About TOP

As a part of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Technology Opportunities Program (TOP) promoted the widespread availability and use of digital network technologies in the public and non-profit sectors through grants for model projects demonstrating innovative uses of network technologies.

Grants: From 1994 to 2004, TOP made 610 matching grants to state, local and tribal governments, health care providers, schools, libraries, police departments, and community-based non-profit organizations. The Grants section of this site provides information on the type of projects, offers a searchable database of all the grants, links to websites of nearly 300 TOP grantees in 49 states and territories, and connects to a resource center for current TOP grantees.

Research and Evaluation: Individual TOP project evaluation reports and reports of external assessments of TOP are provided in the Research and Evaluation section. Evaluation Guides are included as aids for evaluation planning and design. Also included are reports of research projects funded under TOP’s 1998 Broad Agency Announcement.

Communications: The impact of the TOP program has been detailed in many speeches, single-page summaries of the types of grants, research and evaluations reports, "news from the field," and a series of reports on such topics as rural networking, community connections, children, safety nets, and networks for people. From 1999 to 2001, TOP conducted three "Networks for People" conferences in Washington, DC. All reports and details from the conferences are available here.

TOP Legacy: In November 2004, the University of Michigan and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign created the TOP Legacy Project to document, preserve, and provide greater public access to the results of the Technology Opportunities Program. For more information, contact Dr. Kate Williams.