About CANA

CANA's mission is to serve as a regional resource for the deployment of high speed internet access networks in underserved rural communities throughout the Appalachian region and to provide technical, operational and educational support so that these communities can take full advantage of the opportunities for economic, educational and social progress.

The economic mission of CANA is to create individual, economic self-sufficient and self-operating networks. CANA will provide the network hardware and technical and managerial assistance; the communities will be responsible for operating and maintaining the system.

The vision of CANA is to create a network of similarly connected rural sites. This network of sites should create considerable economies and efficiencies of scale for the communities, states and region. This "network effect" will help create cooperation and coordination of efforts across geographic boundaries. We believe
  1. that the individual sites communities will benefit from the installation of high speed access
  2. that the individual sites working in concert with neighboring sites will benefit from regional development strategies and
  3. that the entire community of CANA sites will benefit from cooperative purchase/sale agreements, best practice development and knowledge sharing.
CANA - McDowell Team:

Continuing CANA’s ongoing commitment to bring high speed Internet to rural West Virginia, CMU students and volunteers from Braxton County have ventured into the fifth poorest county in the nation, McDowell County. Working with investor Kenneth L. Bazzle, CANA aims to supply KOA’s Ashland West Virginia ATV Resort with wireless broadband access.

In addition to hooking up the ATV Resort, the team is investigating multiple socio-economic issues that technology may be able to help solve in the region and determining the feasibility of extending a network to provide Internet connectivity to McDowell County in the near future.

The McDowell Team Blog is an informal daily log of the team's activities this summer.