 Accelerate Virginia is a statewide effort to engage and educate the public and raise awareness about broadband availability in Virginia through an innovative broadband mapping application developed by Virginia Tech faculty members.Following a presentation by Virginia Tech eCorridors’ staff in 2002, the Southern Governors’ Association, working with the Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA) created a “Southern eCorridors Project” to support the establishment of high capacity fiber optic research computer networks.In December 2006 the University of Arkansas launched the “eCorridors' Arkansas Research and Education Optical Network (AREON)”, creating a fiber optic network within the state and linking Arkansas to both regional and national optical networks.