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 Intelligent Community Institute of the Mississippi State University Extension Service (ICIM) has had an active summer season. Led by Professor Roberto Gallardo, a faculty member at the Center for Technology Outreach, the Institute has led digital literacy classes in the small city of Quitman, where a public-private venture with C-Spire has developed a fiber-to-the-premise network.