roundtable: fyi: new project from CCN - the Public WebMarket

roundtable: fyi: new project from CCN - the Public WebMarket

fyi: new project from CCN - the Public WebMarket

Miles R Fidelman (fidelman@civicnet.org)
Sat, 9 Dec 1995 14:43:29 +0001 (EST) 

Date: Sat, 9 Dec 1995 14:43:29 +0001 (EST)
From: Miles R Fidelman <fidelman@civicnet.org>
Subject: fyi: new project from CCN - the Public WebMarket
To: TPR-NE@MITVMA.MIT.EDU, roundtable@cni.org
Message-Id: <Pine.3.89.9512091414.U10217-0100000@world.std.com>


Hi Folks,

Thought some of our fellow participants in TPR and TPR-NE might be
interested in our new - the Public WebMarket - a USDA funded project 
to help small rural businesses (microenterprises) promote themselves. 

Well, we're now live at http://civic.net/webmarket/ !!!!!

We hope you'll take a look, and if you like what you see and have any
Christmas shopping left to do, maybe buy from small businesses instead 
of the large chains. 

When you visit - let us know you've been by.  There's a guestbook/survey 
where you can send us your comments (and we really want comments right 
now).  If you're involved in economic development (urban as well as 
rural), let us know if you're interested in becoming part of the project 
as we move along.  If you're a community net, maybe you'd like to explore 
some opportunities to link a local business section into the Public 
WebMarket.

And, of course, we'd be very happy if you'd create links to the site 
and/or redistribute this message and/or the more general press release 
that follows.

Regards,

Miles Fidelman
President, The Center for Civic Networking

News Release

For Immediate Release    For More Information Contact:
December 9, 1995         Richard Civille
                         Center for Civic Networking
                         (202) 362-3831
                         rciville@civicnet.org


  Non-Profit Public WebMarket Helps Small Rural Businesses
           Use the Internet to Expand Markets and
               Revitalize Community Economies

Visit us on the World Wide Web at
http://civic.net/webmarket/

An innovative and socially responsible marketing service for
rural small businesses opened on the World Wide Web today --
just in time for last-minute gift shoppers eager to avoid
traffic jams at the mega-malls. Operated by the Center for
Civic Networking through a grant from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, the Public WebMarket links small rural
businesses in Hawaii and Appalachia to global consumer
markets through the Internet.

The idea came about as a way for rural communities hit in
recent years by declining industries, loss of jobs, and
shrinking populations to access the purchasing power of
global consumer markets through the Internet. Net surfers
who access the site can have a positive impact on depressed
rural economies, through their purchase of unique and
valuable products.

The Public WebMarket weaves a tapestry of people and
enterprises who are active and rooted in their communities.
In Hawaii, Mac Cooper of Na'alehu Main Street, a Public
WebMarket sponsor says that "Local folks sit down and 'talk
story' before anyone does business. It's a tradition here
that dates back a thousand years." Incorporating stories
told in the voices of local business people creates a new
kind of marketing environment on the Web. 

According to Richard Civille, Executive Director of The Center for
Civic Networking: "Sharing those stories builds interest in
the products these businesses have to sell. That's how
public markets work. We hope to have conveyed some of that
liveliness and richness of experience on the pages of the
Public WebMarket."

Browsers stroll down a virtual Main Street that meanders
through Hawaii and Appalachia passing by the Big Chimney
Baking Company, Frog Ranch Foods and Ka'u Royal Coffee and
Macadamia Nuts.  The journey combines rich insight into
local history, culture,  geography, and economics as well as
being an outlet for unique, often one-in-a-kind products.

For example, net surfers will meet Leinaala, a Harley riding
grandmother and part owner of Hawaii Leu Macadamia Nut
Products. She has five grandchildren and operates the
tractor on her one acre macadamia nut farm, right where Mark
Twain planted a monkeypod tree over 130 years ago.

All the local businesses participating in the holiday season
launch of the Public WebMarket are sharing stories about
themselves, their business, and their relationships with
their rural communities. Richard Ferlauto of the Center for
Policy Alternatives, a Public WebMarket sponsor that
encourages state investments in community economic
development says: "None of them ever used the Internet until
now. And, these businesses are serving as prototypes for
expansion which will include very small businesses from
other rural communities in 1996."

According to Amy Borgstrom Somers of the Appalachian Center
for Economic Networks (ACEnet), another sponsor of
the Public WebMarket, "World Wide Web technology can help
bring the wares of small rural businesses to markets more
efficiently."  She says, "the concept is to get new revenues
to flow into depressed rural communities. The need for
sustainable development is rising due to the collapse of
natural resource extraction based economies.  We saw so many
similarities in history and architecture among communities
that were once company plantation towns in Hawaii and coal
towns in Appalachia."

The Public WebMarket offers commercially secure transactions
for credit card purchases, "guest books" for net surfers to
interact with the business owners and an opinion survey to
help guide the project, and improve the site. 

Civille went on to say that "We invite community groups from 
around the country to help local businesses become part of the 
Public WebMarket as it grows in 1996."



               ----      ***        ---


**************************************************************************
Miles R. Fidelman                       mfidelman@civicnet.org
President &                             91 Baldwin St. Charlestown MA 02129 
Director of Civic Networking Systems    617-241-9205 fax: 617-241-5064
The Center for Civic Networking         http://civic.net/ccn.html

Information Infrastructure: Public Spaces for the 21st Century
Let's Start With: Internet Wall-Plugs Everywhere 
Say It Often, Say It Loud: "I Want My Internet!" 
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