links for 2008-10-01

"Shawn Kirsch lives in a small town in North Dakota. He’s a 20-something technophile who cares deeply about the cutting edge of social media . . . but also about the rural community he calls home. In a series of recent blog posts, he’s been asking key questions about what’s next for his town and others like it." – an excellent question, and one that i think about a lot, given the fact that the majority of Maine's primary industries – with the exception of tourism – are either dead or dying. telecommuting factors in, certainly, but there need to be other local businesses to support that.