The Social Media Breakfast is practically a movement. It started with Brian Person in Boston, back in 2007. Now they occur all over in 40 cities, everywhere from Waco, Texas, to Singapore. When the Austin SMB group got together during South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) festival, they invited me to present a rural perspective, "How Social Media and Business Thrive in Rural America." It was a lively, interactive, wired audience. More high tech people are moving to small towns, like Aliza Sherman in Tok, Alaska. Her firm, Conversify, now includes a dozen people all over, and only recently held their first in-person meeting. At the same time, more small town residents are getting involved online. I recently taught a capacity class on basic social networking in Alva, Oklahoma, and demand from all over is growing. These two trends together mean an increasing demand for broadband access in more rural areas, and we had an excellent discussion on broadband with the audience.
