December 11, 2000

Technology intimidates rural Iowa,
but it's needed for economy, aide says

Frances Starkey
digital iowa staff reporter
Drake University

DES MOINES, Iowa -- As technology increases daily, Iowa's Department of Economic Development is attempting to educate small, rural businesses to help increase the economy and bring Iowa into the 21st century.

Nationally, 20 percent of businesses are connected to the Internet and Iowa has all the capabilities to be competitive online, said Sue Lambertz, project manager for the Department of Economic Development for Iowa. She said Iowa has the largest number of telephone companies in the nation; the state ranks as the 14th highest state for number of computers, 40 to 30 percent of which have Internet access. The main problem, Lambertz said, is that in small-town Iowa, the demand for e-commerce isn't there.

"It's a double-edged sword," Lambertz said. "Do small-town businesses invest in the Internet when they don't have the access, but then providers say 'do we build an infrastructure for access for businesses that don't really want it?' There's not a market to do it here. We're trying to get the market by educating them. We have to get the market to get the technology."

Before small-town businesses go online, there's a telecommunications infrastructure that needs to be in place first.
"Telecommunications is the infrastructure for technology," Lambertz said. "It's an infrastructure that's critical. We're doing a lot of work in Iowa communities to get the infrastructure in place so they can have high speed Internet."

Lambertz and others pushing technology have been working one-on-one with businesses.

"In Iowa County, we gathered a core group of people and really tried to educate the community," she said. "We brought them our technology message; we brought them surveys, but businesses didn't respond. They didn't understand it. So we had to go one-on-one and try to explain to them what all the advantages are of conducting business online. …We need an evangelist who can convince Iowans that technology is the second coming of economic opportunity, and it's here. We go into a room and talk about telecommunications and technology and their eyes glaze over and we've lost them. So we have to break it into small parts."

Other areas Lambertz has gone into are Cedar, Muscatine, Keokuk and Red Oak. Most of the businesses, though, have reacted in the same way as those in Iowa County, but other towns like Muscatine have accepted and succeeded from the "second coming" of economic development, Lambertz said. Other towns have tried, but they are still in the transitional phase.

"It takes a while sometimes," Lambertz said. "It took us two years to convince businesses in Cedar Falls to do it. We had to convince them that it would work, and it would help their businesses."

Why are small-town businesses in Iowa shying away from the latest investment craze? Lambertz said people are intimidated by technology.

"Technology intimidates people," she said. "It's frustrating. We have a generation of people who haven't been brought up on technology, but the next generation has, and they are going to want to use it. We have to have jobs here. We have to keep them here. Right now we are exporting people."

Intimidating or not, Lambertz said it's crucial these rural towns catch up with the rest of the country and invest in the Internet.

"One big reason is that we need to have the work force, like I said before," she said. "We are educating a work force that is leaving the state. The landscape of the state has to change as the economy of the nation changes. The world is instantaneous. We need to be ready for it and be a part of it."

"This is the greatest opportunity for Iowa since corn and soybeans," Lambertz said. "We have the opportunity to be on the cutting edge. We have the work ethic, now we just need the demand for it."