As the prospect of the city’s wireless broadband network promises to connect Milledgeville to the world, two organizations are working to find ways it can connect Milledgeville residents to one another.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the nonprofit technological organization, OneCommunity, are collaborating to find ways that the Milledgeville Municipal WiMax network can be used to build a stronger community by bridging the digital divide. By identifying obstacles and providing the resources to help facilitate universal access for Milledgeville residents, regardless of their socio-economic background, Knight and OneCommunity hope to create a “new town square” where the community can come together to address the issues that stand in the way of a better future.

“We want to help the community plan effectively in order to make sure that the opportunities presented by this network are by the community, of the community and for the community,” local Knight Foundation Program Director Beverly Blake said. “This is not about Knight, it is about the people of Milledgeville and how they can build a better community through shared information.”

Blake said the Knight Foundation’s vision is not to use broadband technology to connect people to a global “virtual” community, but to identify Internet resources that will more efficiently connect individuals to the physical community in which they reside.

“We’re not looking for ideas to create virtual communities,” Knight Foundation CEO and President Alberto Ibargüen said in a speech to the Boston Foundation June 10. “We’re looking for digital tools to support the delivery of information to geographically-delineated communities — our version of Aristotle’s public square.”

To do that, the Knight Foundation is working to recruit a representative group of community leaders who can come together to help identify problems to be addressed, and opportunities that can be exploited so as to form a shared vision of how Milledgeville can use the wireless network to build a more productive future.

“Milledgeville understands that the future can be enhanced through broadband access,” Blake said. “This is about finding what Milledgeville and the people see as a priority.”

In preliminary discussions with city officials, Blake said that three areas of opportunity have come up consistently: K-through-12 education, Economic Development and Healthcare.

Blake said initial conversations have been encouraging because she can see a consistent vision in the community. The next step is to expand the scope of these conversations to include more of Milledgeville.

“Through meetings that connect diverse parts of the community, we want to ensure that every voice takes part in this conversation,” Blake said.

Once the community has developed a shared vision of how it wants to use broadband access to initiate Milledgeville’s future, the Knight Foundation will work with the city to ensure the sustainability of that vision.

“The Knight Foundation does not come into a community, say we have this great opportunity, realize it and then walk away,” Blake said. “Milledgeville made this happen, we’re here to help you build this plan for the future.”

Blake and the Knight Foundation are currently working to develop a plan for soliciting community input about how to tailor a program for utilizing the city’s forthcoming broadband network to meet the community’s needs. To find out more about the Knight Foundation, visit www.knightfoundation.org, or contact Beverly Blake at blake@knightfoundation.org.