This past weekend was the National Day of Civic Hacking. While for many of us, hacking brings up ominous images of security systems being overridden and important data being stolen, a hackathon is quite the opposite. During a hackathon, a number of techie people get together to solve problems. When you have engineers, programmers, user-interface…
Heidi M. Nikolaidis, of the Bethel Historical Society, received help from Rob Fish on the society’s Facebook Page. Here’s what she learned: A few weeks ago we first heard about the grant from the Vermont Digital Economy Project. We filled out the online survey for non-profits, on behalf of the Bethel Historical Society. Rob Fish…
More than 20 years ago, Vermonters Jeffrey and Maryanne Larkin opened Arvad’s Grill & Pub in Waterbury. From the very beginning, they put high emphasis on featuring local products and serving their local community. “We strive to use local products in preparation of our homemade food and serve the finest Vermont has to offer in…
Digital tools can create an important advantage in running a business these days, and we’re working in Bethel on a number of projects to help make these tools more reachable, including installing a free downtown Wi-Fi zone. But older means of communication, such as word of mouth and a tightly knit community are also great…
Members of the Bethel Historical Society I remember as a young boy growing up and being fascinated by the local history of my home town. I wanted to understand how and why certain things came to be the way they are now. Why were there abandoned iron mines on the hillside and stone walls cutting…
By Mary McClements, Coordinator of Academic Services-Career Training Programs at CCV ‘Balance’ is a great buzz word these days, in my opinion, especially because I don’t have it often enough. We hear this message on the news, and we see it in magazines, in newspapers, and in articles on the internet. These sources ask us…
Our search for relevant workshop content for Vermont’s farm and forest sector led us straight to someone who may, at first, seem an unlikely Vermont digital economy pioneer. Heather Darby, Ph.D., has been teaching nutrient management at the University of Vermont Extension for over six years. She’s a soil quality expert who received her B.S.…
At the Vermont Digital Economy Project, we’re passionate about using new technologies to improve disaster resilience and spur economic growth in Vermont. Mobile technology, from the ease of accessing the Internet on a smart phone to using text messaging to donate to an organization or pay your bills, is playing a huge role on both…
After a week and a half of meetings with over twenty nonprofits ranging from historical societies to downtown revitalization organizations, churches, rotary clubs, human services, agriculture education, and arts and disaster preparedness groups, I am struck by how passionate everyone I met was about their organization and their desire to do better. Over the next…
An important service offered by our project is the Vermont Small Business Development Center’s digital workshops. They’re designed to teach small businesses how to leverage such hot digital tools as Cloud Computing, Mobile Marketing, Social Media, and Using Google Tools. Based on the Vermont Digital Economy Project Team’s recent discussions with business leaders and nonprofits…