Technology Brings Remote Town a Little Closer

26 November 2008 - 8:00am

Ten Sleep, Wyoming is home to a booming new company that teaches English online to students in Korea. The town of 350 people is a testament to how the reaches of broadband connectivity allows high-tech business to flourish even in remote areas.

"The nearest Wal-Mart is two hours away, and only foul weather, a deer in the road or a Washakie County sheriff's deputy would slow down anyone with a mind to drive there faster.

Yet Ten Sleep, population 350, is just as connected as any place these days, and home to a new company that is outsourcing jobs not from the United States to the Far East, but in the opposite direction."

"Eleutian isn't the only company harnessing the Internet from the distant ranges of Wyoming. Whether it's a Laramie man who sells high-end computers to day traders, or a Green River woman who writes software for mass transit systems, doing business in the least populated state no longer has to mean running the equivalent of a frontier outpost, said Jon Benson, CEO of the Wyoming Technology Business Center at the University of Wyoming."

Source: Forbes, November 21, 2008
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How might instant, near-home car rental allow households to give up a third or second car? Would the substantial savings a household receives from owning and maintaining fewer cars more than compensate for the extra time and discomfort spent riding transit?