Perry County ‘Digital Factory’
VisionPerry, in collaboration with cTechnology, Inc. of
Nashville, South Central TN Workforce Alliance, the Town of
Linden, the City of Lobelville, and Perry County Government,
will be implementing a pilot training program to develop a
“Digital Factory” in Perry County.
A recently published report prepared for the county by
Strategic Development Group of South Carolina, portrayed
an uphill battle in attracting a new traditional manufacturing
facility to Perry County. The report cited the lack of a fourlane
highway and the remoteness of the area as being major
obstacles.
The Digital Factory, however, will take advantage of the
Internet and is not affected be these obstacles. The program
will be divided into various production lines requiring
increasing skills, similar to a standard factory concept.
The Digital Factory will initially be housed at VisionPerry
headquarters, which has been outfi tted with high-speed
internet and has the technical capabilities to be utilized as
both a training and work-center facility.
Training programs are expected to roll out sometime
in January and will initially place an emphasis on the
development of customer service representatives. The selfpaced
training program will develop a skilled, certifi ed
workforce who will be in a position to support nationallybased
companies with call center services.
In addition to the customer service line, a digital
“piecework” line and a more highly skilled program line will
also be developed over the next few months.
A basic “digital piecework” trial with cTechnology
partner Bizooki.com was tested with the VisionPerry staff
involved. The digital piecework task was quite simple: fi nd
the required email address on a specifi c web site and paste
it into a window on another screen. For each email address
copied, the worker was paid 15 cents.
Virtually anyone could be trained to do this type of work
which the lowest skilled “line” in the Digital Factory.
At the high point of the project, the fastest staffers made
between $8 to $19 per hour, depending on personal speed.
This type of work is suited for entry-level digital workers who
may have little or no online experience, and is project-based,
not steady work.
Like actual low-skilled factory work, virtual piecework
can get monotonous, but it can provide needed confi dence to
a non-technical worker that they are capable of online work.
It also provides a test bed for gauging the worker’s ability
to work in a Digital Factory environment where quiet and
concentration are required.
A more highly skilled Digital Factory line will also be
developed to be known as LAMP Programmers. LAMP stands
for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PhP/PERL, the most popular
open source programming languages in the world.
Tennessee has a large shortage of programming talent
in LAMP and the Nashville market in particular is making
every effort to encourage its growth. cTechnology has
partnered with the Enterprise LAMP group in Nashville and
is developing a strategy to train and place rural, LAMPtrained
persons in these advanced, well-paid positions.
These workers will require approximately six months of
training and internship with Nashville-based companies and
will then be qualifi ed for low level programming.
However, this work in the programming world pays a
competitive $15-$25 an hour! For larger shops, this type of
work can be contracted. The plan is to develop a relationship
with a Nashville-based software fi rm contracting our LAMP
line at the Vision Perry Digital Factory for this type of work.
Given the close proximity to Nashville, VisionPerry
expects the LAMP trainees to travel to Nashville two to three
times a month to link into the LAMP User Group community
for training and connection to their employers. This is
currently the highest skilled “line” in the Digital Factory.
This concept was proposed by cTechnology, Inc. to the
Tenessee Department of Economic Development, and the
research is funded through the state’s Rural Technology
Assistance Grant program and the City of Linden through
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
VisionPerry was chosen as a fi rst launch site due to the
major progress already made to create a community-based
center for new economic development and the center has been
instrumental in testing and further developing the concept.
Beyond the online job training, business contacts and
partnerships are being developed to outsource the new labor
force. Long term plans include the development of a large
technology-savvy, regional, digital workforce who can work
remotely from centralized work-centers. The presence of
such a workforce in the region will act as an attractor for new
companies to the area.
VisionPerry recently circulated a survey to assess
computer skills in Perry County, and the results have been
encouraging.

Any interested applicants are encouraged to visit the VisionPerry
Headquarters, 200 Main Street, Linden.
Motivated individuals who have either the skills or the
desire to achieve will be selected for the pilot. All candidates
must be registered at the Career Center and must complete a
GED and a Career Readiness Certificate for eligibility.