Communities that want to leverage and maximize the Internet and broadband connectivity to enhance their potential for economic development and overall growth may want to examine the following resources:

CSPP Readiness Guide for Living in the Networked World
http://www.cspp.org/projects/readiness/  
This self-assessment tool is designed to help a community determine how prepared it is to participate in the Networked World. It facilitates the first step of understanding where you are and provides a vision of where you need to be to reap the benefits of being connected in a Networked World. Most importantly, it prepares you to take actions that will enable your community, government, businesses, schools, community groups, and citizens, to benefit from being as connected as possible.

Appalachian Regional Commission
Links to the Future: The Role of Information and Telecommunications Technology in Appalachian Economic Development
This report documents the status of information, computing, and telecommunications technologies in the Appalachian Region, assessing their potential relationship to economic growth and the range of federal, state, and local policies that influence their development.
(Click to read)

Intelligent Community Forum - http://www.intelligentcommunity.org/
"Intelligent Community” is ICF’s term for what others have called the wired city, smart community, or e-city. It is the community — whether a town, city, county or region — that views communications bandwidth as the new essential utility, as vital to economic growth and public welfare as clean water and dependable electricity. Where communities once raced to build seaports, rail depots, airports, and highways to attract businesses and create jobs, many now view broadband communications and information technology as the new keys to prosperity.

Cisco Systems White Paper - "The Importance of Broadband Policy in Productivity Growth and Social and Governmental Progress"
(Click to read)
By bringing the digital world to our doors, broadband offers a tantalizing spectrum of benefits: increased business productivity, improved healthcare, better education, interactive entertainment, and greater government efficiency. This paper describes each of these potential benefits.

The Rural E-Commerce Extension Initiative: A National Demonstration Project
http://srdc.msstate.edu/ecommerce/