State Capacity Building:

The project will support the continuation of a state broadband working group. Through this working group, the South Dakota Bureau of Information and Telecommunications (BIT) will expand the existing Broadband Advisory Team (BAT) and further coordinate statewide efforts. The BAT will assist the staff in coordinating outreach projects, including broadband technology events and meetings with stakeholders across government, private industry, and the general public.

Technical Assistance:

The project will support the deployment of technology teams that will initially provide a network assessment to Community Anchor Institutions (CAI) across the state, including, but not limited to, schools and local government institutions. When the awardee undertook this activity on a limited basis, it discovered that these assessments led to a number of simple network configuration solutions that, when implemented, improved the speed of the CAIs’ broadband services. For interested CAIs, the team will also provide technology strategic planning, network security support and “train-the-trainer” activities, so that the CAI staff has the capacity to provide itself with the ongoing support needed.

Programs that Support Computer Ownership and Internet Adoption:

Building on the technology assistance project described above, BIT will initiate a subgrant competition that will be open to the CAIs that complete the technical assistance program. The subgrants will allow the CAIs to purchase a portion of the equipment or software identified in the assessment. BIT will also provide installation and training support, enabling the CAI to fully manage and use the equipment.

Data Collection, Integration, and Validation:

This project was originally funded for broadband planning activities and two years of data collection. In September of 2010, this project was amended to extend data collection activities for an additional three years and to identify and implement best practices.

Address File Development:

This project will create a comprehensive geocodable point dataset for the state. The Department of Revenue and Regulation will assist BIT with collecting existing addresses, and will coordinate the datasets through county offices. The counties will receive funding to assist them in creating county-level address files. Gap analysis will be performed on the master list from the counties and missing addresses will be crosschecked against data held by the county office and through 9-1-1 Public Safety Answering Points. A web portal will be then created to allow stakeholders to see the addresses and to validate information.