• Did Ron Lieber's exploration of Camper shoes in The Shoes in Spain whet your designer shoe fetish? Or perhaps your desire for exotic travel? Check out the company site for the latest Camper shoes and the happenings in the industry at Footwear News. Even if you're more of a New Balance type, there's still plenty of reason to visit the beautiful Spanish island of Majorca. Learn more about the history, environment and culture of Majorca and the rest of the Balearic Islands at these travel web sites. If excursions to Spain don't fit your schedule right now, consider taking a walking tour of your city with your local cell. The Earth is Yours Walking Tours offers longer tours and hikes all over the U.S. as well as Mexico and Turkey. Shorter tours also exist in most cities. If your cell is in New York try the Big Onion Walking Toursof the area's historic ethnic neighborhoods. In D.C. take your cell to stroll through the Georgetown and Dupont regions with Tour D.C., and in Boston try a cultural walking or biking tour of Beantown's historic Jewish area with the BostonWalks company. Lieber cites an anthropologist who credits the success of Camper shoes to its ability to create an 'emotional connection' to its customers. What 'culture brands' exist in your area and what values do they stand for? See if there's a Niketown or Benetton store near you. Or investigate to find smaller, non-chain stores in your town that sell a cultural product. Have your cell take an anthropological field trip to these stores and discuss how these companies use culture to sell a product, and vice-versa.
• Fara Warner's Fast Farmers and Chuck Salter's The Town the Internet Forgot explore bringing the Internet into rural communities. The Web movement may have started in urban areas, but companies like M-Hip.com and Prairie iNet are making sure that rural areas are not entirely forgotten. And the rural revolution goes beyond the providers mentioned in this month's issue. Services like RuralNet and Farm Bureau Internetallow farmers across a wider geographical range to sign up for Net access. But the Internet is not the first technological change to exclude rural citizens and farmers. Look at the USDA's Life on the Farm timeline to see when inventions like the telephone appeared outside big cities. The USDA is now using the Web to help promote rural development with the National Rural Development Partnership. See if the Council for Agricultural Sciences and Technology is holding any events in your area that your cell could attend. Agriculturist Mark Campidonica has written a book about how technology is changing the nature of farming and collecting agriculture information, parts of which areavailable online. Have your group read some of the online excerpts before your next meeting. Then discuss the Web's role in urban areas versus its role in rural ones. Take a visit to the local 4-H club, or invite a 4-H representative to your next meeting to discuss how the Internet is creating community across the traditional wide boundaries of rural life.

Daniel Richards contributed this month's Next Steps.

April 2001 Connexus | Flash Points | Next Steps

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