Helping businesses and nonprofits in small VT towns use online tools to spur economic development and improve disaster resilience.
On a chilly Thursday evening in late November, members of the new downtown development group called Wilmington Works, town officials, state representatives, and Wilmington business owners gathered at the town offices to celebrate the achievements that the town of Wilmington had accomplished through the services provided by the Vermont Digital Economy Project. “When we first…
Juli Reiderer, Park House Exectutive Director, looks at her organization’s new website An empowered organization is a successful organization. For a nonprofit to be successful, it must have control over its message. For most organizations, a website is their public face and, often, the first point of contact between the organization and a potential donor,…
This article was written by Patrick Ripley, Director of e-Commerce at the Vermont Small Business Development Center (VtSBDC) Rochester was one of many southern Vermont communities slammed by Hurricane Irene in late summer 2011. “The town of Rochester was totally cut off for the first week after Irene. We had no electricity and no services,” recalled Beth…
Here at the Vermont Council on Rural Development, we are in the process of asking for donations to fund our great ongoing work, including support for programs like our Community Visits Program and our Working Landscape Initiative. As we looked at numerous ways to solicit donations, including mailings and emails, we realized that we should…
Earlier this month, two IBM specialists in business continuity and resiliency services conducted two Disaster Preparedness for Nonprofit Workshops in Vermont. The workshops were donated to the Vermont Digital Economy Project through IBM’s Service Grants program. I had arranged the first workshop through the leadership of the Vermont Access Network, a professional membership organization representing…
This article was written by Patrick Ripley, Director of e-Commerce at VtSBDC Unlike many Vermont business owners, when Bethel logger Carl Russell emerged from the rains of hurricane Irene in late summer 2011, most of his inventory was left intact. But he had a different problem. He couldn’t get to it. “Basically the business virtually came…
This year, we were excited to be a part of Tech Jam, a technology-focused job fair that also serves to showcase how well Vermont is succeeding at creating and adopting to new technologies, from being the home of companies such as Dealer.com and MyWebGrocer to fostering smaller businesses such as Found Line. Many of these…
On November 1st, the Vermont Digital Economy Project will be facilitating a discussion at the Woodstock Digital Media Festival on open data, a subject that will be introduced during a presentation by Eddie Tejeda. Eddie is a 2012 Code for America Fellow and co-founder of OpenOakland, a civic innovation organization that brings together coders, designers,…
This article was written by Donald de Voil, Internet Interns Coordinator at CCV In today’s world, it can be impossible to apply for a job, fill out a government form, or complete other essential tasks, without some internet literacy. Sadly, too many Vermonters find the world of online a bewildering, frustrating and disempowering experience. If…
This article was written by Christine Friese, Assistant State Librarian, Vermont Department of Libraries Recently, Library directors, trustees and staff from 10 public libraries, representatives from the Vermont State Library, and members of the Vermont Digital Economy Project spent a day at the Brown Public library in Northfield with consultants from IBM, learning all about…