World Changing.com describes the leapfrog as the phenomenon that occurs when underdeveloped countries skip a generation or more of technology to adopt a state-of-the-art system. This, for example, has happened in Africa, where hundreds of thousands of citizens have gained access to cell phones and the variety of applications that depend on that equipment, without ever having built a mile of copper cable to carry land-based phone systems. . It has happened, too, where those same phones provide access to pseudo-banking facilities, barter and currency exchange schemes that stimulate local economies.

In rural North America, that leap could happen in select borders, if local and regional developers respond to emerging opportunities.

For the past fifteen to twenty years, remote and rural communities have struggled to gain access to traditional Internet and cable communications systems, including cable television. Satellite television has offered a modest alternative, while wireless towers have reached semi-remote communities. Wimax, however, offers 100% penetration where conventional line-of-site wireless fails. At the same time, the 802.11g and 802.11n wireless radio connection means that the Wimax capabilities, built into every new laptop, could be used to establish a completely mobile phone service, over the Internet, at a fraction of the cost of the Internet. 3G or 4G cell phone. systems

By overcoming wired systems, remote communities could build a regional network to compete with national wireless providers and enter the global business community by building virtual offices.

Over the past two decades, natural gas providers have reached out to pipeline tentacles in smaller rural communities, but they still have thousands more to serve. However, your petro-heat solutions may already have reached the stage of obsolescence, never having been implemented. Dozens of forward-thinking communities are tackling the energy problem head-on, building closed-loop heating and power networks with geothermal, solar/photovoltaic, and wind power systems.

A reverse form of connectivity (a disconnection, actually) has occurred as rail bypass lines have been dismantled across North America, limiting options for agricultural producers to get their produce to markets. Rather than fall victim to change, these producers have built biodiesel and ethanol plants, eliminating the need to transport their product to distant markets. At the same time, they have, in part, disconnected oil suppliers who have called farmers “clients.” It is a type of reverse jump.

Distance education is a variation of the leap, eschewing conventional classrooms in favor of more flexible and portable educational strategies at all levels. This allows for a two-way flow of learning, with the potential for education directed toward the country’s urban centers as well as abroad. It is not only the flow of information, but the access to live video from any point where the Internet can be accessed. That opens the door to hundreds of business possibilities.

To employ leap strategies effectively, rural development needs to focus less on what they lack in terms of conventional infrastructure, access, or processes, and what they can do without in those areas while implementing forward-looking development projects.

Where will the next open door for a leap in industry or technology be presented? Will it be in off-road transportation or green conversion technologies? Will it be in unique power transmission processes or innovative housing systems that are independent of urban manufacturing environments? We just don’t know. However, as technological advances occur, rural entrepreneurs and community leaders must stop trying to emulate city systems and explore new opportunities to avoid existing dinosaurs and location-centric infrastructure.