Tony Oyana, an assistant geography professor, is helping Connect SI use its maps to economically develop southern Illinois.

Connect SI is a program involving 20 counties in an effort to enhance southern Illinois’ economy using Internet access, broadband, to converse locally and globally. According to Connect SI’s Executive Director Rex Duncan, broadband will improve lives by changing how we communicate and work.

Healthcare delivery, business and industry, and education are some of the ways Connect SI plans incorporate broadband.

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Duncan said broadband availability could bring opportunities for local business to offer their goods and services to a larger market at a faster rate. He added that each of southern Illinois’ counties has been independently trying to compete with the much larger economies of other countries, and that is not working. He said if the 20 counties work together, the region’s economy would increase significantly.

“We want to get as close to the universal usage of broadband as possible,” Duncan said. “Broadband can be used productively and intelligently. It is used primarily for entertainment, but it could help Southern Illinois’s economy if used for health care and education.”

Getting close to broadband is where mapping – and Oyana – comes into the situation. Oyana is in charge of Connect SI’s Geographic Information Systems, or GIS. He said mapping broadband will show where supply is relative to the demand.

The maps will show areas with or without broadband and how much of the population is using it. Internet providers can then sell the product. Consumers can use it to learn, educate or receive information faster than before, Oyana said.

Oyana breaks the broadband mapping into three levels. The first one is conceptualization. This level involves trying to map the broadband infrastructure, which includes DSL and optic fivers, to know exactly where it is.

The second level is called data base implication. GIS is the second stage because people will be able to find out how much broadband is in a location relative to its population.

Finally, the Internet will help with the distribution stage by showing the data from GIS at every available computer. Reports and public outreach programs are two other ways Oyana hopes to distribute the broadband maps and data.

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Oyana said broadband is going to bring many opportunities for the southern Illinois economy.

“The idea is to bring business,” Oyana said. “We hope to use maps to bring business intelligence because, with the maps, we will be able to identify high pockets of demand. Broadband is the pillar behind economic development.”

Duncan agreed with Oyana and elaborated on how broadband will help the economy of local counties as they bind together instead of waiting on larger cities to do the work for them.

“People like to wait on bigger places to help, but nothing is going to happen,” Duncan said. “We need to get things going ourselves. Local support is crucial and puts the skin in the game,”

Connect SI’s goal is to collect $3 million, with $1 million coming from the area and $2 million will be from state and federal governments, Duncan said. As of now, Connect SI has received $540,00 locally, $140,000 federally and $400,000 from the state.

Brandon LaChance can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 252 or [email protected].