CSO SEPARATIONS

    Most CSOs concentrated on their own projects. Individual organizations purchased a variety of hardware and software, improved some of their web pages and one group embarked on a complex GIS partnership in the panhandle in Kootenai County. Because of the reluctance of the members contributing data to the GIS system to share the aggregated data sets widely, only members would have access to the products of the partnership. Public-private partnerships usually mean there will be a compromise when it comes to access to the products of those alliances.

Relations were very stormy with the other group of Community Support Organizations that received part of the MIRA money. To talk with one of these, I drove along the beautiful Clearwater River to the town of Orofino where Malcom Dell and I met in the Flamingo Cafe. Dell headed Woodnet, a CSO whose goal was to encourage small businesses that added value to the wood industry. His background is in forestry and business, and he had been successful in bringing in a couple of ISPs to Orofino and was presently encouraging another to bring in high-speed wireless. I pointed him to the work done by Steve Smith, another MIRA CSO in Imperial, Nebraska who has rolled out one of the most ambitious wireless connectivity project in rural America.