Institute founder Dr. Roberto Gallardo is hard at work on a book that explains the Intelligent Community movement to the small rural communities that he serves through Mississippi State University Extension Service. Ideas like the innovation economy and smart city technology can seem pretty remote to mayors and council members of small municipalities. Roberto is putting these ideas into context that makes sense to places with one or two thousand residents and explaining why every community everywhere needs a strategy to survive and prosper in the broadband economy. ICF’s Robert Bell reviewed a couple of chapters for him and thinks it make a very valuable contribution.

The Institute also continues to educate rural leaders with a unique Intelligent Community Checklist. Completing the checklist is the start of a process of thinking through how small cities in the countryside fit into the global, tech-driven economy. The Institute has also won a grant from the Verizon Foundation that will let it acquire a 3D printer and set of tablet computers to bring to schools and libraries, where the young and old can have hands-on interaction with the latest digital technologies.