by Bill Richards

About the author: Bill Richards is a staff reporter for the Wall Street Journal daily newspaper.

For years, travelers in Ainsworth, Nebraska, were greeted by a billboard that said, only half in jest, “Welcome to Ainsworth, the Middle of Nowhere.” So when a gust of wind blew the sign down in 1994, it seemed like an omen of change.

While Ainsworth is far from the nearest interstate, it and many other tiny towns find themselves located right on the information superhighway. For the rest of the nation, the multimedia, megabit future may still be mostly hype and hope, but small-town America is starting to get an inkling of what it means, as the new technology blurs distinctions between rural and urban areas.

Ainsworth’s public library boasts a two-way, video-conferencing unit. Sidney...