The last in a series of articles about digital literacy in Seward County.
Digital literacy means different things to different people.
Most definitions involve people’s ability to navigate their phones and laptops to access the internet, find information and evaluate its integrity, communicate and collaborate with others online, monitor and learn evolving technologies, and do it all responsibly and safely.
Over the past year or so, a county-wide task force has helped to identify Seward County’s broadband capabilities and needs, and brought together a Seward County Broadband Task Force to expand internet access across the county.
The group includes leaders from the Seward County Chamber and Development Partnership, Seward County Board of Commissioners, Southeast Nebraska Development District, industry partners, and area residents interested in improving access for telehealth, education, jobs, and communication with family and friends.
Jacob Jennings, SCCDP director of community affairs, said input from a recent survey about tech education needs and wants in Seward County is now informing plans for the opening of a physical center for technology classes and digital learning. Next Link Internet has made space available near 5th and Bradford Street in Seward for classes or workshops.
This series’ final article introduces readers to three Seward County residents who have taken different paths, but navigate the digital world daily as a tool to pursue their chosen profession, as a topic to help people learn about and use, or as the core of their business product.
Cindi Fosler has used digital technology to achieve a top management position in a human relations company and live in Seward. Andrew Hanus uses his digital experience and knowledge to help others become more proficient with technology. Josh Rausch uses his skills and experience to create a digital product – web page design – to help people focus their business messages.
Here are their stories:
Cindi Fosler
Connecting with work from home or airport
Cindi Fosler has worked in an office, from home, and from a variety of airports in her career since she started traveling and working remotely.
She was working for a company that IBM purchased around 2018 and appreciated that she could pursue the human relations work she enjoyed while she and her husband, Larry, remained in Seward.
When the pandemic came along and pushed others into remote work, she already had a routine.
“That has been normal for me,” she said. “I could live in Seward, Nebraska, and take these really exciting jobs and travel all over. I have been doing that for a very long time.”
About a year ago, she became chief customer officer for Quantum Workplace, a human resources technology provider based in Omaha and a leader in employee success platforms for organizations who want to grow and succeed with engaged employees. The company has staff across the United States.
Even though corporate headquarters is now closer to Fosler’s home, she still works a hybrid schedule, two days in the office and three days at home, unless she is traveling.
“I do remote work just like I did going to the office. I get up, I take a shower and dress like I am going to the office. That discipline of keeping regular hours for me is what made it work,” she said.
Working for employers with offices and customers around the country throughout her career honed Fosler’s conference call and later video conference skills early on.
The only downside in those years was connecting to the internet wherever she was working.
“Having reliable internet has been a challenge,” she said.
Beyond equipment requirements, Fosler said other skills come into play as employees perform their jobs and build relationships with their coworkers remotely.
She recommends using the guides that Zoom, Teams and other providers offer to hone internet navigation skills, including video conference platforms setting up a business profile, use the camera and microphones, and communicate professionally.
“I think people who work remotely just need to be aware of their presence online. It is like going to the office, you have to be presentable,” Fosler said.
Being willing to solve any problems that arise is essential. Fosler said she Googles anything she is not understanding and usually finds the answers on her own.
Building relationships with coworkers may require more planning than when offices are physically close.
“You can’t tap someone on the shoulder to ask questions,” she said.
But that is not always possible in an office setting either.
Building relationships with colleagues and customers, as well as building teams requires intentional and thoughtful inclusion of all meeting participants.
“How do we make sure you are drawing information from the people who are remote and make the best of that?” she said.
Andrew Hanus
Helping others build IT skills
Andrew Hanus got his first IT job while he was in school.
“It’s one of those industries where experience is just as good as the formal education,” Hanus said.
After graduating from Lincoln East High School in 2010, he attended Southeast Community College before following a series of job opportunities. He served in the U.S. Navy and Navy Reserves, and later circled back to complete his bachelor’s degree at Bellevue University.
He worked as a tier 2 desktop support person at a large company and did enterprise network tech support at an industrial plant, both in Lincoln. Then Hanus decided he really enjoyed roles where he was providing support and joined ALLO doing application administration and enterprise applications.
“I have always really liked the IT networking side of things. It brings in coding, and you have to know the support side, and you have to know the cyber security,” he said. “It kind of brings it all together.”
That path, plus the experience he had during some time in Wisconsin as an operations manager in a computer repair business, gave him a taste for a job where he could do it all – applications, repairs, marketing, working with people.
He and his wife, Val Hanus, moved to Seward in 2021 and he began moving toward opening his own business, Hanus Tech Solutions, first out of his home and now as a limited liability corporation, moving into space owned by Next Link Internet near Fifth and Bradford streets.
“I didn’t see anybody doing these sorts of things,” he said. But he did see a need for it among Seward residents.
He has worked with personal computer users and businesses with websites and other computer needs.
Hanus has been a part of the community involved with Seward County’s broadband initiative, and looks forward to connecting with more Seward County residents and business people.
Josh Rausch
Finding clarity in online messages
Josh Rausch said his path to creating his own web site business, Rausch Design, was circuitous.
Originally from the southwest United States, he spent several years working in Lincoln’s nonprofit community after he and his wife, Christina, moved to Nebraska. After switching to the for-profit world and making a move to an acreage near Seward with their two kids, he decided to strike out on his own.
A self-taught web designer, Rausch had been helping people with websites and found he enjoyed helping people pull together strategic plans and promote their businesses online.
Rausch, not yet 40, says the technology proliferation aligned with his own teenage years, so his interest in puzzles, problem solving and a wide range of topics became marketable skills.
“It just happens to synch up where my interest and curiosity could also serve people,” he said.
His work often begins with a company or individual wanting to design a website.
But often the work requires them to first work through what they want that website to say or portray about their work or company, Rausch said.
“That really becomes the anchor point from which we build everything out,” he said.
He helps them articulate what their products and services are.
“That’s the part I like the most, those initial strategic steps,” he said.
Rausch sees some changes ahead in digital marketing as people move away from social media and back to “owned media” – things like blogs and email lists where they are addressing a known audience.
He also warns that utilizing free services on the internet may not always get the desired result.
“It is free and there is a general rule in internet parlance that if something is free, you really are part of the product,” in other words, the company is offering the service to add you to their user list.
Rausch said there are many competitors in his field of web design, and he hopes to build a positive reputation, noting his belief that good business grows slowly.
His advice to others is to build their internet presence with good tools, time and clear, genuine information.
“Get very clear about what you do and how it benefits people, how it makes people’s lives better,” he said.
Clearly Rausch’s business would not be possible without the internet, and he advises people to invest time and thought into what they want their business image to be in the internet world.
“The internet is not magic,” Rausch said. “You still have to get good at it.”
