Thomas Wilkins, the
founder and CEO of The Wilkins Group, Inc., is currently serving as a
board member on the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund Board (TIF
Board), following his appointment last year by Lieutenant Governor
Rick Perry. By allocating over a billion dollars in grants statewide,
the TIF Board was created in 1995 to make Texas the technology leader
in secondary, post secondary, libraries, and medical facilities in the
United States by providing Internet access and computers to 100% of
the Texas population. The Board of Directors to which Tom Wilkins was
appointed to sets policies and makes the decision over which areas of
the state receive grants and the criteria that the grantees must
follow. "The key issue, " Mr. Wilkins says," is to help the grantees
understand how to use the technology for their greatest benefit. It is
much more than putting in wires or handing out loans, it is the
opportunity to open up boundless opportunity for everyone."
The progress that
the board has made in its first five years is amazing. "If we look at
what the funding has done up until now and look at schools and medical
facilities in remote areas and hear their praises and imagine what it
would be like without the help, then we can see that the funding has
made an important difference. If the Board can continue to help school
districts, colleges, and libraries, if we can help drive them to
common platforms, to allow entities to communicate seamlessly, it
raises us above any other state." Mr. Wilkins believes that the key
issues facing the TIF Board are maintaining technical standards and
establishing interoperability between system throughout the state,
driving down the total cost of ownership and most importantly
understanding the digital divide between different areas of the
population. "When I was growing up, technology was left mostly to the
techno-heads. If technology was learned, it was for fun. Now,
technology is an essential tool. For example, research used to be done
for hours in a library. Now, with all this information condensed and
sent over broadband pipe, the research becomes much easier and faster.
A problem can arise in that when you are forced to learn something,
then it becomes a chore and is no longer fun. With the digital divide
between different areas of our culture, little geniuses run around
undiscovered and are not able to use all of their potential. It is
crucial to wet their appetite so that they will not become stagnant
and for all that potential to be used.
In the long run, we need to make
sure that we are effective in putting together and deploying
technology throughout the state as self-sustaining. As a result, we
will have created not just locations with all the technological bells
and whistles, but a mind process that continually evolves with
change."
