XplanaZine

INTO UTOPIA: Low-Cost Business, Association, and Education Centers, Part 1
Many countries (as well as rural and inner city areas within the U.S.) need low-cost and relatively low-tech solutions in order to not be left hopelessly behind in terms of information sharing and applications.
It’s not really a matter of choice any more. If you’re not on board with multi-user, any place-any time, information sharing, you’re going to be squeezed out. It’s a reality for education and e-commerce. It’s a reality for other areas as well, including associations, commercial enterprises, niche services, and general services.
Low-cost web-enhanced solutions can make a difference here:
-1- Information coordination between remote, hard-to-access regional offices
-2- Financial services — online applications from regional offices, downloaded to central office (facilitates centralization)
-3- Democracy and governance initiatives: posting information, white papers, strategies, and project guidance; establishing a forum for discussion, collaborating on group initiatives
-4- One-stop shopping rural business centers: technical assistance available through virtual library of pertinent articles, applications for financing and grants, materials data sheets, logistics, maps, reservations, road conditions
-5- Regional updating of key infrastructure and demographics information: monitor and input traffic, infrastructure conditions, warehousing capabilities, power and water issues, etc. All data to be input into a simple database, catalogued via GPS information as well as maps
-6- E-commerce: input and update inventories; instaneous availability to all users
-7- Regional prices (for commodities exchanges) input collaboratively
These suggestions sound as though they would be expensive to implement, but they’re not — if you plan correctly. Here are key components for getting started:
-1- Weblog. To begin, I would recommend a free service. Upgrade as you outgrow it. The weblog will allow instantaneous public postings of regional office daily prices, inventories, conditions, etc.
-2- Designated coordinator. It’s a good idea to make one person responsible for the administration and organization of the overall structure. In addition to general admin duties with respect to the websites, weblogs, and applications, the coordinator can
-a- organize meetings among regional partners to agree upon protocols and procedures
-b- provide support & input data from inaccessible or remote locations
-c- help promote the projects internally and externally (this could include fund-raising)
-3- Website. This is the place where general information is presented to the world. Other functions can include links to white papers, etc., that only the coordinator uploads (after review). The website can include useful applications –
-a- automated interest rate calculators
-b- local weather and news feeds
-c- search the virtual library or database
-d- interactive forms — surveys, questionnaires, membership registration, requests for information

-e- job board
-4- Integrated databases. Many functions can be outsourced or “edged” by linking to free programs. Once your needs grow, you can upgrade to premium services. You can either try a service provider, or give it a try on your own and download the program onto your own server (if you have one).
Don’t want to pay $10,000 or more to get started?
Here are a few providers of programs (some server-side applications), most of which you can try for free, then upgrade for a very reasonable price. Most are found on download.com
-a- List-serve. http://www.listserve.com (the service) or a program by Arclab Software Technologies — MailList Controller 3.12
-b- Credit card clearing. billpoint or paypal: http://www.paypal.com
-c- Inventory and invoicing. Owl Software’s shareware version — Simple Business Invoicing & Inventory 2.1.1.25
-d- Inventory control. Rytech’s Small Business Inventory Control Pro 5.5. Free for 50 tries.
-e- File sharing. mysternetwork’s Myster 4.0
-f- Fundraising, donations, and event coordination. Mentorex’s Fundraiser Mentor 1.22
-g- Web-based administration application for customer and service management. Evolynx’s Radius Server 1.0
Now that you know the components you need, you can move on to the more complicated aspect of this task — the dreaded human factor!!
We’ll tackle organizational development and project management in Part 2. Until then, enjoy!