Connecting Communities

New Mexico:Wanted! An Alliance to Shape Public Policy

• La Plaza Telecommunity Learning Center
• The National Hispanic Cultural Center
• RETA
• Connect New Mexico

New Mexico is the fifth largest state in the Union,but the 37th in terms of population (about 1.7 million, half of whom live in the Albuquerque and Santa Fe areas), and 49th in per capita income ($18,814 in 1996). The inequities of service and opportunity are graphically illustrated by telecommunications coverage – most homes have television sets, far fewer have telephone connections. There are seventeen regional phone companies operating franchises in the state, many of them lacking the basic ability to provide bandwidth and access for simple phone services, let alone access to the Internet, broadband, or other proposed digital services. The biggest player, U.S.West, covers the prime areas of the Rio Grande corridor, but apparently finds no business incentive for extending into most rural areas.

Education is an even better illustration. In a state that contains some of the most advanced research establishments in the nation (including Los Alamos and Intel labs), one-third of the population does not possess a high school diploma. And having failed to get one in school, there are alarmingly few opportunities to make up for it afterwards – GED is available through public television, but there are said to be only twelve qualified GED testers in the entire state, and no money has been forthcoming to provide more.

There are increasing numbers of people in New Mexico who see the use of new technologies as being, if not an alternative to the injection of significant money, then certainly an option that must be pursued. They ask why the state’s system of educational telecommunications appears to be uncoordinated and semi-compatible. There seems to be a denial of the principle inherent in the development of other states and communities reviewed in this report, that it is necessary for all the public media (users and providers) to work in alliance if the new technologies are truly to be harnessed to the public need. It is symptomatic that the tools ready to hand – like public broadcasting – are not being given the encouragement they need or deserve. In the case of public broadcasting (three New Mexico stations, licensed to three universities and the largest public school system),there is a lack of awareness that public television’s new digital system will provide state-wide coverage by multiple channels on multiple platforms.

Part of the problem for public television in New Mexico (according to Mark Stanislawski of KNME-TV in Albuquerque) is that the computer is seen as the educational tool of the future. And certainly, it is – but it’s not the only one. Television’s (and cable’s, and very soon,radio’s) transition to a digital standard means that these powerful methods of dissemination, in which the state already has a huge investment, are becoming compatible with the computer, and are increasingly using computer technologies as well as broadcast technologies. Public television’s reach and coverage should be an enormous bonus for the state’s educational system, as it is in virtually every other state of the Union. In the case of New Mexico, it requires that the state government m ake a further investment in order to ensure that its public broadcasting stations have the necessary hardware in place to meet the federal government's deadline for going digital (2003 for public television).

While it is true that New Mexico epitomizes the “digital divide” (the gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots” in access to the benefits of new technologies), it is also true that the state has a great many initiatives under way to provide, if not solutions, then ways of improving the situation. Coordinating these initiatives and focusing their energy into clearly defined directions and policy objectives is the greatest single need. In the meantime, there are impressive initiatives in both the public and private sectors, and some that span both.

Since 1994, La Plaza Telecommunity Learning Center has provided free public Internet access and training to residents of Taos. Residents can gain access to the network at the La Plaza Center, which is located at the University of New Mexico, and at remote sites in three neighboring communities. In addition, they can reach the network through public dial-in access. Citizens take advantage of La Plaza’s services to help with schoolwork, look for jobs, obtain health care information and keep up-to-date on local issues.

La Plaza seeks to empower the public through technology. Instead of just giving people access to information, it strives to help community members become producers of Internet content themselves.

Nancy Montano, La Plaza’s outreach and content coordinator, believes that the Internet provides an important vehicle for community interaction. “Newspapers and broadcasting have become very centralized, making it difficult for everyday people to express their views,” says Montano,who notes that the local Taos paper carries less and less community news.

La Plaza works with local and national partners to assist in the development of content that meets the unique needs of the region. It has helped Taos High School put curriculum resources and other items online, including a bilingual student literary magazine. As part of the Benton Foundation and National Endowment for the A rts’ Open Studio program, La Plaza helps train artists to create Web sites for sharing their work with each other and the community at large.

Nancy Montana believes that Open Studio and other similar projects enable “people to communicate positive news, instead of all the negative news provided by other media.”

In another promising project, The National Hispanic Cultural Center plans to use new telecommunications technologies to serve schools, communities and cultural centers. Now under construction in the historic Barelas neighborhood of Albuquerque, the center will include a research and literary arts center, a library, archives, a visual arts complex including a museum, a small auditorium and 2,500-seat outdoor amphitheater.

The Regional Educational Technology Assistance Project (RETA) illustrates the wide range of new technology services available – even in an underserved area like New Mexico – to those with access. RETA’s Web page provides online resources for K-12 teachers, the project’s target community. They range from organizations focusing on the problems of individual ethnic groups (the Educational Native American Group, which is funded by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, for instance) to organizations concerned with a specific part of the curriculum (the New Mexico Collaborative for Excellence in Teacher Preparation, which is funded by the National Science Foundation). They also include a number of general information sites, such as New Mexico Goals 2000.

But how can a state like New Mexico advance from having islands of high-quality service to offering such opportunities to all of its citizens? One thing is clear: to piece such individual undertakings together into a media system that serves everybody in New Mexico, all users and providers of media services will have to work together.

That is the purpose of Connect New Mexico, an organization that includes representatives of the state’s telecommunications, broadcast, computer and Internet industries. Originally a consortium of public and private organizations co-sponsored by the state government and the Los Alamos National Lab, Connect New Mexico was restarted in June 1999 to encourage the state to develop communications networks that will improve education, health care, government and business. Its members include representatives of state government, industry and the education sector.

The organization’s agenda demonstrates the range of issues that public media face, and the inter-relatedness of those issues. In its 1999 legislative positions, for instance, Connect New Mexico called,among other things, for programs to provide education and training in rural communities in telecommunications technology. It supported legislation to accelerate deployment and use of technology in education and health care. It backed capital spending to help New Mexico’s public television stations convert to national digital transmission standards. It encouraged development of tax incentives for Internet-based and other telecommunications businesses. And it urged state legislators to provide support and funding to higher education institutions for information technology and related infrastructure upgrades.

Leaders of the organization believe that action is urgently needed on all these fronts, and they are not afraid to shout from the rooftops. In the months and years ahead, it will become clear whether anyone is listening.

© 2000 Benton Foundation
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Last updated: 14 July 2000 rta
http://www.benton.org/Library/PublicMedia/newmexico.html