Nothing like competition and cash prizes to get businesses people fired up. In rural Vermont, contests for the best new business applications on the web -- plus training and mentoring -- are improving scores of local companies.

The national plan for supplying wireless Internet in rural areas needs to push local partnerships. Franklin County, Virginia, and a small tech company have the customers to prove it.

Middle-mile projects received most of the big broadband stimulus boost. To make it the last mile, and get service into the homes of rural residents, 47 communities in Western Massachusetts are working together.

Community cooperatives may do better than local governments at battling the telecom industry and maneuvering through federal regs that favor wireless.