BusinessTN

When an automotive parts manufacturer closed and another scaled down in Perry County last year, unemployment grew to 27.4% -- the highest in the state and among the highest in the nation. A study commissioned by Gov. Phil Bredesen and prepared by South Carolina-based Strategic Development Group suggests that, even with federal stimulus funds, a lack of infrastructure means the prospects for luring traditional industry inside county lines remain bleak.

County officials are well aware of the situation. "Most manufacturers want sites within a few miles of a four lane road. We're 25 miles off the interstate, and that hinders us," says Linden Mayor Jim Azbill.

Instead of trying to catch up in a race in which they have already been lapped and, frankly, will likely always be out-resourced by more affluent neighbors, Perry County officials are looking to transfer their efforts to a different race entirely. It's still about infrastructure and factory base, but in this race, bricks and mortar have nothing to do with it. Vision Perry, an economic development program in Linden funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, is instead working to build infrastructure along the digital highway. To that end, and with the help of Nashville-based nonprofit cTechnology, Vision Perry is launching a new kind of factory -- a digital one.

Unlike a bricks-and-mortar approach, a digital factory functions as a virtual job site, working remotely for national companies via the Internet or telecommunications. "This is one of the most viable options for a rural community," says Michael Dumont, Vision Perry's executive director.

"Many traditional economic developers don't understand the global, service-based economy. They think in terms of site-ready incentives," says Paul Van Hoesen, founding director of cTechnology.

Selected for its technical resources already at hand, Vision Perry houses the pilot training program, which has received funding from the Rural Technology Assistance Grant program and the South Central Tennessee Workforce Alliance.

Like a standard factory, production lines exist based on training and skill level, including programming, customer service for call centers and crowd-sourced tasks qualifying data or performing simple "cut and paste" tasks online.

At the highest skill set, workers will train for six months in Linux, Apache, MySQL and Php/PERL (collectively known as “LAMP”) programming languages. Enterprise LAMP Group of Nashville will then assist with job placement.

The next step involves establishing business connections. "We know of one company that’s looking to put 600 people to work online," Azbill says.

Fortunately, when it comes to putting people to work on the digital factory floor, Perry County's somewhat dire economic straits are a plus. "The cost of living drives the ability to be competitive among overseas and urban programmers," Van Hoesen says.

Though the digital factory might not be a panacea for the county's unemployment, it should help offset an eventual end to government handouts. "Our long-term vision is that workers may create their own businesses, intellectual property or help design Web sites for companies on the side," Van Hoesen says.

After years competing with more centrally located counties for infrastructural dollars and manufacturing attention, Perry County's move to digital may be just what it needs to make a race of it.