I want to talk about something I like to call the New Oregon Trail. I have given this talk many times and I always get a curious look the first time I say New Oregon Trail.
Some people think it is a pathway from the espresso bars to the micro breweries.
Others may think that this is a new mix of nuts and raisins that you get from the Oasis market. It could be an ideal bridge that would reach across our state, conquering the rural-urban divide. It would be, specifically, Oregon's piece of the global information superhighway. I'll grant that this New Oregon Trail is not as easy a concept to grasp as the original Oregon Trail. Instead of the physical presence of wagon ruts across a dusty plain, the New Oregon Trail is out in that murky cyber-space region, where digital packets are being shuttled through the Internet, in wireless phone cells and digital web pages.