Group Discussion Report Back and Dot-mocracy Questions/Comments

5. Small Group Discussion What role does broadband play in your community? What challenges have you experienced? Based on what you’ve heard today, what opportunities exist for your community?