The latest issue of Farms.com’s Highlighter Newsletter contains an article titled, “Rural Broadband – An Important Platform.” Now that’s a subject near and dear to my heart. Joe Dales is the author and he makes some good points like, “. . . it can be a strong platform for rural economic growth.”

He also says:

To be sure that our Rural constituents maximize the opportunities that are presented by greater internet access, it will also require user computer training, internet training, the development of relevant broadband business applications etc. It can be argued that there is little economic value to society in developing a global leading edge broadband delivery network, if its primary use is to download games or videos for rural children.

I don’t disagree with the need for training although it’s my experience that there are a lot of very web savvy farmers out there. I’m sure many of them are included in the visitors to Farms.com. So what are the “relevant broadband business applications” that are needed? Do you have one that you’d like people to know about? If so, please feel free to comment.