Community Interaction through Journalism

Using Community Informatics to Transform Regions Stewart Marshall Central Queensland University, Australia Wal Taylor Central Queensland University, Australia Xinghuo Yu Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia

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Published in the United States of America by Idea Group Publishing (an imprint of Idea Group Inc.) 701 E. Chocolate Avenue, Suite 200 Hershey PA 17033 Tel: 717-533-8845 Fax: 717-533-8661 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: http://www.idea-group.com and in the United Kingdom by Idea Group Publishing (an imprint of Idea Group Inc.) 3 Henrietta Street Covent Garden London WC2E 8LU Tel: 44 20 7240 0856 Fax: 44 20 7379 3313 Web site: http://www.eurospan.co.uk Copyright © 2004 by Idea Group Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without written permission from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Using community informatics to transform regions / [edited by] Stewart Marshall, Wal Taylor, and Xinghuo Yu. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-59140-132-1 -- ISBN 1-59140-133-X (ebook) 1. Community development. 2. Regional economics. 3. Information technology--Economic aspects. 4. Information technology--Social aspects. 5. Digital divide. I. Marshall, Stewart. II. Taylor, Wallace, 1944- III. Yu, Xinghuo. HN49.C6U575 2004 307.1'4--dc21 2003008883 British Cataloguing in Publication Data A Cataloguing in Publication record for this book is available from the British Library. All work contributed to this book is new, previously-unpublished material. The views expressed in this book are those of the authors, but not necessarily of the publisher.

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Using Community Informatics to Transform Regions Table of Contents

Preface ............................................................................................................. vii Stewart Marshall, Central Queensland University, Australia Wal Taylor, Central Queensland University, Australia Xinghuo Yu, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia SECTION I: PERSPECTIVES, POLICY AND PRACTICE Chapter I. Community Informatics in Perspective ................................... 1 Wal Taylor, Central Queensland University, Australia Chapter II. Community (Information and Communication) Technology: Policy, Partnership and Practice .................................................................. 18 Peter Day, University of Brighton, UK and Central Queensland University, Australia Chapter III. Digital Storytelling: Culture, Media and Community ...... 37 Kevin W. Tharp, Central Queensland University, Australia Liz Hills, Central Queensland University, Australia Chapter IV. Rethinking Schools and Community: The Knowledge Producing School ........................................................................................... 52 Chris Bigum, Deakin University, Australia Chapter V. The Role of Place: Tasmanian Insights on ICT and Regional Development ................................................................................. 67 Dean Steer, University of Tasmania, Australia Paul Turner, University of Tasmania, Australia

SECTION II: CI IN RURAL AND REMOTE COMMUNITIES Chapter VI. The Design and Implementation of Rural Communication Technology Initiatives: Issues and Strategies for Project Planners ..... 83 Lyn Simpson, Queensland University of Technology, Australia Leonie Daws, Kihi Consultancies, Australia Leanne Wood, Queensland University of Technology, Australia Chapter VII. Information and Communication Technologies Provision to Rural Communities: The Case of Gutu World Links Telecenter in Zimbabwe ...................................................................................................... 100 Shirley Chikowore-Kabwato, International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care, South Africa Isola Ajiferuke, University of Western Ontario, Canada Chapter VIII. E Bario Project: In Search of a Methodology to Provide Access to Information Communication Technologies for Rural Communities in Malaysia ........................................................................... 115 Poline Bala, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia Roger W. Harris, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Peter Songan, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia Chapter IX. Creating and Sustaining Online Communities: Web-Based Services Meeting the Diverse Needs of Regional and Rural Australia ............................................................................................. 132 Helen Thompson, University of Ballarat, Australia Chapter X. Information Access in Rural Communities: Bridging the Digital Divide ................................................................................................ 147 V. S. Venkatesan, University of Western Australia, Australia Robyn Eversole, Edith Cowan University, Australia Ken Robinson, Edith Cowan University, Australia SECTION III: COMMUNITY INFORMATICS FOR SPECIFIC ISSUES Chapter XI. Social Organization through the Internet: Citizens Assemblies in Argentina ............................................................................ 166 Susana Finquelievich, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina and Central Queensland University, Australia Chapter XII. Measuring the Effectiveness of Training to Improve Electronic Information Literacy ........................................................................ 178 Nicole Fahey, Werribee South, Australia Wal Taylor, Central Queensland University, Australia

Chapter XIII. Wired High Rise: Using Technology to Combat Social Isolation on an Inner City Public Housing Estate .................................. 192 Denise Meredyth, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia Liza Hopkins, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia Scott Ewing, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia Julian Thomas, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia Chapter XIV. Portals for Older People in Regional Areas: The Greypath Virtual Community ............................................................. 209 Jerzy Lepa, Victoria University, Australia Arthur Tatnall, Victoria University, Australia Chapter XV. Hervey Bay in Transition: The Role of Community-Based Information Technology in Overcoming the Great Digital Divide ...... 223 Wayne Pease, University of Southern Queensland, Australia Lauretta Wright, University of Southern Queensland, Australia Malcolm Cooper, University of Southern Queensland, Australia Chapter XVI. Using the Internet in a Physical Activity Health Promotion Campaign: The 10,000 Steps Rockhampton Project ......... 238 Grant Schofield, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand Kerry Mummery, Central Queensland University, Australia Wendy Brown, University of Queensland, Australia Elizabeth Eakin, Queensland University of Technology, Australia Stewart Trost, University of Queensland, Australia Peter Abernethy, National Heart Foundation, Australia Chapter XVII. E-News: Community Interaction through Journalism .................................................................................................... 252 Matthew Simpson, University of Queensland, Australia Jay Burmeister, University of Queensland, Australia Michael Docherty, University of Queensland, Australia Chapter XVIII. Regional Tourism and the Internet: E-Business Structures for Regional Tourism Organisations ..................................... 271 Dean Carson, Southern Cross University, Australia Pramod Sharma, University of Queensland, Australia Iain Waller, Southern Cross University, Australia About the Authors ....................................................................................... 287 Index .............................................................................................................. 299

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Preface

It is becoming evident that a “digital divide” is developing between those who are in a position to take advantage of information technology (IT) enabled opportunities and those who are not. This disadvantage can be caused by the lack of access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) or by the lack of skills, experience, motivation, support and awareness that are necessary for making good use of ICTs. The disadvantaged groups exist in both developed and developing countries. For example, indigenous populations such as those that can be found in the developed countries of North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, together with people from developing countries in the Indian Sub-Continent, Africa, South America and the Asia-Pacific region, are regularly overrepresented in statistics relating to the lack of access and use of ICTs. Also, people living in regional towns in North America and Australia may well have access to ICTs, but the actual use of ICTs (e.g., home access to the Internet) is well below the national average. The major objective of this book is to discuss the role of ICTs in regional transformation, and to consider strategies to enable regional communities in developed and developing countries to close the digital divide. The book explores strategies that link economic and social development efforts with emerging opportunities in such areas as electronic commerce, community and civic networks, health informatics, telecentres, distance education, electronic democracy, advocacy, cultural enhancement and others. It looks at how the “knowledge producing school” can be an important element in the development of informatics for the local community, and how ICTs can help in physical activity health promotion in communities. The book looks at how ICTs have the potential to: aid the sustainable development of rural communities through distance education, telemedicine, and provision of timely information on agriculture and the environment in Zimbabwe; connect villagers in the remote village in Sarawak; and, support a massive citizens’ movement in Argentina. The book also looks at how the arts and ethnographic researchers have adopted new technological approaches as tools in storytelling to create the new genre of ‘digital storytelling’, and how radio, television and text journalism practices are converging through digitisation on the Internet, towards a new hybrid profession, ‘e-journalism.’

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The book is organised into three sections: Perspectives, Policy and Practice: This section tackles general issues of theory and policy, and provides a framework within which to discuss community informatics; Community Informatics in Rural and Remote Communities: This section discusses the application of Community Informatics in rural and remote communities, and cites specific case studies in Australia, Malaysia and Zimbabwe; Community Informatics for Specific Issues: This section discusses the application of Community Informatics to particular disadvantaged groups or specific issues in communities (e.g., older people, high-rise dwellers, health promotion, e-news, or regional tourism).

SECTION I: PERSPECTIVES, POLICY AND PRACTICE In Chapter 1, Community Informatics in Perspective, Wal Taylor seeks to contextualise the role of Community Informatics (CI) practice in emerging civil society and its governance at the local or regional level. CI is more than electronically enabled interpersonal communication; it has a pluralistic potential, it is ubiquitous and it comes bundled with paradoxes. It does not sit easily with the existing forms of governance and service provision and it does not have existing structures or accepted descriptive models that easily allow it to be contextualised within itself or alongside more well-understood models of commerce, public administration or governance. Yet its potential has been grasped by community-based organisations (CBOs) all over the world as they come face to face with the centralising potential of IT to impact regional economic, social and cultural sustainability. The author proposes a taxonomic framework for CI policy development, practice and research. Chapter 2, Community (Information and Communication) Technology: Policy, Partnership and Practice, by Peter Day, seeks to address some of the challenges facing the development of sustainable and effective community ICT initiatives. The author presents a framework of democratic design criteria intended to assist the community planning, implementation and development processes of community technology. Central to his examination of the relationship between community policy, partnerships and practice are three fundamental propositions: • Community policy, partnerships and practice should be embedded in and reflective of the needs of local citizens; • As citizens, local people have the right to participate in the decisions that shape local communities;

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Within a Community Informatics context this often requires changes in the organisational cultures and mind-sets of partners in order to achieve the trust and mutuality necessary for successful community ICT initiatives.

The author invokes the need for interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral collaboration in Community Informatics and argues that community ICT initiatives should be grounded in the needs of local communities if they are to be utilised successfully as tools of community empowerment. The chapter is intended as an input to both the interdisciplinary academic discourse accompanying the emergence of Community Informatics as a field of investigation and the emerging cross-sectoral communications found in community ICT practice. Chapter 3, Digital Storytelling: Culture, Media and Community, by Liz Hills and Kevin W. Tharp, considers the significance of digital storytelling as a force for community cultural development in global and regional contexts and as a means of transforming regions. The primary focus is on practice that will prove useful to both the community informatics practitioner and ethnographic or participative action researchers. This is achieved by contrasting the traditional ‘top down’ approach to media and cultural production with the rise of community-based digital storytelling. The authors argue that community-based digital storytelling must take seriously the realities of the digital divide, and must consider the social, political, economic and cultural contexts of communities and their specific ‘relationship’ to digital technologies to ensure that communities have both access to, and the literacy and skills to engage with, the digital medium. In Chapter 4, Rethinking Schools and Community: The Knowledge Producing School, Chris Bigum argues that although schools recognise the importance of computing and communication technologies (CCTs) and are anxious to be seen as responding to the changed circumstances outside schools, their responses have been the result of thinking about and working with computers in ways not very different from the way they were used and understood in schools during the 1980s and 1990s. The author draws on a wide range of literatures, including those relating to education, globalisation and the knowledge economy, contemporary policies around school and curriculum reform, and the use of CCTs in and out of classrooms, to make a case for rethinking aspects of schooling in these new times. He argues that schools are well positioned to become sites of knowledge production and can play an important role in supporting the community’s capacity to deal with changes flowing from global influences. In Chapter 5, The Role of Place: Tasmanian Insights on ICT and Regional Development, Dean Steer and Paul Turner argue that despite continued rhetoric that ICTs make ‘place’ irrelevant in a global networked economy, insights from regional areas suggest a different and more complex experience. The authors examine the issues surrounding the concept of place in regional

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areas to dispel some prevalent ICT-related myths that permeate discussions on regional development. They propose a more holistic view of ICT-related development and call for a re-calibration from purely economic indicators to an aggregation of indicators including social, community, environment and economic to capture the value of ICT.

SECTION II: CI IN RURAL AND REMOTE COMMUNITIES In Chapter 6, The Design and Implementation of Rural Communication Technology Initiatives: Issues and Strategies for Project Planners, Lyn Simpson, Leonie Daws and Leanne Wood report that from their research, communication technology initiatives have far-reaching effects on a community’s formal and informal social networks and, as a result, on its social capital. Because of this, it is critical that leaders and management committees of community technology projects are aware of the broader social context in which project activities take place, and the potential interactions that can both benefit and damage community social capital. Their chapter addresses key issues that have arisen out of major communication-technology projects in Queensland, and proposes guidelines to assist project planners with the design and implementation of future communication-technology initiatives in the context of rural community-development. In Chapter 7, Information and Communication Technologies Provision to Rural Communities: The Case of Gutu World Links Telecenter in Zimbabwe, Shirley Chikowore-Kabwato and Isola Ajiferuke discuss the potential of ICTs to aid in the sustainable development of rural communities through distance education, telemedicine, and provision of timely information on agriculture and the environment. They argue that telecentres offer practical and community-oriented ways to bring information and communication technologies services to the rural people. Their chapter incorporates their evaluation of the provision of ICT services by the Gutu Multipurpose Community Telecentre (GMCT) to the Gutu rural community in Zimbabwe. Based on the outcome of this evaluation, they suggest that in order for a telecentre to offer effective, efficient and sustainable services, a local needs assessment should be conducted, the telecentre located at a central place, and an awareness-building campaign targeted at potential users. Chapter 8, E Bario Project: In Search of a Methodology to Provide Access to Information Communication Technologies for Rural Communities in Malaysia, describes a research initiative that seeks to determine opportunities for remote communities to develop socially, culturally and economically from the deployment of ICTs in remote and rural places of Sarawak. The authors, Poline Bala, Roger W. Harris and Peter Songan, describe how this par-

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ticular initiative utilizes computers, telephones, and VSATs to connect villagers in the remote village of Bario to the Internet. The research was sanctioned by the Malaysian government and eventually was adopted as a national IT initiative towards connecting the rural communities to the information age. The results of the initiative demonstrate the many ways in which ICTs can be used to help marginalized communities in Malaysia to develop socially, culturally and economically. In Chapter 9, Creating and Sustaining Online Communities: Web-Based Services Meeting the Diverse Needs of Regional and Rural Australia, Helen Thompson describes the MainStreet.au.com regional portal project that provides its target community in the Golden West Region of Victoria, Australia, with assistance in accessing a range of electronic commerce services. Through the project, a portal platform was developed that is scalable, replicable, and flexible. By using this portal platform, clients have strong ownership of their online activities, maintain their own Web-based information, and are committed to annually investing to sustain the portal infrastructure and the services they access. The author maintains that it is for these reasons that the services of MainStreet.au.com will continue to be delivered long after initial seed funding has been expended. In Chapter 10, Information Access in Rural Communities: Bridging the Digital Divide, V. S. Venkatesan, Robyn Eversole and Ken Robinson suggest that current IT solutions are technology-driven and are focused on elite consumers in cities. In contrast, regional Australian communities face a number of problems such as remoteness, small population, knowledge and resource constraints, and distance. Any attempt to transform regions using community informatics should take into consideration these unique factors. In this chapter, the authors describe the results of research on information-access in two rural communities in Western Australia, which suggest that, along with technical infrastructure, equal emphasis should be placed on the human-community element. They conclude that without this, regional transformation will remain rhetoric.

SECTION III: COMMUNITY INFORMATICS FOR SPECIFIC ISSUES Chapter 11, by Susana Finquelievich, tackles the question “How can the Internet help organise a country’s population which wishes to change its political system?” In her chapter, Social Organization through the Internet: Citizens Assemblies in Argentina, the author describes the night of December 19, 2001, when thousands of indignant citizens went to the streets clattering their pots and pans to protest against the Etat de Siege. She describes how this was the first of many massive citizens’ public demonstrations, and how these were

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organised through the Internet. In this chapter Finquelievich analyses this innovative ICT-supported massive citizens’ movement and asks several questions: Are they socially revolutionary, or socially conservative? Are ICTs a means, or a goal in themselves? Are ICT-supported social movements a way to e-democracy? How can global citizen networks support these movements? These and other issues are developed as a contribution for an international debate. Chapter 12, Measuring the Effectiveness of Training to Improve Electronic Information Literacy, by Nicole Fahey and Wal Taylor, uses a case study approach to highlight issues surrounding the provision of government agency sponsored programs aimed at increasing Electronic Information Literacy (EIL), as a basic requirement for community engagement in an electronically enabled world. The Skills.net program was designed to increase EIL skills by providing “free or low cost access to training in online services and the Internet for those in the community who are least likely to have access” in Victoria, Australia. This study found that whilst the Skills.net program did increase EIL, it did not adequately address the accepted training needs of the participants, nor did it adequately adhere to known guidelines for success in information literacy enhancement. This experience provides further evidence of lessons being learned from many government agency imposed programs which do not provide adequate outcomes for regional areas as they grapple with the impact of being increasingly marginalized in an electronically enabled age. In Chapter 13, Wired High Rise: Using Technology to Combat Social Isolation on an Inner City Public Housing Estate, Denise Meredyth, Liza Hopkins, Scott Ewing and Julian Thomas describe the development, construction, and consequences to date of a ‘wired community’ being created in Atherton Gardens, a low-income inner city public-housing estate in Melbourne, Australia. This wired community is the result of a complex partnership between a nonprofit Internet service provider, government agencies, and charitable organizations. It aspires to improve the welfare of residents by creating new community interests, fostering local enterprise, and more effectively coordinating social services and support systems. While a great deal has been written about the beneficial effects of electronic service delivery, detailed empirical research on the use and consequences of computer networks remains patchy. In this chapter, the authors present initial findings from a three-year research project looking at this new network and how it is used, its complex genesis, and its impact on the culturally diverse population of the wired high-rise. Chapter 14, Portals for Older People in Regional Areas: The GreyPath Virtual Community, by Jerzy Lepa and Arthur Tatnall, describes a Web portal (GreyPath) designed to provide information, services, facilities and useful links for use by older people. The authors examine the use of this portal and how it can foster the creation and maintenance of virtual Internet communities of older people that could be of benefit to older Australians regardless of where they live. They argue that virtual Internet communities like this are of particular

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importance to people living in regional or remote areas, those with a disability of some kind, and those who, for whatever reason, find it difficult to mix with other people with similar interests. In Chapter 15, Hervey Bay in Transition: The Role of Community-Based Information Technology in Overcoming the Great Digital Divide, Wayne Pease, Lauretta Wright and Malcolm Cooper explore the opportunity for greater social integration based on the formation of community-based, IT-driven organisations. Based on their analysis of the development of Bay Connect, a community-based Internet development and training project in Hervey Bay City, they suggest that whether disseminating information, collaborating with other communities, assisting the development of new industries, or simply by sharing the lessons learned along the way, community-based IT can assist and support a community’s economic and social development. Further, the authors support the view that, where understanding and developing new forms of IT through community informatics is accepted as an integral part of such development, communities will not just “improve the old” but will more radically restructure themselves towards a knowledge-based future. In Chapter 16, Using the Internet in a Physical Activity Health Promotion Campaign: The 10,000 Steps Rockhampton Project, Grant Schofield, Kerry Mummery, Wendy Brown, Elizabeth Eakin, Stewart Trost and Peter Abernethy describe a community-based, multi-strategy health promotion program focusing on physical activity and the social determinants of health in a regional Australian setting. The chapter describes the processes involved in the construction and evaluation of a physical activity health promotion site. The static side of the site gives health promotion information and messages related to physical activity, along with contact information and registration information for the project. The dynamic side of the site allows online tracking of daily-accumulated physical activity. Early indications are that Internet health promotion sites can have an assisting role in community-wide health interventions in regional Australia. The use of the Internet as a health promotion tool is still a new and relatively unevaluated area. The process of construction of these sites, especially in physical activity health promotion, is undocumented. This chapter goes some way towards documenting construction and evaluation processes in this area for the first time. In Chapter 17, E-News: Community Interaction through Journalism, Matthew Simpson, Jay Burmeister and Michael Docherty describe the development of the E-News project, which examined an interactive journalism approach in Rockhampton, Australia. This project provided an opportunity to examine how the introduction of this new technology into regional media and communication brings into question the traditional roles of the journalist, the editor, the graphic designer and the audience in the production and “consumption” of written material. Through the ability to post stories remotely or work online, community members can share concerns and provide opinions and in-

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formation, aided by technology. The E-News project provided the opportunity for this “grass-roots journalism” to be examined. It also allowed the examination of the resultant interaction that occurs between users and community. The experiences resulting from the E-News project provide a framework for discussion regarding the potential of similar approaches for community informatics in regional areas resulting from an online news environment. In Chapter 18, Regional Tourism and the Internet: E-Business Structures for Regional Tourism Organisations, Dean Carson, Pramod Sharma and Iain Waller point out that Regional Tourism Organisations (RTOs) face similar challenges to many other businesses in developing and maintaining sustainable e-business models. In particular, the authors’ research highlights issues of: governance; relationship of e-business to overall business objectives; positioning of online content within the value chain; and evaluation of Web site performance. In this chapter, the authors describe a case study of an RTO and its experience online. They discuss how FRANK (the Framework of Regional Tourism and Network Knowledge) — a framework that emerged from the four considerations discussed in this chapter: governance, value adding, positioning and evaluation — was used to help the tourism organisation describe their approach to e-business development.

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Acknowledgments The editors wish to acknowledge the many people who have contributed to this book project, and say how much we have enjoyed collaborating with you all. First, we acknowledge the hard work, cooperation and help of the authors of the chapters in this book. Clearly, without their work and their preparedness to share their intellectual property with us, this book could not have been written. But we would also like to thank the authors for willingly sharing ideas with and making constructive comments on the work of their fellow authors through the peer review process. We would also like to thank the staff at Idea Group Publishing for recognising the worth of this project, for their tremendously helpful and wellwritten guidelines, and for their invaluable assistance throughout the process (including those occasional reminders about outstanding tasks). Our special thanks go to Jennifer Sundstrom, Jan Travers and Mehdi Khosrow-Pour for their help throughout the project. Of course, all this would not have been possible without the love and support of our families throughout the process. It says a lot about the understanding of our families, that in spite of all the late nights working on the computer and all the unfinished household chores, they haven’t divorced us. Thank you for sticking by us. Last, and by no means least, we would like to thank our Editorial Assistant Megan Hoodcamp for the hours she has toiled over a computer which was undoubtedly overheated by the constant flow of e-mails between all the stakeholders and probably needs a new keyboard after all the editing of the chapters. Thank you Megan for bringing it all together with such patience and good humour. Stewart Marshall Wal Taylor Xinghuo Yu

SECTION I PERSPECTIVES, POLICY AND PRACTICE

Community Informatics in Perspective

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Chapter I

Community Informatics in Perspective Wal Taylor, Central Queensland University, Australia

“ICT is not either a question or an answer. It can’t now be removed. The genie is now out of the bottle. It is now a matter of whether it is an enabler or a disenabler.” M. Castells Presentation, Global Communities Network Congress Buenos Aires, 2001

ABSTRACT This chapter provides a reflection on Community Informatics (CI) practice as a means of contextualising its role in emerging civil society and its governance at the local or regional level. CI is more than electronically enabled interpersonal communication; it has a pluralistic potential, it is ubiquitous and it comes bundled with paradoxes. It does not sit easily with the existing forms of governance and service provision and it does not have existing structures or accepted descriptive models that easily allow it to be contextualised within itself or alongside more well-understood models of commerce, public administration or governance. Yet its potential has been grasped by community-based organisations (CBOs) all over the world as they come face to face with the centralising potential of IT to impact regional economic, social and cultural sustainability. The chapter proposes a taxonomic framework for CI policy development, practice and research. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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INTRODUCTION The process of using ICT for community practice is the basis for an emerging field known as Community Informatics. CI involves much more than the adoption of ICT in itself, but it goes to the heart of application of ICT for local community benefit. CI confronts not only the technology but also social constructs of what is known as social capital. CI also introduces new dimensions into concepts of societal divisions based on cultural capital and social class that stratify society. Michael Gurstein, the author of the first definitive text on CI (Gurstein, 2000), described CI in the following manner: Community Informatics (CI) is the application of information and communications technologies (ICT) to enable community processes and the achievement of community objectives including overcoming “digital divides” both within and among communities. But CI also goes beyond discussions of the “Digital Divide” to examine how and under what conditions, ICT access can be made usable and useful to the range of users and particularly excluded populations and communities, for example to support local economic development, local cultural retention and creation, and civic empowerment. CI is emerging as the framework for systematically approaching Information Systems from a “community” perspective and parallels Management Information Systems (MIS) in the development of strategies and techniques for managing community use and application of information systems. As well, it is closely linked with the variety of Community Networking research and applications. CI is based on the assumption that geographically-based communities (also known as “physical” or “geo-local” communities) have characteristics, requirements and opportunities that require different strategies for ICT intervention and development from the widely accepted implied models of individual or in-home computer/Internet access. CI represents an area of interest both to ICT practitioners and academic researchers and to all those with an interest in community-based information technologies. CI addresses the connections between the academic theory and research, and the policy and pragmatic issues arising from the tens of thousands of “Community Networks”, “Community Technology Centres”, Telecentres, Community Communications Centres, and Telecottages currently in place globally. As an academic discipline CI draws resources and participants from a wide range of backgrounds including Computer Science, Management, Information and Library Science, Planning, Sociology, Education, Social Policy and Rural, Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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Regional, and Development Studies. As a practice, CI is of interest to those concerned with Community and Local Economic Development both in Developing and Developed Countries and has close connections with those working in such areas as Community Development, Community Economic Development, Community Based Health Informatics, Adult and Continuing Education. The foregoing commentary makes the point that CI is a legitimate part of the societal fabric in the emerging world and has a role at a number of fundamental levels in spatial communities. Furthermore, CI can be considered as the connection between theory and practice in community networks. In this sense CI can be described as the use of ICT for Community Practice, which is defined by Glen (1993) to encompass concepts of Community Development, Community Service Delivery and Community Action. In particular, Community Practice is increasingly being seen as fundamental to societal issues as communities of place face a modern world of commerce that is becoming less subject to the nation state (Giddens, 1999; Ohmae, 1995). The importance of this interface and the necessity of establishing a cohesive means of spatial community information sharing has been made by many, including Henton (1997).

CI: MORE THAN INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION The Gurstein commentary in the foregoing section also makes the point that CI is much more than just home-based use of the Internet. Much research is finding that connection to the Internet is of itself not enough to engender a CI approach in particular locations. These findings go to the fundamental issue of the importance of community attitude towards community practice and social participation made by Putnam (2000), Bowles (Bowles & Gintis, 2001), Banfield (1958) and many other earlier writers when addressing the limitations of a home economicus approach. Without active networks based on both weak and strong network ties (Wellman, 2001), ICT by itself is a technology that can weaken spatial communities. However, as Gurstein and others point out, a CI approach can achieve a lot for spatial communities. Research investigations into home use of the Internet have for some time found that interpersonal communication and socio-personal development were the dominant uses of the Internet at home (Katz & Aspden, 1997; Kraut, Mukhopadhyay, Szczypula, Kiesler, & Scherlis, 1998; PEW). There has been increasing discussion on the loss and rediscovery of community and personal interactions in everyday life and their links to social health and economic wellbeing (Putnam, 2000). In this debate much has been made of the negative and positive impacts of the Internet on physical social relationships, weak network ties and local economies (Graham, 1999; Haythornwhaite & Wellman, 1998; Kraut et al., 1998; Wellman et al., 2001). Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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The fact that people use the Internet mainly for interpersonal communication does not necessarily imply that their social interactions on the Internet are the same as their traditional social interactions and relationships (Sproull & Faraj, 1997), or that their social uses of the Internet will have effects comparable to traditional social activity (Graham, 1999; Kraut et al., 1998). The practice of CI and its associated research has highlighted fundamental issues affecting the evolved structures of society at the level of the basic collective unit; that of the spatial community. But it is more than just identifying a need or an opportunity for strengthening the social, economic and sustainability capacities of spatial communities. It also involves the actions of using ICT within a spatial community for community benefit, including community activism in a community development setting, community entrepreneurship, building community knowledge and increasing community participation. As such, CI provides a means to add some practical experience to address the effects of technological determinism, techno-economic capitalism, social exclusion, cultural capitalism and calculative rationality. Current evaluation of research has demonstrated that the potential benefits from a CI approach are not widely recognised in many regional communities or the organisations that have shared responsibility for assisting communities in this regard (Taylor, 2002).

TECHNOLOGICAL DETERMINISM OR SOCIAL SHAPING OF ICT Technological determinism views IT development as being independent of society and its needs; that IT development shapes society but is not reciprocally influenced by society. Further, researchers such as Day (2001, p. 11) have found support for the proposition that IT development is often shaped by economic factors such as reducing costs and increasing revenues or efficiency measures in order to sustain capitalist patterns of power, authority and ownership. In reinforcing this point, Day (2001) goes on to quote Schiller: “Accordingly, once the technology has been tested and is in place, capitalist decision-making at the level of the transnational or national enterprise becomes the guiding feature of the new information sector. Production is geared to profitability and market criteria override any other concerns.” (Schiller, 1983, p. 88) Further, authors such as Castells (1989, 1996, 2000) and Schiller (1985) point to the diffusion of ICT and the commodification of information as reinforcing the hierarchical power of capitalism. Under these scenarios ICT Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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have been seen to centralise power and work against the interests of community through calculative rationality. However, whilst there is abundant evidence for this position which is continually reinforced in the mass media, the social shaping of ICT is an emerging interest which has its basis in the concepts of CI as espoused by Gurstein (2000), Schuler (1996), Day (2001), Harris (2001) and others as well as being the foundation for national and international collectives such as AFCN,1 UKCOL,2 TC,3 GCNP4 and ECNA.5 This approach is in direct contrast to the concepts of technological determinism, techno-economic capitalism, social exclusion and cultural capitalism which not only reinforce and centralise power structures within communities but disadvantage sections of society in developed and developing countries. The concept of social shaping of ICT provides the philosophical underpinning for a CI approach, which in turn is recursive in strengthening both the applications and the communities themselves. The interaction of these two largely opposing philosophies forms the basis of simultaneous and sequential interacting effects of ICT shaping society and society affecting the structural use of ICT. This process was described by Giddens (1984), Orlikowski (1991) and others as Structuration. “The best and most interesting ideas in the social sciences (a) participate in fostering the climate of opinion and the social processes which give rise to them, (b) are in greater or lesser degree entwined with theories-in-use which help to constitute those processes and (c) are thus unlikely to be clearly distinct from considered reflection which lay actors may bring to bear in so far as they discursively articulate, or improve upon, theoriesin-use.” (Giddens, 1984, p. 34) In laying the basis for structuration, Giddens (1984) points out that the originality of theories in natural science is dependent upon the degree to which they question what people previously believed about them. But theories in the social sciences are already held by the agents to whom they refer and once reincorporated within action, their original quality is lost, resulting in them maybe becoming all too familiar (Giddens, 1984, p. 34). Structuration theory appears to offer a means to address the dialectical nature of diffusion/adoption of ICT within a system that can include a community. Initial data collection in this research investigation identified the interaction between structures and people in shaping each other as an important construct in examining adoption of ICT for community development in a regional setting. At the same time, structuration appears to be able to accommodate a case study approach and meet some of the inadequacies identified in other adoption/ diffusion approaches and theories. However, as Towers (1996) concluded, his attempts at developing a structuration model of innovation could at best be seen Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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Table 1. Eight Central Paradoxes of Adoption of Technology Paradox

Description

Control/chaos

Technology can facilitate regulation or order, and technology can lead to upheaval or disorder

Freedom/enslavement

Technology can facilitate independence or fewer restrictions and technology can lead to dependence or more restrictions

New/obsolete

New technologies can provide the user with the most recently developed benefits of scientific knowledge, and new technologies are soon outmoded

Competence/incompetence

Technology can facilitate feelings of intelligence or efficacy and technology can lead to feelings of ignorance or ineptitude

Efficiency/inefficiency

Technology can facilitate less effort or time spent in certain activities and technology can lead to more effort or time in certain activities

Fulfills/creates needs

Technology can facilitate the fulfilment of needs or desires and technology can lead to development or awareness of needs or desires previously unrealised

Assimilation/isolation

Technology can facilitate human togetherness, and technology can lead to human separation

Engaging/disengaging

Technology can facilitate involvement, flow, or activity and technology can lead to disconnection, disruption or passivity

Source: After Mick and Fournier (1998)

as “only a component contributing to understanding the interactions between communication and information technologies, social settings and human agents” (Towers, 1996, p. 357).

THE PARADOX OF THE ICT In their unstoppable integration into everyday life, particularly in the developed world, ICT have demonstrated an extraordinary capacity for paradox. This makes description and research in the area difficult and complex. For

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example, at a basic level ICT have both simultaneously provided the opportunity for centralisation and decentralisation. As discussed above, techno-economic capitalism and the commodification of information have centralised decisionmaking and distribution, whilst at the same time they have provide the opportunity for distributed personal, community and organisational interactions, social and professional networks and work. Techno-economic capitalism and commodification have provided for increased efficiency by removing the need for human-based repetitive tasks, but at the same time dramatically increased workloads. These paradoxes have implications for the adoption of a CI approach because they cause confusion at the applied and interpretative levels. Community and organisational attitudes and perceptions towards the adoption of ICT for community practice are affected by experiences within the confines of a range of paradoxes. Mick and Fournier (1988) have identified eight categories of such paradoxes which are useful in this discussion in setting CI in a construct that is socially understandable (Taylor, 2002). These are presented in Table 1. Discussion about the role of ICT in a community practice approach has identified entrenched positions within these paradoxes identified by Mick and Fournier being alternatively used to support or reject the social adoption of ICT. An example is the paradox of increasing or decreasing social contact. For example, Taylor (2002) reported that many non-adopters and young females using ICT for administrative work saw the Internet as reducing “face to face” social contact, whilst many online users saw the Internet as increasing useful social contact. The literature provides evidence for both positions, depending upon the context. This points to the divisive nature of selective experience of an encompassing technology such as ICT when such experience is exposed to community through existing secular community structures.

CI: WHOSE RESPONSIBILITY? Experience in North America (Pigg, 1998; Rosenbaum & Gregson, 1998) shows that involving school-based communities may be a useful, initial approach. However, experience in Europe and subsequent results in North America indicates that sustainability is a large issue for any approach that relies upon government agency project funding. In examining the issue of responsibility, Taylor (2002) suggests that a tripartite approach involving local government, education service providers, such as Universities, and community may be needed to firstly establish and then to secondly sustain a CI approach in regional communities. Experience clearly points to the need for auspicing agencies to at least initiate and in most cases sustain CI initiatives. Common experience shows that dependency upon short-term public agency, foundation funds or community


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subscription has problems of sustainability. For instance, in an examination of Community Network projects in Western Europe, Day (2001) cites that bureaucratic demands of government agency funding not only inhibit but often cause CI approaches to fail. In examining the underlying causes of failure of CI projects, Romm and Taylor (2000) proposed the Harmony/Autonomy model, which identifies local autonomy in establishing, managing and delivering CI projects as a critical factor. The development of local partnerships has been suggested as a useful approach to addressing problems of autonomy and sustainability. Traditionally, local partnerships have been developed between public and private sectors within the confines of an economic development framework. This type of partnership concentrates on economic and infrastructural capital overlooking the potential contribution of social capital as described by Cox (1997), Loury (1977) and Putnam (2000). Such a narrow approach concentrates power in the economic, regulatory and administrative domains in respect to local development, excluding the third sector (civil society) from effective participation (Day & Schuler, 2000). The third sector includes community groups, representative organisations, Not for Profits, and a wide range of interest groups. Where the third sector is involved, it is often at the consultative rather than the participative level. Partnerships such as these tend to stimulate social exclusion by failing to include representation from local communities (Day, 2001). A development on this approach is that of a cross-sectoral approach involving local government, Universities, and private and voluntary sectors (Harris, 1996). However, experience with these arrangements suggests that the agenda is invariably narrowly focused on economic development and disempowers or totally excludes the community through referent and expert power; see for example Garlick (1998). In such partnership models, the private and government agency sectors need to have legitimate roles to make profits and to administer policy. They need to have form and function to enable them to maximise efficiency in a calculative rationalist manner and operate in a unitary organisational mode. In these systems, operatives are socialised in these modes by training and promotion (Falconer et al., 2000). What is missing in the development of new partnerships is the opportunity for a pluralist approach which not only addresses issues of politics and power but also provides a mechanism for delivery of community benefit to be legitimised. This can be achieved by using CI approach, which is based in community and provides legitimacy for community development and community action as well as service provision through established agencies. In addressing the call for new forms of partnerships to initiate and deliver CI activities, Day (2001) outlines a tripartite approach which involves the private, public and community sectors in a participative manner that requires a directional



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shift from the dominant techno-economic model that presently exists (Shearman, 1999). Success in tripartite partnerships requires fundamental changes to the way that bureaucracies function and the practices relating to the power of administrators (Day, 2001, p. 72). This approach recognises that the development of local communities cannot be shaped by economics alone, as this is only one element of the human condition which requires communication and participation with others as part of the social fabric. It also recognises that rich and diverse creativity exists in local communities and that this creativity can be harnessed to benefit the delivery of CI approach, which is after all, a means to an end of empowering community. The social inclusion agenda which is fundamental to a CI approach is based on principles of participation, selfactualisation and individual responsibilities to the rest of the community. As such, these principles inculcate a participative form of democracy being advocated by many involved with CI approaches, including Etzioni (2000), Schuler (1997) and Clift (2000). The issue of new forms of partnership and community engagement goes to the very heart of educational responsibility and local governance. It puts potential of CI at the centre of not only new forms of community representation but also community participation (Day, 2001; Schuler, 1997). It is neither the availability nor necessarily access to ICT that is the limitation to the adoption of a CI approach. But the limitations are to be found within existing structures that were designed to serve communities’ best interests and also in communities’ understanding, willingness and capacity to respond to pressures of modern living which reduce participation (Etzioni, 2000; Putnam, 2000). As Schuler points out, these are fundamental issues that are worsening because of the increased efficiencies that ICT has brought to traditional structures at the expense of communities’ interests (Falconer et al., 2000; Schuler, 1997, 2001). In order to address this imbalance of power between governance, the private sector and the community, Schuler (1997, 2001) and others including Day (2001) and Gurstein (2000) propose new forms of partnerships, a focus on creating civic intelligence, and an acceptance by Universities’ and local governance of their responsibilities in this regard. Leadership has been found to be important in the adoption of a CI approach in community (Taylor, 2002).

THE ROLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION There have been increasing calls over recent times for Universities to recognise their responsibilities in regard to life-long learning in their communities (Cumpston et al., 2001; Garlick, 1998; Gronski & Pigg, 2000; Harkavy, 1998; Nyden, 2001; Rice, 1996). In particular, there is discussion on Universities’ role


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in providing the capacity in community to address the imbalances between the private, public and the community sectors in the basic operations of a democratic society; providing an attitudinal change in graduates towards community service; and in aligning some of their research programs to address “real” issues confronting particular communities (Garlick, 1998; Gronski & Pigg, 2000; Harkavy, 1998; Nyden, 2001; Nyden et al., 1997; Schuler, 1997, 2001). Underlying these issues is a fundamental challenge to Universities to revisit the issues of plurality and local relevance from whence many of them came (Rice, 1996). CI goes to the very heart of these above mentioned calls because effective communication at the community level is the collective base for learning, which combines science with practice as an essential core component.

THE ROLE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN COMMUNITY GOVERNANCE The history of local governance is community representation and participation in the provision of shared resources in local spatial communities. Hence, local governance is an important structure, context and stakeholder in a CI approach. In the absence of useful collectives to represent community at the local level, the pre-eminence of individualistic approaches, usually exemplified under a homo economicus doctrine, can lead to amoral familism (Banfield, 1958) and social exclusion based on stratification of economic and cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1986). The trend of reducing community participation as described by Putnam (2000) has been re-popularized over recent times, but the phenomenon or suggestions for its existence are not new. For example, Hirsch (1995) describes the impact of the market and the state as follows: “This legacy has diminished with time and with corrosive contact of the active capitalistic values. As individual behavior has been increasingly directed to individual advantage, habits and instincts based on communal values and objectives have lost out.” (Hirsh, 1995, pp. 117-118) Community practice as a construct has been used to further define the domain of CI. Fundamental to this construct is that of community governance or social group interactions, as opposed to markets and states otherwise described as the private and public agency sectors. In examining these above mentioned issues, Bowles and Gintis (2001) encapture the essence of the role of local governance in balancing the effects of the market and the state upon local communities by pointing out the following attributes of community governance: • Community governance can address some of the common failures of the market and the state, including those mentioned above. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


• • • •

•

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The motivations supporting community governance are not captured by the self-interested preferences of homo economicus. Well-designed institutions make communities, markets and states complementary, not substitutes or competitors. With poorly designed institutions, markets and state crowd out community governance. The basis for the sustainability of spatial communities of the future will not be found in the vestigial values of earlier concepts of community but in the capacity of communities to solve problems of social coordination. The capacity of communities to solve problems may be impeded by hierarchical division and economic inequality amongst it members.

Wide experience supports the proposition that both the market and the state have failed to provide the capacity for the community to either become aware of a CI approach or to provide a means for the community to adopt such an approach. Local government can be fundamental in addressing this failure. This is because of the level of “approachability” and “lack of academic sophistication” that the local government offers to the public face of research investigations in the community. Further, this response issue adds weight to the view that in a modern society where there is increasing emphasis on qualitative based issues as a opposed to quantitative based issues that markets and states prefer, there will be increasing reliance on community governance approaches that CI is able to facilitate. Thus, the role of local government is fundamental not only in addressing the issues of communities in the globalising world that is being brought about by state and market use of ICT, but also for its own future relevance as a community broker. It follows that unequal communities, or those which have divisive stratification based social inequity, will be competitively disadvantaged because their structures of privilege will limit the capacity of community governance to facilitate the qualitative interactions that underpin the modern economy (Bowles & Gintis, 2001). It is evident that further research is required in this area.

THE DEVELOPMENT DYNAMIC “Development research is informed by development theory as increasing human capability to make decisions to control the way they live” (Benjamin, 2001, p. 8). In this development research construct, the role of the development professional or researcher is to support the empowerment of the people who are part of the project and rather than extract knowledge purely for the edification of other “experts”, it is a process of collaborative learning that impacts on and is impacted by the process. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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The power of a strategic compact amongst key organisations in the setting of a development dynamic has been found to be a key issue in the success of CI projects in an international review of Community Networks approaches held in Zurich in October 2001 (http://www.hsw.fhso.ch/ruddy/Workshop_2.htm).

A NEW FRAMEWORK FOR CI PRACTICE AND RESEARCH CI is not a simple construct, and the increasing interest in its many aspects across the world, clearly indicates the need for a taxonomic framework to allow research and practice to be compared and evaluated in meaningful ways. A suggested framework which borrows heavily from a number of texts and writings of CI practitioners, particularly Shearman (1999), is displayed in Figure 1. The framework suggests that the adoption and use of ICT for community practice should be seen within a community practice paradigm. Processes for achieving this can be described in terms of a cyclical process of community building, leading to social inclusion, resulting in social mobilisation which delivers community renewal. Alternately this mechanism can be viewed as developing competence, leading to connectedness, resulting in the development of community practice concepts. The framework demonstrates that each of the main components have their own inputs producing outputs which allow either a strengthening within each of the components or the capacity to move to the next component. ICT products and services can either emanate from the generic ICT arena (for example, e-mail, etc.) or from specially developed applications developed from within the component or from a previous component. The use of this framework would enable a wider range of aspects of CI, from basic training to community activism and social entrepreneurship, to be considered in a way that provides relationships with other components of the diverse and complex subject of CI. This CI framework is presented here with a view to initiate discussion on the desirability of having such a descriptive framework. An advantage of this framework is that it enables practitioners and researchers to interact in a more meaningful manner, as suggested by Gurstein at the outset of this chapter. As such it responds to the calls for this interaction between the stakeholders in a CI approach (AFCN, ongoing; Benjamin, 2001; Bowles & Gintis, 2001; Day, 2001; EACN; GCNP; Gronski & Pigg, 2000; Schuler, 1996, 1997, 2001; Sellar, 2001; Shearman, 1999). The foregoing call is a challenge to the diversity of priorities and competing outcomes sought by participants in the process. For example, these include:


Community Building

ICT ICT

Social Inclusion

Social Mobilisation

Community Renewal

Outputs

Inputs

Outputs

Inputs

Outputs

Inputs

Outputs

Community and External Influences

eg.,


eg.,


eg.,


eg.,

- Interest in learning - Confidence

- Community inclusion - Pluralistic groups

- Community cohesion, plans, and action

- Self-reliance, - Confidence, - Inclusiveness - Local Jobs


Inputs

Figure 1. A Suggested Framework for CI Practice and Research (Source: Taylor, 2002)

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Factors affecting adoption Eg., Culture, Politics, Existing Structures, etc.

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• • •

•

• •

the community which has interest in immediately visible deliverables, the policy makers who are essentially public agency employees with mixed loyalties to concepts of community emancipation, researchers whose interests are largely in determining reportable findings and hence have a bias toward segmentation, reductionism and short-term whereas the problems in community are largely an antithesis of this position, governance whose issues relate to visibility, short-term and allocatable credit when compared to community practice which is about shared long term benefits, business which is interested rational decision-making based on profit, and service provider agencies whose interests are vertically aligned around an expert-based, service delivery approach.

However, the framework is advanced here for discussion by CI researchers and practitioners in order to begin the process of harnessing the available resources in a collective and collaborative manner to benefit spatial communities through the use of CI approaches.

ENDNOTES 1 2 3 4 5

Association for Community Networking (http://www.afcn.org). UK Communities Online (http://communities.org.uk). Telecommunities Canada (http://tc.ca). Global Communities Networks Partnership (http://globalcn.org). Electronic Networking Association of Australia (http://www.ecna.org).

REFERENCES AFCN. (ongoing). Association for Community Networking. Accessed January 27, 2002 at: http://bcn.boulder.co.us/afcn/intro.html. Banfield, E. (1958). The moral basis of a backward society. New York: The Free Press. Benjamin, P. (2001). Telecentres and universal capability. University of Aalborg: Johannesburg. Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education. New York: Greenwood Press. Bowles, S. & Gintis, H. (2001). Social capital and community governance. Santa Fe, NM: Santa Fe Institute. Castells, M. (1989). The informational city: Information technology, economic restructuring and the urban-regional process. London: Blackwell. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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Castells, M. (1996). The rise of the network society. The information age: Economy, society and culture (vol. 1). London: Blackwell. Castells, M. (2000). Information technology and global capitalism. In Hutton, W. & Giddens, A. (Eds.), On the Edge: Living with Global Capitalism. London: Jonathon Cane. Clift, S. (2000). E-democracy e-book. Accessed May 1, 2003 at http://www. publicus.net/ebook/. May 2003. Cox, E. (1997). Building social capital. Health Promotion Matters, (4), 1-9. Cumpston, A., Blakers, R., Evans, C., Maclachlan, M., & Karmel, T. (2001). Atlas of Higher Education (Occasional Paper Series 01/A 01/A). Canberra, ACT: DETYA. Day, P. (2001). The networked community: Policies for a participative information society. Brighton: University of Brighton. Day, P. & Schuler, D. (2000). Shaping the Network Society: The Future of the Public Sphere in Cyberspace. Paper presented at the DIAC, Seattle, WA, USA (May 21, 2000). EACN. European Alliance for Community Networks. Accessed January 27, 2002 at: http://www.communities.org.uk/eacn/main.htm. Etzioni, A. (2000, July 20). Community as we know it. IntellectualCapital.com. Falconer, D. J., Castleman, T., McKay, D., & Altmann, G. (2000). Critical Approaches to Information Systems Planning: Refining the Research Agenda. Paper presented at the Americas Conference on Information Systems, Long Beach, CA, USA (August 10-13). Garlick, S. (1998). Creative associations in special places: Enhancing the partnership role of Universities in building competitive regional economies. Department of Education Employment Training and Youth Affairs. Accessed January 28, 2002 at: http://www.deetya.gov.au/archive/ highered/eippubs/eip98-4/execsum.htm. Giddens, A. (1984). The constitution of society. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Giddens, A. (1999). Runaway world. Reith Lectures. London: BBC. Glenn, A. (1993). Methods and themes in community practice. In H. Butcher et al. (Eds.), Community and Public Policy. London: Pluto. Global Community Networks Partnership (GCNP). Accessed January 27, 2002 at: http://www.globalcnpartnership.org. Graham, G. (1999). The Internet://. A philosophical enquiry. London: Routledge. Gronski, R. & Pigg, K. (2000). University and community collaboration. The American Behavioral Scientist, 43(5), 781-792. Gurstein, M. (2000). Community informatics: Enabling communities with communications technologies. Hershey, PA: Idea Group Publishing.


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Harkavy, I. (1998). School-Community-University Partnerships: Effectively Integrating Community Building and Education Reform. Paper presented at the Connecting Community Building and Education Reform: Effective School, Community, University Partnerships — A Joint Forum of the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Washington, DC (July). Harris, K. (1996). Social inclusion in the information society. In D. Wilcox (Ed.), Inventing the Future: Communities in the Information Society. Brighton: Partnership Books. Harris, R. (2001). Research partnerships to support rural communities in Malaysia with information and communication technologies. In J. Lazar (Ed.), Managing IT/Community Partnerships in the 21st Century. Hershey, PA: Idea Group Publishing. Haythornwhaite, C. & Wellman, B. (1998). Work, friendship, and media use for information exchange in a networked organization. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 49(12), 1101-1104. Henton, D., Melville, J., & Walesh, K. (1997). Grassroots leaders for a new economy. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass. Hirsh, F. (1995). Social limits to growth (T. Scitovsky, Trans. Rev. Ed.). London: Routledge. Katz, J. & Aspden, P. (1997). Motivations for and barriers to Internet usage: Results of a national public opinion survey. Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy, 7(3), 170-188. Kraut, R., Mukhopadhyay, T., Szczypula, J., Kiesler, S., & Scherlis, W. (1998). Communication and information: Alternative uses of the Internet in households. In Proceedings of CHI’98. New York: ACM. Loury, G. (1977). A dynamic theory of racial income differences. In W. P.A. & A. Le Mund (Eds.), Women, Minorities and Employment Discrimination (see chapter 8). MA: Lexington Books. Mick, D. G. & Fournier, S. (1988). Paradoxes of technology: Consumer cognizance, emotions, and coping strategies. Journal of Consumer Research, 25(2), 123 -144. Nyden, P. (2001). Higher Education and Community Engagement. Paper presented at Inside Out Conference, University of Queensland, Australia. Ipswich, Qld. (July 16-19). Nyden, P., Figert, A., Shibley, M., & Burrows, D. (1997). Building community: Social science in action. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press. Ohmae, K. (1995). The end of the nation state: The rise of regional economies. New York: Free Press. Pigg, K. (1998). Missouri Express: Program implementation and assessment. Columbia: University of Missouri.



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Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York: Simon & Schuster. Rice, R. E. (1996). Making a place for the new American scholar (1). Washington, DC: American Association for Higher Education. Rosenbaum, H. & Gregson, K. (1998). A study of state funded community networks in Indiana. Bloomington, IN: Indiana Department of Education, Centre for School Improvement and Performance. Schiller, H. (1983). The world in crisis and the new information technologies. Columbia Journal of World Business, (Spring), 86-90. Schuler, D. (1996). New community networks: Wired for change. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Schuler, D. (1997). Community Computer Networks: An Opportunity for Collaboration Among Democratic Technology Practitioners and Researchers. Paper presented at the Technology and Democracy, Oslo, Norway. Schuler, D. (2001). Cultivating society’s civic intelligence: Patterns for a new world brain. Information , Communication and Society, 4(2), 157-181. Sellar, G. (2001). Can regional community Web portals become sustainable? The Albany GateWay: A case study. Perth, Australia: Edith Cowan University. Shearman, C. (1999). Local connections: Making the Net work for neighbourhood renewal. London: Communities Online. Sproull, L. & Faraj, S. (1997). The Net as a social technology. In S. Kiesler (Ed.), Culture of the Internet. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Taylor, W. (2002). Factors affecting the adoption of Internet technologies for community practice in a regional area. Faculty of Informatics and Communication, Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, Australia. Towers, S. (1996). Diffusing Videoconferencing in Government Organisations: A Structuralist Analysis. Unpublished PhD, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. Wellman, B., Quan Haase, A., Witte, J., & Hampton, K. (2001). Does the Internet increase, decrease, or supplement social capital social networks, participation, and community commitment? American Behavioral Scientist, 45(3), 436.


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Chapter II

Community (Information and Communication) Technology: Policy, Partnership and Practice Peter Day, University of Brighton, UK and Central Queensland University, Australia

ABSTRACT This chapter illustrates the significance of developing a shared understanding of community, which is more than an adjective qualifying a certain type of ICT usage in a rapidly developing area of social practice and academic study — Community Informatics. Highlighting the importance of contextualising ICTs within their social environments, the chapter approaches Community Informatics from a human-centered perspective. It introduces a framework of democratic design criteria intended to assist the community planning and implementation processes of community technology initiatives. Examining the significance of community policy, community partnerships and community practice, the author invokes the need for interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral collaboration in Community Informatics Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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and argues that community ICT initiatives should be grounded in the needs of local communities if they are to be utilised successfully as tools of community empowerment.

INTRODUCTION Communication, in one form or another, has played a central role in developing and sustaining the well-being of geographic communities throughout history. Community Informatics, a fairly recent phenomenon of modern network societies, can be traced to the community communications pioneers of the late 1980s and early 1990s. In Europe, for example, community teleservice centres and community telecottages were being developed in Scandinavia and the UK, whilst in North America, the community networking movement emerged during the same period (Day, 2001). Since these early beginnings the primary purpose of such community technologies has been to utilise information and communications infrastructures, applications and services to empower and sustain the social capital of local communities (the networks, organisations, groups, activities and values underpinning community life). However, developing sustainable and effective community ICT initiatives can be problematic and present significant challenges across a number of levels (Day & Harris, 1997). This chapter seeks to address some of these challenges, not as a final solution of ‘one best way’ but as a stimulant to cross-sectoral dialogue and collaboration at community level. The main contribution to this dialogue is the presentation of a framework of democratic design criteria intended to assist the community planning, implementation and development processes of community technology. The framework is introduced within the context of community ICT policy, partnerships and practice — the 3Ps of Community Informatics. In this context the chapter is intended as an input to both the inter-disciplinary academic discourse accompanying the emergence of Community Informatics as a field of investigation and the emerging cross-sectoral communications found in community ICT practice (Day & Schuler, 2000).

UNDERSTANDING COMMUNITY In order to avoid interdisciplinary or cross-sectoral misunderstanding in this relatively new area of study and practice, it is worth spending some time developing an understanding of what is meant by the term ‘community’. To begin with, this chapter assumes communities to comprise both active community groups and individual citizens. However, in terms of essential characteristics such as socio-economic environments, culture, social norms and values, needs and behaviour, no one community is alike. There are commonalities but there are also differences. Communities are naturally heterogeneous and rather than Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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attempt a hard and fast definition this chapter adopts a more flexible approach. Butcher’s three interrelated senses of community — descriptive community, community values and active community (1993) — not only provide a starting point for discussion but enable practitioners, researchers and policy-makers to consider the characteristics, resources and needs of their own communities and plan community initiatives accordingly. The notion of Descriptive Community, which draws on the word’s etymological origins of having ‘something in common’ provides us with our first sense of community. This ‘something in common’ might refer to a neighbourhood, village, or town, for example, but might also refer to other social determinants such as ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation. It should be noted that communities based on location or interests are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Indeed geographic communities are often made up of diverse cultures and it is not uncommon for groups and individuals to share knowledge and draw from each other’s experiences, creating new forms of common interests as a consequence. Of course, the opposite can also be true and conflict can and does arise in and between communities, but for communities to be sustainable, especially where diversity of culture and social norms exists, Community Values are significant. The second sense of community is found in the sharing of certain social values, i.e., solidarity, participation and coherence. Although community values are open to interpretation and can be contested, the principles upon which they are established provide the value base of community initiatives and policies. Solidarity inspires affection and loyalty in communities through mutuality and cooperation in relationships. Participation enables individuals to contribute to and engage in the collective life and aspirations of the community. Coherence connects individuals and community, facilitating an understanding of themselves and their social world. However, the potentially contested nature of community and modern society’s inherent diversity of cultures and belief systems require community members to respect and celebrate the social richness and diversity of community life if they are to co-exist in the same geographical space and share social experiences. This diversity distinguishes the individual from the collective whilst, at the same time, contributing to the collective. That communal does not subsume individual might be regarded as paradoxical, but a balance between adequate amounts of privacy, autonomy and localism is required to shape Community Values. Shared public spaces, community associations and activities that provide the opportunity to engage with one another should be tempered with spaces offering both privacy and respect for the diversity of cultural principles. The notion of the Active Community provides the third sense of community and stems from community identity. It is through a sense of belonging to a local community that people engage in community activities. The Active Community refers to collective action by community members embracing one or more Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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communal values. Such activities are normally undertaken purposively through the vehicle of groups, networks and organisations, which is why the concept of social capital is of such import to any discussion of community. These community and voluntary sector organisations form the bedrock of community life, and although often under-resourced and over-stretched play a significant role in building and sustaining community.

COMMUNITY POLICY The Active Community is based on the participation of community members, groups and organisations in shaping community life. However, a shared value base between community and policy makers is crucial to the formulation of policies that build, develop and sustain active communities. In developing an understanding of what community means at the local level, it is possible to develop policies that are meaningful and relevant to people in those communities in the network society, and community ICT policy can be represented as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1. Community ICT Policy (Source: Day, 2001) Enables ICT initiatives to embrace one or more community value (solidarity, participation and coherence)

Shapes an ICT initiative to meet the needs of the parent community

Community ICT Policy A mode of public policy making, implementation and development that:

Is socially inclusive and promotes the needs and interests of the disadvantaged, oppressed and marginalised peoples in local communities

Actively engages in meaningful dialogue with community groups and organisations

THE PARTNERSHIP APPROACH Partnerships have always played a central role in community policy, and this shows no sign of abating. In fact, if anything, the dependency on partnerships is on the increase today. Significantly, partnerships have also been crucial compoCopyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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nents of information society policy development and implementation since 1994 (CEC, 1994a) and are therefore of import to community informatics. However, they are complex social arrangements and their impact on the development of community technology, especially community ICT initiatives, is worthy of investigation. Although partnerships can be both formal and informal arrangements to work together, Wilcox suggests that where a task is complex and long-term, such as a community ICT initiative, a formal partnership is the best approach (1994). He continues by suggesting that one of the first tasks of any partnership should be the clarification of issues such as joint purpose and values. However, although aims are usually identified early in the partnership life cycle, a key problem is that partners often have different social agendas and consequently differ in their interpretations of these aims, which are often deliberately vague so that all partners may feel comfortable with them. Rarely is time spent establishing common purpose and values through open and honest discussion (Day, 2001).

Public/Private Sector Partnerships The traditional approach to partnerships is based upon the public and private sectors (CEC, 1994a). This model, through its concentration on economic and physical capital, overlooks the significance of social capital (Putnam, 1996) and is usually based on power. The private sector has economic power and the public sector has regulatory, administrative, legislative and some economic power. It is these powers that dictate and drive forward the development of local information society policy. The third sector1 is excluded from such a scenario and is forced to exert whatever influence it might have through any available channel. Partnerships such as these tend to stimulate social exclusion by failing to include representation from local communities and individual citizens (Harris, 1996).

Cross-Sectoral Partnerships In a call for a more inclusive attitude, Harris suggests cross-sectoral community partnerships should comprise local authorities, the private sector, and academic and voluntary sector agencies (1996). However, the disempowerment of citizens, found in traditional partnership models, can also be found in some cross-sectoral partnerships. Even where the not-for-profit, or third sector is included, the power of professionals and/or ‘experts’ (Street, 1997), together with a bureaucratised policy-making process can sometimes be observed (Sanderson, 1999). Where citizen input is sought, this often takes the form of consultation. Local people might be asked their views on a specific proposal and some slight amendments might even be possible but the purpose, budget, outcome, etc. have generally been predetermined. As Arnstein argues, such consultation is usually little more than tokenism (1969).



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Tripartite Partnerships Although cross-sectoral partnerships are now recognised as significant to modern policy-making (New Economics Foundation, 1998), a more equitable approach is required, one that transcends the inherently exclusive nature of traditional partnership models. Tripartite collaboration is posited as an attempt to build on cross-sectoral partnership mechanisms at local level (Day, 1996, 1998). Rather than being driven solely by the economic imperative of public and private sectors, the policy-making process should be based on respect, equity and mutuality between partners and embedded in community need. The social development of local communities cannot be shaped by economics alone. The economy is only one element of the human condition in community life. Simply said, if the private sector has the right to make profits from the local community then it has the responsibility to contribute, in a meaningful and necessary manner, to the welfare and social fabric of that community. As an enabling authority, it should be the role of local government to oversee such community partnerships. Collaborating in tripartite partnerships enables each sector to bring its own skills, expertise, experience and knowledge to the local partnership. The private sector is usually good at doing things efficiently. The third sector is good at articulating local views, communicating with users, and developing a sense of citizen ownership and identity. The public sector’s2 key strengths are its enabling ability, and ensuring that the broader public objectives are achieved by maintaining a strategic overview (Landry & Bianchini, 1995). The diversity of partners’ contributions provides the foundation of tripartite partnerships. Diversity of experience, knowledge and skills, as well as more tangible resources should be regarded as partnership assets, i.e., social wealth. Partnerships developed in this way can promote a more democratic approach to societal changes. However, to be successful they must encourage participation, so that joint purpose, common values and mutual understanding can develop. Enabling local communities to engage in the shaping and utilisation of community ICT initiatives is an important step towards a more inclusive society.

Tripartite Collaboration Tripartite partnerships signify a major directional shift from the limitations of the partnership policies that underpin many information society development initiatives (Shearman, 1999). They point the way to a more collaborative form of community communications and decision-making in which the influence of social networks is emphasised. However, it should be understood that such collaboration requires changes to the existing social and cultural perspectives of many organisations and agencies. Fresh and open minds are requisite to addressing the needs of local communities and the challenges of collaboration.


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The active involvement of the third sector in the policy process through tripartite collaboration also requires a re-examination of assumptions and practices relating to the power of administrators (Day & Harris, 1997). Without changes in the way bureaucracies function, authentic participation will be limited to experiments of academic interest only. Enabling administrators to become cooperative participants in a collective community dialogue will require a significant shift in values of the role of administrators and the organisational cultures of many local authorities. The development of more participatory and inclusive community policies requires research not only into ways of empowering and educating citizens but also into ways of re-educating administrators and enabling administrative structures and processes to facilitate an effective dialogue between citizens, administrators and policy-makers (King et al., 1998).

Outlining the Need for Change in Partnership Approaches Policies to meet the challenges of the network society will need to draw from the widest social knowledge base. The facilitation of flexible and fluid partnerships through tripartite collaboration will go a long way to meeting the needs of communities in a rapidly changing socio-economic landscape. By utilising such partnerships in the development of community ICT initiatives, a more accurate representation of the needs of local citizens can be achieved. The participatory and collaborative nature of tripartite partnerships is reflective of, and complimentary to, the networking potentiality of ICTs. However, ICTs do not solve societal problems (only social solutions can do that) but they can provide requisite platforms for the efficient support of effective solutions (CEC, 1994b). Unfortunately, it is not often recognised by policy makers that richly diverse sources of social creativity exist in local communities. By providing the expertise, resources and support for the creative social processes of local communities through the tripartite approach, a bridge can be built between the formal institutions and the informal networks that characterise the everyday life of local communities. Harnessing the knowledge and creativity of local communities with the professional skills and expertise of public agencies and, where appropriate, private companies, can facilitate and increase social innovation. Social innovation is defined in this context as social initiatives designed and driven by local people to meet the needs of the local community through the solution of local problems. The scenario of an empowered citizenship utilising ICTs to address social needs through participatory community practice unfortunately receives little consideration at policy level. Yet it is precisely the potential for citizens to participate in a full and active manner in the network society; designing, Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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implementing and developing initiatives, activities and services that democratically meet community defined social need that transcends the passivity that marks the current techno-economic paradigm. If the only services available to citizens are those regulated and priced by the service providers of a commercially developed infostructure, then issues of access, social inclusion and active citizenship are diminished in value because the role of citizen is reduced to that of passive consumer.

Universal Participation The previous section of this chapter highlighted the role of the third sector in tripartite collaboration. However, whilst such an approach encourages citizens to be actively involved in community groups, etc. — by providing them with a voice in the policy making process — it is important to note that community groups, etc., are not the whole story in respect of communities. Indeed, there is a potential danger that groups or third sector ‘experts’ familiar with the process of local government can dominate participation and actually deter active citizenship (Wilson, 1999). Similarly, contested values within communities can lead to conflict. This can also act as a deterrent to the involvement of those new to forms of civic engagement and can be used as an excuse for inaction by local authorities. However, where people feel valued by policy-makers as equal citizens and are able to act on this sense of worth, they are more likely to contribute to and participate in shaping their local community. Active participation is therefore related to issues of social rights and empowerment, and local authorities have obligations to citizens to respect and respond to collective contributions, needs and aspirations (Higgins, 1999). Consequently, if social inclusion is to be both achievable and sustainable within the network society, all citizens should, as a fundamental democratic right, have the opportunity to participate in its evolution. Universal participation should now be included as part of the network society universality debate, alongside universal service and universal access (Kubicek et al., 1997; INSINC, 1997). In this way, citizens of a network society can both empower themselves and enrich the quality of life of their local communities, and through aggregation, contribute to improving the quality of life at a societal level.

COMMUNITY PRACTICE As the development of community policies is dependent on encouraging active communities, the implementation of community policies, as has been seen, requires a change in mind-sets, enabling new and distinctive methods and techniques to be embraced (Glen, 1993). Glen describes these processes as ‘community practice’, which may involve some or all of the following components: Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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• • • •

The sustained involvement of paid community workers; A broad range of professionals who are increasingly using community work methods in their work; The efforts of self-managed community groups themselves; Managerial attempts at reviving, restructuring and relocating services to encourage community access and involvement in the planning and delivery of services (Glen, 1993, p. 22).

Describing the symbiotic relationship between community practice and community policies, where each is related to and promotes the other, Glen identifies three community practice approaches: • Community services approach • Community development • Community action 3 The last two operate at grassroots level. Community development concerns itself with the empowerment of communities to define and meet their own needs. Community action consists of organising and campaigning to achieve community goals. The community service approach involves altruistic and compulsory forms of assistance to people in need4 (Glen, 1993). However, because of the wide range of agencies, organisations, groups, etc., involved in community practice, approaches may be ‘top-down’, i.e., promoted by local authorities or voluntary bodies, or emanate from within local communities, i.e., ‘bottom-up’. Whatever the complexion of an initiative, community practice should not be viewed as a blueprint for best practice but as a framework of three interrelated elements that assist in the understanding and fulfilling of community need. A brief examination of each element within a Community Informatics context is now conducted.

Community Services Approach The community services approach requires a great deal of resources and support for the various initiatives/projects. This is the process in which community-oriented organisations and services are developed to meet the identified needs of the community. In a community informatics context, examples of this might include: the provision of online information services, public access centres, low cost ICT provision schemes, and education and training programs.

Community Development Community development focuses on the promotion of community self-help and empowerment. This requires a continuation of the community services approach but with a view to building the capacity of communities to sustain the initiatives. Stimulating dialogue, collaboration and mutual support within and Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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between the social organisations and networks in a community (social capital) and engaging in a consideration of how ICTs might underpin such activities, e.g., through the design, implementation and development, or community planning processes of a community network, are key goals here.

Community Action Once empowered, communities are in a position to campaign for community interests and to influence the shaping of community policies. The community services and development approaches are continued to maintain a social safety net, but communities have more autonomy in their own affairs. The aim here is sustainable community through democratic communicative action. Whatever the partnership composition and balance between the three interrelated elements of community practice, a shared value base that prioritises the identification and realisation of community needs as the motivating force of a community ICT initiative is required if they are to be socially sustainable. Subordinating ICT systems and artifacts to the needs of people living in geographic communities is fundamental to this process. Drawing from Sclove’s theory of democratic technology (1995), the next section presents a framework for the participatory planning and implementation of Community ICT initiatives. Figure 2. Community ICT Planning and Implementation Criteria (Source: Day, 2001) Toward DEMOCRATIC COMMUNITY: A. Seek initiatives embracing one or more community value (solidarity, participation and coherence). B. Promote community development through the empowerment of citizens to define and meet their own needs. C. Relate goals and outcomes to the needs of communities and their citizens. D. Develop activities and services that meet community need identified through sustained and meaningful dialogue of citizens and service providers. E. Give priority to the needs and interests of a community’s socially excluded citizens. Toward DEMOCRATIC POLITICS: F. Avoid policies that establish authoritarian or elitist social relations. G. Ensure initiative independence to encourage participatory community action to achieve community goals. H. Contribute to a public space for shared communications that facilitate inter/intra community conviviality. I. Recognise and celebrate diversity of opinion, beliefs, values and culture and avoid policies that promote intolerance and disrespect. Toward DEMOCRATIC WORK: J. Promote self-actualisation through activities and services that stimulate lifelong learning and active citizenship in the community. K. Invest in social capital by promoting common community interests and concerns. L. Seek to stimulate both social and formal economies of local communities. Securing Democratic Sustainability: M. Enable meaningful engagement with groups and organisations active within local communities through the development of tripartite partnerships. N. Promote social innovation by harnessing the indigenous knowledge and creativity of communities with the resources and expertise of public, private and third sectors. O. Develop a sense of community identity and ownership. Embracing Community Participation: P. Q.

Promote universal participation. Seek ‘local’ technological flexibility and ‘global’ technological pluralism.


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A FRAMEWORK FOR THE DEMOCRATIC DESIGN OF COMMUNITY ICT INITIATIVES This framework is structured in five sections. The first three are based on Sclove’s organising principles of institutional setting and association in a democratic society: democratic community, democratic politics and democratic work, and are deemed as essential to establishing democratic community ICT initiatives. The fourth relates to criteria aimed at securing the democratic sustainability of initiatives whilst the fifth introduces criteria intended to perpetuate democratic participation.

Toward Democratic Community A. B. C.

Seek initiatives embracing one or more community value (solidarity, participation and coherence). Promote community development through the empowerment of citizens to define and meet their own needs. Relate goals and outcomes to the needs of communities and their citizens.

Criterion A states that democratic community ICT initiatives should be based on one or more community value. As seen previously, solidarity inspires affection and loyalty through mutuality and co-operation in relationships, sustaining community members at an emotional level. Participation benefits individuals through the recognition of their contribution to collective life and self-development. Coherence connects individuals to the community, and leads to an appreciation and comprehension of self and situation that give meaning to and awareness of themselves and their social world. Stimulating and sustaining the community values of solidarity, participation and coherence has been a challenge exercising the minds of community development workers for decades. It is no less of a challenge within a community informatics context, where, if community technologies are to be employed as tools for community empowerment, their design, as well as their implementation and development, need to be based on community values. However, understanding that community technology processes are as important as the products or applications themselves is not, in itself, enough. Consequently, Criterion B calls for community ICT initiatives to promote community development by empowering citizens to democratically define and meet community needs. To fulfil criterion B, methods of inclusive and participatory needs analysis must be employed. Such tools must facilitate identification of both the scope and diversity of a community’s needs and the appropriateness of community ICT applications to the local needs of a social environment (Criterion C). The development of community technologies that promote local autonomy



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whilst facilitating collaborative and co-operative action and interaction is crucial to community conviviality. However, attempts at developing participatory methods that actively engage communities in identifying local needs and applying those needs to the design, implementation and development of community ICT initiatives are few and far between at the moment. Of course, a range of participatory tools and methods exists that are sometimes employed within community practice generally, e.g., citizens’ panels, consensus conferences, scenario workshops, community appraisals and focus groups (New Economic Foundation, 1998), but to date few have been used in a community informatics context. Part of the reason for not exploring the potential of such participatory tools can be found in a misplaced but popular belief that the design, implementation and development of technology, and ICT in particular, is the domain of experts into which mere mortals and common folk should not wander. Despite this conventional wisdom, there is growing evidence to indicate that given the opportunity, non-expert citizens are more than capable of grasping the complexities relating to ICTs in their social environments. In Denmark, for example, the Board of Technology organised a series of consensus conferences on issues ranging from food irradiation and genetic engineering to sustainable agriculture and educational technology. The consensus conferences not only resulted in a better informed Danish public in matters relating to technology but also enabled early public involvement in the development of technologies. To this end, they facilitated “more flexible, socially responsive research and design modifications, [which is a potentially] fairer, less adversarial, and more economic path of technological evolution” (Sclove, 1996). 5 D. Develop activities and services that meet community need identified through sustained and meaningful dialogue of citizens and service providers. E. Give priority to the needs and interests of a community’s socially excluded citizens. The implementation of community technology activities and services must be effective in meeting community need if such initiatives are to remain sustainable. Criterion D requires sustained and meaningful dialogue between ‘experts’ (social and technical) and the local community through the forging of democratic partnerships to ensure that initiatives continue to meet community needs. Whilst consensus conferences are useful in achieving and sustaining meaningful dialogue, the dialogue required for the participatory design of community ICTs can require a more dynamic and direct form of engagement between citizens and ‘experts’. Asset-based community technology and community building projects, such as the methodology employed in the low- to moderate income Camfield Estate Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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in Roxbury, Massachusetts, is an example of such an approach (Pinkett, 2002). The purpose of this project was not just to encourage community participation in the community building process but also to empower the community so that it became the central driver of the ‘improvement process’ through community technology. Dialogue in Roxbury was between ‘experts’ and community members as ‘agents of change’. This differs from consensus conferences. In Roxbury the purpose was for the community to shape change directly, whereas consensus conferences are usually employed to inform policy so that change might be considered. The point here is not that one participatory method is better than another; both have their appropriate uses. However, their application should be dependent on the social context, i.e., the needs of the social environment in which they are being considered, and this can only be determined through meaningful dialogue. Building on this (Criterion E), priority must be given to the needs and interests of the disadvantaged and marginalised members of a community, if social inclusion is to be achieved.

Toward Democratic Politics F. G.

Avoid policies that establish authoritarian or elitist social relations. Ensure initiative independence to encourage participatory community action to achieve community goals.

The important issue with respect to Criterion F is that ICTs should be harnessed to underpin democratic community. To achieve this it is crucial to select technologies that do not establish authoritarian or elitist social relations, either within partnerships seeking to develop a community technology or the community itself. For example, community initiatives with the best of social intentions, when run by a small number of self-appointed leaders, run the risk of developing an atmosphere of elitism and being unrepresentative of community wishes. Although many initiatives are started in this way, there comes a time when their governance must be placed in the hands of the broader community, if they are to remain democratic. It is also essential that community ICT initiatives retain some degree of independence from funding agencies or partnership organisations. There may be occasions when the views of the community come into conflict with those of such bodies and some form of community action is required. Criterion G states that initiatives must be independent and free from the influence of vested interests if they are to be used by an empowered community acting to identify and achieve community goals. H. Contribute to a public space for shared communications that facilitate inter/ intra-community conviviality. I. Recognize and celebrate diversity of opinion, beliefs, values and cultures and avoid policies that promote intolerance and disrespect.



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Underpinning all community ICT initiatives should be a public space dedicated to open communications (Criterion H). Such a public space supports inter and intra-community communications. If community-driven ICTs are to underpin social activities within local communities by providing an extra forum of communication, then electronic public spaces should be afforded the same importance that sociologists give to ‘actual’ public spaces or ‘third places’ such as parks, community centres, civic squares, cafes and pubs. The utilization of ICTs to provide a public space for shared communications at both inter and intracommunity levels supports participatory democracy and encourages the valorisation of diversity. Modern society is both pluralist and multicultural. While this diversity enriches the human experience, it also produces complex social problems. The many communities, groups, associations, etc., that comprise society often coexist quite peacefully. However, conflict also often exists within and between communities. Criterion I holds that community ICTs should both respect and protect society’s diversity. They should not be used to promote views hurtful or damaging to the cultural heritage of others; for example, racist or sexist materials should not be stored or disseminated on community systems. The resolution of problems of conflict can only be achieved through democratic determination within or between communities.

Toward Democratic Work J. K. L.

Promote self-actualisation through activities and services that stimulate lifelong learning and active citizenship in the community. Invest in social capital by promoting common community interests and concerns. Seek to stimulate both social and formal economies of local communities.

In this context, democratic work applies to activities engaged in as part of the social economy, but policies could be developed here that relate to telework and other forms of community-based revenue generation. Criterion J relates to awareness raising, training and education activities and services at community ICT initiatives, and states that they should enable self-actualisation and enable community capacity building. The development and application of skills through activities in the social economy enable citizens, through engagement, to contribute to community life in new ways. Consequently, facilitating self-actualisation and capacity building activities in community initiatives is a way for policy and practice to invest in the social capital of a community. It can be done by supporting common interests and concerns, as a recognition of the importance of a community’s social wealth6 (Criterion K). By adopting more holistic approaches to the social development of communities, a range of mutual


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community economic development activities can also be supported and/or identified (criterion L).

Securing Democratic Sustainability M. N.

O.

Enable meaningful engagement with groups and organisations active within local communities through the development of tripartite partnerships. Promote social innovation by harnessing the indigenous knowledge and creativity of communities with the resources and expertise of public, private and third sectors. Develop a sense of community identity and ownership.

Some form of cross-sectoral partnership often shapes the structure, function and organization of community ICT initiatives. This is because the highly competitive and profit motivated nature of modern capitalist society makes it difficult, if not impossible, for community-driven grassroots initiatives to survive without support of this nature. Partnerships, therefore, are an increasingly important component of civil life. Criterion M necessitates the establishment of tripartite partnerships to secure initiative sustainability. By harnessing the existent knowledge and creativity of communities with the resources and expertise found in the public, private and third sectors, social innovation can be promoted (Criterion N). Criteria M and N contribute to the development of a sense of community ownership and identity. This community identity and sense of ownership are essential if community ICT initiatives are to be sustainable (Criterion O).

Embracing Community Participation P. Q.

Promote universal participation. Seek ‘local’ technological flexibility and ‘global’ technological pluralism.

Central to promoting democratic participation is the recognition that whilst policy must enable active community groups to participate in the three organizing principles of a democratic society, this in itself does not represent an inclusive approach to participation. Community groups, whilst important to active communities, do not constitute complete communities. The facilitation of universal participation, where every citizen that wishes to has the right to participate in these principles in some way (Criterion P) goes some way to achieving this. Clearly, it is impractical to enable full citizen participation in every stage of the design, implementation and development of community ICT initiatives. However, a range of participatory community methods exist that can be utilized within local communities where appropriate, e.g., consensus conferences, citizen panels and scenario workshops. It is important that the community sociotechnical order remains flexible and democratic. If it becomes too rigid, social Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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relationships become more inflexible and subsequent structural alterations prove difficult. Whilst flexibility is important at the local level, it is also significant globally. Valorising diversity by ensuring local flexibility in all communities ensures the preservation of cultural pluralism and affords communities and individuals the ability to communicate with and learn from other cultures (Criterion Q) in the network society.

CONCLUSION Central to the examination of the relationship between community policy, partnerships and practice conducted in this chapter have been three fundamental propositions: • Community policy, partnerships and practice should be embedded in and reflective of the needs of local citizens; • As citizens, local people have the right to participate in the decisions that shape local communities; • Within a Community Informatics context this often requires changes in the organisational cultures and mind-sets of partners in order to achieve the trust and mutuality necessary for successful community ICT initiatives. Strategically, the development of equitable partnerships between the public, private and third sectors promotes a more human-centered approach to local policy making and addresses the concerns of many community initiative practitioners who regard the community policy process as unrepresentative of local needs (Day & Harris, 1997; Shearman, 1999). Operationally, identifying community need through participative methods, such as citizens’ forums and consensus conferences, can lead to a more inclusive and holistic approach to community policy and practice in the network society. The framework presented here is not intended as a blueprint to be imposed, by policy, on local communities. Its value lies in its applicability across the diversity of community ICT practices. With this in mind the intention of this chapter has been to provide an alternative to the techno-economic agenda often found in much of the network society discourse, by providing insights into Community Informatics from a social science perspective. The democratic community planning criteria presented here need to be supported by similar design criteria from the technological perspective. This is the challenge facing the community systems and software developers of the community informatics movement. The development of technical democratic design criteria is an area where important research can be conducted in the future. Synergy between the social and technical components of community ICT research, practice and policy is crucial to building socially inclusive pathways to the network society.


34 Day

ENDNOTES 1

2

3 4 5

6

In addition to traditional voluntary, not-for-profit and community bodies and agencies, the third sector embraces grassroots community groups, associations, interest and cultural groups, trades unions, etc. For the purposes of this chapter, academia is considered as part of the public sector. Sometimes involves the employment of conflict tactics. Often refers to both statutory and voluntary services. Richard E. Sclove’s paper (1996) provides a detailed insight into consensus conferences, also known as citizens’ panels. For an in-depth account of the first US citizens’ panel on ‘Telecommunications and Democracy’ see an evaluation report by David Guston at http://policy.rutgers.edu/papers/ 5.pdf. Social wealth is defined here as the collective knowledge, skills and expertise possessed by the citizens and groups of a community.

REFERENCES Arnstein, S.R. (1969). A ladder of citizen participation. Journal of the American Institute of Planners, 35 (4), 216-224. Butcher, H., (1993). Introduction: Some examples and definitions. In Butcher, H., Glen, A., Henderson, P., & Smith, J. (Eds.), Community and Public Policy (pp. 3-21). London: Pluto Press. CEC. (1994a). Europe and the global information society: Recommendations to the European Council. [The Bangemann Report] CD-84-94-290EN. Retrieved January 19, 2003 from: http://europa.eu.int/ISPO/infosoc/ backg/bangeman.html. CEC. (1994b). Perspectives for economic and social impacts of advanced communications in Europe (PACE 1994): Socio-economic and technology impact assessment and forecast RACE project R-2086 – Synthesis report (p. 10). Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. Day, P. (1996). Information communication technology and society: A community-based approach. In Gill, K.S. (Ed.), Information Society: New Media, Ethics and Postmodernism (pp. 186-210). London: SpringerVerlag. Day, P. (1998). Community Development in the Information Society: A European Perspective of Community Networks. Position paper presented to the Designing Across Borders: The Community Design of Community Networks joint workshop of the PDC98 & CSCW98 Conferences, Seattle, WA, USA (November 12-14). Retrieved January 19, 2003 from: http:// www.scn.org/tech/the_network/Projects/CSCW-PDC-ws-98/day-pp.html. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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Day, P. (2001). The Network Community: Policies for a Participative Information Society. Unpublished PhD Thesis. University of Brighton. Day, P. & Harris, K. (1997). Down-to-earth vision: Community based IT initiatives and social inclusion [The Commit Report]. London: IBM/ CDF. Retrieved January 19 2003 from: http://www.cdf.org.uk/ Raw%20material/Commit.pdf. Day, P. & Schuler, D. (eds.) (2000). Shaping the network society: The future of the public sphere in Cyberspace. In Proceedings of the DIAC2000 Symposium. Seattle, WA, USA (May 20-23). Seattle: CPSR. Glen, A. (1993). Methods and themes in community practice. In Butcher, H., Glen, A., Henderson, P., & Smith, J. (Eds.), Community and Public Policy (pp. 22-40). London: Pluto. Harris, K. (1996). Social inclusion in the Information Society. In Wilcox, D. (Ed.), Inventing the Future: Communities in the Information Society. Brighton: Partnership Books. Retrieved January 19, 2003 from: http:// www.partnerships.org.uk/itf/socinc.html. Higgins, J. (1999). Citizenship and empowerment: A remedy for citizen participation in health reform. Community Development Journal, 34(4), 287307. INSINC (1997). The net result: Social inclusion in the Information Society: Report of the National Working Party on social inclusion. London: IBM UK. King, C., Feltey, K.M., & O’Neill Susel, B. (1998). The question of participation: Towards authentic public participation in public administration. Public Administration Review, 58(4), 317-326. Kubicek, H., Dutton, W.H., & Williams, R. (eds.) (1997). The social shaping of information superhighways: European and American roads to the Information Society, (pp. 45-59). Frankfurt: Campus Verlag. Landry, C. & Bianchini, F. (1995). The creative city. London: DEMOS. New Economics Foundation (1998). Participation works! 21 techniques of community participation for the 21st century. London: New Economics Foundation. Pinkett, R. (2002). The Camfield Estates-MIT Creating Community Connections Project: Strategies for active participation in a low- to moderateincome community. In Tanabe, M., van den Besselaar, P., & Ishida, T. (Eds.), Digital Cities II: Computational and Sociological Approaches (pp. 110-124). Berlin: Springer-Verlag. Sanderson, I. (1999). Participation and democratic renewal: From ‘instrumental’ to ‘communicative rationality’? Policy & Politics, 27(3), 325-341. Sclove, R.E. (1995). Democracy and technology. London: Guilford Press. Sclove, R.E. (1996). Town meetings on technology. Technology Review, 99 (5), 24-31. Retrieved January 19, 2003 from: http://www.loka.org/pubs/ techrev.htm. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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Shearman, C. (1999). Local connections: Making the Net work for neighbourhood renewal. London: Communities Online. Retrieved January 19, 2003 from: http://www.communities.org.uk/. Street, P. (1997). Scenario workshops: A participatory approach to sustainable urban living? Futures, 29(2), 139-158. Wilcox, D. (1994). The guide to effective participation. Brighton: Partnership Books. Retrieved January 19, 2003 from: http://www.partnerships.org.uk/ guide/main1.html. Wilson, D. (1999). Exploring the limits of public participation in local government. Parliamentary Affairs, 52(2), 246-259.


Digital Storytelling: Culture, Media and Community 37

Chapter III

Digital Storytelling: Culture, Media and Community Kevin W. Tharp, Central Queensland University, Australia Liz Hills, Central Queensland University, Australia

ABSTRACT This chapter considers the significance of digital storytelling as a force for community cultural development in global and regional contexts and as a means of transforming regions. The primary focus is on practice, which will prove useful to both the community informatics practitioner and ethnographic or participative action researchers. This is achieved by contrasting the traditional ‘top down’ approach to media and cultural production with the rise of community-based digital storytelling. The authors argue that community-based digital storytelling must take seriously the realities of the digital divide, and must consider the social, political, economic and cultural contexts of communities and their specific ‘relationship’ to digital technologies to ensure that communities have both access to, and the literacy and skills to engage with, the digital medium. The authors consider Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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specific examples that illustrate this approach and conclude by reiterating that access to digital technologies should be combined with communitybased training programs, community based-goals and initiatives, and a commitment to principles of regional and global social justice.

INTRODUCTION The attendees at the Information Technology in Regional Areas (ITiRA) 2002 conference, held in Rockhampton, Australia, (http://itira.cqu.edu.au) witnessed a powerful and emotive keynote presentation by Maori descendent Robyn Kamira. The presentation was about her family’s struggle to reclaim her grandfather’s memoirs about early Maori culture from the New Zealand government. While Kamira’s address spoke of the big ‘political’ issues the audience expected to hear in an ‘official’ academic keynote presentation, her address was also an extremely personal ‘story’; an emotionally compelling, human-centered and multidimensional example of the personal as well as the political. In her presentation, Robyn was both ‘academic’ and ‘digital storyteller’. In telling the story of her family’s and community’s battle over selfdetermination, self-articulation of indigenous issues and the difficulties of protecting indigenous cultural practice in the digital age, Kamira used the digital medium to great effect: rhythmically editing together text with images of her homeland, the sounds of waves crashing on a beach and the uplifting chorus of indigenous singers (Kamira, 2002). The telling of this story had a strong effect on the audience and the authors professionally and personally. Kamira’s performance as a subject story (Ellis & Bochner, 2000) sought an emotive response from the audience, and invited the audience into the researcher-as-storyteller’s subjective view of what it meant to be her. In this performance, the audience saw the embodiment of the new mythology that Denzin (1997) considers as a way forward in the crisis of representation among interpretive researchers. This involves “starting with a story about themselves, explaining their personal connection to the project, and by using personal knowledge to help them in the research process” (Ellis & Bochner, 2000). In considering the dual role of the researcher as subject, there are calls to broaden the way that qualitative researchers gather information and insert themselves into the presentation of their findings through narrative and storytelling techniques (Bailey & Tilley, 2002; Fairbairn & Carson, 2002; Tierney, 2002; Vickers, 2002). Rather than simply reinforcing her address, Kamira’s multimedia performance offered a glimpse into her cultural and personal contexts, grounding her firmly within the context of the research. It also provided a dimension that extended the audience’s emotional connection to the story and provided what Kamira called a balance between reason and emotion. Rather than simply being Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


spectators, the audience was invited to be witnesses to her personal story and the story of her community and to allow these stories to resonate in their individual lives. The presentation helped to reaffirm our own commitment to the use of digital technologies for community cultural development. In short, it reaffirmed our commitment to digital storytelling as a medium for connecting people to cultural and social change. This kind of ‘connection’ is a common feature in digital storytelling, where one story resonates with, or is a response to, another. This type of connection “encourages community, connecting diverse people through shared experience” (Center for Digital Storytelling, 2002). Likewise, it enables one to work outwards from one’s own “biography, entangling his or her tales of the self with the stories told by others” (Denzin, 1997, p. 47). This chapter focuses on these aspects of digital storytelling. It is not so much interested in the technology per se or in exploring new forms of interactive storytelling. Rather, it considers the significance of digital storytelling as a force for community cultural development in global and regional contexts and as a means of transforming regions. The primary focus is on practice, which will prove useful to both the community informatics practitioner and ethnographic or participative action researchers. This is achieved by contrasting the traditional ‘top down’ approach to media and cultural production with the rise of community-based digital storytelling. This is a grassroots ‘movement’ where communities create their own stories using digitised artefacts from their own lives and contexts (photographs, voice, letters, video, news clippings, etc.). Rather than seeing this as some Utopian offshoot of the digital revolution, the authors argue that community-based digital storytelling must take seriously the realities of the digital divide. In other words, it must consider the social, political, economic and cultural contexts of communities and their specific ‘relationship’ to digital technologies to ensure that communities have both access to, and the literacy and skills to engage with, the digital medium. The authors consider specific examples that illustrate this approach and conclude by reiterating that access to digital technologies alone will not transform regions. Access should be combined with community-based training programs, community-based goals and initiatives, and a commitment to principles of regional and global social justice.

THE POLITICS OF CULTURAL PRODUCTION The role of mediated storytelling goes back to the beginnings of history. The earliest forms of recorded history are the remnants of people telling their own stories in cave drawings, blown ochre paintings, and other early forms of Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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mediated storytelling. While there is no way of knowing for sure, it would appear obvious that the reasons for mediating these stories was that they had a story they wanted to tell, and they wanted it to transcend time and their personal presence in the telling. These early works did just that, and they are almost the only surviving glimpse we have into the life and culture of these primitive people. This is in some contrast to the current situation where the role of cultural production is largely in the hands of the people that have control of resourceintensive modern mass media. The scribes who drew hieroglyphs, the early clerics of the church, the imperial invaders that crusaded around the world, the printers and publishers, the movie makers, and the producers of radio and television have all had the ability to tell the stories that survived time and crossed borders. These were the tellers of stories, the producers of culture and the slayers of culture. The stories told in the mass media, of the indigenous peoples of the world, for example, have generally been told not by the people themselves, but about the people from an outsider’s perspective. These stories were told from a perspective that was not theirs, and could not possibly capture the full richness of the culture, because the tellers were not members of the particular culture and they brought their own external cultural biases and motivations into the interpretations. It is only of relatively recent times that many developed and developing countries are beginning to see other ‘truths’, as reality is being given to new indigenous dimensions. The notion that ‘the pen is mightier than the sword’ was reinforced by Kamira when she asserted that the greatest damage to the indigenous people of New Zealand was the pen in the hand of cultural imperialists who described and defined the native cultures in a manner that justified a cultural transformation agenda with little regard to what the indigenous people consider truth or accuracy. Like many indigenous cultures, Maori culture has a vocal history and tradition and there is little other than the collective memories of the people from which to reclaim traditional Maori history. Modern history is little different. While people are able to write their own stories in books and diaries, poems and home videos, these media have had limited circulation. But there is a change underway and this is being fuelled by a community informatics approach. With the birth of the Internet came a flurry and a host of utopian promises about how it was going to solve the world’s problems ‘overnight’. From this perspective, digital technologies promised a revolution in global politics. According to emerging Iranian digital moviemaker Samira Makhmalbaf, “by far the most significant event in the digital revolution is the reversal of the political control in some countries (particularly in the East), and of financial control in others (particularly in the West)” (Makhmalbaf, 2000). For Makhmalbaf, digital technologies promise both an economic and political revolution by breaking the power dynamics that have traditionally defined and Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


policed how movies represent social and cultural relations and realities in both the Eastern and the Western cultures. People in less prosperous parts of the world have so far been at the receiving end of cinema as an art form. The history of cinema begins with wealthy and powerful nations making films not just about themselves but also about others. This is a slanted relation of power…The digital revolution will surpass that imbalance. The First World will thus lose its centrality of vision as the dominant world view (Makhmalbaf, 2000) From these perspectives, digital technologies are not simply a technological revolution but also offer to bring about dramatic cultural, economic, political and social change. The potential for change can be easily seen, but the main question revolves around whether it can be simply achieved. The authors contend that the short answer to this question is…no! It is a much more complex issue which goes to the heart of community and forms of governance. This contention is not based on simple dismissal. Nor does it discredit the significance of the issues raised above or the likelihood that digital technologies will contribute to the evolution of cultural, political, economic and social change. Certainly, digital technologies offer new possibilities for creative and cultural expression and dissemination. They also clearly open up spaces for new voices, new creative genres and new cultural stories, and certainly have the potential to transform the representation of social, political and cultural relations and realities. However, recent thinking in the Community Informatics field is leaning in the opposite direction, which points to the potential for increasing centralisation. The concern is that Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) that have been heralded as bringing revolutionary change could in fact further entrench the cultural imperialism of the developed western nations and centralize rather than decentralize the production and management of information. There is a growing movement of international academics, NGOs and practitioners who believe that unless something is done to mitigate against current trends, information globalisation practices already in place with other mass media will gain control of the flow of content on the Internet as well. Evidence of growing concerns in the global society can be seen in the United Nations sponsored World Summits on Information Society (WSIS)1 and the Communications Rights in the Information Society (CRIS).2 The introduction of ICT is not capable — in and of itself — of restructuring social or political conditions. The potential of a new medium is shaped by its introduction into specific social, cultural, legal, economic, and political contexts, which partially determine both the ways it will be used and the effects it will have (Jenkins, 1998). Information, knowledge and the communication of these resources are, among other things, cultural assets that can help us to better understand others (Keeble & Loader, 2001). It is therefore not the technical, but Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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rather the social and cultural aspects of the digital revolution that provide the transforming force (Loader et al., 2001). This point is often forgotten in debates over the digital revolution as issues of access and financial returns are given prominence. However, “debates about the significance of new media are important for they force into question many of the core institutions and practices of a culture and thus, initiate a process of widespread change” (Jenkins, 1998). So, on one level at least, revolutionary rhetoric has support. Indeed, as Jenkins argues, the fantasy of revolution is politically quite important in the cultural development of digital media: “After all, utopian fantasy is an important element within any political movement. We need to be able to envision alternatives to the current situation in order to motivate change, and it is by envisioning alternatives that the inadequacies of the status quo become apparent. If, for example, we did not have an ideal of universal access to digital media, then the current barriers to access, which block certain groups from participating in cyberspace, would not be perceived as a serious flaw.” (Jenkins, 1998) This view is balanced with the perspective: “On the other hand, we need to maintain a critical perspective on change which allows us to measure the gap between the myths and the realities, which tests arguments about cyberdemocracy against the realities of racial inequality in access to digital technologies, which pits claims about a new cultural realm without gatekeepers against patterns of corporate consolidation and oligopoly. The best way to conduct such a conversation is by avoiding the eitheror logic that the myth of a digital revolution encourage.” (Jenkins, 1998, p. 4) This discussion identifies a crucial issue in digital storytelling, which is the impact of digital technologies on who gets to tell stories, who gets to see them, and the kinds of stories that are told. Jenkins (1998) recommends being cautious of revolutionary speak and reminds us of the need to consider and critique the potential of any new media within the specific context of its production and reception. These issues are crucial to any discussion of digital storytelling, for they help keep social, cultural, historical, political, economic and personal factors at the forefront of debates about the ‘revolutionary’ merit of any new technology. These issues also help to identify and clarify the complex social, cultural, economic and political issues that make up constructs of the ‘digital divide’. In Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


the early days of the Internet, the digital divide was primarily seen as an issue of access. In fact, this view still predominates in many situations. The digital divide was seen as consisting of the haves and the have-nots, and that ‘access to the Internet’ was the only thing needed to close this divide. However, experience in developed situations is demonstrating that access is only one of the issues requiring attention in addressing the ‘digital divide’, and that the issues related to people are likely to be much more difficult to overcome than the issues of access. Given enough resources, access could be available in one form or another in almost any location in the world. But even if the best access was available, questions about how many people would know how to take advantage of it are now central to the discussions. Frank Odasz (2000) identifies “Four Levels of Internet Self-Empowerment” as the model of the Internet style of learning. These are: • Level One: Self-Directed Learning. This level is mostly concerned with the basic skills necessary to use the computer, the Internet, and other Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). • Level Two: Self-publishing Globally. Applying and enhancing the Level One skills, people become contributors to the content in addition to being just consumers. • Level Three: Building Learning Communities. This level makes use of shared experiences focused around group processes of learning, teaching and sharing. • Level Four: Citizenship and Enlightened Expectations. This is reached when an individual or group has integrated the technology into their lives to a point where they are prepared to make a difference in their living, their interactions, their expectations and their governance. This model provides a framework that can be useful in looking at the ways people interact with ICT. It outlines a staged process that describes a path of skill acquisition and interaction, which concludes with a position where the technology makes a proactive difference in personal lives and in community.

DIGITAL STORYTELLING Digital storytelling provides a means for people to use ICT to tell the world their story from their own perspective. Digital storytelling is most closely tied with self-publishing in Level Two in the above model. However, the way that many people are currently approaching self-publishing is closely related to the group learning stage described in Level Three of the Odasz approach as a precursor to the ability to affect social concerns associated with Level Four. In these cases, the desire to have positive community impact can be a catalyst for learning the skills associated with the lower levels. But, the digital divide is such Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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that those people whose stories have most likely been untold, repressed or ignored, are the same people without the access and skills necessary to engage in digital storytelling. A great deal of practical work in the area of Community Informatics has been undertaken to help people move into Level One as described by Odasz. This work has been done primarily in developed areas but is increasingly undertaken in developing countries. Telecentres, telecottages, community networks, community information networks, community technology centres, and a host of similar projects have been implemented around the world over the last decade and a half to try to help people learn to use ICT (Tharp, 2002). A great deal of money has been spent focusing on the technology with the “build it and they will come approach” (Gurstein, 2003). For the most part, these efforts have been underwhelming. The missing piece has been the focus on the individual and how the technology can be introduced into his or her particular context, rather than on how to bring the individual to the technology. Digital storytelling has emerged as a powerful means of bringing the technology to the individual, while simultaneously helping the individual move along the stages of the Internet Self-Empowerment Model. This is not a utopian approach for integrating technology into the lives of individuals, but rather is a way in which storytellers can take control of their own story, and tell it in a way that has not been possible before the advent of multimedia approaches that are now available to a much wider section of society. Whilst this approach requires time and commitment from the storytellers, it offers them the opportunity to tell their own story on the world’s largest stage. Digital Storytellers use new media tools and techniques, like hypertext linking for the Web, interactive CD-ROMs and digital moviemaking to tell their stories. The tools of digital storytelling cross the boundaries of all traditional media, the arts and performing arts. Collectively, they provide the storyteller with a broad pallet from which to choose, and almost limitless possibilities for mixing and matching diverse media elements to meet the needs of both the storyteller and the audience. The forms that digital stories can take vary from very simple text and audio approaches to elaborate multimedia productions incorporating video, animation and 3D modelling. What is significant about this versatility is that digital technologies enable, and encourage, new and diverse forms of stories to circulate in new and diverse forums that can be used to build community and transform regions.

Role of Storytelling in Local Community The potential role of storytelling at a community level affecting individuals and community collectives should not be underestimated. In communities and cultures that only have an oral tradition, storytelling is the foundation of their history, identity, and culture. But at a more basic level, it is the shared Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


experiences that we have with others and the telling of those experiences that form the bonds that we have between others and ourselves. For example, stories told of the outlaws Ned Kelly or Billy the Kid convey the spirit of individualism of the early settlers in Australia and the United States. Likewise, the stories of Geronimo in the United States convey the spirit of fighting the tide of cultural imperialism in the ‘taming’ of the Wild West. These stories are cultural icons that help us to frame our understanding of who we are as a people and as a community. A culture is created through communication and it is not so much the events that are told in the stories, but the telling of stories that builds the culture and community. This implies that there is a teller and a listener and that both are critical to the process. “The power of story…is its ability to create empathy and build relationships between different people and communities by connecting both the storyteller and the listener within a common narrative” (Third World Majority, 2002). This common narrative can be a powerful tool for mobilizing a group in the direction of community action, community service, or community development, collectively referred to as community practice (Taylor, 2002). Community practice is in the realm of citizenship and enlightened expectations identified in Level Four of the ‘Four Levels of Internet Self Empowerment’. There are many approaches being undertaken to actively involve teaching communities in telling their own stories. The approaches outlined below fall within the concept of learning groups or communities, which equates with the third level of the Internet Self Empowerment approach. This type of approach relies on an individual or individuals within the group sharing knowledge with others through the self-publishing process. While the examples below tend to indicate a prescriptive route to a type or form of digital storytelling, it is important to understand that storytelling is an art, and that personal expression will find its own form. The examples below outline how specific projects can work to get past the utopian ideal, and demonstrate practical applications of community practice.

Center for Digital Storytelling The Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS)3 in Berkley, California, is “dedicated to assisting people in using digital media to tell meaningful stories from their lives” (Center for Digital Storytelling, 2002). As a result of the time spent in researching and providing group workshops on digital storytelling, CDS has developed a set of resources aimed at teaching this art and collated them in a ‘cookbook’. The CDS suggests storytelling is meant to be a collaborative art, and the “Digital Storytelling Cookbook” demonstrates how this can be undertaken as a group process. The workshop approach of the CDS produces stories that are similar in form, but unique in content. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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Third World Majority The Third World Majority (TWM)4 is an organisation that utilizes a workshop-based approach to teaching digital storytelling as a means toward organising like-minded individuals dedicated to radical social change at a community level (Third World Majority, 2002). They use a curriculum built on the CDS approach. In explaining the “Community Digital Storytelling Movement” the TWM has identified three types of community-based stories: • Stories outside of communities for advocacy • Stories between communities for coalition-building • Stories within communities to reaffirm values, wisdom, and history

Global Action Project The Global Action Project (http://www.global-action.org) is a non-profit Internet organisation that has established formal networks around the world to support digital storytelling activities to facilitate global cultural change. The agenda of the organisation is to foster cultural difference and increase the ability of young people to both represent their cultures and articulate their own cultural and community stories. This agenda is evident in the group’s mission statement: GAP promotes the inclusion of diverse youth voices on critical local and global issues through public forums in which young people use their media as a springboard for dialogue and action. Our central goal is to provide young people with the artistic, literacy, and interpersonal skills that will improve their chances for higher education and meaningful careers, while they positively impact their schools, communities, and society (Global Action Project, 2002). The Global Action Project is staffed by both academics and practitioners of new media technologies who are willing to train young people — locally and internationally — in the art of digital storytelling, primarily through digital video technologies. The Global Action Project makes it possible for young people to travel to other countries to make documentaries about significant cultural issues in other regions, but also encourages them to look at local and regional cultural content as well. For example, the short movie 2 Homes was made by 16 refugees from Bosnia, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, and Serbia, and explored what it means to have two homes and two cultures: the homes they were forced to leave and the homes they settled into in New York (USA). Young people in GAP have also produced other documentaries on issues including inter-group relations, human rights, violence prevention, homelessness, and sexual health and identities. In these instances, digital technologies were used as a political tool to allow young people to speak out on issues that seriously impacted on their lives to activate social and political change in their local regions. For example, in Activate Not Reallocate students from New York Public High Schools express their



concerns about the elimination of a ‘drop-out prevention’ scheme for schools in the area. This project explicitly draws attention to both a significant local issue and the broader politics of how education interacts with issues of race and class. It also helps to highlight the links between education and new media literacy, a philosophy that is at the heart of the Global Action Group: Much has been written and said about how new media will provide new generations with a democratic and personal form of communication on a global scale. Yet, as the medium develops, the Web is increasingly dominated by the same international media conglomerates that have controlled traditional media. As a resource, it is still largely unavailable to those who are already under-represented by the media, including economically disadvantaged youth of color. Not only do 62% of NYC public school students live in poverty, but studies by the National Science Foundation and Vanderbilt University have found that even minority students who are able to surf the Web do not receive the same levels of practical computer training that would allow them to share in the economic benefits of the new media and technology industries (Global Action Project, 2002). This illustrates that digital and new media technologies, and/or the literacy to use them effectively, are still out of financial reach for many communities and individuals who have stories to tell. It also illustrates the important point that the mere presence of digital technologies will not facilitate positive cultural change. This kind of cautionary — rather than revolutionary — speak is, perhaps, what will ensure the survival of digital storytelling and allow it to compete on the Internet. It is only by being aware of the multiple ways in which the digital divide can and does continue to marginalise specific communities within cultural practice that these communities will be able to develop the strategies necessary to exist alongside mainstream media organisations on the web. What is required is not only the use of digital technologies but also a commitment by governance structures and community alike to community cultural development, education and social justice issues. This position is also endorsed by The National Conference for Community and Justice: Community-based access is a key element in using media positively, because the problem of media stereotyping is widely believed to be connected to institutional racism and lack of diversity in the media industry… By giving young people — especially youth of color — a voice through video, GAP is an important model of how community-based media can introduce many audiences to perspectives on social issues that are often ignored by the mainstream media (Global Action Project, 2002). Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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By giving young, economically and socially disadvantaged people access to digital technologies, the Global Action Project is a good example of the use of digital video technologies to facilitate regional and global cultural transformation. However, from our perspective, this project is socially transformative and ‘revolutionary’ not simply because it uses cutting-edge digital technologies, but because these technologies are being deployed by people with a clear understanding of the ‘politics’ of change, a commitment to social justice and a celebration of cultural diversity as a means of community cultural development.

WAY FORWARD In broadening the access to the ‘tools’ of cultural storytelling — and lessening the control mechanisms historically associated with the large scale ownership of media production — the use of digital technologies is having an impact on traditional models of cultural production. It is doing this in terms of who gets to produce cultural ‘stories’, how cultural stories are distributed and what these stories are ‘about’. The emergence of digital storytelling forums on the Internet allows for alternative, multiple and conflicting views on culture. Such diversity or plurality is culturally important, as it allows for the expression of a range of perspectives, stories and worldviews. It has been argued that the changes resulting from the use of ICT are likely to be different from the utopian dreams of just a few years ago. The potential for social, cultural and economic change exists, and will impact on the lives of many people. For the people who are interested in effecting these changes for the benefit of the broader community rather than the benefit of the few, it would seem that the way is becoming clearer. This way is closely associated with working with individuals so they can obtain the skills to first self-publish, then later to use those skills as part of the collective effort to affect the various aspects of community practice. This type of approach, as seen in the examples above, is approaching digital storytelling from a group perspective by teaching the skills of ICT and the skills of community practice in the same setting. This is a time intensive and difficult task that asks a great deal from both teacher and learner. The authors believe this is well worth the effort, but is not currently within the reach of many people. In addition to the examples above, there needs to be a concerted effort at the individual community level to first teach Level One skills and then incorporate those skills into self-publishing, learning communities and community practice. Many current organisations are available in developed countries to offer the Level One training skills. In order to capture the aspirations that many have for ICT to increase self-reliance at the community level, it is now important to move past the teaching of just the basic skills and begin integrating the technology into people’s everyday lives. But the number of people who will need to be aided Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


along this path in the coming years is high, and it is unreasonable to expect that all of those individuals will have the opportunity to attend formal classes teaching these skills. As an example of how to begin addressing these problems, the Community Informatics (COIN) Internet Academy in Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia introduced a successful model of social learning for developing learning groups. In the first 18 months, over 800 people passed through the basic level classes at COIN. The participants in this project attended the academy not as individuals, but as members of social community organisations. They were introduced to computers and the Internet in social groups where participants attended as members of a community group, usually with other members of the same community group. This took advantage of existing social contexts, and encouraged participants to continue learning with these sub-groups. After a year of this project, there have been a number of individuals who went on to complete train-the-trainer courses, and began teaching others basic computer skills in the community. COIN then introduced an online environment called Capricornia Online with the aim of enabling the existing graduates of the COIN training programs as well as other members of the geographic community to go on to develop skills in online self-publishing, developing learning communities, and participating in community practice. A mentoring relationship was established between COIN staff and members of the Capricornia Online community. Participants work one-on-one with the staff members and in exchange agree to participate in research on the process and to then become mentors to others in the community wishing to learn these skills. To facilitate the movement from basic level skills to community practice, some of the mentoring sessions were based on the idea of digital storytelling, where participants learn the advanced self-publishing skills as part of a storytelling process. The promise for the future of cultural creation by individuals telling their own stories to many others through mass mediated digital storytelling is great, though hardly a utopian promise. It is a promise that will require ‘buy-in’ from a number of people giving themselves to help others to obtain the skills and knowledge necessary to allow them to cross the digital divide and engage in self-publishing and community practice. This chapter has briefly described a number of examples of how this is being done. It is hoped that these can serve the reader well in establishing local efforts in other communities. Digital storytelling is a salient way of making technology fit into the context of anyone with a story to tell. Qualitative researchers in areas such as ethnography and participative action research may find the ideas presented in this chapter useful in the gathering of ‘meaning-based’ data or pursuing the integration of ‘self’ in presentation of research findings. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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ENDNOTES 1 2 3 4

WSIS – http://www.wsis.org CRIS – http://cris.comunica.org CDS – http://www.storycenter.org TWM – http://www.cultureisaweapon.org

REFERENCES Bailey, P. H. & Tilley, S. (2002). Methodological issues in nursing research: Storytelling and the interpretation of meaning in qualitative research. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 38(6), 574-583. Center for Digital Storytelling. (2002). What is digital storytelling? Retrieved November 19, 2002 from: http://www.storycenter.org/memboice/pages/ areasmain.html. Denzin, N. K. (1997). Interpretive ethnography: Ethnographic practices for the 21st century. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Ellis, C. & Bochner, A. P. (2000). Autoethnography, personal narrative, reflexivity: Researcher as subject. In Denzin, N.K. & Lincoln, Y.S. (Eds.), Handbook of Qualitative Research (2nd ed., pp. 733-768). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Fairbairn, G. & Carson, A. (2002). Writing about nursing research: A storytelling approach. Nurse Researcher, 10(1), 7-10. Global Action Project. (2002). Global Action Project. Retrieved June 28, 2002 from: http://www.global-action.org. Gurstein, M. (2003). Perspectives on urban and rural community informatics: Theory and performance community informatics and strategies for flexible networking. In Marshall, S., Taylor, W., & Yu, X. (Eds.), Closing the Digital Divide: Transforming Regional Economies and Communities with Information Technology. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. Jenkins, H. (1998). From Home[r] to the Holodeck: New Media and the Humanities Keynote address at the Post Innocence: Narrative textures and new media conference. Retrieved May 18, 2002 from: http:// Web.mit.edu/comm-forum/papers/jenkins_fh.html. Kamira, R. (2002). Te Mata O Te Tai — The Edge of the Tide: Rising Capacity in Information Technology of Maori in Aotearoa. Paper presented at the IT in Regional Areas Conference 2002, Using IT: Make IT Happen, Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia (August 27-29). Keeble, L. & Loader, B. D. (2001). Community informatics: Themes and issues. In Keeble, L. & Loader, B.D. (Eds.), Community Informatics: Shaping Computer-Mediated Social Relations (pp. 1-10). London: Routledge. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Makhmalbaf, S. (2000). The Digital Revolution and The Future Cinema Address at the Cannes Film Festival. Retrieved May 19, 2002 from: http:/ /www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/makhms.htm. Odasz, F. (2000). Echoes in the electronic wind: A Native American crosscultural Internet guide. Dillon, MO: Lone Eagle Consulting. Taylor, W. J. (2002). Unpublished Thesis: Factors Affecting the Adoption of Internet Technologies for Community Practice in a Regional Area. Unpublished Doctor of Philosophy, Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, Queensland Australia. Tharp, K. W. (2002). Online Community Networks for Enhancing Community Strength and Culture: A way forward? Paper presented at the IT in Regional Areas Conference 2002 — Using IT: Make IT Happen, Rockhampton, Queensland Australia (August 27-29). Third World Majority. (2002). Third World Majority. Retrieved December 1, 2002 from: http://www.cultureisaweapon.org. Tierney, W. G. (2002). Get real: Representing reality. Qualitative Studies in Education, 15(4), 385-398. Vickers, M. H. (2002). Researchers as storytellers: Writing on the edge — and without a safety net. Qualitative Inquiry, 8(5), 608-621.


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Chapter IV

Rethinking Schools and Community: The Knowledge Producing School Chris Bigum, Deakin University, Australia

ABSTRACT Schools appear in some accounts of community informatics as part of community, one of a number of organisations that need to be taken into account, perhaps on the basis of them being useful physical or human resources around which community informatics might be based. For their part, schools, at least in Australia, have been an important, early element in the broad take-up of computing and communication technologies (CCTs) by the community. Apart from the possibility of using school resources to support community access out of school time and based on what is published in both fields, schools and work in community informatics have tended to operate independently of one another. There are, nonetheless, interesting parallels in these two broad areas of activity which promote the use of CCTs. This chapter outlines a new research agenda in which schools Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

Rethinking Schools and Community: The Knowledge Producing School

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produce knowledge for local community and in doing so develop new and productive community partnerships. The development provides interesting opportunities for the transformation of regions via this approach to community informatics. The background to this project is based in the long history of using CCTs in schools. The chapter will argue that the way in which schools understand CCTs is crucial to shaping what is possible to be done with CCTs in schools. Shifting the emphasis from information to relationships opens up alternatives that provide opportunities for significant, new relationships with community.

INTRODUCTION The widespread deployment of computing and communication technologies (CCTs) is generally understood as being at the base of much of the current changes in social, cultural, economic and political spheres in many parts of the world. Interest in the use of these technologies to support and develop geolocal communities is a primary focus of community informatics (Gurstein, 2002). In a world which is much changed due to the use of CCTs, the needs of communities, particularly those that are distant from large population centres, have taken on new dimensions and forms. The literature related to Community Informatics reports a wide variety of responses to this challenge. In this chapter, I describe a project which has been developed in schools and which is based upon a rethink of the role of schools and in particular their relationship to local community. Schools appear in some accounts of community informatics as part of community, one of a number of organisations that need to be taken into account, perhaps on the basis of them being useful physical or human resources around which community informatics might be based (for instance, Casapulla, De Cindio, & Ripamonti, 2001; Mzdid10, 2001). For their part, schools, at least in Australia, have been an important, early element in the broad take-up of CCTs by the community. Their importance in this regard was recognised by vendors who participated in fierce contests to become a preferred provider to school systems (Bigum et al., 1987). Since that time, schools have remained important in terms of the take-up of CCTs in Australian communities. Apart from the possibility of using school resources to support community access out of school time and based on what is published in both fields, schools and work in community informatics have tended to operate independently of one another. There are, nonetheless, interesting parallels in these two broad areas of activity which promote the use of CCTs. This chapter outlines a new research agenda in which schools produce knowledge for local community and in doing so develop new and productive community partnerships. The development provides interesting opportunities for the transformation of regions via this approach to community informatics. The background to this project is based in the long history of using CCTs in schools. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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The chapter will argue that the way in which schools understand CCTs is crucial to shaping what is possible to be done with CCTs in schools. Shifting the emphasis from information to relationships opens up alternatives that provide opportunities for significant, new relationships with community.

BACKGROUND: SCHOOLS AND CCTS The argument begins in schools and in particular with their use of CCTs over the past twenty years. It was in the late 1970s that schools in Australia began to move computers of various kinds into classrooms and offices to support teaching and administration. The broad rationale, as is the case for the adoption of any new technology (Sproull & Kiesler, 1991), was for improvement. In the case of schools, CCTs were promoted as improving learning, improving job success post-school and later, with the advent of the Internet, improving access to information. These rationales have remained largely unchanged over twenty-odd years despite an almost total lack of evidence that supports them (Bigum, 1998). As Sproull and Kiesler (1991) argue, using CCTs in education or in any other field of human endeavour changes things and often in unpredictable ways, even though they are always justified in terms of improving things. If proponents of CCTs in schools had argued that unpredictable change would be the outcome of acquiring CCTs, they would have enjoyed little success in securing funds. Thus, rather than necessarily improving an existing set of circumstances, say for example, the teaching of geography, we might expect the teaching of geography to be changed when CCTs were deployed and changed in unpredictable ways. The question of whether things have improved becomes a more difficult issue and perhaps one that is less important than understanding how things have changed and what the implications of these changes are for teachers and learners. The paradox is always that to obtain the CCTs in the first place, claims about CCTs improving the teaching of geography are essential.

Schools and CCTs: Old Wine in New Bottles Over the past twenty years, there has been no shortage of studies that have studied changes associated with the use of CCTs in classrooms (for example, Becker, 1994; Lankshear et al., 1997; Coley, Cradler, & Engel, 1999). What is apparent in these and earlier studies (e.g., Bigum et al., 1987) is that most often CCTs have been made to conform to the requirements of the curriculum and the classroom. In a sense they have been domesticated, or as Tyack and Cuban (1995, p. 26) put it, “computers meet classrooms, classrooms win” (see also Hodas, 1996). This outcome is consistent with what happened with other, earlier technologies deployed in classrooms. They too were accompanied by similar promises of improved learning but succumbed to the long established practices



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and patterns of the classroom (Cuban, 1986). In short, what has happened can be summed up as putting the old wine of existing school practices into the new bottles of CCTs. The domestication of CCTs in schools might be usefully seen in terms of bringing together a resilient and long standing paper and pencil curriculum designed and developed to serve the needs of an industrial era, with a view of CCTs as educational or learning technologies. In other words, CCTs were understood in terms of supporting or improving the existing set of practices and assumptions of the school curriculum. With this mindset, what results is a focus on ‘the how’ of using CCTs in classrooms to support the existing set of practices. Little attention is paid to ‘the what’ and ‘the why’ (Bigum & Green, 1993); that is, for example, little or no consideration is given to what is now worth knowing given what CCTs are being used to do. Seeing CCTs as significant only in terms of how to teach and learn is related to a persistent ‘horseless carriage’ perspective1 on CCTs. This view regards the new, even though the new is in many respects now twenty years old, as not much different from the familiar and continues to see it in those terms. Thus teaching, learning, curriculum and assessment are supported, aided or managed with the help of CCTs. There is little consideration of the possibility that existing teaching, learning, curriculum or assessment practices may not be appropriate for a world increasingly shaped by the use of CCTs outside schools. Domestication produces a kind of reassurance that schools are doing something about CCTs. Such reassurances are implicit in the practices which are given labels like ‘information literacy’ or ‘computer literacy’. They are consistent with an assumption that the new, digital world is really not that different from the world for which schools have become so expert in preparing the young, a world that some argue no longer exists (Lankshear & Knobel, 2000; Lankshear, Peters, & Knobel, 2000).

More is Better At the heart of much of what goes on in the name of CCTs in schools is a view of CCTs as a broad kind of educational good. This makes the acquisition of more of these goods something that has become almost not negotiable at the level of resource allocation in schools. The ‘pig principle’, more is better, rules. This principle characterised the thinking about CCTs in a broad range of human activity in the 1980s and 1990s. The case of business on this issue is both illustrative and informative. In previous decades, it was relatively easy to argue that because CCTs were in and of themselves a ‘business good’ that more of them would guarantee greater efficiencies and higher profits. This logic dominated the early take-up of CCTs in business, and like education little attention was paid to testing the veracity of the relationship between expenditure on CCTs and profits. Recent work by Paul Strassman (1997) and others (see for example McAteer, 1995) highlights the difficulty of examining this relationship but in the Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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end clearly demonstrates that there is no simple association. As Strassman (1997, p. xv) puts it: Despite much talk about the cyber economy, information age, or knowledge-based enterprise, as yet there are no generally accepted economic or financial principles to guide executives in spending money on computers. Decision makers find it difficult to reconcile the claims of computer advocates with their staff’s ability to prove IT investments are profitable. Strassman is no luddite. On the contrary, Strassman is passionate in his belief in the significance of these technologies for the improvement of human existence. Unlike some proponents of CCTs, he carefully documents the complexity in business of obtaining improvements by using CCTs. Drawing on his analysis, he offers advice for business which shifts the focus from CCTs and their supposed inevitable goodness for business to a consideration of how investment in IT might be more rigorously assessed. In particular, he makes a strong case that it is impossible to generalise about expenditure on CCTs and outcomes and that each instance needs to be considered on its merits. The educational equivalent of this kind of thinking does not exist. There is no metric that, in education settings, might serve as the equivalent of the bottom line in business. Although the business-education comparison can be taken too far, Strassman’s analysis applied to education underlines the importance of moving beyond the hype-driven implementations that have largely characterised the use of CCTs in most areas of educational practice.

A Way Forward: Design Sensibilities and the Internet Michael Schrage (1998) uses the term design sensibility to describe the assumptions, biases, and points of view that are brought to the use of a particular technology. For instance, the assumption that IT is an educational good is a skew, a bias which informs how the technology is understood and used in schools. These technologies are often seen in terms of earlier technologies; for instance, the word processor as a better kind of typewriter or the spreadsheet as a better type of calculator. If we reject the design sensibility that CCTs are in and of themselves an educational good, what might be a better way to think about these technologies? For his part, Schrage is in no doubt that CCTs in education still need to be seen as a relatively poorly understood new medium, requiring careful and critical experimentation. Nevertheless, all of the careful experimentation possible will not help if we are not clear about the biases or assumptions we bring to the use of CCTs in schools, community informatics or in any field of human endeavour. Using Schrage’s notion of design sensibilities it is possible to interrogate further aspects of CCT use in schools. The Web is now a major focus for many schools. The design sensibility that appears to characterise much of what schools do is one based on information and Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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its delivery. On the surface of it this seems to be a design sensibility that is more or less obvious and useful in the current circumstances. There is, after all, a large industry that has grown up around the design and development of Web pages as sites for information delivery and retrieval. But, as Schrage (2000, n.p.) argues, basing one’s understanding of the Internet on information misreads things: To say that the Internet is about ‘information’ is a bit like saying that ‘cooking’ is about oven temperatures; it’s technically accurate but fundamentally untrue. The biggest impact that digital technologies are having and will continue to have, argues Schrage, are on the relationships between people and between people and organisations. This is not a new idea that CCTs or indeed any technology can be seen in terms of the relationships they affect or mediate, the new relationships they support and the relationships they terminate. This is the basis of Sproull and Kiesler’s argument (1991) cited earlier. What is important here is the emphasis or design sensibility that is placed on relationships rather than on information. There is a second consideration that needs to be made. A consequence of schools operating with an information sensibility regarding the Web is that the design sensibility is actually one of information consumption; that is the Web, for schools, is just another, albeit very large and disorganised, source of information from which schools can draw to support their curriculum work. Schools have always been, in one way or other, consumers, repackagers and redistributors of information to support student learning. The broadly held view of schools as places where students go to learn things underpins the way schools make use of the Web. This too seems obvious and educationally sound until this position is compared with that which operates beyond school, that of the socalled knowledge economy, in which information production is paramount. If the two circumstances are juxtaposed we have schools teaching students how to consume information in preparation for a world in which knowledge work (Drucker, 1993; Gee, Hull, & Lankshear, 1996; Boud & Garrick, 1999; Stiglitz, 1999) is the basis of much of the wealth production on the planet. Schools, of course, do produce information. They produce information about students and, in terms of the Web some promotional information about themselves. In an era of centralised surveillance of school systems they also produce data for the school system’s central monitoring and reporting facilities. But little of this kind of information is, at least in the current scheme of the knowledge economy, likely to be of much interest beyond management and system planning requirements. Potentially, there is another possible source of knowledge that some have argued is important to consider in terms of knowledge production, that of the professional knowledge of teachers. Hargreaves (1999) argues that there is an urgent need for improved professional knowledge and makes a case that schools could emulate the practices of some high technology firms and produce Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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and disseminate the professional knowledge of their teachers. There has been a long tradition for the production of professional knowledge among some groups of teachers and schools, particularly in the tradition of conducting action research (see for example, Dick, 2000). Clearly, there is some potential for knowledge/information production in schools, but if this new work was to develop within an information design sensibility the capacity of schools to articulate to the changed world beyond schools would be limited. An information design sensibility draws attention to the technology and not to the question of what new kinds of relationships might be explored. Working with a relationship design sensibility shifts the focus from CCTs to questions about the relationships which a school might have. In effect, it provides a way to move beyond the practices which derive from the symbolic role of CCTs (we have computers so we are a high technology school) and beyond the use of CCTs for the sake of CCTs (what educational work can we find for this technology to do?). Thinking about CCTs in schools in terms of relationships shifts the focus from the technology per se and problems of how best to integrate CCTs into the curriculum towards schools as social organisations, their internal relationships and those with the local community, government, and other schools. In effect, the focus shifts from the question “What on earth do we do with this new technology?” to “What kinds of relationships do we want to have with the world beyond our boundaries?” In other words, with a relationship design sensibility, the key questions to be considered are to do with new articulations beyond school. That is not to suggest that the existing relationships many schools currently have with their local communities and beyond are not significant nor that they need to be re-appraised. Graham (2001) argues that, “community is about integrative social relationships, not locality.” Schools, to some extent, provide a kind of integrative role for their locality, but what I am interested in here is examining new, additional relationships for schools; which means, in effect, examining the possibility of new purposes or roles for schools.

NEW RELATIONSHIPS Schools are physically located in a ‘community’, a label that can be confusing as it is also used to talk about those who work and attend school, as in a school community. In geographic terms, however, schools are located in or adjacent to clusters of homes, businesses and often industries; that is, in a geolocal community. In rural and remote locations in Australia, the school often operates as a kind of focus or centre for community activity. In general though, the school remains positioned in a design sensibility of teaching, learning and physical community resource, a safe place for the young to learn. Unlike schools, communities, however they are defined, have been less than safe in terms of the Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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influences of global flows of money, information and culture. The sudden movement of capital can make or break local businesses or industries. The flood of entertainment and information from other countries has been seen as something of a threat to local culture and identity. Making sense of the myriad messages that are now available via the mass media, the Internet, print, video and film is no simple matter. Making sense of global flows of information, money, and content though becomes increasingly important as these flows impinge on and have local effects. As Paul Saffo (1994, p. 75) argues, the scarce resource in an era of large amounts of information will be an ability to make sense of the plethora of material to hand. In other words, what will matter are expertise, point of view, and a place to stand from which to make decisions. ‘Point of view’ is that quintessentially human solution to information overload, an intuitive process of reducing things to an essential relevant and manageable minimum. Point of view is what successful media have trafficked in for centuries. Books are merely the congealed point of view of their authors, and we buy newspapers for the editorial point of view that shapes their content. We watch particular TV anchors for their point of view, and we take or ignore movie advice from our friends based on their point of view. Schools offer experiences designed to teach students particular points of view. We call them subjects. Increasingly however, the utility of the traditional school subjects to make sense of the world is being questioned (see for example, Bauman, 2001; Moore & Young, 2001). If we consider the situation for communities and regions, what might having a point of view mean? In one sense, communities and regions might be said to express their point of view when they are polled as occurs in elections for political office or in surveys. However, what other kinds of knowledge and information might communities and regions be said to have? Some knowledge and expertise reside in a community that could be seen as a kind of aggregate of the individual skills and knowledge of the members of that community or region. There are other knowledge that are more collective in nature, specifically, knowledge about the community as a whole. They range from the stories about community that informally circulate to more formal collections like local histories and neighbourhood or local government surveys. If we apply Saffo’s argument about point of view to communities or regions, then the one thing that a community or region can and will need to have more expertise in is knowledge about itself. In a world which appears destined to be increasingly shaped by financial and information forces which operate globally, having a rich source of knowledge about itself will provide a community or region with an improved basis from which to read and act on the global influences that it encounters. In other words, the production, accumulation and dissemination of local knowledge will become increasingly more valuable to communities and regions. At present, in Australia, any formal production of such knowledge is often dependent on funding from government. When it occurs it tends to be part Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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of larger, often national or state research whose priorities may or may not coincide with local interests and needs. Typically, data is collected from a region or community, processed in a capital and is usually designed to ask questions that either aggregate communities and regions or compare them on a basis devised by the funding authority. It is here that I suggest that there is an opportunity for schools to play a role in supporting communities and regions in the production of local knowledge. What follows is an account of the early exploration of some of these ideas by two schools, Waraburra State School in Central Queensland and Happy Valley State School in Mt. Isa. Both schools have taken on an agenda in which they are exploring new kinds of relationships beyond the school. To do this, they have begun to move from the relatively safe, ‘pretend’ space of conventional curriculum to doing work that is judged by local community as useful and valuable.

NEW RELATIONSHIPS WITH COMMUNITY: SCHOOLS AS KNOWLEDGE PROVIDERS At this point it is important to underline that this avenue of enquiry is exploratory but is strongly informed by a design sensibility that does not accept CCTs as an educational good in and of themselves. It reads the external world as much changed because of the deployment of CCTs. It sees these changes in terms of changed relationships which flow from new, additional modes of communication. It acknowledges that schools need to examine new kinds of relationships with the world outside and that this examination has implications for community informatics. It needs to be said that from a community perspective and from a school perspective this agenda poses interesting problems, many of which derive from the well-entrenched design sensibilities related to how schools are understood and how their conventional relationships with community are understood. These issues are illustrated in the brief accounts of some of the knowledge production at both schools. Waraburra SS has been working on this agenda for longer than Happy Valley SS. The design sensibilities or biases that inform this work are important to list. The most important of these might be stated as, “when in doubt, have students do the work2.” This notion is one that does not come easily to teachers; after all, schools are places where adults make most of the decisions and do the difficult work associated with schooling. A second key notion is that the work produces a product of some kind. Knowledge is understood in terms of producing an artefact or performance. Importantly, the product is something that is valuable to a community or group in a community. This is a key criterion. The problem, of course, is how this kind of work is negotiated. In this early stage of developing the agenda, both schools have relied on contacts in the local Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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community to negotiate projects. How a school gets to the point of being understood as a place that can do useful, valuable work for community is one of the key research questions. A third notion is that community is seen by the school as a source of specialist knowledge that can be taken into the school to support particular projects. Thus, the new relationships with community in this agenda are characterised by a two-way flow of knowledge. Producing knowledge is commonly understood in terms of written texts of one kind or other. For primary school age students, the production of written texts is a skill that is still being developed. What has happened at Waraburra is that CCTs, specifically those that support the production and editing of still and video images, have provided students with an alternative means of expressing themselves. Waraburra has a modest amount of CCTs by school standards, two to three per class, with a small central facility that allows easy editing of video and still images. What is interesting is the routine way in which all students at the school currently employ digital and video cameras to do their work. For storytelling occasions, students regularly opt to make a claymation movie.3 The move to use CCTs to support writing with cameras is recent for the school. In less than a year a broad base of expertise has developed among the staff and students that allows preparation of audiovisual presentations typically stored on CD-ROM. The school has begun to examine the implications of having students produce knowledge products that are directed at audiences beyond the school. When the principal was invited to talk about developments at the school to a state conference of primary school principals, she commissioned a group of year seven students to document the use of CCTs in the school on video and to produce a CD. The students completed the project and presented it to an audience of over two hundred principals at the conference. In another instance, in response to a class incident, a group of year seven students designed and produced a PowerPoint-based CD to offer advice to students about bullying. They scripted and filmed six scenarios, each with three alternative outcomes, to illustrate the consequences of what they labelled ‘weak’, ‘aggressive’, and ‘cool’ responses to a bully. They launched the interactive CD at a public meeting at the school and have marketed it to other schools. Other examples include year six students working with the local cattle sale yards to produce a documentary of the history of the sale yards for a Beef Expo in 2003. In another instance, year four students made movies as a part of their study of the local community, a fairly typical activity for students of this age. They filmed and edited a video of the community and local services copied it to a CD. The CD is now being considered by local council as a promotional device for potential new employees of a large industrial development. Products produced for the school community can be understood by students as being valued as well. A group of year six students at Waraburra became Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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interested in Japanese gardens through their classroom study of the language. They approached the principal with a project proposal to establish a garden in the school grounds on a site that was in disrepair. The problem they faced was how to locate the expertise they needed to design and build the garden. They located that expertise in a nearby town and negotiated their support in the project. At Happy Valley, a year six class is working with a local community organisation that is interested in finding out how the organisation and its role in community are perceived. These represent some of the first steps of both schools towards a fuller engagement with local community needs and interests and having students do work that is beyond the submit and tick style of assignment students commonly undertake in schools. They should not be read as examples of the communitybased research envisaged as an end point of this agenda. What matters, however, is that both schools are moving in this direction, informed by a design sensibility that is different from that typically found in many schools. They have adopted an approach which considers any request from outside the school in terms of the possibility of students doing the work. On one occasion a group of local principals visited the school to inspect the approach the school was employing in its use of CCTs. While teachers structured the day and spoke on some occasions to the group, there were three workshops for principals which were presented by students. One of these, how to make claymation movies, was taught by a group of year four students. The students were exemplary teachers. They offered encouragement, advice and gave instructions without taking over or doing it for the principals. The men and women sat on the floor in their suits and negotiated a plot with pieces of coloured plasticene and recorded more than 50 images using a digital camera. The students then taught them how to convert the stills into movie format. Although this event may not be hugely significant, it illustrates the commitment by the school to examine every opportunity of having their students work on tasks that matter to those beyond the school. Knowledge production in schools is not something new. What is different in the case of these schools is that the tasks derive from local needs or interests and are tested by an external audience. From this basis, the schools are beginning to examine other forms of knowledge production that will further develop them as sites where knowledge is produced and disseminated. Thinking about schools and the students in them as producers of knowledge, particularly knowledge that is valuable to the local community, is not a new idea. A number of agencies have from time to time made use of the labour of school students to support national and international research projects of one kind or another. Other agencies have made use of the labour of school children to do such things as counting vehicles on nearby roads, conducting surveys of community attitudes on environmental issues, monitoring local environmental indicators and contributing to national mappings of local famous identities. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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This work is some way from a school being understood in terms of its research capacities but the small investigations around student capabilities and community engagement are promising. A key question is, is it possible to move from a fragmented involvement in knowledge production of these kinds which are still largely within the ambit of what many schools do from time to time, to research activities which produce knowledge about the local community to support local needs and interests? Is it possible to move to a point where schools see research as one of the things they are good at and through which they can contribute to their local community? Two broad design sensibilities about the new learnings in a research functional school come together here: learning should be as authentic (in the sense of fidelity to mature or insider forms of social practice) as possible and that learning to research is crucial preparation for success in the new economies. It is important to be clear about learning to do research. Take the example of researching local histories. Oral histories should not be confused with recording conversations on tape. There are techniques and standards for doing good interviews. And if an oral history is to be an oral history (as distinct from an oral memorising out loud or whatever) it’s got to have some kind of historical method associated with it, which means teachers and students will need support in developing these skills. At Waraburra, there is a project that is developing around local heritage. The school is negotiating with an historian at the local university to provide students with knowledge about working as an historian.

THE FUTURE FOR THE KNOWLEDGE PRODUCING SCHOOL With support from groups in the community with specialist knowledge, schools could become a key location for the production, accumulation and dissemination of information about the local community, a hub for community informatics. Many teachers already do all kinds of interesting and potentially useful data collection with their students, but in a ‘fridge door’ design sensibility in which the data is rarely kept, the analyses are not shared beyond the classroom (except on a family’s fridge door) and it is unusual for the data to be stored and added to over time. With not much more effort and judicious use of CCTs, this could be changed. But importantly, simply doing research, collecting data and doing analyses will matter little if the local community does not value the work. And this is the hard part. Schools would have to be at least partially remade in the minds of the local community. It would not require a wholesale change, but project by project it would be possible to build up a repertoire of research skills and products in consultation with local needs and interests. Here there is a clear opportunity to develop links with community groups with informatics projects and contribute to the transformation of regions. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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The other elements of this research agenda are directed at finding out the kinds of research that can be sustained by different age cohorts, the professional support necessary for teachers to work in this way and the strategies to support and encourage these new kinds of school-community partnerships. Having students participate in such work is much more than simply employing them as inexpensive labour. The rigorous and systematic study of the local community is a worthwhile educational activity. Such work can be done, and what’s more, done well. If taken seriously it could provide the basis of new kinds of relationships with the local community and if taken up by schools in a region could be organised to provide significant and locally targeted research to inform policy and development. In this context, CCTs have a role in supporting and sustaining new relationships. The collection, analysis and dissemination of information is work that computers can support well. In this way, schools don’t do computers for computers’ sake. Schools can begin to play a different kind of role in support of community informatics and at the same time better prepare their students for a world in which research skills, knowledge production and partnerships are increasingly important.

ENDNOTES 1

2

3

Horseless carriage was the term first used to describe early motor vehicles which, to the horse-using population of the time, were similar to carriages but did not require horses for movement. This is not a new idea in the use of CCTs in schools or in education more generally but its occurrence tends to be infrequent. A simple example is the instance of multiple choice quiz generation software that appeared in the mid-1980s. Many teachers used the software to write quizzes for students. Some teachers, realising that writing a question requires a good deal more intellectual work than answering one, had students write quizzes for other students. Claymation or clay animation is the process by which animated film can be produced by taking a sequence of digital still pictures of clay figures which are slightly altered from frame to frame to give the appearance of animation when assembled into a movie. See for example, http://library.thinkquest.org/ 22316/home.html?tqskip=1.

REFERENCES Bauman, Z. (2001). The individualized society. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Becker, H. J. (1994). Analysis and trends of school use of new information technologies. Retrieved January 12, 2001 from The Office of Technology Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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Assessment Web site: http://www.gse.uci.edu/doehome/EdResource/Publications/EdTechUse/C-TBLCNT.htm. Bigum, C. (1998). Solutions in search of educational problems: Speaking for computers in schools. Educational Policy, 12(5), 586-601. Bigum, C. & Green, B. (1993). Curriculum and technology: Australian perspectives and debates. In D. L. Smith (Ed.), Curriculum and Technology: Australian Perspectives and Debates (pp. 105-122). Belconnen, ACT: Australian Curriculum Studies Association in association with Social Science Press. Bigum, C., Bonser, S., Evans, P., Groundwater-Smith, S., Grundy, S., Kemmis, S., McKenzie, D., McKinnon, D., O’Connor, M., Straton, R., & Willis, S. (1987). Coming to Terms with Computers in Schools. Report to the Commonwealth Schools Commission. Deakin Institute for Studies in Education, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia. Boud, D. & Garrick, J. (eds.). (1999). Understanding learning at work. London: Routledge. Casapulla, G., De Cindio, F., & Ripamonti, L. A. (2001). Community networks and access for all in the era of the free Internet: ‘Discovering the Treasure’ of community. In Keeble, L. & Loader, B.D. (Eds.), Community Networks and Access for All in the Era of the Free Internet: ‘Discovering the Treasure’ of Community (pp. 89-100). London: Routledge. Coley, R. J., Cradler, J., & Engel, P. K. (1999). Computers and classrooms: The status of technology in U.S. schools. Retrieved November 12, 2000 from Educational Testing Service Web site: http://www.ets.org/research/ pic/compclass.html. Cuban, L. (1986). Teachers and machines: The classroom use of technology since 1920. New York: Teachers College Press. Dick, B. (2000). A beginner’s guide to action research. Retrieved September 19, 2002 from: http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/gcm/ar/arp/guide.html. Drucker, P. F. (1993). Post-capitalist society. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Gee, J. P., Hull, G., & Lankshear, C. (1996). The new work order: Behind the language of the new capitalism. Sydney, Australia: Allen & Unwin. Graham, G. (2001). Community: The link across digital divides. Retrieved May 17, 2001 from: http://www.globalcn2001.org/completos/panel03.doc. Gurstein, M. (2002). Community informatics: Current status and future prospects. Retrieved October 19, 2002 from: Community Technology Review Web site: http://www.comtechreview.org/article_body_ws.asp? article_ID=82. Hargreaves, D. H. (1999). The knowledge-creating school. British Journal of Educational Studies, 47(2), 122-144. Hodas, S. (1996). Technology refusal and the organizational culture of schools. In Kling, R. (Ed.), Technology Refusal and the Organizational Culture of Schools (2nd ed., pp. 197-218). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M. (2000). Why digital epistemologies? Retrieved January 17, 2000 from Re-Open: Research in Open and Distance Learning Web site: http://www.edca.cqu.edu.au/lit/re-open. Lankshear, C., Bigum, C., Durrant, C., Green, B., Honan, E., Morgan, W., Murray, J., Snyder, I., & Wild, M. (1997). Digital rhetorics: Literacies and technologies in education — Current practices and future directions. (3 vols.) Project Report. Children’s Literacy National Projects, QUT/DEETYA, Brisbane, Australia. Lankshear, C., Peters, M., & Knobel, M. (2000). Information, knowledge and learning: Some issues facing epistemology and education in a digital age. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 34(1), 17-40. McAteer, J. F. (1995). Measuring the return on information technology (No. Report D95-1964): SRI International Business Intelligence Program. Moore, R. & Young, M. (2001). Knowledge and the curriculum in the sociology of education: Towards a reconceptualisation. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 22(4), 445-461. MZDID10. (2001). Community informatics strategies: Issues and resources. Retrieved November 10, 2002 from Community Informatics Web site: http:/ /www.vcn.bc.ca/lists/communityinformatics/200103/msg00085.html. Saffo, P. (1994). It’s the context, stupid. Wired, 2(3), 74-75. Schrage, M. (1998). Technology, silver bullets and big lies: Musings on the Information Age with author Michael Schrage. Educom Review, 33(1). Retrieved January 26, 2000 from: http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/review/reviewArticles/33132.html. Schrage, M. (2000). The relationship revolution. Retrieved January 26, 2000 from Merrill Lynch Forum Web site: http://www.ml.com/woml/forum/ relation.htm. Sproull, L. & Kiesler, S. (1991). Connections: New ways of working in the networked organization. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Stiglitz, J. E. (1999). Public policy for a knowledge economy. Retrieved February 15, 2002 from Center for Economic Policy Research, London Web site: http://www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/extme/knowledgeeconomy.pdf. Strassmann, P. A. (1997). The squandered computer : Evaluating the business alignment of information technologies. New Canaan, CT: Information Economics Press. Tyack, D. & Cuban, L. (1995). Tinkering toward Utopia. A century of public school reform. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.


Tasmanian Insights on ICT and Regional Development

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Chapter V

The Role of Place: Tasmanian Insights on ICT and Regional Development Dean Steer, University of Tasmania, Australia Paul Turner, University of Tasmania, Australia

ABSTRACT Despite continued rhetoric that information and communication technologies (ICTs) make ‘place’ irrelevant in a global networked economy, insights from regional areas suggest a different and more complex experience. This chapter examines the issues surrounding the concepts of place in regional areas and ICT-based regional development, as a vehicle to dispel some prevalent ICT-related themes that permeate discussions in this sphere. These issues open up a broader debate on what is meant by ICT-supported development in a regional context, how it can best be achieved and what insights have been developed from past experiences in Tasmania, Australia. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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INTRODUCTION “Since the early days of the Internet, the death of distance and the associated devaluation of geo-location have continued to be popular themes. However, as technologies, and our understandings of cyberspace have grown and matured, it is becoming evident that geography continues to exert its influence.” (Ramasubramanian, 2002) “It is no accident that there are so many successful semiconductor (companies) in California. It is not just that all the managers in California were smarter than the managers everywhere else.” (James, 2002) The prevalence of technological determinism1 and economic rationalism within academic and business discussions on the role of technology in regional development is witnessed by the recent emergence in the literature of the ‘king’s new clothes’ insight that ‘place’ still matters. For those living and working in regional Australia the reduction in basic services and lack of adequate or affordable telecommunications infrastructure has for some time been very much a part of their everyday experience of the ‘information economy’. From a research perspective, while information and communication technologies (ICTs) open the global economy up to a region they also expose it to global competition and its associated socio-economic uncertainties (Barling & Castleman, 2000; Coulthard, 2001; Wilde, Swatman, & Castleman, 2000). Clearly, glib statements promising regions unequivocal benefits from conducting business ‘anytime, anyplace, anywhere’ mask the more difficult processes of how to meaningfully evaluate the impacts of ICT on regional development. More significantly, there has been considerable confusion in the literature over what is meant by regional development, how it is to be achieved and what role ICT can play in reviving and sustaining regional communities. Until recently, research in this field has focused almost exclusively on the role of ICT in urban economic development or on its impact on farming enterprises. The impact of ICT on the social fabric of the community has been given little attention, with an implicit underlying assumption being — what is good for the economy is good for the community. More recently there has been recognition of the need to examine and assess the social, cultural, and psychological impact of ICT. However, despite the emergence of research on ICT in developing countries and to a lesser extent regional areas, the majority of this work continues to be centred on urban economic development. Given that ICT impact on all aspects of society, marginalising fundamental questions about the role of ICT in social and community development is highly problematic, particularly in less economically affluent regions. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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This chapter aims to examine some key issues surrounding the concept of place in regional areas of Australia as a vehicle to dispel some prevalent ICTrelated themes that permeate discussions on regional development. This analysis opens up a broader debate on what is meant by ICT-supported development in a regional context, how it may best be achieved and what insights have been developed from the Tasmanian (Australia) experience.

Defining Place One major difficulty in approaching issues surrounding ICT-related regional development is the issue of how best to define what (or more appropriately where) is being identified by the often interchangeably used terms ‘Regional’, ‘Rural’ and ‘Remote’. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)2 has already acknowledged that while numerous users of statistical data have requested a standard classification for place/location, this is problematic because of the conflicting meanings of the terms used by different users (ABS, 2001a). These issues are further compounded by some users adopting a flexible approach to definition; e.g., the Australian Department of Finance and Administration (DFA) usually defines regional Australia as non-metropolitan Australia but for specialised proposals broadens its definition to include all metropolitan areas excluding Melbourne and Sydney (DFA, 2001). While adopting a broad based definition may appear to be a simple solution to these definitional dilemmas (Curtin, 2001) we must remain sensitive to how the different assumptions implicit within these different definitions may have consequences for regional development. As the US experience illustrates, the multiple definitions at play in policy-making have resulted in disparate policy impacts for different rural areas3 (RUPRI, 2001). Given these issues, it is perhaps not surprising that many writers often avoid explicitly defining the place or the region under discussion. There are many reports and papers that do not attempt definition; for example, the NOIE (2000) report into ‘E-Commerce Across Australia’ uses the term region(s) in a generic sense without definition, and also does not define terms such as Metropolitan and Non-Metropolitan. Other well-known authors in this field such as Coulthard (2001) and Coulthard, Castleman, and Hewett (2000) use the abbreviation R-3 to represent rural, regional, and remote areas without any distinction between the component areas or between R-3 and non-R-3 areas. As with any conceptual definition, there are numerous ways that the term can be delineated (Luloff, 1999) and many suggested that trying to provide a generic definition of regional Australia is likely to create as many problems as it resolves (Beer, Maude, & Bolam, 1994; Elvidge, 1999; Foster, 2000; MacLeod, 2001). However, the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care (2001, p. 3) suggests: “In order to systematically tailor services to meet the needs of Australians living in regional Australia, ‘remoteness’… needs to be identified.” Furthermore, in the current climate of competition for funding, particularly Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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in Australia, there is a need to unambiguously identify and contextualize the area(s) under investigation, and at the very least, facilitate the comparison of ‘like for like’ (MacLeod, 2001). While this chapter is not proffering a solution, the lack of an official, consistent definition of ‘regional’ compounds the problem of consistent analysis when investigating the impact of ICT in these areas. This is particularly so for Tasmania where the state population (473,300) is of a similar size to the region4 of Newcastle, NSW, Australia, (487,843), where Hobart (194,388), Tasmania’s state capital city, is smaller than Wollongong, NSW, Australia, (266,666) and where a significant non-metropolitan area such as Launceston, TAS, Australia, (98,437) is less than two-thirds the size of Geelong, NSW, Australia (159,764) (ABS, 2001b). Although there is little doubt that accurate definitions for regional development policy are of importance, the impact and challenges of issues such as the global networked economy and the role of ICT generate their significance.

Regional Development and Technology According to the Institute for Sustainable Regional Development (ISRD) (2000) the most pressing challenge facing non-metropolitan Australia is “how to build an economically productive, socially viable and ecologically sustainable future” during a period of major structural change. While linking economy, society and environment together is an important step, it takes us no closer to identifying mechanisms to achieve it. Indeed, it can be argued that it may even distract us from the task. As Castleman (1998) states, “Sustainability has become a comforting word, a concept describing a future vision rather than a means of reaching it.” What is however evident, even to the Australian Prime Minister, is that regional Australia “has suffered through cuts to basic services” (NineMSN, 2002). Indeed it is clear that the gap between urban and regional Australia (however it is defined) is widening. In regional Australia the general trends of slower industrial growth, increased urban migration and the depletion in the quality and availability of basic services are tangible to even the casual observer. Unsurprisingly this context has provided fertile ground for the promises and hype associated with the Internet and the Information economy. There has also been a considerable amount of literature supporting the view that the widespread introduction of ICT will revitalise regional Australia. Governments at Federal and State levels have also been very active in funding programmes and initiatives aimed at ensuring regional Australia can capitalise on these ICT-related developments (Coulthard et al., 2000). In this context, there is therefore no question that ICT will impact on regional development. However, unfortunately it remains unclear whether this impact will, in the final analysis, be positive (Wilde et al., 2000; Coulthard, 2001). More Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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seriously, within the current conceptualisation of the issues, there is no way of meaningfully assessing whether the introduction of ICT will mitigate, exacerbate or simply replicate the pre-existing urban/regional divide. As a contribution to re-framing these issues and to conducting a detailed examination of ICT-related regional development, the next three sections explore three prevalent ICT-related themes that cloud current debates.

THEME 1: PLACE NO LONGER MATTERS The first prevalent ICT-related theme to be explored in the context of this chapter is that through the effective use of ICT the concept of place no longer matters. The argument is that by investing in ICT, regional areas will be able to participate in the global economy on an equal footing with the rest of the world. The quote below from the National Office for the Information Economy (NOIE) typifies the mantra that has been prevalent since the earliest days of the ‘Information revolution’; ICT equates to the ‘death of distance’: Australia is a land of great distances. We are a long way from most of the world’s markets. Participation in the information economy allows us to overcome the isolation of Australia in remote and rural areas and the disadvantages of national isolation from world markets… online services can build stronger and more viable regional communities, with enhanced investment, employment and skills, by providing better access for businesses to markets and market information, and enabling more efficient marketing and distribution of products and services (NOIE, 1998). While it is hard to deny that ICTs have been instrumental in connecting disparate regions to the ‘rest of the world’, the impacts of doing so have been far from uniform, and not always beneficial (Coulthard, 2001; Dutfield, 2002). There also remains the paradox, (particularly in Australia where most of its land mass is uninhabited or very sparsely populated), that the geographical ‘imperative of putting physical networks (optical fibres, mobile antennas and the like) in trenches, conduits and emplacements to drive market access’ still exists (Graham, 2001, p. 405). The lack of uniformity of benefits may be a reflection of the fact the there is no uniformity in the areas that are endeavouring to participate in the global economy. Therefore, it may be that the impact of ICT reflects the existing local regulatory, economic, and social environments, reemphasizing the role of places and people. Furthermore, ICT are primarily tools for moving data around the globe, and “while the power of distance has been eroded, it should not be confused with the diminished meaning of place” (Wilson, Corey, Mickens, & Mickens, 2001). Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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Wilson et al. (2001) also identify the paradoxical relationship of place and technologies; “As ICT become more ubiquitous and permeating … the actual importance of locality and spatial organization emerges.” This paradox can be seen in Tasmania, an Australian State that has been the recipient of substantial funding through programmes such as the Telstra T2 sale Social Bonus, of which $150 million was allocated for ICT-related development, infrastructure and service delivery (Tasmanian Govt., 2001). In 2001, 30 Software Developers in Tasmania (an industry for whom it might be reasonable to assume location and/or place was not significant) were surveyed by one of the chapter’s authors. Of those developers surveyed, approximately 20% of the respondents indicated that if they were to expand their businesses to include interstate markets, they would need to seriously consider relocating to the mainland. The two primary reasons given for this were: a) A perceived need for face-to-face meetings with prospective clients and the associated high cost of transportation, accommodation, and ‘wasted’ travel time. b) Perception that ‘made in Tasmania’ was not associated within these markets with high quality. The second point was identified as an issue for two of the respondents who were trying to sell to the Tasmanian Government. When trying to compete with interstate developers, the inference was if you were any good you would be in Melbourne or Sydney. This cannot easily be dismissed as being peculiar to Tasmania. As a report prepared for the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) notes, most of the Internet activity in North America still revolves around particular places. The implication being that those outside of these areas continue to struggle to participate in, and to receive the promised benefits from, the global marketplace. “As the majority of Internet activity is currently based in North America, and in particular the United States, it is interesting to note that this activity is concentrated in relatively small areas, most famously, Silicon Valley and Seattle (Microsoft’s and Amazon.com’s headquarters). This centralisation of the economic growth and resultant benefits has been of equal concern to the US Government as it has been to our own. Many regions in North America are struggling to capture the benefits of the Internet in the same ways as we are in Australia” (Simpson, 2001). It appears that, despite the promises, “the death of distance … is too simplistic a claim because it misses so many of the nuances of the structure and character of electronic interaction” (Wilson et al., 2001). Not only does place still Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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matter and wield a significant influence, but it also appears to have an even stronger influence in regional areas.

THEME 2: CLUSTERING LEADS TO COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE The second prevalent ICT-related theme to be explored in the context of this chapter is that through clustering, regions will automatically gain a competitive advantage. The argument is that ICT allow regions to organise existing and new business enterprises into clusters. It is then argued that synergies will automatically flow, which will then lead to exploitable competitive advantages. The quote below from Senator Nick Minchin, Australia’s Minister for Finance and Administration, supports the accepted wisdom that clustering equates to an exploitable competitive advantage. “It is worth reinforcing that if Australian business is to compete successfully in the modern economy, it is critical to form and maintain networks and linkages to maximise our competitive advantage.” (SABV2010, 2000) It is understandable that regions such as California’s Silicon Valley, which have experienced spectacular economic growth, have become attractive targets of emulation (DiGiovanna, 1996; MacLeod, 2001). However, MacLeod (2001, p. 809) offers a cautionary note by stating that “… policy prescriptions drafted for the purposes of renovating downbeat regions, but which are derived from theoretical investigations based on the selective experiences of ideal-typical hotspots, are misguided.” Further, Enright and Roberts (2001, p. 72) make the observation that “very little research has been published on industry clustering in Australia.” They also state, “Much of the investigation conducted to develop regional clusters in Australia has involved exploring and mapping the supply and distribution chains and networks of local industries and firms. Little research has been done to explore smart infrastructure and human capital requirements, core competencies, and marketing intelligence needed to support and sustain the development of local clusters” (Enright & Roberts, 2001, p. 73). Despite the lack of research, governments around Australia, at national, state and local levels are attempting to use clustering (and ICT clustering in particular) to stimulate economic growth with varying degrees of success and failure. Indeed, the very nature of these attempts may be detrimental to the entire Australia economy, thereby actually reducing any potential competitive advantages that might be acquired. As Gartner senior vice-president Bob Hayward has stated, “I deal a lot with multinationals making investment decisions in the (Asia Pacific) region and they often tell me that their vision of Australia is of seven countries that compete against each other rather than a continent-country that Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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gets its act together” (Janz, 2002). From a Tasmanian perspective this point resonates with the intra-state competition that exists between different regions within the state. Again, far from acquiring a competitive advantage all regions lose out due to their inability to plan strategically and act cooperatively. In Tasmania, the City of Launceston is promoting itself as the “City of Learning and Innovation” and as an Information Precinct (iPrecinct) with many ICT-related programmes and activities occurring in parallel with each other (LCC, 2001). One such programme is the Launceston Digital Development Forum (LDDF), which was established by the Tasmanian Electronic Commerce Centre (TeCC) to bring together key players with the aim of helping the Launceston community seize the ‘new economy’ opportunities available to the Launceston region (TeCC, 2002). However, simultaneously the City of Burnie, another regional city in Northern Tasmania, is also competing in the same space, recently declaring its Integrated Community Network (ICN) pilot programme (which saw the laying of fibre optic cable in the city), as “an exciting strategic initiative, which is in keeping with Burnie’s goal of becoming the information technology capital of Tasmania” (Arnold, 2001). This raises the obvious question as to how much competitive advantage can be derived at inter- or intra- regional levels when ‘everybody’ employs the same strategy. Given that no two regions are identical, is it tenable that the same rules for acquiring a competitive advantage through clustering be applied in a generic manner? Porter says, “Many business people still don’t understand that a lot of their competitive position is based on their location … you must understand and use your local strengths. Location counts as much as ever” (James, 2002). This emphasizes the point that any region is more than just the sum of its public infrastructure (sometimes referred to as hard infrastructure). Interaction and cooperation between the social, economic, and political (sometimes referred to as soft infrastructure) is what makes a region dynamic, and able to develop effective strategies. It is as much a product of the region’s capacity as any public infrastructure (MacLeod, 2001; Villeneuve & Gilbert, 1999). However, soft infrastructure is very difficult if not impossible to transfer or duplicate in different areas (MacLeod, 2001; Harris, 2002). Of course, not everyone agrees with the current preoccupation with regional competitiveness. MacLeod (2001, p. 819) cites Krugman as saying that, “competitiveness can become a ‘dangerous obsession’: one that … conveniently safeguards us from considering a whole host of awkward questions relating to the uneven power networks that enframe the new regional world.” Indeed, for all the resources that have been expended in an effort to emulate places such as Silicon Valley, it seems that we are no closer to understanding what makes a regional cluster succeed or fail (Garnsey, 1998).



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There is considerable evidence to suggest that place still makes a difference to the success of regional clusters, and that blindly applying generic principles without calibrating for unique local issues may adversely impact on the success of any regional cluster development project. If the benefits of clustering in regional development are not guaranteed, then perhaps there also needs to be a re-assessment of the promised benefits that have been made of ICT as being the catalyst of regional sustainability.

THEME 3: ICT CAN SUSTAIN REGIONAL AREAS The last prevalent ICT-related theme to be explored in the context of this chapter is that the implementation of ICT in regional cities and towns can halt and even turn around economic decline. The argument is that through ICT regional areas can be seamlessly integrated into the global economy thus creating the required economic framework to ensure sustainability. Again, the issue of definition emerges as a problem, because ‘sustainability’ has come to means different things to different people (Carroll & Stanfield, 2001). Historically sustainability has been associated with environmental issues, but the term has been adapted widely and broadened to include many different issues including economic, social and business. However, Carroll and Stanfield (2001, p. 470) also highlight that the “regional development literature has generally ignored the issue” of sustainability. A working definition of sustainability in the context of development used by Robertson cited in Carroll and Stanfield (2001, p. 470) is: “Sustainable development is loosely defined as economic enhancement that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.” Clearly however, regional sustainability needs to move beyond purely economic growth to involve the unification of economic and social imperatives to produce an improvement in the quality of life for those of the region (Carroll & Stanfield, 2001; Rossi, Salieri, & Sartori, 2002; Villeneuve & Gilbert, 1999). Unfortunately, while the impact of ICT on regional sustainability is as complex as it is paradoxical, it has remained buried in largely unquestioned dichotomies, which makes its assessment, at best, problematical (Castells, 2001; Wilde et al., 2000). The technology that facilitates almost instant worldwide communication and helps to give the perception of a ‘shrinking global neighbourhood’ is the same technology that some see as creating a divide within the local neighbourhood (Symonds, 1999). Despite regional sustainability exhibiting a complex nature (Gómez, Hunt, & Lamoureux, 1999), or perhaps because of it, the popular press, ICT advocates, politicians and much of the academic research has focused almost exclusively Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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on economic indicators. Within this framework, given the widening regional divide, it would seem that ICT-related developments, with a few exceptions, are not fulfilling their promises. The use or misuse of a single measure to evaluate the impact of ICT can be observed in Telstra chief executive officer Dr. Ziggy Switkowski’s address to the World Congress on IT in Adelaide in 2002 when referring to a slower than anticipated uptake of ADSL in Launceston: “… while you can build the field of dreams, will they come? Our experience from the Launceston project … is that the availability of broadband, even when priced below cost, is absolutely no indication of people’s willingness to use it at this time.” (Switkowski, 2002) Alternatively, if we broaden our conceptualisation of ICT-related development to incorporate social, community and environment, a more complex and ‘interesting’ exercise can be revealed. From this perspective the success or failure of the ICT-related programmes in centres such as Launceston would be accessed in far broader terms than just economics. Even for the most optimistic, it would be hard to argue that the concentration of ICT funding in Launceston has elevated the city to a position of economic global significance. However, the focus on assessing economics indicators alone misconceptualises the problems and does a disservice to the analysis of complex positive and negative impacts arising from the introduction of ICT on regional communities, businesses and environments (Lovering, 1999). Luloff (1999, p. 314) supports this view, stating, “Rural community development is far too complex to be adequately captured by the use of only one variable or measure and/or by one method of gathering data.” Further, Mansell, Steinmuller and When (1999) see similar problems when trying to compare the performances of different regions: “Current indicators or benchmarks for assessing how information society characteristics in local areas or regions compare with other regions are insufficient. … Policy makers are often left in the dark about how their region is performing over time.” Fortunately some understanding of these types of issues is emerging in economic and political circles where aggregated indicators are gaining a measure of acceptance as alternatives to measuring progress using accounting measures alone, such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP). For example, the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Index (HDI), and the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), are just two of the emerging measurement processes that recognise that economics alone does not accurately evaluate progress (ABS, 2002). Similarly, the regional development profession needs to develop empirically reliable methodologies and tools that assess the overall impact of ICT on sustainable regional development. It is essential that these methodologies and tools recognise the inter-relational nature of economic, social and environmental policy, so that regional progress can be reliably and Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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accurately demonstrated (Gómez et al., 1999; Haughton, 1998). More practically, it is obvious that the mere existence and availability of the technology to enhance regional development does not in and of itself guarantee use, nor does it assure the realization of the desired outcome (Gibbons, 2002; Hamelink, 1999; Mansell et al., 1999). Therefore, employing economic measures in isolation cannot assess the full impact of ICT on regional areas. Successful measurement must include ICT’s ability to enhance social integration, provide resilience to fluctuating global forces, develop the environment, strengthen the sense of community, improve lifestyle, and to provide easy and equitable access to services. Only then, when added to the economic measurements, can a complete assessment be made of the impact of ICT on regional areas.

CONCLUSIONS Regional development is a complex process, perhaps more of an art than science. It has been seen from the above discussion that much has been promised of ICT for regional areas. The promises have included economic sustainability, competitive advantage and the opportunity for connection to the global community. However, difficulties with the measurement of ICT’s impact and limited exploration of the problematical nature of the assumptions underlying these promises have clouded understanding and measurement of the experiences of regional Australia. To ensure that the true worth of ICT for regional areas can be examined, this chapter has revealed a need for a re-calibration from purely economic indictors to an aggregation of indicators including social, community, environment and economic. This exploratory chapter has examined issues surrounding the concept of place within discussions on ICT-related regional development. It has highlighted the prevalence of technological determinism in these discussions and contributed to a more meaningful conceptualisation of the role and impact of ICT-supported development in a regional context. Significantly, this chapter has promoted a more holistic view of ICT-related development that includes assessments specifically calibrated to capture the value of ICT.

ENDNOTES 1

2

The term technological determinism is attributed to Marshall McLuhan, who suggested that, “We shape our tools and then our tools shape us” (Merkel, 2000). The ABS currently deploys two separate classifications of location/place: (i) Section of State (defining rural localities as populations 200-999, and


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3

4

rural balance areas as populations under 200); (ii) Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA) measuring remoteness in terms of access along road networks to services centres defined as towns with more than 5000 population (ABS, 2001a). “Public policies have different impacts across space. Rural and urban areas face different issues based on economic, demographic, and location issues, and therefore have different policy needs…The implications and ramifications of different definitions of rural areas on policy design, implementation, and impact must be taken into account to avoid unanticipated or unintended effects” (RUPRI, 2000). ABS Statistical District boundaries

REFERENCES ABS. (2001a). ABS views on remoteness. Retrieved April 23, 2002 from: http:/ /www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/. ABS. (2001b). Australian demographic statistics. Retrieved July 15, 2002 from: http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/31010_dec+2001.pdf. ABS. (2002). Measuring Australia’s progress. Retrieved July 7, 2002 from: http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/1370-0_2002.pdf. Arnold, P. (2001). World class communications coming to Burnie. Retrieved April 23, 2002 from: http://www.icn.net.au/files/7-12-01-press-release.pdf. Barling, G.D. & Castleman, T. (2000). Investigating the impacts of technologies on rural, regional and remote Australia. Retrieved May 4, 2001 from Deakin University, School of Information Systems 2000 Working Papers Web site: http://www.deakin.edu.au/mis/research/Working_Papers _2000/2000_20_Barling.pdf. Beer, A. P., Maude, A., & Bolam, A. (1994). Beyond the capitals: Urban growth in regional Australia. Canberra: Australian Govt. Pub. Service. Carroll, M.C. & Stanfield, J.R. (2001). Sustainable regional development. Journal of Economic Issues, 35(2), 469-476. Castells, M. (2001). The Internet galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, business, and society. New York: Oxford University Press. Castleman, L.J.C. (1998). What is the relationship between the social and the economic in regional sustainability? In Falk, I. (Ed.), Learning Communities, Regional Sustainability and the Leaning Society: An International Symposium (pp. 81-86). Centre for Research and Learning, University of Tasmania, Launceston. Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care. (2001). Measuring remoteness: Accessibility/remoteness index of Australia (ARIA). Retrieved August 3, 2001 from: http://www.health.gov.au/pubs/hfsocc/ ocpanew14.pdf. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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Coulthard, D. (2001). eCommerce and the region: Not necessarily an unequivocal good. Retrieved May 3, 2001 from: http://www.deakin.edu.au/ mis/research/Working_Papers_2001/2001_07_Coulthard.pdf. Coulthard, D., Castleman, T., & Hewett, B. (2000). Riding on the Internet’s back: Can rural communities use information technologies for economic development? Retrieved May 3, 2001 from: http:// www.deakin.edu.au/mis/research/Working_Papers_2000/ 2000_14_Coulthard.pdf. Curtin, J. (2001). A digital divide in rural and regional Australia? Retrieved April 30, 2002 from: http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/cib/2001-02/ 02cib01.htm. DFA. (2001). Definitions. Retrieved April 22, 2002 from: http:// www.finance.gov.au/ctc/toolkits/indevel/definitions_id.html. DiGiovanna, S. (1996). Industrial districts and regional economic development: A regional approach. Regional Studies, 30(4), 373-386. Dutfield, S. (2002). Place and non-place. Retrieved April 22, 2002 from: http:/ /diac.cpsr.org/cgi-bin/diac02/pattern.cgi/public?pattern_id=179. Elvidge, N. (1999). Efficiency and Equity Effects of Suburbanised Retailing Systems in Australian Regional Cities (Doctoral Thesis). Retrieved August 22, 2002 from University of Queensland, Department of Geographical Sciences and Planning Web site: http://adt.library.uq.edu.au/public/adtQU1999.0006/. Enright, M.J. & Roberts, B.H. (2001). Regional clustering in Australia. Australian Journal of Management, 26, 65-86. Foster, K.A. (2000). “Being like a region”: Framing issues for a roundtable on regions, regional identity, and regionalism in Greater Boston. Retrieved October 22, 2002 from: http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/rappaport/ forums/Being Like a Region.pdf. Garnsey, E. (1998). The genesis of the high technology milieu: A study in complexity. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 22(3),361-377. Gibbons, P. (2002). Using technology for social engagement of the aged. Retrieved April 28, 2002 from: http://diac.cpsr.org/cgi-bin/diac02/pattern.cgi/ public?pattern_id=39. Gómez, R., Hunt, P., & Lamoureux, E. (1999) Focus on telecentres: How can they contribute to social development? Canada: International Development Research Center (IDRC). Retrieved June 24, 2002 from: http:// www.idrc.ca/pan/chasqui.html. Graham, S. (2001). Information technologies and reconfiguration of urban space. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 25(2), 405-410.


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Hamelink, C. (1999). ICTs and social development: The global policy context. UNRISD Discussion Paper, 116. Geneva: United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. Retrieved September 24, 2002 from: http://www.acca21.org.cn/info21/link/bg/info/4/toc.htm. Harris, R. (2002). Research partnerships to support rural communities in Malaysia with information and communication technologies. In Lazar, J. (Ed.), Managing IT/Community Partnerships in the 21st Century. Hershey, PA: Idea Group Publishing. Haughton, G. (1998). Principles and practice of community economic development. Regional Studies, 32(9), 872-877. ISRD. (2000). Regional sustainability. Retrieved April 16, 2002 from: http:// www.isrd.cqu.edu.au/isrd/regional/regional.htm. James, D. (2002). How to kick global goals. BRW, 24(12), 50-55. Janz, C. (2002). State rivalry hurts nation: Analyst. Australian IT, Sydney. LCC. (2001). Launceston City Council - prospectus. Retrieved February 10, 2002 from: http://www.elaunceston.com/info/intro.html. Lovering, J. (1999). Theory led by policy: The inadequacies of the ‘new regionalism’ (Illustrated from the case of Wales). International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 23(2), 379-395. Luloff, A.E. (1999). The doing of rural community development research. Rural Society, 9(1), 313-328. MacLeod, G. (2001). New regionalism reconsidered: Globalization and the remaking of political economic space. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 25(4), 804-829. Mansell, R., Steinmuller, W.E., & When, U. (1999). Indicators of a sustainable society: Policy analysis and application. The IPTS Report, 32. Retrieved September 10, 2002 from: http://www.jrc.es/pages/f-report.en.html. NineMSN. (2002). PM pledges to help country towns survive. Retrieved May 9, 2002 from: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/National/story_28144.asp. NOIE. (1998). A strategic framework for the information economy: Identifying priorities for action. Retrieved March 12, 2002 from: www.noie.gov.au/projects/information_economy/strategic_framework/ dec98_strategy.htm. NOIE. (2000). e-Commerce across Australia. Retrieved September 13, 2002 from: http://www.noie.gov.au/publications/NOIE/ecommerce_analysis/ eCommerceAcrossAustralia.pdf. Ramasubramanian, L. (2002). The power of “place”: Framing IT’s role in social capital formation. Retrieved May 1, 2002 from: http://www.ccnr.net/ 2002/abstracts/laxmi.htm. Rossi, G.B., Salieri, P., & Sartori, S. (2002). Measurement growth in a total quality perspective. Measurement, 32, 117-123.



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RUPRI. (2000). The importance of place in public policy. Retrieved January 16, 2003 from http://www.rupri.org/policyres/context/pubpolicy.html. RUPRI. (2001). Defining rural: Definitions of rural areas in the U.S. Retrieved April 22, 2002 from: http://www.rupri.org/policyres/context/ rural.html. SABV2010. (2000). Cluster community news, Number 5. Retrieved January 20, 2002 from http://www.clusters.com.au/Documents/July00.pdf. Simpson, R. (2001). The Internet and regional Australia: How rural communities can address the impact of the Internet. Retrieved April 20, 2002 from http://www.rirdc.gov.au/reports/HCC/01-087.pdf. Switkowski, Z. (2002). Next generation telecommunications: Unleashing the power. Adelaide: World Congress on IT 2002. Retrieved July 12, 2002 from: http://www.telstra.com.au/newsroom/speech.cfm?Speech=18821. Symonds, J. (1999). Social and economic benefit in public regional Internet facilities. Proceeding of the 10th Australasian Conference on Information Systems, (pp. 919-930). Retrieved April 10, 2002 from: www.vuw.ac.nz/ acis99/Papers/PaperSymonds-053.pdf. Tasmanian Govt. (2001). Second Telstra sale social bonus package. Retrieved April 28, 2002 from: http://www.go.tas.gov.au/telstra/tsbupdate_ dec2001.htm. TeCC. (2002). Launceston digital development forum. Retrieved December 10, 2002 from: http://www.tecc.com.au/3News_and_Events/2Calendar_of_ events/index.asp. Villeneuve, P. & Gilbert, A. (1999). Social space, regional development, and the Infobahn. Canadian Geographer, 43(2), 114-117. Wilde, W.D., Swatman, P.A., & Castleman, T. (2000). Investigating the impact of IT&T on rural, regional and remote Australia. Colorado: Proceedings of CollECTeR (USA) 2000. Retrieved December 7, 2001 from: http://www.collecter.org/Wilde.pdf. Wilson, M.I., Corey, K.E., Mickens, C., & Mickens, H.P. (2001). Death of distance/rise of place: The impact of the Internet on locality and spatial organization. Stockholm, Sweden: INET 2001 Conference. Retrieved April 7, 2002 from: http://www.isoc.org/isoc/conferences/inet//01/ CD_proceedings/U128/INET2001-U128.htm (Permission received to quote).


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SECTION II CI

IN

REMOTE

RURAL AND COMMUNITIES


Issues and Strategies for Project Planners

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Chapter VI

The Design and Implementation of Rural Communication Technology Initiatives: Issues and Strategies for Project Planners Lyn Simpson, Queensland University of Technology, Australia Leonie Daws, Kihi Consultancies, Australia Leanne Wood, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

ABSTRACT Communication technology initiatives have proved to be an important influence in rural communities in recent years. Our research has demonstrated that such initiatives have far-reaching effects on a community’s formal and informal social networks and, as a result, on its social capital. Given this fact, it is critical that leaders and management committees of community technology projects are aware of the broader social context in which project activities take place, and the potential interactions that can both benefit and damage community social capital. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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This chapter addresses key issues that have arisen out of a number of major communication technology projects in Queensland, Australia, and draws upon our findings to propose guidelines that will assist project planners with the design and implementation of future communication technology initiatives in the context of regional and rural community development.

INTRODUCTION Communication technology initiatives are increasingly being perceived as an important influence in rural communities, and a potential remedy for rural decline. As we point out below, while there is some evidence to encourage such a view, the literature and our research suggest that the implementation of communication technology initiatives in rural communities can be problematic. First, narrowly conceived initiatives that focus on the installation and upgrading of communication technology hardware and infrastructure may show relatively little return for significant investments of financial and community resources, and may not be sustainable past initial project funding. Second, communication technology initiatives may have far-reaching effects on a community’s formal and informal social networks and, as a result, on its social capital. Given these issues, it is critical that leaders and management committees of community technology projects, and others involved in project planning, are aware of the broader social context in which project activities take place. This includes an awareness of the potential interactions that can either help or hinder project implementation and benefit or damage community social capital. Stakeholders in these processes may include federal, state and local government personnel, community development workers and others in the community responsible for the design and implementation of communication technology initiatives. Drawing on research undertaken over the past five years, this chapter identifies issues arising from a number of communication technology projects in rural and regional Queensland, Australia, and suggests strategies for designing and implementing communication technology initiatives to assist project planners to respond to these issues. A social capital perspective is employed to ensure that strategies are comprehensive and embedded in a broad understanding of the social context and consequences of implementing communication technology initiatives in rural communities. Such a perspective emphasises the intangible social features of community life, such as shared values and norms, trust, participation in networks, proactivity, reciprocity and a strong sense of community that can, as Longo (1999, p. 11) notes, potentially contribute to the well-being of that community (Simpson et al., 2001, pp. 23-26).



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BACKGROUND Changes in agricultural production and marketing, the move towards service-based economies, based in cities, and the outcomes of government focus on economic rather than social issues (Sher & Sher, 1994) have had variable and complex impacts on rural regions, industries and communities in Australia. In many areas, these changes have resulted in declining rural service and infrastructure provision, increased unemployment and loss of population (Haberkorn et al., 2000; Lawrence, 1996). Kingma et al. (1999, p. 5) identified the need for provision of an adequate infrastructure base and significant re-skilling “within a continuous learning environment” as among the steps required to address this rural decline. In this context, access to advanced communications and information systems is increasingly being seen as critical for both economic and social wellbeing of communities in Australia (Barlow, 1997) and across the globe (Talero & Gaudette, 1995). For example, the Information Policy Advisory Council report (1997) discusses “deploying the true miracles of the communications and information revolution to transform rural Australia, to break down the barriers between metropolitan and country Australia, and … to create new futures for all Australians.” Some research offers encouragement, reporting the success of communication technology initiatives such as the introduction of telecottages and telecentres both internationally and within Australia (Albrechtsen, 1998; Horner & Reeve, 1991; Hunter, 1999). Other studies (e.g., Easdown, 1997; Dabinett, 2000) have raised concerns about the impact of communication technology initiatives on rural communities, and the conditions that affect implementation of such initiatives. Some communities have discovered that “government interventions that neglect or undermine [the] social infrastructure can go seriously awry,” and that well-intentioned projects can “heedlessly ravage existing social networks” (Putnam, 1993, p. 4), both by creating new pressures on previously sound community networks, and by being a catalyst for ‘cracks’ that may already exist in the town’s social infrastructure. In his discussion of failed community communication technology initiatives in Britain, Dabinett (2000) suggested that reasons for the projects’ failure could include the tension between commercial and community aspects of the network, poor communications, unrealistic expectations, conflicting agendas, a continual need for capital and a degree of strategic and operational mismanagement. This literature and research on the diffusion of innovation (Kautz & Larsen, 2000; Rogers, 1995; Valente, 1996; Valente & Davis, 1999), suggest that a number of definable elements provide crucial foundations for effective, sustainable communication technology implementation. Implementation needs to be facilitated by a prepared technical environment but, equally importantly, the



target community needs to be ready to engage with the technology (Easdown, 1997; Gillard et al., 1996; The Rural Women and ICTs Research Team, 1999). The extent to which social capital exists in a community is a critical factor in determining readiness to engage with communication technology initiatives. We follow Longo (1999, p. 11) in defining social capital as the intangible social features of community life — such as trust and cooperation between individuals and within groups, actions and behaviour expected from community members, networks of interaction between community members, and actions taken by community members for reasons other than financial motives or legal obligations — that can potentially contribute to the well-being of that community (emphasis added). Effective planning for communication technology initiatives needs to take account of the existing levels of social capital present in a community, and incorporate strategies directed towards building community capacity — that is, strengthening people’s knowledge, skills and attitudes so that they can establish and sustain development of their local area (Mannion, 1996). Drawing upon the literature discussed above, coupled with the community development literature (Lane & Dorfman, 1997; Wilkinson, 1989) and our own research experience, we argue that there are two key components to the process of building community capacity — soft technology and social infrastructure, defined below. These components interact with one another, and with existing levels of social capital. Planning for the introduction of new communication technology initiatives, therefore, needs to address building community capacity through strategies addressing soft technology and social infrastructure. Thus we need to view communication technology initiatives from a holistic perspective in order to fully appreciate the complexities that impact upon their uptake. As we have argued elsewhere (Simpson et al., 2001), an adequate conceptual framework will incorporate the following key components: • hard technology — the telecommunications infrastructure and physical equipment that underpins the delivery of communication technology. Physical equipment includes such elements as telephones, computers, modems and fax machines, while infrastructure includes satellites, cables, Internet points of presence and, in remote areas, electricity. • soft technology — the formal and informal activities and interactions that develop skills and knowledge required to maximise the use of hard technology including awareness raising, education and training, and activities that build leadership, decision-making and conflict resolution skills and the capacity for reflection and envisioning new futures. • social infrastructure — the structural arrangements (occasions and resources) that enable individuals and groups to interact with one another, including community organisations and institutions, networks, volunteerism, and community services and resources.



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While the hard telecommunications infrastructure provides a necessary base, the interlocking dimensions of soft technology and social infrastructure provide the foundations for the growth of social capital. Social capital is, in turn, an enabler that stimulates community development — in this instance, development through communication technology initiatives. This social capital framework is applied below in our discussion of issues affecting the uptake of communication technology initiatives in rural communities and our identification of strategies to address these issues.

CREATING RURAL CONNECTIONS: A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF OUR RESEARCH The Creating Rural Connections research project involved case studies conducted in the Central West and Atherton Tablelands regions of Queensland, Australia, during the period 1998-2001 (Simpson et al., 2001).1 The research evaluated the social and economic impact of, and assessed future demand for, new information and communication technologies in rural and regional communities. Each region encompasses a number of small towns that provided the sites for focus groups, interviews and community meetings.2 During the course of the research, several major and minor communication technology initiatives were funded in each region through Australia’s federal government program, Networking the Nation.3 These included Online Channels for the Channel Country in the Central West and Tablelands Online on the Atherton Tablelands. Both these projects aimed to determine community need for communication technology; establish telecentres and expand or establish community Internet access points in smaller, more remote towns and provide training and awareness-raising in using the Internet. Other projects included in our research included the Cape York Digital Network project, targeting narrow band digital network and satellite services for indigenous communities on Cape York Peninsula, North Queensland; the ESSENCE project, providing public access and Internet training for Eacham Shire, North Queensland; the Blackall Bushlink Internet Café, Central Western Queensland; and the BridgIT project, a Queensland-wide Internet training project conducted by the Queensland Rural Women’s Network.4 We also drew on insights gained from small-scale interventions initiated as part of our wider ongoing research. These included e-mail discussion forums (welink, melink and rural_connect), the online Australian Small Businesswomen’s Directory, and the Tablelands Women’s Internet Training Project (see Wood et al., 2001). Taken overall, these communication technology initiatives and interventions constitute a broad range of community-based projects with varying management Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


structures, different objectives and diverse target communities and audiences and a sound and comprehensive platform for informing the design of rural communication technology initiatives.

ISSUES AND STRATEGIES IN IMPLEMENTING COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVES IN RURAL COMMUNITIES It is beyond the scope of this chapter to elaborate in detail on our findings, which are reported in full elsewhere (The Rural Women and ICTs Research Team, 1999; Simpson et al., 2001; Daws et al., 2001; Seinen et al., 2001; Wood et al., 2001). The sections that follow present a range of the issues we identified, together with strategies that may be used by project planners to address these issues. While these are presented according to the headings suggested by our social capital framework for the purpose of orderly discussion, we recognise that in reality these components of the process are inextricably intertwined.

Hard Technology The primary focus of region-wide communication technology projects in the case study regions was hard technology, particularly the installation of public access point hardware. Common experiences included: • difficulties in planning for future communication technology infrastructure because of the commercial-in-confidence status of some of the major telecommunications service providers’ plans for telecommunications in rural areas, and the speed of evolution of telecommunications technology; • the need for ongoing monitoring of existing and planned initiatives to avoid duplication and facilitate collaboration; • the importance of timing. Hard technology initiatives needed to be implemented in the context of other soft technology activities and initiatives in the region, and the community’s current level of awareness and readiness; • the dilemma facing project planners who were required to make decisions regarding hard technology before the community fully understood the potential of communication technology to address their needs; and • the shortage, and in some cases total absence, of suitably qualified and experienced technical support personnel to service and maintain equipment and infrastructure. There was little evidence of knowledge of adaptive technologies and purpose-specific software solutions to ensure access for people with disabilities amongst local technicians.



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From this, it is evident that an accurate inventory of the hard technology that currently exists in the community is critical to provide a strong foundation for a comprehensive assessment of the community’s hard technology needs. This includes assessing levels of access, as well as the availability of equipment and infrastructure. Our research indicated that planning for inclusive access should address the following: • a range of locations for the placement of the technology; • a range of times (including after-hours and weekends) for access to the technology; • strategies that build comfortable and supportive environments for the diversity of users; • the range of technology provided by the project, including technology with specific modifications for those with disabilities; • the need for technical support through longer-term solutions, including the expansion and continuation of locally-based technical traineeship schemes; and • funding ongoing training for existing computer technicians through project budgets or associated activities, including ensuring that local technicians have knowledge of adaptive technologies and purpose-specific software solutions to ensure access for people with disabilities. Our research also suggests that consideration could be given to providing access to ancillary equipment to build a technology resource centre for the community, or identifying other local initiatives where synergies may be achieved. The creation of partnerships across organisations, sectors and institutions was found to be an effective way to maximise use of hardware resources. However, there has been little evidence to date of any impact on community social capital that could be attributed solely to the installation of communication technology hardware. Other factors, such as attention to soft technology and social infrastructure, were crucial in maximising usage of the hard technology and ensuring that the provision of hard technology was not simply a waste of resources.

Soft Technology Soft technology initiatives, particularly awareness-raising and training initiatives, were most effective when they offered inexpensive, personalised Internet training, either on site or in the local community, and where follow-up e-mail, telephone or peer support was available. Such activities played an important role in creating the desire, motivation and enthusiasm to learn more. Awareness-raising needed to be relevant to the local environment, local needs and current levels of community awareness, and to target as broad an audience as possible. The identification of ‘local champions’ — people with local Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


credibility and influence, who were willing to support the project’s aims — to encourage participation in awareness-raising activities, was found to be an effective means of reaching a broad spectrum of community members. For example, the presence of active local champions assisted the BridgIT project to engage approximately 500 people in training in the Central West during its first eighteen months — a significant achievement given the sparse population of that region. ‘Hands-on’ trials of new technology proved to be a very effective motivator, particularly when follow-up training was provided for those participants who were motivated to learn more. The research found that to maximise uptake of communication technology initiatives, and to ensure optimum community benefit, project planners should consider: • identifying the soft technology requirements of their community and planning a variety of appropriate interventions to meet the diverse range and levels of need across all sectors of the community; • planning that acknowledges the critical role education and training activities play in building the skills, confidence and comfort of community members. Activities need to provide social support for learners, offer flexible entry into introductory and advanced training programs to address all levels of experience and types of need, and be ongoing; • ensuring influential leaders, both formal and informal, are involved in the project as early as possible; • planning to capitalise on the influence of local champions as change agents; • needs for awareness-raising, education and training; and • incorporating activities that build leadership, as well as other capacitybuilding activities such as conflict resolution and visioning. The research across the projects examined found that training should provide for a range of prior skills and knowledge, and make provision for ongoing opportunities to access education and training to allow for different rates of uptake. In practical terms this means: • designing training that has flexible modes of delivery, time of delivery, and sequencing; • providing training in a range of venues and environments to encourage participation by all; and • staggering the introduction of advanced levels of training to match growing community competence. Project planners should also consider how ongoing training needs can be met, and soft technology support extended, beyond the life of project funding. Other researchers (e.g., Rogers, 1995) have also found that closing down awareness-raising and training too early may exclude late adopters from benefiting from a new communication technology initiative. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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We found that the benefits of training were enhanced when training initiatives were accompanied by strategies to build social infrastructure — for example, by establishing local support groups, or by identifying diverse people with local credibility to actually provide the education and training. This was particularly important when extending training to groups traditionally marginalised by issues such as ethnicity, culture, language, geography, age and/or gender. Encouraging this diverse range of people to take formal or informal leadership roles by presenting training or leading other project activities was found to encourage local leadership to emerge, and to build the leadership skills of emergent local leaders. Our research suggests that other strategies to further enhance the community’s capacity could include: • ancillary strategies to build local capacity such as specific training in project management skills; • strategies to assist the community to deal with the tensions or conflict that may arise from project interventions; • strategies to assist the community with visioning and planning processes for new applications or activities arising from the use of the communication technology; and/or • addressing other community needs via project activities such as incorporating ‘literacy through technology’ training.

Social Infrastructure Some of the communication technology initiatives studied as part of our research had substantial unforeseen impacts on the existing social infrastructure in their communities. Some of these were beneficial — for example, training conducted through public access points brought together groups who had previously had little contact with each other. This was an effective way of strengthening inclusive cross-community networks, which are a critical element of social capital. At the same time, however, the increased demand on community members for voluntary involvement with the new project was only achieved at the expense of involvement with previously existing social groups, such as those supporting local sporting teams. Sporting teams and other social groups play a critical role in the social networks of small rural towns. Their depletion had an impact on the whole community, as longstanding social networks based on collaboration and reciprocity were undermined, and opportunities for diverse leadership diminished. These negative impacts were exacerbated in instances where the communication technology initiative ultimately failed. Often, high expectations generated by these projects went unmet, and the new social networks formed through the projects were left without support or purpose. The contrast between the outcomes of these initiatives provided evidence that project planners need to take into account: Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


• •

•

•

the importance of both recognising and tapping into formal and informal networks to achieve widespread diffusion; that networks are not necessarily defined by membership of identifiable informal and formal groups. Working with local networks requires recognition of ‘who talks to whom’; the value of inclusive strategies that make available untapped social resources and local knowledge, and enhance the development of network ties; and the dangers of overburdening volunteers who have finite reserves of time and energy.

These findings underpin the need for project planners to map the community’s existing social infrastructure. Doing so will assist in the identification of infrastructure gaps that need to be resourced through external sources, and help to meet the needs of formal and informal organisations, institutions, groups, networks and volunteerism in the local area. Local organisations and institutions such as local government, businesses, hospitals or schools, as well as other external organisations and institutions that have existing links with the community, can be of significant benefit to communication technology initiatives. Links with such organisations and institutions can assist the project’s sustainability and enhance its acceptance in the community. Community organisations are both born of, and creators of, community capacity and social capital (Warner, 1999). They are intrinsic to the way community life is lived in particular towns, being a reflection of the needs, values and priorities of community members. Their adoption of communication technology generally, as well as their support of specific initiatives, can have significant impact on the community’s level of use and receptiveness to a new communication technology project. Project planners can therefore work towards gaining community acceptance of, and engagement with, communication technology as a key component of future sustainability by encouraging community members and organisations to include technology in their vision of the community’s future. Planners should also consider incorporating strategies to engage those groups and individuals who could play a key role in communication technology adoption projects. This is particularly important for groups usually marginalised by issues such as ethnicity, culture, language, age and gender. Creating new groups or networks, both within or extending outside the community, can provide opportunities for projects to benefit from community enthusiasm and motivation through volunteerism. At the same time, care needs to be taken by project planners and managers to ensure that ways of resourcing or compensating volunteers are considered, to alleviate overuse and burnout.



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Social Capital Within our social capital framework, the concept of social capital in itself suggests additional areas that may influence the success of projects aimed at increasing sustainable benefit from communication technology in rural areas. These include shared values and norms, reciprocity, trust, proactivity, participation in networks and a strong sense of community (Simpson et al., 2001, pp. 2230). For example, our research pointed to both positive and negative consequences of the presence of a strong sense of community. Several small towns within our case study regions are characterised by strong norms of cooperation and reciprocity, as well as high levels of local participation and cohesiveness that are indicators of substantial social capital within those communities. At a broader level, however, there are far fewer signs of cooperation or reciprocity with other towns in the region, suggesting that their social capital is largely restricted to within their own community boundaries. In both case study regions, projects with a broad geographical focus have encountered difficulties in establishing and maintaining cooperative relationships across all of the towns in their regions. The rivalries that can emerge between ‘closed’ small towns are an important influence on the ability of small towns in a region to work together. This has been a critical issue for Networking the Nation projects that aim to address needs across a whole region, where misunderstanding, rumour and non-productive competitiveness have hindered projects to varying extents. Successful projects across both case study regions were characterised by community ownership — where individuals felt that the project was of benefit to them, and that its outcomes mattered in their lives. Projects initiated and managed by a select group (no matter how well-intentioned) that did not engage in meaningful and inclusive community consultation tended not to achieve their potential for community benefit. Effective community consultation contributed more to achieving community benefits than quantity of funding or resources available, the amount of local influence held by the management committee, or the outside expertise purchased. While meaningful, inclusive community consultation is expensive and timeconsuming for both the funding agency and the community, failure to engage in this process resulted in projects foundering through lack of community support, or lack of understanding of the project goals. Enabling effective community consultation means reassessing priorities and allocating funding in ways that build the capacity of the community during the course of the consultation process. Funding needs to be used to ensure involvement of all sectors, specifically targeting and involving a range of community groups, particularly those who are marginalised. Community members were not always well-informed about local communication technology project goals and their potential returns to the community, Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


such as opening up new business and employment opportunities and contributing to long-term sustainability. There was confusion amongst community members about the role and activities of the different Networking the Nation projects in the case study regions, with common misconceptions existing about which project was responsible for what achievement or oversight. Insufficient information-sharing generated a range of problems for the projects reviewed. Ongoing community support for a project depended on whether the community perceived it to be doing ‘a good job’ and generating good outcomes. Even thriving projects were undermined by the community perception that ‘nothing is happening’. Communities needed a clear idea of the project’s objectives and goals, so that unrealistic or inaccurate expectations could be avoided. Similarly, community members demonstrated a need to be kept up-todate with ongoing project activities. Thus, insufficient consultation and community involvement may weaken community support for projects and increase criticism and rumour, undermining positive project activities. More importantly, such situations deplete the levels of trust in the community, and impact negatively on the ‘stores’ of social capital upon which the community can draw for future development initiatives. To successfully implement communication technology initiatives across a number of communities, therefore, project planners and managers need to: • appreciate the nature of each particular community as understood by its members; • recognise that a strong sense of community can also create competitiveness and conflict between small communities, and develop strategies to create cohesiveness and collaboration; • identify and work with existing structural arrangements; • put into place new and complementary structural arrangements to enhance the depth and breadth of ties within the community; and • develop strategies to strengthen cross-community ties in a positive manner. A starting point is an analysis of existing levels of social capital within the community intended as the site for the communication technology initiative. This analysis should identify factors in the community that: • will enhance successful implementation of the project; • will make the project sustainable; and • could limit the success of the project if not taken into account. As well as informing the development of strategies to enhance community capacity, such an analysis should anticipate both intended and unintended effects of the project, particularly effects that might be detrimental to the community. This should assist with putting risk management strategies in place.



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Planners need to investigate community values and norms in relation to new communication technologies and evaluate how well the project’s goals, underlying philosophy and values match those of the community. This can inform development of processes to build community support for, and acceptance of, the project. This includes ensuring community members understand the benefits they will gain from participating in the project. Project planners need to monitor how widespread that understanding is, and incorporate strategies that encourage participants to ‘give back’ to the community if they directly benefit from participation — for example, enabling participants to receive training in exchange for training other community members. Project planners and managers should incorporate strategies that build community networks by: • building networks that bond and strengthen the community; • building or fostering participation in networks that bridge diverse groups in the community; and • providing access to networks that link the community and the project to outside organisations and networks. This means including activities to attract widespread participation by all sectors of the community, and seeking partnerships or collaborations that can contribute to the project. These networks are critical to the effective implementation and maintenance of communication technology initiatives. Planned activities can also help build relationships of trust between the project personnel and the community. Good relationships and trust can be enhanced by incorporating: • clearly defined long-term goals; • short-term goals that produce readily disseminated outcomes; • strategies to ensure widespread dissemination of project information; • transparent accountability measures and performance indicators so that achievements can be readily identified and disseminated to the community; and • strategies to encourage community members to share leadership in project activities. Project planners also need to make clear what potential contribution the project will make to the community — in both economic and social terms — and encourage community input, such as supporting local communication technology traineeships. Effective strategies, such as establishing a local management committee, allow the community to manage, administer and take ownership of the project. Strategies suggested above that build trust and shared goals should enhance the likelihood of positive outcomes from this sense of community and contribute to building a widespread sense of community ownership of the project. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


CONCLUSION Substantial amounts of funding have been directed toward funding communication technology initiatives in Australian rural communities in recent years, particularly through Networking the Nation and through state and local government initiatives. Given the trend towards declining services in these communities, including the withdrawal of government agencies and banking facilities, it is critical that such investment, in both monetary and human capital terms, is maximised. The impacts of communication technology initiatives stretch well beyond the installation of the hardware. Such projects can and do have important outcomes — both intended and unintended — on community social infrastructure, and thus on social capital. It is therefore critical that project planners and funding agencies recognise the need for more careful analysis and understanding of the particular community that is to host the project. For example, how local community networks operate, what tangible and intangible resources the community can draw upon to sustain the initiative and, underpinning these elements, the level of social capital that exists in the community, are important issues to understand. Not attending to these issues can have negative consequences, not only for the communication technology initiative, but also for future community engagement and proactivity. Our experience suggests that asking such questions and addressing the gaps through a holistic approach to communication technology implementation will make a difference not only to individual projects, but also to the long-term future and sustainability of the community.

ENDNOTES 1

2 3

4

The authors wish to acknowledge the valuable contribution made by Anita Seinen to the Creating Rural Connections project. For a detailed account of the methodology see Simpson et al. (2001). In 1997 the Australian federal government sold one-third of the publicly owned telecommunications provider, Telstra, and launched the Regional Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund with the proceeds. The prime purpose of the fund was to sponsor a program, entitled Networking the Nation, aimed at enhancing regional and rural access to new communication and information technologies. For further information see Daws and Pini (2001).

REFERENCES Albrechtsen, H. (1998). The tele-cottages in the Nordic countries. Telecommunications Journal, 55(5), 307-315. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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Barlow, D. M. (1997). Electronic community networks in rural Australia: A model for social development in the information society. Australian Social Work, 50(1), 3-8. Dabinett, G. (2000). Regenerating communities in the UK: Getting plugged into the information society? Community Development Journal, 35(2), 157166. Daws, L., & Pini, B. (2001). Queensland Rural Women’s Network BridgIT Project: Evaluation Report. Brisbane. Daws, L., Seinen, A., Simpson, L., & Wood, L. (2001). Creating Rural Connections — Book 2: Education and Training. Brisbane: The Communication Centre, Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Easdown, W. J. (1997). The Role of the Internet in Rural Communities (Occasional Paper 4). Department of Natural and Rural Systems Management, University of Queensland, Gatton College. Gillard, P., Wale, K., & Bow, A. (1996). Re-engineering telecommunications for the way people want to live: Social research in the design of new technologies. Prometheus, 14(1), 80-89. Haberkorn, G., Hugo, G., Fisher, M., & Aylward, R. (2000). Country matters: Social atlas of rural and regional Australia. Kingston ACT: Bureau of Rural Sciences, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry — Australia. Horner, D. & Reeve, I. (1991). Telecottages: The potential for rural Australia. Armidale: The Rural Development Centre, University of New England. Hunter, A. (1999). Opportunity through Communication Technology for Regional Australia. Paper presented at the Regional Australia Summit, Department of Transport and Regional Services, Canberra. Information Policy Advisory Council. (1997). Rural®ional.au/for all: Report of working party investigating the development of online infrastructure and services development in regional and rural Australia. Department of Communications and the Arts. Retrieved June 10, 1997 from: http://www.ipac.gov.au/report.ipac.htm. Kautz, K. & Larsen, E. A. (2000). Diffusion theory and practice: Disseminating quality management and software process improvement innovations. Information Technology and People, 13(1), 11-26. Kingma, O., Crellin, I., & Hoitnink, R. (1999). Social issues in Australia’s agricultural industries. Paper presented at the Country Matters conference, Canberra (May 20-21). Lane, B. & Dorfman, D. (1997). Strengthening community networks: The basis for sustainable community renewal. Portland, OR: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. Retrieved from: http://www.nwrel.org/ ruraled/Strengthening.html.



Lawrence, G. (1996). Rural Australia: Insights and issues from contemporary political economy. In Lawrence, G., Lyons, K., & Momtaz, S. (Eds.), Social Change in Rural Australia (pp. 332-349). Rockhampton, Australia: Rural Social and Economic Research Centre, Central Queensland University. Longo, J. (1999). Multiple Meanings and a Myriad of Terms in the Space Between the Market and the State (Working Paper). Victoria, Canada: Centre for Public Sector Studies, University of Victoria. Mannion, J. (1996). Partnership, participation and capacity building: Rural development based on local bottom-up strategies. Retrieved January 10, 1999 from: http://www.rural-europe.aeidl.be/rural-en/biblio/defis/ art02.htm. Putnam, R. D. (1993). The prosperous community: Social capital and public life. The American Prospect Inc., 4(13). Rogers, E. M. (1995). Diffusion of innovations (4th ed.). New York: The Free Press. The Rural Women and ICTs Research Team. (1999). The new pioneers. Brisbane, Australia: The Communication Centre, Queensland University of Technology. Seinen, A., Daws, L., Wood, L., & Simpson, L. (2001). Creating Rural Connections — Book 3: Online service delivery and support. Brisbane, Australia: The Communication Centre, Queensland University of Technology. Sher, J. P. & Sher, K. R. (1994). Beyond the conventional wisdom: Rural development as if Australia’s rural people and communities really mattered. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 10(1), 2-43. Simpson, L., Wood, L., Daws, L., & Seinen, A. (2001). Creating Rural Connections — Book 1: Project overview. Brisbane, Australia: The Communication Centre, Queensland University of Technology. Talero, E. & Gaudette, P. (1995). Harnessing information for development: A proposal for a World Bank Group vision and strategy. World Bank. Retrieved May 2, 2002 from: http://www.worldbank.org/html/fpd/harnessing/. Valente, T. W. (1996). Social network thresholds in the diffusion of innovations. Social Networks, 18, 69-89. Valente, T. W. & Davis, R. L. (1999). Accelerating the diffusion of innovations using opinion leaders. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 566, 55-67. Warner, M. (1999). Social capital construction and the role of the local state. Rural Sociology, 64(3), 373-393. Wilkinson, K. (1989). The future of community development. In Christenson, J. & Robinson, J. (Eds.), Community Development in Perspective (pp. 337354). Ames, IO: Iowa State University Press. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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Wood, L., Simpson, L., Seinen, A., & Daws, L. (2001). Creating Rural Connections — Book 4: Building community capacity. Brisbane, Australia: The Communication Centre, Queensland University of Technology.


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Chikowore-Kabwato and Ajiferuke

Chapter VII

Information and Communication Technologies Provision to Rural Communities: The Case of Gutu World Links Telecenter in Zimbabwe Shirley Chikowore-Kabwato, International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care, South Africa Isola Ajiferuke, University of Western Ontario, Canada

ABSTRACT This chapter introduces information and communication technologies as having the potential of aiding the sustainable development of rural communities through distance education, telemedicine, and the provision of timely information on agriculture and the environment. It argues that telecenters offer practical and community-oriented ways to bring information and communication technologies services to the rural people. Furthermore, based on the outcome of an evaluation of a telecenter in Zimbabwe, it is suggested that in order for a telecenter to offer effective, efficient and Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

The Case of Gutu World Links Telecenter in Zimbabwe 101

sustainable services, local needs assessment would need to be conducted, the telecenter located at a central place, and an awareness-building campaign targeted at potential users.

INTRODUCTION Advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs) have aided the social and economic transformations of many industrialized nations (Mansell & Wehn, 1998). However, these technologies also have enormous potential for developing countries in their quest for sustainable development (Jensen, 1998). Though the applications of ICTs have potential impacts in both urban and rural areas of developing countries, rural communities stand to benefit more as they face extreme pressure due to poverty, illiteracy, environmental degradation and remoteness. Agricultural production can be improved through the gathering of useful information from the Internet by community information centers and farmers’ organizations, and subsequent dissemination to farmers via local radio stations and other local information-sharing networks (e.g., cooperatives, local stores, transportation hubs, agricultural supply outlets and social gathering points) and tools (Richardson, 1998). Health care problems can also be improved through the practice of telemedicine, which permits the transfer of patients’ records from the rural areas to urban areas for better diagnosis as well as the provision of medical advice/training to the health care staff in remote areas. For example, HealthNet provides free medical advice and information to community health workers, doctors and hospitals in 15 African countries through the use of low orbit satellites. Distance learning through the Internet can broaden the educational opportunities available to the people in the rural areas. These opportunities range from elementary education to the university (e.g., African Virtual University) and these can aid in the reduction of illiteracy, which is a major obstacle to the development of rural areas. Also, telecommunications can be used for effective communication between the various levels of government and the rural populace to ensure safety, security and good governance (Barr, 1998). One of the major constraints to the realization of the potential of ICTs in rural areas is lack of access (Adam & Wood, 1999) and the most popular solution to this problem is the establishment of telecenters (Graham, 1997; Whyte, 1998; Gomez & Hunt, 1999). Telecenters offer practical and community-oriented ways to bring new information and communication technologies to the rural people without incurring large set-up costs. The normal telecenters (often referred to as “phone shops” or “public call offices”) offer basic telecommunications services, while the advanced telecenters (often referred to as multipurpose community telecenters) may include facilities such as libraries and seminar rooms, and provide Internet services, videoconferencing, distance education, Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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and training in ICTs, telemedicine and e-commerce (Oestmann & Dymond, 2001). Telecenter projects have been initiated in many developing countries, including the African countries of Benin Republic, Egypt, Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. For example, Nakaseke Multipurpose Community Telecenter has proved useful in providing telemedicine services for the Mulago and Nakaseke hospitals, enabling health workers to consult with each other by phone, fax and e-mail (Mayanja, 2001). It has also been shown that a Web site set up by the Timbuktu Multipurpose Community Telecenter for artisans’ handcrafts has proved very useful to tour agents organizing visits to Timbuktu, and as a result boosted the sales of the handcrafts (Benjamin, 2000). In Zimbabwe, the first rural community telecenter was established in Gutu by the World Links for Development Program, an international donor agency, in 1999. Since then, 11 other pilot telecenters have been established in other rural communities by the international donor agency. However, just as is the case in most developing countries, while a lot of efforts and resources have been devoted to setting up these pilot telecenters, little or no effort has been made to evaluate their services. An evaluation of the services would assist in understanding the uses of these centers as well as in the determination of their impact on the communities they serve (Gomez, Hunt, & Lamoureux, 1999). Also, the outcome of such an exercise would assist in improving the services being provided at these telecenters as well as serve as a guide in the establishment of similar projects in the future. Hence, the goal of this chapter is to evaluate the services of the first rural telecenter in Zimbabwe with the hope that the exercise would illustrate: (i) the problems being encountered in the establishment of telecenters in rural communities; (ii) how well telecenters are meeting the needs of rural communities; and (iii) ways in which ICTs can be better utilized to improve the quality of lives of people in the rural areas.

BACKGROUND Zimbabwe, which attained its independence in 1980, has an estimated population of 12 million people, with about 1.6 million people living in Harare, the capital city, while the majority (70%) are living in the rural areas. Agriculture is the mainstay of Zimbabwe’s economy, and the principal crops are tobacco, cotton, and sugarcane. Gutu rural village is located about 280km from Harare, and about 40km from Masvingo town, one of Zimbabwe’s several small towns. It has a population of about 245,000 people and covers an area of 700,000 hectares. It lies in a highland area which receives adequate rainfall and has fairly fertile agricultural land. Gutu Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


has been installed with electricity and telecommunications infrastructures such as telephone lines. Gutu World Links Telecenter (GWLT) is located at a growth point, a central location that the government has targeted for its rural development program. Gutu growth point comprises small business enterprises, community banks, postal agencies, clinic, hospital, local council, and primary and secondary schools. A few government offices, such as the ministries of health, education, veterinary services and agriculture, are also located in the area. GWLT was built closer to the community library in order to ensure that both facilities complement each other. Questionnaires, interviews and observation were the main methods used in the evaluation of the services of GWLT. First of all, questionnaires containing both closed and open-ended questions were used to gather data from users and non-users of GWLT. The questionnaire for the users asked questions related to their experience in using the telecenter while the one for the non-users solicited reasons for non-usage of the telecenter services. From the preliminary discussions with the GWLT coordinator, it was established that the telecenter normally gets about 30 to 40 users a week. Hence, every user that visited the center during a four-week period was given a questionnaire to complete. Some users completed the questionnaire immediately, while others took the questionnaire away and returned it later. In all, 120 users completed the questionnaire within the fourweek period. Non-users of the telecenter were approached at the local library, schools, local district council, local clinic, local government council, business/ community center and the village, and after a period of about three weeks, 105 non-users had completed the questionnaire. The personal interview method was used to gather data from the telecenter coordinator, national coordinator of World Links for Development Program, and a few users and non-users. Interviews were necessary in order to supplement the responses from the questionnaires. Also, in order to obtain a clear picture of the activities of the telecenter, some time was spent in observing some people making use of the telecenter’s facilities.

AN EVALUATION OF THE GUTU WORLD LINKS TELECENTER Objectives and Functions of the GWLT GWLT was established by the World Bank as part of its World Links for Development Program. Based on the interview with the national coordinator of World Links for Development Program-Zimbabwe, we gathered that the program’s main objective was to provide ICT services to those members of society who do not have access to them. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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GWLT was set up in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture, Computer Society of Zimbabwe, I*Earn, Alliance for Global Learning, US Peace Corps and Voluntary Service Overseas, among others. The telecenter receives funding from the World Link for Development Program but it has also embarked on a program where users pay for the services provided. In this way, the telecenter hopes to become selfsustainable in the near future. In fact, the responsibilities for the telecenter’s recurrent expenditure (e.g., phone and electricity charges) are soon to be assumed by the telecenter. GWLT has 10 networked computers, server (running Windows NT software), printer, modem and Internet dial-up connection for its operations. The center is managed by only one staff member who has a Diploma in Education (Computers) and is known as the coordinator. According to him, GWLT provides Internet services, computer literacy programs (these include introduction to computers, word processing, Internet and e-mail basics and WWW search), telephone services, e-mail, and basic computing services. The telecenter receives between 30 to 40 people per week and the number of users is increasing almost on a monthly basis, especially from students, professionals and the unemployed. GWLT has already trained many people who knew nothing about computer technology but with some of them later securing employment requiring computer literacy. The telecenter has, however, faced a number of problems that were beyond the coordinator’s control. For instance, since its establishment, the center has been experiencing problems of inadequate electricity supply (especially because of continuous disruptions) and lack of proper telecommunications infrastructure. These problems are similar to the ones being experienced by some other telecenters in developing countries (Gaster, 2001; Mayanju, 2001). Also, the telecenter lacks facilities such as fax and photocopying machines, and it is also under-staffed, as one person has to manage all the activities of the telecenter single-handedly despite the continuous increase in the number of users. Figure 1. Age Distribution of GWLT Users

6% 1%

11-20 38%

27%

21-30 31-40 41-50

28%

51-60



Figure 2. Highest Educational Level for Users

26%

1%

11%

None Primary Secondary

62%

Post-secondary

Demographic Characteristics of GWLT Users Seventy-seven (64%) of the users were male while 43 (36%) were female. This is not surprising, as it corroborates Richardson’s (1997) assertion that overall there are more male ICT users than female. GWLT users come from various age groups but the majority are teenagers or young adults (see Figure 1). In fact, only about 6% are older than 40 years. The popularity of GWLT with young people supports Rolinson et al.’s (1995) “computer mythology”, which states that “younger people are happier using computers than older people.” This also corroborates the results of a study carried out by Teo et al. (1997), which revealed that Internet users in Singapore generally comprised teenagers and young adults. Figure 2 shows that the majority of GWLT users (62.5%) have had secondary school education. Secondary education includes Zimbabwe Junior Certificate (ZJC), ‘O’ level, or ‘A’ level education. Thirty-one (25.8%) of respondents indicated post-secondary as their highest qualification, while 13 (10.8%) respondents indicated primary education as their highest qualification. The large number of literates among the respondents might mean that GWLT’s services do not cater to the needs of the illiterates, as only one (0.8%) respondent indicated having no formal education. The major patrons of GWLT are students, administrators, unemployed, and teachers (see Table 1). The administrators included clerks and managers in both the government and private sectors, while the unemployed comprised mainly school leavers, that is, those who had just completed their secondary education. GWLT also has a few users who are businessmen, communal farmers or health workers.


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Table 1. Occupation of Users Occupation

Number of respondents N=120 21 15 3 4 36 6 31 4

Unemployed Teacher Health worker Communal farmer Student Businessman Administrator Other

(17.5%) (12.5%) (2.5%) (3.3%) (30.0%) (5.0%) (25.8%) (3.3%)

Sources of Awareness of GWLT The coordinator of the GWLT indicated that the telecenter publicized its services through brochures, posters, meetings/workshops and newspapers. In order to determine the effectiveness of these publicity media, the users were asked how they came to know of GWLT’s existence and its services. Fifty-four (45%) of the respondents knew of GWLT through brochures, 43 (35.8%) through friends, 11 (9.2%) through meetings/workshops, 10 (8.3%) through newspapers, and two (1.7%) through the Internet (see Figure 3). The above scenario indicates that many of the respondents got to know of GWLT and its services through the distribution of brochures. This probably means that brochures are effective tools for publicizing GWLT and should be the main medium of publicizing the telecenter’s services. Many of the respondents also got to know about GWLT through friends. Word of mouth is a powerful tool Figure 3. Source of Awareness of GWLT

9%

8%

2% 36%

45%

Internet

Friends

Brochures

Meetings/Workshops

Newspapers



Figure 4. Distance Traveled by Users to Telecenter

10% 37%

21%

1 km 2 km 3-4 km 5-10 km

32%

and if GWLT continues to provide good services, it should be able to count on satisfied users publicizing its services. Few respondents became aware of GWLT through meetings/workshops and newspapers, partly because of the frequency of meetings and cost of newspapers. However, the two media can be used occasionally to supplement the use of brochures to publicize the telecenter’s services.

ICT Use at GWLT Forty-five (37.5%) and 38 (31.7%) of the respondents had to travel about one and two km respectively to use the facilities at the telecenter (see Figure 4). Also, 25 (20.8%) lived three to four km away from the telecenter while only 12 (10%) of the respondents who lived five to 10 km away visited the telecenter during the period of this research. The fact that significantly fewer respondents who had to travel distances covering three km or more visited the telecenter as compared to those who lived within the one to two km vicinity indicate that distance might be limiting the number of people who patronize the telecenter. Eighty-three (69.2%) of the respondents claimed to have used basic computer systems at the telecenter, 60 (50%) had used the telephone, 36 (30%) had used the Internet, and 30 (25%) had been to the telecenter to use the e-mail facility (see Figure 5). The basic computer systems were used mainly for wordprocessing and computer literacy programs, which shows that the rural people are becoming aware of the benefits of being computer literate. The majority of the Internet users claimed to use it to search for educational information, while a few used it to search for agricultural, health or business information. Telephone and e-mail services were used mainly for personal and business communications. A few of the respondents also claimed to have used e-mail to exchange ideas for both personal development and career advancement.


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Figure 5. ICT Use at GWLT 100 80 No. of Users

60 40

E-mail

Internet

Telephone

Basic Computer System

20 0

In terms of frequency of ICT use, about 38% of the respondents claimed to use ICT at the telecenter about one to three times a month while about 27% use it less than once a month (see Figure 6). The remaining 45% use ICT at the telecenter at least once a week. It would appear that a majority of the users do not visit the telecenter frequently, probably due to the distance from the telecenter, work or school commitments, or dissatisfaction with the services at the telecenter.

Evaluation of ICT Services at GWLT Most of the respondents found the ICT services at GWLT very useful and some expressed their satisfaction at being able to access information easily and quickly. Some other respondents expressed appreciation at being able to share large amount of information as well as exchange ideas locally and abroad. Some of the respondents also claimed to have benefited a lot from the computer literacy programs and word processing services offered by the telecenter. However, the majority of respondents (65.8%) said the ICT services were inadequate. Some Figure 6. Frequency of Use of ICT at GWLT 27%

14% 22%

37%

More than once a week

Once a week

1-3 times a month

Less than once a month



of the reasons stated for their dissatisfaction with the services include the continuous breakdown of the computer systems, slow access to the Internet and e-mail facilities, and insufficient number of computer systems. Respondents also expressed disappointment at the fact that there was only one staff member (the coordinator) at the telecenter. Respondents felt that the coordinator had too many responsibilities and this left him with little time to attend to their individual needs. In order to improve its ICT services, the respondents would like the telecenter to increase the speed of its e-mail and Internet services as well as increase the number of computer systems. They would also like the telecenter to introduce fax, telex and photocopying services.

Reasons for Non-Use of GWLT Services The 105 non-users that were included in the survey varied in gender, age, educational qualification, and occupation. The group included: males and females; teenagers, young adults, adults, and seniors; from those with no educational qualification to those with post-secondary qualification; and unemployed, teachers, housewives, health workers, communal farmers, students, businessmen, and administrators. The major reason for non-use of the GWLT services was the lack of awareness, as 72 (68.6%) claimed not to be aware of GWLT and its services (see Figure 7). This indicates that there seems to be a lack of effective publicity and promotional programs. This result corroborates the coordinator’s views, who acknowledged that despite an increase in the use of ICT services at the telecenter, the level of general public awareness of ICT and its services was low. The coordinator felt that there is still need for more publicity and promotion programs to be done by the telecenter to let the expected beneficiaries or users be aware of GMTC and the benefits they would get by utilizing the services offered. Figure 7. Reasons for Non-Use of GWLT Non-awareness 10% Lack of ICT skills

2% 12% 8%

Cost 68%

Don't see the need Not readily available


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Thirteen (39.4%) of the respondents indicated that the cost of the services prohibited them from using the telecenter, as they did not have enough money, while 10 (30.3%) of the respondents said they did not use GWLT services due to the fact that they were not readily available to them. Distance could have been a contributing factor to the non-availability of GWLT services to this group of non-users. Eight (24.2%) of the respondents stated that they did not have enough computer skills to use ICT. This group of people seemed not to know that GWLT offered computer literacy programs. Two (6.1%) of the respondents said they did not use GWLT because they did not see the need for use.

CONCLUSIONS The study has revealed that the users of GWLT have been making use of telephone, e-mail, Internet, and basic computing services at the telecenter. The basic computer systems were used for word processing and computer literacy programs. Acquiring basic computer skills will definitely enhance the job prospects of the unemployed youth in Gutu. E-mail and telephone services were used for business and personal communications while the Internet was used for searching for information. Some of the users searched the Internet for health, business, agricultural and community development information (though on a small scale) which, according to Richardson (1998) may lead to economic development for farmers, expansion of community development programs, and promotion of small business enterprises. Users rated the GWLT services as useful but requested additional services. These include fax, telex and photocopying services. In order to identify other ICT and related needs, it may be necessary for World Links for Development Program to conduct a needs assessment survey of the people of Gutu. Also, to ensure that rural people have access to adequate information, GWLT should consider working hand in hand with institutions and extension officers. Intermediary organizations such as extension field offices, rural NGOs, health clinics, government offices, and church organizations, together with small businesses can offer benefits to their rural client groups in numerous ways. These groups can use ICT services, especially the Internet, at the telecenter to access information and pass it on to the rural people, especially the illiterate, who are likely to benefit more from oral provision of information (Leach, 1999). GWLT publicized its services through brochures, newspapers, meetings/ workshops, and posters. However, it seems as if the publicity is not enough, as the majority of non-users were not aware of its services. Community sensitization and awareness-building is required, with the technologies and their capabilities being explained to all. Local media resources such as popular theatre, town meetings, radio, television, video and films should be used in educating the rural



people on the objectives of GWLT and ICT services and the benefits it would provide to the community. Distance was also found to be an access barrier to GWLT and its services. This problem could probably be solved by introducing ICT mobile vans. Rural Libraries and Resource Development Program (RLRDP) in Bulawayo is also planning on introducing ICT on its mobile donkey cart and making it accessible to the rural masses (SADC, 1997). RLRDP has already started developing the use of solar powered televisions and video plays in its donkey cart. The government and district councils should also upgrade roads in Gutu to ensure easy accessibility to some rural villages in Gutu. The telecenter coordinator expressed concern at the lack of manpower at GWLT. It was observed that the telecenter has only one staff despite the fact that the number of users is increasing. For example, the coordinator indicated that in most cases he had very little time for publicity activities and also had little time to attend to individual problems of users. GWLT should lobby for funds from the private sector, NGOs, government and individuals so as to be able to hire additional staff as well as make its services affordable to most people in the community. Also, GWLT should establish close working relationships with local community groups who may then be asked to provide volunteers to assist at the telecenter. Constraints such as poor telecommunications infrastructure (e.g., low Internet bandwidth) and unreliable power supply have seriously affected the effectiveness of ICT services at GWLT. The telecommunications problems have limited access to the Internet and e- mail facilities at GWLT. GWLT should lobby the Post and Telecommunications Corporation (PTC) to provide high quality, reliable telephone lines. Otherwise, serious consideration should be given to the use of alternative means of connecting to the Internet such as radio links and satellite technology (Smith, 2000). GWLT should also lobby the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority to stabilize power supply or install stand-alone generators. More importantly, the government of Zimbabwe should aim at improving the general telecommunications infrastructures in the country. Finally, despite the teething problems being encountered in the establishment and operations of telecenters in rural communities in Africa, such telecenters have the potentials to transform the rural communities. Hence, it would be desirable if developmental and non-governmental agencies continue to establish more telecenters in rural communities in Africa while efforts are being made to improve the effectiveness of such centers.

FUTURE TRENDS The evaluation of Gutu World Links Telecenter suggests that in order to ensure effective, efficient and sustainable services, any agency setting up such Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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a center should: (i) conduct needs assessment in order to tailor the technological services to the needs of the rural populace; (ii) locate the telecenter at a central place where it would easily be accessible by the rural populace; and (iii) target awareness-building campaigns at potential users of the telecenter, as information and communication technologies are new to many people in the rural areas (Anderson, Van Crowder, Dion & Truelove, 1998). The kind of evaluation done in this study and similar ones done by Benjamin (2001), Gaster (2001) and Mayanja (2001) is referred to as ‘formative evaluation’ by Hudson (2001). However, only very few studies have attempted to go beyond the formative evaluation to determine the socio-economic impact assessment of the telecenters (Oestmann & Dymond, 2001). One such study was conducted by the International Development Center (IDRC) on Acacia telecenter projects (IDRC, 2000). The study compared community data from 59 communities with telecenters (40 in South Africa, 14 in Senegal, two in Mozambique and three in Uganda) with those from approximately 50 communities without telecenters (almost all in South Africa). The study revealed that the telecenters are successful in ensuring access to ICTs, leading to community development, and also that communities with telecenters are more empowered with knowledge than those without. It is hoped that there will be more of such studies in the future that will seek to determine the contributions of the telecenters to the socio-economic development of the rural communities in which they are located.

REFERENCES Adam, L. & Wood, F. (1999). An investigation of the impact of information and communication technologies in sub-Saharan Africa. Journal of Information Science, 25(4), 307-318. Anderson, J., Van Crowder, L., Dion, D., & Truelove, W. (1998). Applying the lessons of participatory communication and training to rural telecenters. In Richardson, D. & Paisley, L. (Eds.), The First Mile of Connectivity: Advancing Telecommunications for Rural Development through a Participatory Communications Approach. Rome: FAO. Barr, D.F. (1998). Integrated rural development through telecommunications. In Richardson, D. & Paisley, L. (Eds.), The First Mile of Connectivity: Advancing Telecommunications for Rural Development through a Participatory Communications Approach. Rome: FAO. Benjamin, P. (2000). Telecenters – the key to wider Internet access? Retrieved September 18, 2000 from: http://old.healthnet.org/afronets/ afronets-hma/afro-nets.200009/msg00067.html. Benjamin, P. (2001). The Gaseleka telecenter, Northern Province, South Africa. In Latchem, C. & Walker, D. (Eds.), Telecenters: Case Studies and Key Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Issues. Retrieved July 15, 2001 from The Commonwealth of Learning, Burnaby, Canada Web site: http://www.col.org/telecenters. Gaster, P. (2001). A pilot telecenters project in Mozambique. In Latchem, C. & Walker, D. (Eds.), Telecenters: Case Studies and Key Issues. Retrieved July 15, 2001 from The Commonwealth of Learning, Burnaby, Canada Web site: http://www.col.org/telecenters. Gómez, R. & Hunt, P. (1999). Telecenter Evaluation : A global perspective. Retrieved July 15, 2001 from International Development Research Center (IDRC), Ottawa Web site: http://ww.idrc.ca/telecenter/evaluation/html/ 06_Tel.html. Graham, M. (1997). Use of information and communication technologies in IDRC projects: Lessons learned. Retrieved September 8, 1999 from International Development Research Center (IDRC), Ottawa Web site: http://www.idrc.ca/acacia/outputs/op-eval.htm. Hudson, H.E. (2001). Telecenter evaluation: Issues and strategies. In Latchem, C. & Walker, D. (Eds.), Telecenters: Case Studies and Key Issues. Retrieved July 15, 2001 from The Commonwealth of Learning, Burnaby, Canada Web site: http://www.col.org/telecenters. IDRC. (2000). Telecenter impact: Methodology study 04066-Acacia. Retrieved February 14, 2000 from International Development Research Center (IDRC), Ottawa Web site: http://www.idrc.ca/Pan/tele 04066.html. Jensen, M. (1998). The role of multipurpose community telecenters in fostering universal access and rural development. Retrieved August 8, 2001 from: http://www.itu.int?ITU-D-UniversalAccess/seminar/buda/papers/mj/mikej-abstract.htm. Leach, A. (1999). The provision of information to adults in rural Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa by non-governmental organizations. Libri, 49(2), 71-89. Mansell, R. & When, U. (ed.) (1998). Knowledge societies: Information technology for sustainable development. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Mayanja, M. (1999). Telecenters in action: Nakaseke Community Multipurpose Telecenter pilot project: Uganda a case study presentation. Retrieved February 15, 2000 from: http://www.bica99.org/Meddie%20 Mayanja.htm. Mayanja, M. (2001). The Nakaseke Multipurpose Community Telecenter in Uganda. In Latchem, C. & Walker, D. (Eds.), Telecenters: Case Studies and Key Issues. Retrieved July 15, 2001 from The Commonwealth of Learning, Burnaby, Canada Web site: http://www.col.org/telecenters. Oestmann, S. & Dymond, A. C. (2001). Telecenters-experiences, lessons and trends. In Latchem, C. & Walker, D. (Eds.), Telecenters: Case Studies and Key Issues. Retrieved July 15, 2001 from The Commonwealth of Learning, Burnaby, Canada Web site: http://www.col.org/telecenters. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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Richardson, D. (1997). The Internet and rural development: An integrated approach. Rome: FAO. Richardson, D. (1998). The Internet and rural development. In Richardson, D. & Paisley, L. (Eds.) , The First Mile of Connectivity: Advancing Telecommunications for Rural Development through a Participatory Communications Approach. Rome: FAO. Rolinson, J., Meadows, A.J., & Smith, H. (1995). Use of ICT by biology researchers. Journal of Information Science, 21(2), 133-139. SADC Center for Communication and Development. (1997). Report on the Workshop to Promote Food Security through Rural Connectivity and the Internet. Held in Harare (February 18-20). Retrieved September 14, 1999 from International Development Research Center (IDRC), Ottawa Web site: http://www.idrc.ca/acacia/outputs/op-sadc.htm. Smith, R. (2000). Overcoming regulatory and technological challenges to bring Internet access to a sparsely populated, remote area. First Monday, 5(10). Retrieved July 15, 2001 from: http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue5_10/ smith/index.html. Teo, T., Lim, V.K.J., & Lai, R.Y.C. (1997). User and uses of the Internet: The case of Singapore. International Journal of Information Management, 17(5), 325-336. Whyte, A. (1998). Telecenter research framework for Acacia. Retrieved September 28, 1999 from International Development Research Center (IDRC), Ottawa Web site: http://www.idrc.ca/acacia/04066/whyte_8.html. World Bank. (1998). Zimbabwe – World links for development programs feasibility mission aide-memoire. Harare: World Bank.


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Chapter VIII

E Bario Project1: In Search of a Methodology to Provide Access to Information Communication Technologies for Rural Communities in Malaysia Poline Bala, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia Roger W. Harris, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Peter Songan, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia

ABSTRACT This chapter highlights an initiative by a group of researchers 2 from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) to connect villagers in the remote and isolated village of Bario to Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), which include computers, telephones, the Internet, and VSATs. This project has eased the information flow in and out of Bario, affecting the well-being of the people by providing a means to keep in touch with friends and relatives in urban areas. The response of the Bario community has been positive, but the objective of the e Bario project is more ambitious than to just provide access to the Internet, computers and other related technologies. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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Bala, Harris and Songan

The main objective is to identify opportunities for remote and rural communities in Sarawak to develop socially, culturally and economically from the deployment of the technologies. The results of the initiative are expected to demonstrate the many ways in which ICTs can be used to improve the lives of marginalized groups, specifically, here, the rural and remote communities in Malaysia. However, to ensure that the objectives will ultimately be met, the team has had to search for an appropriate methodology that will ensure the full benefits of the initiative to the community. This chapter describes and discusses the approaches adopted, emphasizing the benefits of a close association between the researchers and the community as well as the adoption of suitable participatory methods for engaging with the needs and opportunities that were discovered.

BACKGROUND The imbalance of access to Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) is claimed to be linked to other forms of poverty and inequality. Drastic efforts are necessary to provide rural communities with access to computer mediated information and communication services or facilities3. This is particularly significant, as ICTs are widely accepted as new social and economic forces in the world economy today. In fact, some scholars (for example, Barr, 1998) suggest that a close correlation exists between telecommunications and economic development, whereby efficient telecommunication facilities foster economic development. As such, telecommunication access for remote and rural communities is now generally accepted as an appropriate goal to foster economic development in developing countries (Barr, 1998). And, especially for rural areas, advanced telecommunication access is expected to not only provide opportunities and means for rural communities to have access to the same services as urban areas in the field of business, but holds a promise to promote their social, economic and cultural conditions (Enberg, 1998). Furthermore, it is thought that the remoteness and isolation of rural areas should be compensated by efficient telecommunication services. In this context, the rural populations need information and communication facilities as much as, if not even more than, densely populated urban communities. In fact, it is argued to be crucial for the betterment of life in rural areas where getting connected can mean so much. The ICTs can provide opportunities to obtain a wider range of information that can be useful to make better and more informed decisions (Paisley & Richardson, 1998). Besides providing access to sources for health and other categories of information, these technologies are an important means to keep in touch with distant friends and relatives. Fortunately, today, provision of this access is eased by advances in networking technologies that can enable rural communities to have the same benefits of connectivity as urban people. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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However, the greater challenge for any initiatives to provide access to ICTs for rural communities is to ensure that “these services are efficiently and effectively deployed in these areas” (Barr, 1998). This is a great challenge, judging from past experiences with earlier technologies where their application in certain areas generated not merely disappointment, but even negative consequences. In a sense, technologies just by themselves do not guarantee benefits for the local people. As such, the challenge is to ensure not only the success of the technology itself (meaning that the technology runs and functions well), but also that the people benefit from its application. And, how do we ensure that there are benefits to the people? This is a question that the team continues to grapple with as we labor through the e Bario project.

THE CONTEXT The e Bario project was described as “one of the most notable of Malaysia’s Internet development initiatives” by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU, 1998). The project was initiated at the same time that the Malaysian Government aggressively adopted ICTs for national development in its quest for a future knowledge-rich society4. In fact, ICTs form an important component of national development policies and the aspiration to be a fully developed nation by the year 2020 (Mahathir, 1991). This is significant for developing countries like Malaysia since the world is seen to be moving into an information age where wealth creation and accumulation are increasingly dependent on high technology for the exchange of data, information and knowledge (Omar Abdul Rahman, 1993). Like many other developing countries, Malaysia has large areas with undeveloped infrastructure and a widely scattered population. These can be enormous challenges for using ICTs for development, and especially for Sarawak, Malaysia’s largest state. About 60% of Sarawak’s total population of 2.027 million people live in rural areas. Many have no access to good roads and have access to only meagre, or worse still, have no access to telecommunication services5. The absence, in most rural areas, of an infrastructure includes the lack of both telephone lines and of a non-24 hours continuous supply of electricity. These deficits pose challenges for any ICT initiative in rural areas and remote communities of Sarawak. Conscious of these challenges, the group of researchers took an ambitious step to begin with Bario, due to it being so highly isolated and remote6. Bario therefore exemplified the disconnected portion of the digital divide, and presented a challenging environment in which to test the idea of rural Internet connectivity in Malaysia. The team had to deal with many technical constraints including establishing an effective means of telecommunication with no telephone lines available, finding an appropriate and continuous source of electricity Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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and determining a network configuration that is supported by other forms of power supply and via satellite. But more challenging is to ensure that the rural communities will benefit. The team was made aware that this requires a shift in outlook from looking at technology to looking at people. The focus has to be on the people and on the process rather than on the technologies themselves (Anderson, 1998; FAO, 1998). The focus must place equal importance on understanding the context of the social, economic and political systems of the community in which the technology will be deployed, and the technology (Garcia & Gorenflo, 1998). This stems from the belief that a clear understanding of local communication patterns and processes can ensure appropriate applications of technologies and content to the local situation. This is crucial since the success of the ICT’s application largely depends on its integration with the local communication networks (Anderson, 1998). Bearing this in mind, the team adopted the Participatory Action Research (PAR) model 7 as the research methodology, in that it was deemed necessary that: • The researchers should learn about life in Bario from the community; • The community should learn about ICTs from the researchers; • Community members should perform major portions of the research; • The researchers should be able to identify with the community; • As a team, the community-researchers should be capable of critically reflecting upon iterative cycles of action in order to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes from the project; • Useful information systems will be embedded in the needs of the community; • Specific actions are required by both the researchers and the community in order to articulate those needs; • Methodologies for designing and implementing useful information systems will emerge from participatory action-oriented research activities; and, • Data would be obtained using a combination of surveys, direct interviews, workshops and discussion groups. Within the PAR framework, the researchers have engaged community members directly in the process; for instance, to conduct surveys, perform interviews and focus group meetings, and have held community gatherings for decision-making and to direct the conduct of the research. A system of close consultation between the project team and the rural users has been developed so that their needs are realistically assessed. A survey was conducted of 140 (out of 242 households in Bario) household heads to get indicators of the levels of literacy and education, and of the state of the telecommunication infrastructure. Learning from others, like Richardson (1998) and Anderson (1998), the team adopted the idea of analyzing the needs of the people in rural communities. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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Firstly, a questionnaire was circulated that listed types of information that had been found to be of interest in other rural communities (Hudson, 2001). The questionnaires were completed by enumerators in interviews with heads of households. The enumerators were drawn from the Bario community. Respondents were asked to indicate their level of interest for each type of information, the extent to which they currently received such information and the level of interest in receiving more of each type of information. Additionally, information was obtained regarding their existing communication patterns.8 This effort has helped to identify opportunities, for example information provision and training opportunities (skills and knowledge) that exist within the community, and this was used to inform the selection of content and hence the technology to deliver the content. Information gaps and skill gaps were revealed by integrating information delivery opportunities with an understanding of existing communication patterns and channels of information flow, and by knowing the profile of potential users of the technology and their awareness perceptions, attitudes, and usage of technology. The Bario community today consists of 78% Kelabit, with the others being Penan, Kenyah, Bidayuh, and Malays (11.5%), Chinese (1.6%) and some Indonesian immigrants (8%). Within the past 30 years, many Kelabit have moved away to pursue further education and obtain better job opportunities. Today, there are only about a thousand out of approximately 5,000 Kelabit who remain in the Highlands. Until recently this has been the elderly and the very young. As a result of their diaspora, there has been a need to bridge distances between the Kelabit in the Highlands and those living outside. This was helped initially with the construction of airstrips, and especially by the new concrete airstrip which was completed in 1996. This eased the movement of people in and out of the Highlands. Until recently, for many people in the Highlands, the airport is their closest link to the outside world (Bala, 2002). As people move in and out of the Highlands, the travelling Highlands residents, as well as outside visitors, become important sources of information. Results from the survey suggest that the community is highly interested in IT, about which approximately 90% of respondents said they would like to receive a lot of information, although the majority (99%) of the respondents had not heard of the Internet. The significance of this emerges from the context that even though many have heard about (81%) and seen (74%) a computer, about 91% have never used one. A few have used a computer, but mainly for word processing (7%), and less than 1.5% have surfed the WWW. The data revealed that almost nobody receives any information about agricultural practices whereas around 90% of respondents would like to receive a lot of information about them, and 68% of respondents currently receive no information about information technology but about 98% would like to receive a lot. Delivering more information about information technology would appear then as potentially more popular than delivering more information about agricultural practices (Harris et al., Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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2000). Information about information technology appears to be the largest information gap, in terms of the amount of information and the number of people with interest, that was identified from the survey.

DISCUSSION From this, the researchers concluded that the Bario community has shown a progressive readiness and enthusiasm for technology-induced improvements in their communication resources. From one perspective, it can be argued that the Internet represents a logical extension of a trend towards technology that the Bario community has experienced in the development of its communications capability. This is further strengthened by the community’s willingness to take risks and embrace new learning experiences. This is evident from Pemanca Ngimet Ayu’s (the Paramount Chief of the Community) comment when addressing the council of elders on the intent of the project. He said, “Kira-kira 30 laak nuk puun malem, edtah enu beruh mediting ngen tauh iah ineh enu Kristen – tauh maya’ Tuhan Alla. Lun Merar tauh dih pelaba doo pian la’ maya enu beruh sineh kadikuh idih mare ulun doo ngen tauh. Perapu ngen ineh medting meto’ sekulah dih. Sineh peh pelaba the useb tauh la ngalap sekulah dih kadikun tauh kekali, sekuleh ineh teh kereb ngiuk anak tauh dih lem ulun dedih. Kadi’ neh tauh perihda’at mated anak tauh dih me sekulah. Edto kinih mula’ anak tauh nuk doo ileh dih. Mula ideh uwan kerja dita. Kinih nih neh edtah teknologi beruh medting. Doo tauh terima idih, ni’er kepah tauh kareb pakai idih, paad tauh na’am ketedtan let ngen lun mula’ dih.” (About 30 years ago Christianity, a new faith came to us which is Christianity — we are following the Lord. Our parents were very excited to embrace the new faith because it gave us good life. With the new faith, the school also came to us. We were also very excited to embrace the school because we foresaw that the school could help our children. Therefore we sacrificed to send our children to school. Today many of our children are doing in school. In fact, many nowadays are in high positions. Again, today a new technology has arrived in our midst. Let’s embrace it and see how we can use it in order not to be left by the rest of the societies.” Their capacity to take risks is prevalent in their history as a people, such as when today’s Kelabit forefathers embraced formal education and Christianity about 30 years ago in view of the potential benefits they had to offer) (Harris, R.W. et al., 2001). Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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Today, the Kelabit see the opportunities provided by the ICTs as a new tool to empower them with information that can allow them to compete in the world, or at least be electronically connected with each other and the rest of the world9. This is obvious from a statement made by one of the respondents. He said, “…we cannot not try this technology. We need to be part of the change that is taking place, otherwise we will be lagging behind technologically, and continue to find it difficult to communicate with the rest of the world.” Emerging from the focus group discussions, interviews and survey, the community and the research team were able to develop a joint research and development agenda that represents a prioritised set of information provision objectives that each supports a community development endeavour. We have adopted the following definition of community development developed by the United Nations: “Community development is the process by which the efforts of the people themselves are united with those of governmental authorities to improve the economic, social, and cultural conditions of communities and to enable them to contribute fully to national progress. This complex process is made up of two essential elements: the participation by the people themselves in efforts to improve their level of living, with as much reliance as possible on their own initiative; and the provision of technical and other services in ways that encourage initiative, self-help and cooperation” (Silverman, Anglin, & Sangha, 2001). One event had a significant contribution to the development of the agenda. It took the form of a two-day symposium to which members of the Bario community were invited, along with influential members of the Kelabit diaspora living elsewhere in Sarawak. Several members of the Kelabit people who had moved from the Highlands to the towns for education and employment retain strong links to their families in and around Bario and carry some degree of influence in decision making relating to local development. As many are highly educated and occupy senior management, professional and administrative positions in Sarawak society, they are well placed to advise the local community and the project team with regard to making effective use of ICTs in Bario. The two day symposium took the following format: • Presentations on similar projects elsewhere; • Outline of the research findings to date with regard to information channels and desires in Bario; • Discussion on information opportunities so far identified; • Consensus drawn on potential information areas; • Break-out groups for each information area to expand with more detail, assign responsibilities and propose activities; • Plenary presentations from each group for community consensus building and allocation of priorities for development activities and associated information provision. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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The research and development agenda is shown in the Appendix, and it relates to information delivery that supports education, culture, commerce, agriculture, health, community, technology and human resource development. Each of these proposals was arrived at in a participatory style, in joint consultation with the researchers facilitating the community to develop these agendas themselves. This indicates a number of opportunities and potential applications of ICTs for the Bario community. As an example of actioning one of the identified areas, the team is now implementing a scheme for e-commerce in support of community-based tourism in Bario. The intention is to raise local incomes by using the telecenter and the Internet for the promotion and sale of tourism in the Kelabit Highlands to overseas markets. Community-based tourism involves local communities in the management and provision of tourism products and ensures they derive reasonable financial returns whilst preserving the natural physical and cultural assets that they value. Operating tourism as a form of e-commerce disintermediates the tourism value chain and directs a higher proportion of incomes to product and service providers at the point of delivery. Before the opportunities for development in the research agenda can become viable, there are issues specific 10 to Bario that need to be solved. These issues were identified through the survey and interviews conducted and they include:

1. Literacy Level About 87.9% of the respondents are able to write, although in Kelabit. All the respondents speak Kelabit, while 91.4% speak Malay, but only 75.7% can write in Malay. About 37.1% can speak English, although only 35% can write in English. Other languages spoken and written are Iban, Penan, Murut and Bidayuh. The language of the Internet is largely English, with as many as 65% of the Malaysian sites being written in English. This presents a challenge to the attempt to build local capacity through the implementation of ICTs.

2. Computer Literacy Education-wise, most (30.7%) of the respondents have completed upper secondary education, 20.7% completed lower secondary school, 19% received primary school education, 0.7% received tertiary education, while the remaining (28.6%) never went to school. From these figures, it can be seen that while a majority of the people completed a basic level of education, it is an insufficient preparation for conducting an electronic business. However, as many computer experts are self-trained, a higher level of education is not necessarily needed to become literate in computer use.

3. Management Capability In fact, there are not enough people in Bario who have the necessary skills needed to keep up the basic maintenance of a computer system. This is mainly Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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because anyone with a sufficient degree of education has moved away from Bario for higher paying jobs outside. This exodus of skilled personnel has left Bario without the necessary man or womanpower to engage in the application of the technologies. In order for ICTs to be successful, an extensive training in management will be needed. Despite these challenges, especially the low level of literacy and computer awareness, the team found that the progressive readiness and enthusiasm of the Bario community for technology-induced improvements in their communication resources were favorable indicators for a systematic introduction to ICTs. Members of the community are capable not only of learning new knowledge, skills, ideas and roles, but also have the capacity to integrate new knowledge with their existing knowledge and build something permanent and of value upon this base. The team’s experience suggests that technology cannot function successfully without the community’s aspirations and readiness to improve its own wellbeing. When a community has aspirations, whether economic or cultural, most likely members will be willing to learn new skills, ideas and roles. The Bario community has done just this with embracing formal education, and is confident it will do the same with ICTs. The willingness of the Bario community to participate in the project, fundamentally, is one reason why Bario was chosen for the initiative. In fact, it has been the close working organisation of the multi-discipline project team and the harmonious relationships it has had with the Bario community that facilitated progress towards the project’s goals. And this was made possible by the participatory approach that was adopted, which helped to facilitate flexibility and adaptability among both the community and the implementation team, contributing, it is argued, to the prospects of sustainability. In addition, the Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) techniques were found to offer helpful insights in identifying the potential role of information in community development (Chambers, 1997). It encouraged the team to anticipate what it found: that development solutions and their applicability to their local context would be highly specific, localised, contextual, complex, diverse, dynamic and unpredictable. Bearing this in mind, the team embraced new methods of working, and flexible approaches that could help in the application of ICTs to improve rural life in Sarawak. Some of these are non-ICT related activities, but can provide guidance that is more useful than was initially expected. Some of these approaches include: • Acknowledging anthropological and ethnographical contributions to Informatics; • Designing information systems that are appropriate to community-bounded, as opposed to business-bounded, contexts; Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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Adopting social analysis that is appropriate for loosely organised communities, as opposed to tightly organised hierarchical organisations; Cultivating sensitivity to the cultural contexts and variations of technology deployments; Aggressive focus on those social impacts of technology that can generate community empowerment.

• •

This differs greatly from common approaches to the implementation of information systems within organisations, known as systems design and analysis, which often failed to render effective guidance for the identification of the community’s information needs. Additionally, the team concluded that pre-and post-implementation measures based on quantification of benefits, which is a common form of ICT impact assessment, would fail to capture the full effects of the technology in the setting under study. All these require institutional adaptability, co-ordination of multiple agencies, aggressive focussing on targets, balancing of multiple viewpoints and skilful management of relationships.

CONCLUSIONS This experience indicates that application of ICT-based development efforts at community levels demands new skills and approaches from a variety of professions, some of which challenge traditional practices in several disciplines. As project implementers and promoters, the team encountered a huge range of skills, disciplines and professions during its regular operations. Besides having to adopt multiple roles in advancing the aims of the project (for instance, handling transportation of equipment, power supply, and language, accommodation of people and equipment, and familiarisation of beneficiaries), members had to be capable of associating and dealing with illiterate farmers, local administrators, technicians, small businessmen, officials, local and national community representatives, senior government officers and government ministers. Since the information solutions span education, health, commerce, agriculture and culture as well as communications, there is no single agency that carries responsibility or authority for community development by means of ICTs. Instead, a range of agencies needs to be mobilised and co-ordinated for full benefits to flow to the community. Considering how the e Bario project is progressing, it is obvious that successful implementations of rural ICTs within contexts similar to Bario remain challenging and highly experimental. Nothing like it had been known to exist in Malaysia; therefore the participants had few yardsticks against which to measure or compare their activities. Replicated implementations by government or other agencies will undoubtedly encounter a similar set of challenges that will have to be overcome in order to achieve desirable results. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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The experiences gained by the team seem to offer methodological guidance for future professional practice. In the first place, community empowerment by means of information is unlikely to emerge as a result of merely implementing technology. Participatory forms of analysis in which community aspirations and development activities are moulded and tracked in a cyclic manner are more likely to achieve desirable results than are technology implementations that are predicated on fixed expectations and inflexible assumptions of what outcomes should look like. Secondly, this finding has implications for post-intervention evaluation. If assessments are based on predicted outcomes, and much of the outcome is not predicted, then the assessments will be clouded and the value of real benefits underestimated. These lessons will be usefully carried forward into wider scale implementations by no longer needing the intensive research attention given to the e Bario project. Simple to use and replicable methodologies thereby contribute to accelerated technology diffusion, allowing larger numbers of people to enjoy the benefits of access to ICTs.

ENDNOTES 1

2

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The e Bario project is coordinated by Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) and is financially supported by the Demonstrator Application Grant Scheme (DAGS) and Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The team is highly inter-disciplinary, and includes researchers with backgrounds in Information Systems, Anthropology, Cognitive Science, Community Development, Education, Electrical Engineering and the like. Members include Prof. Khairuddin Ab Hamid, Associate Prof. Dr. Peter Songan, Dr. Alvin Yeo Wee, Mr. Al Khalid Othman, Dr. Ngu Bing Hiong, Soubakeavathi Rethinasamy, Jayapragas Gnaniah, Noor Shah Mohd Salleh, Dr. Roger Harris, Elaine Khoo Guat Lien, Ms. Poline Bala and Jacqueline Bulan (Research Assistant). This discrepancy, often known as “digital gap” or “information gap”, can exist between the rich and the poor, between developed and developing nations, and also between urban and rural populations. According to Hudson (1998), the latter is far more significant since about 80% of the population in the poorest countries live in rural areas. Moreover, most telecommunication infrastructures in developing countries are found in the larger cities and are almost non-existent in rural and remote areas. During the period of the project, the government has been promoting the advantages of the “K-economy” in which dependence on physical resources will give way to the exploitation of knowledge resources in the future development of the economy. Dr. Mahathir Mohammad says, “In


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our pursuits towards developing the K-economy, knowledge has to replace labour and capital as the key factors of production in our economy. The challenge for Malaysia is to develop this knowledge amongst our citizens so that our success will be due to the contributions of Malaysian talents and knowledge workers” (NST, April 4, 2001). It is estimated that the distribution of telephones throughout the state is in the ratio of seven phones for 100 people. The number is expected to increase to 15 phones for the same number of people in 2005 and 25 phones for the year 2020 (Sarawak Tribune, April 22, 1999). Bario is located in the Kelabit Highlands, close to the border between Kalimantan and Malaysia in the Miri Division of Sarawak prior to World War II, little was known of the Kelabit and their surroundings. The Kelabit’s only means of communication to the closest town was by foot, climbing mountains, following the mountain ridges, and crossing and recrossing rivers and valleys on a journey that took several weeks. Nowadays, flying to Bario, the main Kelabit center, is the only practical way to get there. There is no road, and a land expedition requires a river journey plus an additional weeklong trek across forested mountains (Bala 2002). According to Robert Chambers (1997), PAR is an encompassing method that combines action, reflection, participation and research. Here, PAR has been employed for the purpose of actively involving the people themselves in generating knowledge about their condition and how it can be changed. The impact of the research process then is assessed based on what action people take in response to knowledge that has been accumulated and disseminated during the course of the research process, and the extent to which change takes place, and in what direction the change occurs among the research subjects (Mikkleson, 1995). This approach is highly recommended by the World Bank (1998) as a systematic approach to the application of IT to rural communities. In order to support IT adoption that will contribute to rural development, it is essential to begin with the needs of the rural community. As a first step, a feasibility study is required in order to: identify the needs and priorities of rural communities in such areas as agriculture, education, commerce, natural resource management, health, etc.; determine the types of information needed to help meet those needs, including information gathered from the rural population and transmitted to policy-makers and project designers, and information shared among rural communities; determine the gaps between the information currently available and what is needed; and determine how the use of ICTs can close those gaps and build valuable synergies by mobilizing information across sectors. This is obvious from a statement made by one of the respondents. He said, “…we cannot not try this technology. We need to be part of the change that


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is taking place, otherwise we will be lagging behind technologically, and continue to find it difficult to communicate with the rest of the world” (Harris, Bala, Songan, & Khoo, 2001). And also are highly different from those faced by highly developed areas in Malaysia, for instance the Klang Valley, where the main issues are security, contractual and financial issues, lack of IT skilled personnel, privacy, deception problems, issues of globalization, ownership, lack of computers, and issues of censorship.

REFERENCES Anderson, L., Crowder, L.V., Dion, D., & Truelove, W. (1998). Applying the lessons of participatory communication and training to rural telecentres. In The First Mile of Connectivity. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. Retrieved April 28, 2000 from: http://www.fao.org/ WAICENT/FAOINFO/SUSTDEV/Cddirect/Cdre0029.html. Bala, P. (2002). Changing borders and identities in the Kelabit Highlands: Anthropological reflections on growing up in a Kelabit village near the international border. Dayak Studies Contemporary Series, No. 1, The Institute of East Asian Studies, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. Barr, D. F. (1998). Integrated rural development through telecommunications. In The First Mile of Connectivity. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. Retrieved April 28, 2000 from: http://www.fao.org/ WAICENT/FAOINFO/SUSTDEV/Cddirect/Cdre0029.html. Chambers, R. (1997). Whose reality counts? London: Intermediate Technology Publications. Connecting Malaysia’s rural communities to the Information Age: The EBario project (n.d.). Retrieved October 22, 2002 from: http://www.itu.int/ osg/spu/wsis-themes/ict_stories/e-bariocasestudy.html. Ernberg, J. (1998). Empowering communities in the information society: An international perspective. In The First Mile of Connectivity. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. Retrieved on April 28, 2000 from: http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/FAOINFO/SUSTDEV/ Cddirect/Cdre0028.html. Garcia, D.L & Gorenflo, N.R. (1998). Rural networking cooperatives: Lessons for international development and aid strategies. In The First Mile of Connectivity. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. Retrieved on April 28, 2000 from: http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/ FAOINFO/SUSTDEV/Cddirect/Cdre0033.html. Harris, R.W. (1999). Rural information technology for Sarawak’s development. Sarawak Development Journal, 2(1), 72-84.


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Harris, R.W., Bala, P., Songan, P., & Khoo, G.L. (2001). Challenges and opportunities in introducing information and communication technologies to the Kelabit community of North Central Borneo. New Media and Society, 3(3), 271-296. Hudson, H.E. (1998). Global information infrastructure: The rural challenge. In The First Mile of Connectivity. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. Retrieved on April 28, 2000 from: http://www.fao.org/ WAICENT/FAOINFO/SUSTDEV/Cddirect/Cdre0032.html. International Telecommunications Union (ITU). (1998). World Telecommunications Development Report, Universal Access. Retrieved from: http:// www.itu.int/ti/publications/WTDR_98/index.htm. Mahathir, M. (1999). The Way Forward. YAB Dato’ Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. Working Paper presented at the Malaysian Business Council, February 1991. Retrieved from: http://www.smpke.jpm.my/pm3.htm. Mikkleson, B. (1995). Methods for development work and research: A guide for practitioners. New Delhi: Sage Publications. Paisley, D. & Richardson, D. (1998). Why the first mile and not the last? In The First Mile of Connectivity. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. Retrieved on April 28, 2000 from: http://www.fao.org/ WAICENT/FAOINFO/SUSTDEV/Cddirect/Cdre0026.html. Rahman, O. A. (1993). Industrial targets of Vision 2020: The science and technology perspective. In Abdul hamid, A. S. (Ed.), Malaysia’s Vision 2020: Understanding the Concept, Implications and Challenges. Petaling Jaya: Pelanduk Publications. Talla, Y. (1979). The Kelabit of the Kelabit Highlands, Sarawak. Pulau Pinang: University Sains Malaysia. World Bank. (1998). World Bank Development Report, Knowledge for Development, The World Bank, Washington DC, USA.


Broad Topic Area Education

Narrow Topic Area IT-Based Teaching and Learning

Project Area Evaluation of IT-based teaching materials

Effectiveness of the IT Literacy Programme

Measuring the pace of growth of IT literacy among school staff and pupils Tracking the attitudes towards technology and the intentions to use it

Attitudes and Intentions, Pupils and Staff Distance learning

Distance learning in school Distance learning out of school

Culture

Genealogy

Indigenous Knowledge

Recording and classifying oral traditions Assembling, classifying, recording and disseminating indigenous knowledge

Computers are the first choice for getting things done, both for teaching and learning and for school administration. Using the computer is no big deal. Everyone understands that computers are the natural choice for achieving their informational and knowledge-based goals. School pupils regularly enrol on courses from distant institutions, in a range of cocurriculum subjects. They are awarded certificates of competence from those institutions. Non- pupils regularly enrol on courses from distant institutions, in a range of cocurriculum subjects. They are awarded certificates of competence from those institutions. Pupils at the school engage with software-based learning that originates in distant institutions for the purpose of building language skills. A comprehensive Kelabit genealogy is recorded on a computer that is connected to the internet and which can be accessed and updated from any computer that is similarly connected. Family trees are documented and photographs of individuals are included. Family life-histories are recorded, including dates and locations of major events. Oral histories are recorded and/or transcribed and maintained in a database on a computer that is accessible via the internet. Traditions are recorded along what is known of their origin. Indigenous Kelabit knowledge that relates to local history, natural history, the environment, economics and culture is maintained in a database on a computer that is connected to the Internet.

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Oral Traditions

Networked language skills learning and building Recording genealogical data in the computer

Envisioned Scenario A significant proportion of the school curriculum is taught using computers. The teachers develop some of their own software for teaching mainstream subjects, as well as adopting pre-written software. All teachers are familiar with the software tools used for creating teaching software that can be used by pupils in the classroom or individually. IT literacy is embedded into the school curriculum. All pupils are familiar and skilled with computers. They regularly use computers for projects and classroom work and for self study.

APPENDIX


Potential Areas for Social and Human Development through ICTs in Bario

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Commerce

Tourism

Trade

Agriculture

Agricultural Practices

Digital trade in digital images -- the Bario image bank Assembling, classifying and sharing relevant information relating to rice production Assembling, classifying and sharing relevant information relating to pest control

The church community, through its own web site, regularly communicates with equivalent communities world-wide and augments its local activities as a result.

The custom-built telecenter manifests the local cultural engagement between itself, technology and the outside world.

Tourists from the world over are able to book trekking and cultural encounter vacations directly with operators in Bario. Bario becomes a world-class location for such activities, on a par with Nepal.

Local craftsmen obtain a good living from e-commerce for their products.

Local farmers obtain a good living from e-commerce in Bario rice. The amount of land given over to rice production increases and unit production is increased as a result of improved methods. Bario rice becomes a trademark product with a premium value, and quality standards are maintained. Photographs of local culture, geography and agriculture are regularly traded over the Internet, with revenues going to individuals whose images appear in the pictures. Rice production greatly increases through access to government extension programmes as well as farmer-to-farmer networks and exchanges.

Pest control information is readily available and sharable as soon as pests become a threat.


Telecenter design

Assembling, disseminating and contributing to sources of religious support and intra-denominational communications Adoption of local cultural symbolism in the design of the telecenter and the imagery used Developing tourism potential through internet outreach and local tourism resource enhancement -highland trekking Developing opportunities for trade in local handicrafts Developing opportunities for trade in Bario rice

APPENDIX (CONTINUED)


Spiritual Fortification

Upper Respiratory Illness

Telemedicine

Health Care Community

Attitudes and Intentions

Community Empowerment and Well-Being Gender Relations

Social Communications

Telecenter Sustainability Technology

Wireless Networking

Human Resource Development

Satellite Internet Access Training in IT and Information Literacy

IT Based training in health care Attitudes and Intentions towards IT

Development and testing of an appropriate index Assessing the influence of IT on gender relations Assessing the value and need for improved facilities for social communities Developing a business model for community ownership Wireless networking over a LAN Applying cellular telephony in a remote local area Evaluation of satellite Internet access Effectiveness of methods for achieving IT Literacy

Upper respiratory illness ceases to be the main health complaint in Bario.

Medical information, including heart beat audio recordings, is regularly exchanged across the internet between medical staff in Bario and doctors in Miri, Kuching and beyond. Community members regularly attend health care programmes presented across the Internet. The community is able to express its own needs for information, to develop its own information sources and to obtain access to the information resources it needs in support of the development programmes that it has decided upon for itself. IT becomes the principal vehicle for achieving community development. The community is able to measure its own advancement and to assign the degree to which that advancement has been achieved as a result of improved access to information and to ICTs. Women perceive themselves as enjoying improved status and income and are able to attribute a defined proportion of that to their involvement with information and with ICTs. Communications between distant family members become daily commonplace events. Anyone can send or receive an e-mail to anyone they know who has an email account anywhere in the world. The community telecenter becomes a self-sustaining entity, free of institutional support, a going business concern. All computers within a given radius from the community telecenter are potentially able to connect to the local network and to obtain access to the Internet. Individuals are able to use local cellular phones to communicate within the Bario district, and possibly to connect to the wider national public telephone service. The limitations and potential of access to the Internet via satellite are well known by the researchers and by the community. The community develops methods for achieving IT literacy that are appropriate for their own use of IT. It becomes a demonstrably IT literate community.

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Local Area Cell Phones

Assembling and disseminating relevant information relating to the avoidance and relief of upper respiratory illness Opportunities for telemedicine

APPENDIX (CONTINUED)


Health

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Chapter IX

Creating and Sustaining Online Communities: Web-Based Services Meeting the Diverse Needs of Regional and Rural Australia Helen Thompson, University of Ballarat, Australia

ABSTRACT This chapter explores the challenges of establishing and sustaining online communities and regional portals. Theory relevant to online communities, particularly in a regional and rural context, is introduced to provide a background for the MainStreet Regional Portal case study. The author hopes that the dissemination of information on the critical learnings from this project will assist in informing others about the diverse factors which can impact on creating and sustaining online community initiatives, long after initial seed funding has been expended.

BACKGROUND Electronic commerce has been hailed as the business revolution of the information age with promises of new market opportunities, productivity improvements and efficiencies that can maintain or enhance competitiveness (Earl, Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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2000; Vigo & Arnold, 2000). However in a regional and rural context the availability of practical assistance is limited, and when combined with little local knowledge and experience, the valuation of electronic commerce benefits is often difficult (Ashford, 1999; Papandrea & Wade, 2000; Pattulock & Albury Wodonga Area Consultative Committee, 2000). Adoption has been promoted on the basis that electronic commerce can eliminate the constraints of time and distance, and provide new marketing, buying and selling opportunities for all kinds of products and services (Crawford, 1998; Alliance for Global Business, 1999; National Office for the Information Economy, 1999; Vigo & Arnold, 2000). Adoption has also been linked to enhancing community well-being (Steinfield & Whitten, 1999; Brumby, 2001; Local Government Association of Tasmania and Trinitas Pty Ltd, 2001; McGrath & More, 2002; National Office for the Information Economy, 2002). In this context it has been argued that online capabilities can help to stimulate and reinvigorate both geographic communities and communities of interest. Online technologies provide a tool for individual advancement, whether through greater learning opportunities, greater social interaction or greater access to information and services (Department for Information Technology and the Arts, 1998, #310). In Australia, there has been a vision for portals to be used to open up regional communities to the rest of the world. Government support has been seen “as enhancing the competence levels of local economies and communities so they become strong enough to deal equitably in an increasingly open marketplace” (McGrath & More, 2002, p. 40). Two programs managed by the National Office for the Information Economy (NOIE) provide examples of the support available. The Information Technology Online (ITOL) program aims to accelerate Australian adoption of business-tobusiness e-commerce and encourage collaborative industry-based projects (McGrath & More, 2002). The complementary, five-year, $250 million program, Networking the Nation, is designed to help bridge gaps in telecommunications services, access, and costs between urban and non-urban Australia. Both programs have provided a funding source for portal initiatives, variously termed as online communities, comprehensive gateways and regional Web sites (Department of Communications Information Technology and the Arts, 2001). While no formal evaluation of the NTN program has been published, anecdotal evidence suggests that many portal initiatives have struggled to meet their project aims. Some have produced ‘static’ or ‘fixed’ solutions. Others have attracted funding without a sufficient understanding of Web portals, online aggregation and/or local needs. Some initiatives have stalled when perceived as a competitive threat to the local IT and Web development industry. Others have experienced delays in implementation and lost momentum because of less time and other resources available to promote the actual use of portal services when delivered. Finally, in terms of ongoing sustainability, it is rare to find examples of portals that have ‘life’ after funding. Most fail to develop sufficient revenue Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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streams or systems that can support the project staff, portal content, and infrastructure beyond the seed-funded period. The recent evaluation of the ITOL program explores the notion of online communities and reports on the success of portal projects (McGrath & More, 2002). Findings indicate that most are not fully meeting original objectives (McGrath & More, 2002, p. 34). Unforeseen challenges during the course of project implementation have included technological problems; delays in legal agreements; slowness of industry and/or project beneficiaries to respond to the e-commerce initiative; and an underestimation of the time and effort required (McGrath & More, 2002, p. 33). For most, the plan to provide full online ecommerce capabilities (for example, online ordering and payments) will not be achieved. Survey respondents have indicated that funding constraints may limit full realisation of future plans for their projects. There is also the suggestion by some project teams that they might modify their project management structure to accommodate funding and personnel constraints (McGrath & More, 2002, p. 34). McGrath and More observe that these potential online communities are “evolving rather than having arrived” (2002, p. 67). Further, that despite the rise of interest in online communities these alliances are not “magic bullets or quickfix solutions for SMEs or even larger organisations, communities, or industries” (McGrath & More, 2002, p. 67). However “…where commitment, compatibility, [and] shared strategic intent are at the heart of collaborative relationships, success and learning is much more likely to occur” (McGrath & More, 2002, p. 68). The objective of this chapter is to explore the challenges of establishing and sustaining online communities. This will be achieved by disseminating some of the learning from the implementation and outcomes of the MainStreet.net.au Regional Portal project. This project and subsequent initiatives had their origins in a NTN funded regional portal initiative, which was designed and implemented by the University of Ballarat, Centre for Electronic Commerce and Communications. While a number of factors are highlighted, the most successful and unique aspect has been the development of a replicable portal framework. It has been this capability that has been leveraged to cause increase in ‘buy-in’, participation, and ongoing investment in regional Web-based services. Members of ‘geographic communities’ and ‘communities of interest’ are able to work with CECC to design and implement sophisticated Web-based services, customized to meet their specific communication, promotional and/or e-commerce needs. Initiatives are then sustained by putting community members in charge of the management of their online community. Local ownership and the sustainability of infrastructure and technical support services have been achieved by effectively aggregating regional demand for portal services. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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To provide a context for the MainStreet case study, the next section introduces some theory relevant to virtual communities and portals. The concept of ‘online communities’ is introduced and then literature reviewed to identify factors which are important in the success of online community and portal initiatives.

THE CONCEPT OF ‘ONLINE COMMUNITIES’ The term ‘online community’ means different things to different people (Preece, 2000). In early definitions, the term described communication facilitated through bulletin boards. In 1994, for example, Howard Rheingold described virtual communities as “…cultural aggregations that emerge when enough people bump into each other often enough in cyberspace…a group of people who may or may not meet one another face to face, and who exchange words and ideas through the mediation of computer bulletin boards and networks” (Rheingold, 1994, pp. 57-58). More recent definitions, however, reflect the expansion of Web-based technologies and often link ‘online communities’ with concepts of regional communities and local strengths (Local Government Association of Tasmania and Trinitas Pty Ltd on Behalf of all Councils in Tasmania, 2001). NTN describe ‘online communities’ as ‘regional portals’ and in the Funding Priorities and Principles identify ‘regional portals’ as “…one strategy for encouraging regional participation in the information economy.” According to NTN, a ‘regional portal’ can achieve the online aggregation of potential and existing regional presence into a comprehensive portal, gateway or regional Web site. Preference has been given to projects that offer “…inclusive regional aggregation of business, government and community services and which provide interactive services to clients both in and external to the region…” (Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, 2001). The ITOL program describes ‘online communities’ as ‘portals’ in a definition that captures both ‘communities of interest’ and ‘communities of location’. Portal projects are designed to encourage an industry or a region to move online by providing a facility for communication and information sharing among members (McGrath & More, 2002). Australia’s largest telecommunications provider describes ‘online communities’ as ‘community portals’. According to Telstra, ‘community portals’ are a focal point for the provision of local regional information, a directory with local news services, local weather, community organisations and features such as bulletin boards, discussion forums, a calendar of events and transaction services conducted (Telstra Country Wide, 2002). Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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In regional Australia many portal initiatives have been premised on fear of external e-commerce ventures badly affecting local industry (McGrath & More, 2002, p. 50). Media and government reports have reinforced notions that those who ignore the adoption of electronic commerce will do so at their peril (Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, 2000). Recent research, however, identifies a movement beyond the “starry-eyed fascination with, and high expectations of, technology per se,” with the focus now more pragmatically on how ICT can enable enhanced business processes and effective organisational relationships (More & McGrath, 2003, p. 3). Various issues require consideration in achieving optimum online collaboration. These include notions of communities, trust and commitment, processes and structure, knowledge management, learning and collaboration (More & McGrath, 2003, p. 1). Some specific factors that have been identified as important in the success of online community and portal initiatives are presented in the next section.

AREAS OF CHALLENGE AND SUCCESS In forging and managing online collaboration, people issues rather than technological ones have been identified as the most challenging. “Certainly across a broad range of projects, many have come to realise that managing people, relationships and business processes is harder than managing technology” (McGrath & More, 2002, p. 66). It is easy to underestimate the amount of planning and effort that is needed to build and sustain an online community; therefore care should be taken to avoid miscalculations. In particular “…overlooking the key role of the human facilitator is perhaps the greatest reason that online communities fail to meet the expectations of their designers” (Bernal, 2000, p. 4). For many projects, collaboration is the key to survival, renewal and growth, especially in regional areas “…where the threat of global competitive dynamics often drove alliances” (McGrath & More, 2002, p. 67). Initiatives, however, with a broad geographical focus can “…encounter difficulties in establishing and maintaining cooperative relationships across multiple communities in their regions” (Simpson, 2002, p. 8). “Many projects that have adopted a ‘build it and they will come’ approach have been doomed to early failure” (Simpson, 2002, p. 4). Developers need to work with community members to ensure that the goals of the site owner and the needs of community members meet (Preece, 2000). Good online services provide multiple levels of entry, many-to-many relationships, and rapid movement between the services and content of disparate providers (Local Government Association of Tasmania and Trinitas Pty Ltd, 2001).



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Community members will need compelling reasons to use and return to an online community again and again. There will be a need to balance supply side investment (access, technical platforms) and demand side investment (content and services) (Local Government Association of Tasmania and Trinitas Pty Ltd, 2001). “If you get this right — if you can identify and fill a need in the lives of your community members — you can go a long way on very little technology. If you miss this, no amount of technology is going to make you successful as a online community” [Amy Jo Kim, The Online Community Report cited in Bernal (2000, p. 3)]. Engaging and relevant content are vital to increase uptake and sustained use of the Internet. Portal content management strategies should be ‘bottom-up’ in their approach. This can be achieved by providing multiple opportunities for interaction and by providing permission-based access to software that allows members to produce content for their online community (Brumby, 2001; Telstra Country Wide, 2002). Soft technologies are essential in building user confidence and comfort with new technology. “Individualised awareness raising…training activities, and learner support are key elements in creating within the community the desire, motivation and enthusiasm to trial and take up the technology” (Simpson, 2002, p. 7). This review has highlighted a selection of factors which can impact on the success or otherwise of portal type initiatives to provide a context for the MainStreet case study, which is presented in the next section.

MAINSTREET CASE STUDY In the Central Highlands and Western Regions of Victoria (Australia) there has been a strong recognition of the need to work in partnership to promote electronic commerce adoption. In May 1999 the Golden West Regional Forum, the Central Highlands Area Consultative Committee, and a collective of regional stakeholder organisations engaged the University of Ballarat, Centre for Electronic Commerce and Communications (CECC), to research the requirements and make recommendations on how the region could capture greater advantages from new information and communications technologies. Around 13,500 businesses operate within the region across ten local government areas. The region extends from Bacchus Marsh through the regional city of Ballarat, and west through the centres of Ararat, Stawell, and Horsham through to the South Australian border. It also extends north and south including the communities of Nhill, Donald, Warracknabeal, Ouyen, Edenhope and Daylesford. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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The study identified that although many organisations had developed business practices that worked well in the ‘off-line’ world, they would require assistance in identifying new processes and practices which could be adopted to overcome obstacles to successful electronic commerce. The research, documented in Victoria’s Golden West Portal Project Business Case (Thompson, 1999) involved a number of different stages. These included confirming existing regional Web content, examining community portal developments, identifying portal tools, researching potential revenue streams, conducting focus group sessions, and continuing with stakeholder consultation. The research report described how an environment could be established that would be conducive to the widespread adoption of electronic commerce. Specific recommendations included the following. • Establishing a membership-based, regional association with a specific focus on electronic commerce. • Establishing the infrastructure for a manageable and economically-sustainable Internet presence in a way that would encourage and facilitate communities of interest and trading communities, as well as the enhancement of community service. • Through a regional portal, achieve better Web content coordination, provide a valuable information source for residents, reduce or eliminate potential frustrations for users in finding Web-based information and services, and also enhance efforts to promote all the attributes of the region. • Support regional businesses that were still at the elementary stage of electronic commerce uptake by providing access to easy-to-use Webbased products and services. • Provide mentoring services to businesses that were ready to integrate electronic commerce with their particular operations and business plans. Consultation during the research period, through presentations, focus groups, and briefing sessions, produced some unanticipated benefits and challenges. While consultation acted to increase awareness of what a regional portal was and how such an initiative could be implemented to support economic and social development, it also prematurely raised expectations. Secondly, it introduced both the importance and challenge of achieving ‘a local flavour’. Focus-group participants did not identify themselves as belonging to a single region. How then could a regional portal be developed to be ‘the region’s’ first point of electronic contact?



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ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE AND FUNDING The Chamber of Electronic Commerce Western Victoria Inc. (the Chamber) was established to facilitate the advancement of electronic commerce, promote leadership on electronic commerce issues, facilitate new business development initiatives using electronic commerce and implement the MainStreet portal project. The 15 founding members were the organizations that had provided financial contributions to the initial research. Funding applications were prepared, and in November 1999 the MainStreet project secured funding of AUD 274,000 through Networking the Nation, with a further AUD 135,000 approved in May 2000. The Chamber would manage the project through a committee of management. CECC would be contracted to implement the project because they had the specialist skills necessary to develop the portal infrastructure and services. Affiliations would be strengthened with the region’s Community Enterprise Centres, businesses in the IT sector, and with organizations such as regional-development bodies, VECCI, and Australian Industry Group. By June 2000 membership of the Chamber had been increased to 50 with representation across semi-government/utilities (10), local government (nine), business (seven), education (six), businesses in the IT sector (six), Regional Connectivity and Community Enterprise Centres (five), business associations (three), and professional services (four).

CHOOSING WHETHER TO BUY OR BUILD Many portal projects produce ‘static’ or ‘fixed’ solutions. Applicants secure the funding, call for tenders, have the portal built, and then encourage the target community to use it. The MainStreet model, with the inclusion of a technical team as a critical element, was different, but the decision to have this team was significant in determining how the MainStreet project would evolve. The technical officer and part-time programmers would develop a portal framework based on the core services identified during the preliminary study. All tools would be selected or developed with non-technical end users in mind. The initial toolset would include event calendars; news publishing tools; online registration, payment, and product systems; and access to Web wizards and other Web publishing tools. This would be achieved by incorporating a range of in-house developments with some integration of externally-sourced products. The core services would create capacities to link regional Internet information and services, construct searchable directories, dynamically generate content like news and weather, distribute publishing and authoring rights, and promote community news and events. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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IMPLEMENTATION During its first year, the MainStreet project was well-promoted with networking and briefing sessions and presentations to stakeholder organizations and through regular media coverage at the local, regional, and state level (Barker, 1999; Delahunty, 2000; Hodges, 2000; Litras, 2000a; Litras, 2000b; Toia, 2000; Verdon, 2000). These activities were important, as they helped to maintain interest in the project while technical developments proceeded behind the scenes. The project attracted its first major client early in 2000. The success in securing the Ararat Online project (http://www.ararat.asn.au) was attributed to involving regional stakeholders right from the project’s beginning. Ararat’s Economic Development Manager had participated in a range of activities, meetings and focus group sessions. Through these activities he developed a strong understanding of how MainStreet offered Ararat something different that could be applied immediately to benefit his local community. Ararat was already more advanced than most communities with regard to its e-commerce uptake, and wanted to stay in that position. Ararat Online (Stage 1) had evolved from a partnership between the Ararat Council and the Ararat Community College in early 1999, with students developing simple Web pages for local businesses and community groups. But there were some limitations: there was a lack of site consistency, no searching capabilities, some quality problems, and an inability to easily update sites. Businesses also had no way of progressing to a higher level of e-commerce activity (Thompson, 2000). The Ararat Advertiser gave front-page coverage to the announcement that Ararat Online (http://www.ararat.asn.au) would upgrade its existing site through MainStreet (Verdon, 2000). The project would include a range of elements, all of which would be delivered though the University of Ballarat’s CECC. More than eighty businesses and community groups would directly benefit from an upgrade of their Web presence. They would also be given the opportunity to undertake training so that each organization would gain the skills to manage its own site. A further opportunity would be available for six businesses through an e-commerce mentoring program. Selected businesses would be assisted in the implementation of e-commerce initiatives developed to match their particular business needs. The value derived for CECC from the Ararat Online project was substantial. First, although the project did not represent a significant ‘bottom-line’ contribution in the context of the overall project budget, the investment of AUD 8,000 in a regional e-commerce context represented a significant buy-in in the MainStreet product. Second, the Ararat Online project provided an opportunity to showcase the full CECC product suite, the technical capabilities of the Web products, and the training and consulting services. Third, the project would help to address one of the early barriers: people in the target region had a very limited Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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understanding of what a portal was. The Ararat Online project would provide a ‘real’ example, which it was hoped could be used to demonstrate the value and benefits that were associated with the efficient linking of Internet-based information and services in an easily searchable form. In other words, the Ararat Online project would establish the first ‘before’ and ‘after’ images. This proved to be a very powerful marketing mechanism for the project. The project’s technical team (however) had their task doubled — they were now expected to build not one, but two portals and to deliver these within very short periods. They had been working to develop the portal framework already described in this chapter. But would it be possible to mirror the MainStreet functionality through sub-communities? To their credit, the technical team took on the challenge enthusiastically, first achieving and then exceeding expectations. They developed a way to replicate the MainStreet functionality, and demonstrated what the results could be — initially through Ararat Online (http:/ /www.ararat.asn.au) and then Birchip Cropping Group (http://www.bcg.org.au). The original goal had been to establish MainStreet as the “point of first electronic contact for the region” (Thompson, 1999, p. iv). The vision was that people would find MainStreet, and from there be able to search and access information about a particular region or locate services of a particular type. What was now understood was that ‘communities’ would be more motivated if the functionality of MainStreet could be delivered at a much more local level with local Web addresses and branding. Information could then be filtered up to the MainStreet umbrella so that client communities could be either accessed directly or through MainStreet. While this turned the original concept upside down, there was a strong indication that communities in the region were prepared to pay for both the establishment and the maintenance of such a service. This replicable portal framework was a ‘product’ that had the potential to generate a significant revenue stream, one which was not identified in the original projections. Through projects like Ararat Online, credibility was established by delivering tailored solutions within very tight time-lines. Completed projects were used as examples to attract further projects, first with Birchip Cropping Group with funding through Multi Media Victoria, and then with local councils who secured funding through the Victorian e-Commerce Early Movers program. A week of activities marked the official launch of the MainStreet portal in July 2000. The major MainStreet portal launch was held in Ballarat. In Nhill and Ararat, local portals Nhill.com and Ararat Online were launched, and in the Pyrenees and Moorabool regions information sessions were held to promote the opportunity to join local working groups for portals at the very beginning of development (Han, 2000; Lynch, 2000; Vida-Douglas, 2000). The portal infrastructure and tools have since been replicated to suit a range of different clients. This approach has proved to be a very effective way of getting people actively engaged online. The Appendix contains a selection of Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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URLs for clients including local governments, town-based communities, membership-based organizations, industry groups, and small and medium enterprises.

OUTCOMES NTN asks funding recipients to measures their progress in addressing a range of barriers to accessing telecommunications infrastructure and services. The following section provides a review of how the MainStreet project contributed in each area to the advancement of ICT and e-commerce uptake.

Enhanced Telecommunications Infrastructure and Services The replicable portal framework which was developed through the MainStreet portal project is a regional asset which is providing communities with access to a range of tools which make it easier to coordinate and create Web-based information and services. Tools accessible through CECC have assisted many individuals and communities in advancing their uptake of electronic commerce as they update their own sites, publish event information and news items, or show others how to build simple Web sites. The level of functionality and services accessed is high and, because clients have strong ownership of their online activities, maintain their own Web-based information, and are committed to annually investing to maintain the portal infrastructure and services, the services can continue to be delivered after the initial seed funding period.

Increase Access to, and Promote Use of, Services Available through Telecommunications Networks The MainStreet project has delivered a variety of training and mentoring initiatives that have promoted the use of Web-based services. Examples include: a ‘train the trainer’ program delivered to council employees, community enterprise centres, neighbourhood houses, and others; Web wizard training for threepage and ten-page, template driven sites delivered to individual business operators and representatives of community groups; and training delivery and Web site document production to ensure that organizations that developed comprehensive Web sites understand and utilise the full features, and can expand, update, and maintain their own sites. Furthermore, e-commerce mentoring projects were conducted in the Ararat, Pyrenees, and Moorabool Shire regions. In total, 18 businesses were assisted in planning and implementing electronic commerce initiatives developed to meet their particular needs. The MainStreet project has also supported and encouraged a staged uptake of electronic commerce. Repeat business has become a significant source of Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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development work, which is a strong endorsement of the CECC product. This experience strengthens the view that the best way to increase interest and investment in e-commerce is to demonstrate for a particular community or organisation the benefits they can immediately receive. Implementing these activities should be the first step with clients who are investing both dollars and time, even if the initial investment is small. This ensures the clients have ownership of the outcomes. The next step is to make sure clients know how to use the services that have been developed. Training needs to be provided so they can quickly gain experience and confidence. The last step is to offer clients new opportunities to assess whether they are ready to build on their earlier electronic commerce activities. This stage tends to involve a combination of both consultancy and technical services, because activities need to be tailored to the particular business needs of the client. A number of clients have been assisted through these stages with them becoming increasingly confident in both selecting and investing in electronic commerce solutions. Birchip Cropping Group, Ballarat A Learning City, and the Regional Connectivity Project are all examples of CECC clients who have come back for further development. The Ararat region also provides a number of examples. Ararat Online was the first MainStreet sub-community. When this site was launched it was showcased across Australia and beyond. But as CECC’s technical team replicated the framework for other clients, a refined and enhanced version of the original model evolved. So, less than six months after the re-launch of Ararat Online, this client was prepared to re-invest to further upgrade their site. Ararat Rural City (http://www.ararat.vic.gov.au) then established a comprehensive council Web site. The Ararat ABCD (http://www.ararat.asn.au/skills_audit/ website/) project accessed development and consulting services to support aspects of its community-building activities, and a further project provided assistance to six of the Ararat’s small town communities to launch Web sites that are linked through the community section of Ararat Online.

Reduce Disparities in Access to Services and Facilities Under most models, the costs to establish (and sustain) a local portal have been substantial, and therefore prohibitive, for small towns and community groups. The CECC portal infrastructure has been developed in such a way that it can be replicated and delivered to both small groups such as Birchip Cropping Group, and to larger communities such as Moorabool, Ararat, and the Pyrenees Shire regions. The portal tools have been designed so that anyone with an interest can register and publish content on their local sites. These tools are both low-cost and easy to use, thus reducing the two most significant barriers to participation that were identified in the original ‘Business Case’. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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CONCLUSION Through the MainStreet project NTN funding has played a catalytic role in ensuring that regional and rural communities have a greater ability to build on local strengths and capitalize on the opportunities that are provided by electronic commerce and ICT. The distinguishing feature has been the development of the replicable portal framework. CECC continues to provide clients with access to sophisticated, shared ICT infrastructure, technical and other support services. Clients have strong ownership of their online activities, maintain their own Web-based information, regularly review, upgrade and invest to expand their online offerings, and are committed to annually investing to sustain the portal infrastructure and the services they access. It is for these reasons that services continue to be delivered and sustained long after any initial seed funding has been expended.

REFERENCES Ashford, M. (1999). Online WA: A Trickle-Up Approach to Using Communications to Enhance Regional Economic and Social Development. Regional Australia Summit, Canberra, Australia. Barker, G. (1999, December 20). Internet revolution set to shake the bush. The Age, Technology, p. 1. Delahunty, E. (2000, January 20). Chamber aims to boost e-commerce. The Ballarat Courier, p. 4. E-commerce umbrella. (2000, August 1). The Ballarat Courier, p. 13. Earl, M. J. (2000). Evolving the e-business. Business Strategy Review, 11(2), 33-38. Grants for Networking Projects. (1999, December 4). The Ballarat Courier, p. 3. Han, H. (2000, July 26). Regional vic to go online in govt-backed venture. Computerworld. Hodges, J. (2000, February 28). Grant to aid e-commerce. The Ballarat Courier, p. 8. Litras, P. (2000, February 28). E-commerce for Western Victoria – MainStreet.au will provide an online directory of businesses throughout the region. The Ballarat Courier, p. 3. Litras, P. (2000, March 14). Opening the portal to the world of e-commerce. The Ballarat Courier, p. 16. Lynch, A. (2000, August 15). Easy entry to CEC’s E-Street. The Australian, Software. A New Information Source for Western Victoria. The Ballarat Courier. Internet Directory, (March 22, 2000), p. 8. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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Papandrea, F. & Wade, M. (2000). E-commerce in rural areas – case studies. Canberra: Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation. Pattulock, E. & Albury Wodonga Area Consultative Committee. (2000). Facilitation of e-commerce and Internet use by regional SMEs. Albury Wodonga: Latrobe University. Stakeholders Spruik Internet Initiative. (2000, July 21). The Ballarat Courier, p. 8. Thompson, H. (1999). Victoria’s Golden West Portal Project Business Case. Ballarat: Centre for Electronic Commerce and Communications, University of Ballarat. Thompson, H. (2000). Capturing the Electronic Commerce Advantage: The Western Victorian Approach. Paper presented at the 13th Bled Electronic Commerce Conference – The End of the Beginning, Bled, Slovenia (June 19-21). Toia, L. (2000). Networked nation. Bizreview, 2(13), 23-25. Van Beveren, J. & Thompson, H. (2002). The use of electronic commerce by SMEs in Victoria, Australian. Journal of Small Business Management, 40(3), 250-253. Verdon, D. (2000, March 1). Ararat businesses to embrace e-commerce. The Ararat Advertiser, p. 1. Vida-Douglas, J. (2000, August 9). Internet yields major harvest — Web developer delivers a real-world approach to community Internet. Australian Reseller News. Vigo, K. & Arnold, J. (2000). The Manningham Online Project: Global tools for local eBusiness. Melbourne: RMIT.


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APPENDIX University of Ballarat URL University of Ballarat CECC

www.ballarat.edu.au www.cecc.com.au

MainStreet portal URL Mainstreet.net.au

www.mainstreet.net.au

Geographical portal URLs examples Ararat Online Moorabool Online Pyrenees Online

www.ararat.asn.au www.mconline.com.au, www.pyreneesonline.com.au,

Membership based communities URLs examples Birchip Cropping Group www.bcg.org.au Young Australian Rural Network www.yarn.gov.au, Rural Regional Research Network www.cecc.com.au/rrrn, Pyrenees Hay Processors www.exporthay.com.au, Comprehensive Web site URLs examples Ballarat A Learning City Central Highlands Area Consultative Com. Pyrenees Shire Regional Connectivity Project

www.ballaratlearningcity.com.au www.chacc.com.au www.pyrenees.vic.gov.au www.regionalconnectivity.org


Information Access in Rural Communities: Bridging the Digital Divide

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Chapter X

Information Access in Rural Communities: Bridging the Digital Divide V. S. Venkatesan, University of Western Australia, Australia Robyn Eversole, Edith Cowan University, Australia Ken Robinson, Edith Cowan University, Australia

ABSTRACT The concept of ‘digital divide’ draws attention to the social context of technology usage. Current IT solutions are technology driven and are focussed on elite consumers in cities. In contrast, regional Australian communities face a number of problems such as remoteness, small population and distance. Knowledge and resource constraints also impact on these communities and businesses. Any attempt to transform regions using new information and communications technologies should take into consideration these unique factors. This chapter focuses on information access in two rural communities in Western Australia. A qualitative study followed by a quantitative phase in Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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two regional towns explored how people access information and where information gaps lie. Results of this research suggest that, along with technical infrastructure, equal emphasis should be placed on the human/ community element. Without this, regional transformation will remain mere rhetoric.

INTRODUCTION Like the industrial revolution of earlier centuries, the current information revolution continues to have significant social and economic impact. The industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries brought about dramatic changes in the production of goods, and through this, significantly altered the way of life. Goods that were not previously within the reach of many people became affordable, raising the standard of living. Building on the industrial revolution, the technological revolution in the post-World War II era has touched on every aspect of life, in ways that one could not have imagined a few decades earlier. The information revolution of the 1990s also seems to be heading in a similar direction. Information that was within the reach of an elite few, or which could not be accessed because of distances or national or geographic boundaries, is now available to practically everyone. Likewise, communicating information to others has also become generally less expensive and easier because of the Internet. However, such revolutions also appear to have their dark side. A significant body of historical evidence has emerged which suggests that while the positive impacts of industrial and technological revolution have been truly outstanding, it has also had some grave negative consequences. The socio-economic chasm between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ continues to widen between countries, between socio-economic groups within countries, and between individuals. The very revolution that was supposed to bridge the social gap by making goods and services affordable has widened inequities. And now, the potential of the ‘information revolution’ or the ‘digital revolution’ to create a socio-economic divide is well recognised in the literature. Underpinning the information revolution and the development of information technology tools are the assumptions that information is power, and that more information will lead to better decision making. However, in a rush to embrace, or move ahead with, information technology, many fundamental questions have been ignored or have not been considered in depth; for example, do people need information, what type of information is needed, and how do they access such information? Yet another dimension is that, in most of the information technology system development to date, IT solutions have tended to focus on individual businesses and large clients or large client bases such as major population



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centres. Comparatively, much less work has been done on regional, low population or remote areas. This chapter explores information technology and digital divide issues as they affect regional communities and businesses in Australia. The focus is on social and business systems for information gathering, information use, and communication, as played out in a rural/small town context. The chapter presents the results of both a qualitative and quantitative study in two rural areas of Western Australia. It summarises information access and communication issues that confront individuals and businesses in the study areas, and suggests ways forward toward adapting information and communication technologies to the needs of rural/regional residents and businesses. The key objectives of the study are to understand people’s information needs, how they accessed information in the pre-computer and pre-Internet era, and the current nature of people’s information requirements and access strategies. The impact of modern technology and the role of technological diffusion are also discussed in this chapter.

BACKGROUND The potential for digital divide in the general community is well-recognised in the literature, and studies in both developed and developing countries have highlighted the demographic and socio-economic variables that impact on Internet access and the need to bridge this gap (Novak & Hoffman, 1998; UNCTAD, 1998; Lieberman, 1999; America’s Network, 2000; Chanda, 2000; Davis-Thompson, 2000; Hoffman, Novak et al., 2000; MRP, 2000; NOIE, 2000; Veronica, 2000; Arthur Andersen, 2001). In Australia, as in many other countries, several measures to bridge the divide are afoot and the training and computer literacy needs of the general population have been examined (MarketEquity, 2001). In the published literature, the term ‘digital divide’ has largely referred to the impact of information revolution or the lack of it on the general population. A focus on inadequacies in information access, information technology training or the lack of it, and access to IT infrastructure among the general population has been largely due to socio-political considerations. In comparison, ‘digital divide’ and ‘information access’ issues in businesses have largely been ignored or have received much less attention. However, there is an increasing recognition that the ‘digital divide’ issue is not confined to the general community but may impact on businesses as well (CSIRO, 1998; CSIRO, 1999; SETEL, 2001). Among OECD countries, Australia has one of the highest rates of computer usage and Internet connectivity, ranked third according to National Office for the Information Economy (NOIE) benchmarking, after only the United States and Sweden (NOIE 2002). Fifty-six percent of all Australian businesses were online


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in the year 2000 (NOIE, 2001). Australia also compares favourably with other developed countries in terms of Internet connectivity of consumers and price of Internet access. However, despite data indicating that, at least for businesses, Internet and computer uptake overall is not significantly lower outside Australian capital cities than within them (NOIE, 2001), there is nevertheless a view that the digital revolution in Australia has kept to large cities and regional Australia has not sufficiently benefited from it (Foreshaw, 2000). From a business’ point of view, the advantage of computers and the Internet, in terms of their ability to store information, analyse data, and permit ease of access to information from any part of the world is well known, and ecommerce has emerged as a powerful business tool. However, such a positive outlook is tempered by the failure of dot.com businesses and downturn in the information technology industry. During mid 1990s, when e-commerce and Internet and Web page activities were exponentially growing, such tools were considered to be the panacea for businesses. The ‘go on the World Wide Web and solve all your business problems’ theme of the early e-commerce days could be compared to the marketing themes of the 1960s, when adopting marketing or appointing a marketing manager was viewed as the solution for all business problems. Just as the marketing discipline matured and evolved over time in the industrial era, e-commerce is also continuing to mature as a business tool in the information age. It is now well recognised that the B2C (‘business to consumer’) bubble has burst, and the exponential growth earlier forecast in this market segment may never be reached. An important reason for this is that such developments were driven by technology, with very little input from other disciplines such as consumer behaviour. Added to this was the simplistic thinking that an Internet presence will automatically lead to business transactions. Following failures in the B2C market, ‘business to business’ (B2B) e-commerce is now being projected as the next growth area, but there is still a lack of understanding of the underlying behavioural and business issues. The SME (small and medium enterprise) sector is considered an important part of the Australian economy (ABS, 2000), and that of many OECD countries (Timmons, 1990; Management Accounting, 1996; Dunkelberg & Waldinan, 1996; ABS, 1998; Chetcuti, 1998; Flynn, Heidi et al., 1998). Over 90% of all private sector businesses in Australia are small to medium sized. The number of large non-government businesses in Australia is comparatively small. Another characteristic feature of the Australian scene is the concentration of both population and businesses in metropolitan areas. Regional and rural areas of Australia are sparsely populated, towns are separated by large distances, and their predominant focus is on primary production. As discussed earlier, computer usage and Internet connectivity among Australian businesses is high overall. Despite this, past studies have indicated Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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that the use of Internet specifically for e-commerce is small in Australia (Fink, 1998; Akkeren & Cavaye, 2000) and elsewhere. Several reasons have been suggested for the low level of adoption of e-commerce in the business to consumer (B2C) sector, and several success factors have been suggested (see Dekleva, 2000; Enos, 2000; Spiegel, 2000; Donahue, 2001; Rogers, 2001; Sangaran, 2001). Two separate quantitative studies in the metropolitan city of Perth, Western Australia (Venkatesan & Fink, 2001), targeting approximately 600 businesses, confirmed the findings of these studies and showed that, while the use of computers was high and Internet connectivity was moderate among businesses, businesses used these tools for basic administrative work such as letter writing, invoicing and accounting. E-commerce-related activities were minimal. The studies found that businesses in Perth were more prone to use conventional tools such as phone and fax in preference to the Internet-based tools such as Web pages or e-mail. Taking orders or placing orders through the Internet was rarely done by either manufacturing or non-manufacturing businesses. Thus, results at the individual business level appear to confirm a low level of adoption of e-commerce, even in a large city. In personal interviews, business owners and key managers communicated a sense of being let down by IT specialists and being sold a (Web page) solution that was not needed. Some business owners felt that customers were not ready for e-commerce, and that business processes and systems have not kept pace with technological progress. There has also been an increasing realisation among businesses that mere World Wide Web presence will not translate into business transactions. Further, with the proliferation of Web sites, the competitive advantage a business could have by going on the Web is no longer there. As many experts point out, cyberspace is becoming a junkyard, and often businesses and consumers are frustrated with the overload of unwanted and irrelevant information. Businesses are increasingly asking the questions: ‘Who knows about my business on the Web?’ and ‘Who cares about my business on the Web?’ Emerging experience with information technology and e-commerce tools suggests that large businesses and institutions have been more successful in implementing and reaping benefits from IT and e-commerce. In comparison, the response from the small business sector has been mixed. Some small to medium business have reported phenomenal success, and successful small businesses have newly emerged, but these are exceptions rather than a norm. While broadbased information suggests that adoption of computers and Internet connectivity has been very high among consumers and businesses, such connectivity has not translated into business transactions across all business sectors. Thus, one can safely conclude that the Internet is being used in the general population to gather information, rather than to transact business online. Further, as in the case of other marketing tools, Internet and e-commerce solutions also seem to be more Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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attuned to the needs of large population centres (high volume) and higher end (higher return) markets. Even simple concepts like the help desk favour elite customers in the cities compared to those in remote areas, which are characterised by low volumes and long distances. Telecommunication infrastructure, or the lack of it, in regional Australia, has been the subject of political debates and major government initiatives. Absence of local phone networks, high cost of long distance phone calls between regional towns and its impact on the local community has always been felt in regional communities. However, this problem has assumed a new dimension in the Internet era. Compared to conventional phone calls which were of a much smaller duration, Internet access is of a significantly longer duration, thus in effect clogging the telecommunication network. Added to this is the low speed of the phone lines that were meant for voice communication. These two factors literally meant a slow uptake of e-commerce in regional areas. Technological efforts such as bandwidth extension and the development of rural networks and providing Internet access for the cost of a local call have, however, largely lowered the physical barriers to e-commerce. In most parts of Western Australia, with the exception of remote areas of Northern WA, the physical barrier has largely been reduced or is being lowered. To appreciate the IT and digital divide issues in regional Australia, it is important to have an understanding of the demographic and business factors that are unique to these regions. With most of the Australian population and most business activities concentrated in the metropolitan cities, regional areas are sparsely populated and regional economies are still based on primary industry and local service providers. Vast distance between small towns and communities is another unique characteristic of regional Australia. Small populations combined with large distances make it difficult to provide infrastructure such as telephone or Internet. Market forces often dictate provision of services, the classic example being the withdrawal of banking and other services from regional towns. These kinds of constraints, which are rarely felt in large cities, impose a limitation on businesses’ and communities’ ability to access and make full use of the Internet, and to take advantage of e-commerce tools. Such technologies also have the potential to further accentuate the existing disparity in services between metro and rural communities. It should also be pointed out that the whole IT revolution has largely been technology driven with little regard for social or business systems or consumer needs. The IT revolution is generally understood as a technological revolution, in which individuals and organizations must adapt to and learn to apply new technologies (Edwards & Snyder, 1999). The emphasis is on people adapting to technologies, rather than creating technologies to meet people’s needs. Further, the broad-based approach in IT has been to give as much information as possible on the Web, without an understanding of what type of information is needed by Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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various stakeholders. The failure of e-commerce in the B2C market can largely be attributed to the failure to predict and understand consumers’ reaction to online transactions. A fundamental understanding of consumer behaviour would have identified consumer resistance to online credit-card transactions, and such an understanding would have prevented or minimised the impact of failures in the B2C sector. In recent times, the debate on digital divide in regional Australia has revolved around the Internet. However, very little research is being done on the information needs of regional communities and businesses, their information gathering practices, their use of alternative communication media to access information, and so forth. The effectiveness of different media including the Internet in providing information, the impact of regional lifestyle on information needs and access, and the problems and constraints associated with new media such as the Internet, also bear exploring. For example, what type of information is critical to the day-to-day business activities of businesses or communities in rural Australia? How relevant is the general information available on the Web to regional communities? A research study involving both qualitative and quantitative phases was undertaken to gather empirical evidence on information access and communication issues confronting regional Australia. This chapter discusses the research findings.

METHODOLOGY For this study, two small rural towns in Western Australia were chosen. These towns were sufficiently removed from the metropolitan area as to minimise the influence of being close to a large market. Another factor in the choice of the towns was the stability of the local community. Tourism is a big industry in Australia, and regional towns and areas that focus on the tourism industry tend to use the Internet much more compared with towns that are not tourism-oriented. The floating tourist population also influences Internet use and other forms of communication. In contrast, non-tourist-oriented towns are more geared toward primary production. As a consequence, tourism-oriented towns cannot be considered to be typical of regional Australian towns in terms of adoption of e-commerce. Initially, 25 in-depth interviews were conducted in one regional town. Participants were recruited on a voluntary basis from a wide range of businesses, individuals and representatives of community groups. About half of the qualitative interviews were with businesses, and the rest were with consumers. Some of these respondents offered their opinion separately as consumers and as service providers. These qualitative interviews, which lasted from 30 minutes to an hour, explored information access, medium of information access, experiCopyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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ences with conventional media, level of adoption of computers and the Internet in the community, the promoters and inhibitors of such adoption, and the experience of the community with the new media. Results of this phase of the study were used to identify common themes and to develop a questionnaire. This was used for a whole-population quantitative survey of the two towns. For the survey, questionnaires were mailed out to all the households in each town and residents above the age of 16 were asked to respond. The cut-off age of 16 was arbitrarily used so as not to include students, who tend to use the Internet more for their study and other related purposes. Including this subgroup could skew the overall results. Older students (post-year-10 and tertiary) are seldom found in the local population, as they tend to move elsewhere to study. The questionnaire used a variety of scales to elicit responses. The quantitative data thus obtained was refined and subject to statistical data analysis. The overall response rate for the survey was between 20% and 25%. Local evidence suggested that such a rate of return could be considered good given the vast area covered by the survey, the length of the questionnaire, and the minimal level of follow-up.

DEMOGRAPHICS OF THE POPULATION SURVEYED The majority of businesses in the areas surveyed were home-based and related to primary production. The number of retail and service-based businesses was small. All the responding businesses fell under the small business category, employing less than 20 people. Because of the small size of the population, the local market size for any product was limited. Among the respondent group, the gender ratio was 55% female to 45% male. The higher proportion of women responding to the survey was not surprising given the anecdotal evidence which suggested that women in regional areas, especially those in the farming sector, tended to manage the administrative side of the farm business, while men were more involved in production activities. There was also a tendency for farm ownership to be dominated by men. About a third of the respondents were primary income earners, and about 60% of the respondents were shared income earners. A cross tabulation between gender and primary/secondary income earner status confirmed that men were significantly primary income earners and women played the role of secondary income earners. Further, results from qualitative interviews suggested that the business owners considered production or ‘hard yakka’ to be their domain, to the exclusion of desk activities not directly related to production. This has significant practical implications for information technology and ecommerce-related activities. It is evident from these results that technical Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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training alone will not be enough to bring about any real and sustained change in the adoption and use of e-commerce in regional areas, so long as business owners themselves are not open to change. At present, State and Commonwealth governments in Australia spend vast sums of money in IT training programs without regard to the social dimensions of IT use. The results of the study in the two regional towns clearly suggest that for such programs to be effective, a change in social attitudes is needed — or a better attempt by trainers to make such training relevant. “The majority of males in the farming community who are the decision makers simply don’t want to attend the e-commerce or marketing training,” was the comment from one local service provider. Farmers in these towns were also of the view that as long as a good product is produced there should not be a problem with marketing, and that marketing should be left to the marketing experts or government agencies. Almost half the respondents lived with their spouse/partner and over a quarter of the respondents were living with their spouse/partner and children; thus, there is a strong traditional family structure in these areas. Single parents were an extremely small proportion, and about 13% of respondents were adults living alone. In conformity with the age profile of respondents, only a small proportion were studying in schools/universities. Almost half the responding business owners had completed at minimum Year 10 with no tertiary study. A relatively smaller proportion had completed a TAFE (15%) or university (18%) qualification. The median income was in the $AUD 20,000 to $AUD 30,000 range with two subgroups ($AUD10,000-20,000 and $AUD30,000-50,000) constituting 50% of the respondents. A small proportion of the respondents were unemployed and over a third were running their own businesses. About 35% were in full/part-time or casual employment. Pensioners constituted about 15% of the respondents. The age and educational profile of the population, and the family structure of the respondents, have implications for the type of information accessed, and on the adoption of computers, Internet and e-commerce tools. The aging population in the rural sector and the movement of younger age groups to the cities means that the age factor may be an inhibitor in the use of IT tools. However, as one respondent pointed out in a qualitative interview, the introduction and the adoption of information technology and other such modern business tools could also be seen as an opportunity rather than a threat; the suggestion being that new technologies might encourage young people to return. This provides further evidence that in regional Australia, any new technology is inextricably linked to the social life. It should also be noted that most businesses in the regions are family owned and family run, and social and business dimensions are often closely linked.


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INFORMATION NEEDS AND INFORMATION ACCESS With the advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web, massive volumes of information, both solicited and unsolicited, is fed to individuals and businesses. Yet only a small proportion of the information is useful. It is now widely accepted that people now face information overload and receive much information that is irrelevant to them (see e.g., Heylighen, 1999; GlobalTechnoScan, 2001). As a consequence, needed information often gets buried under trivia. Information overload indirectly creates a paucity of relevant information. Given that there is a wide variation in the information needs of businesses and individuals, the study examined the relative importance of various types of information to regional businesses. In relative terms, banking, agriculture, and health information were considered important. Respondents attached less importance to leisure and financial information such as the stock market. The mean values and other measures of central tendency suggested that weather was the most accessed information, followed by banking and the price of (agriculture related) products. Again, this is not surprising given that most respondents were in farming-related business or employment, and knowledge of climatic conditions is of vital importance to their operations. Stock market and other information was accessed to a much lesser extent. Likewise, dealings with accountants/financial planners were also less frequent. Contrary to the general trend, employment information was considered to be relatively unimportant, a natural outcome given the small number of unemployed among the respondents. Further, even those who were casually employed in regional/rural areas tended to rely more on personal contacts and client relationships to get jobs rather than on conventional information sources. Likewise, a major proportion of the respondents were mature-age families without children or those with younger children. Consequently, the need for educational information was not extremely important. Results of the study also suggested that individuals and businesses in regional towns sought local or regional information more than interstate or international information. Progressively increasing mean values (comparable standard deviations) indicated the local nature of the information sought by respondents with the frequency reducing as the information horizon expanded from local to international arena. The measures of central tendency suggested that rarely did respondents access information internationally. In line with the type of information sought by regional communities, the information focus also appeared to be more so on long-term rather than shortterm or instantaneous information. For example, emphasis was more on medium or long-term weather forecast for the planning of the agriculture seasons, rather than observing and responding to instantaneous variations in the stock market. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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The telephone appeared to be the most used and popular communication medium, followed by fax and personal contact. Mass media such as radio and TV were also used frequently to receive generalized information. In comparison, the use of e-mail, the Internet and other computer-mediated tools appeared to be less frequent. The mode and median values suggested that the computer and the Internet were seldom used to access information. Print media, radio and personal contacts through phone and fax were the media that were significantly used prior to the Internet era. However, it should be noted that, with a low level of adoption of computers and the Internet, this medium seems to have had minimal impact on information access. Mass media, phone and fax appeared to be the media of choice, significantly ahead of Internet and other computer-related information channels.

COMPUTER AND INTERNET ACCESS AND USAGE Among respondents, ownership of computers was around 50% and had increased substantially during the previous two years, largely due to the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST). Many businesses suggested that the complexities of the GST forced them to buy a computer system and the necessary accounting software. Prior to the introduction of the GST, the level of ownership of computers was much lower. Respondents’ computers were used mainly for accounting, taxation and basic administrative work. Their use in other areas such as marketing was significantly lower. About 15% to 30% of respondents were connected to the Internet, used mostly for information gathering and e-mail. There were no online transactions. These results suggest that use of computers and other IT tools in regional Australia may be significantly less compared to that in large cities. At issue here is not only the breadth of access — the numbers of people with computer and Internet access — but also the depth of IT and computer usage. The recent increase in computer ownership in the study towns, for instance, seems to be the result of government processes. Consequently, it can be argued that awareness of the broader potential uses of IT may be lacking. In line with this, the computer and Internet knowledge of the respondents was found to be at a basic level. The low use of the Internet to access information in the study areas could be the result of several factors, or combinations of factors: slow technological diffusion and lack of IT knowledge; the lack of need for information; the irrelevance of information from the World Wide Web to local people’s needs; and the nature of local business activities and lifestyle. The study revealed, for instance, that regional communities/businesses had a high need for local information and information on specific topics such as Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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weather, agriculture input, etc. In comparison, these communities rarely had the need to access information from the eastern states or internationally. Yet, the World Wide Web offers little local or Western Australian information that can be used by regional communities. What local communities needed was localspecific information as opposed to generalised information, yet the Internet was not meeting this need. This can be understood as one major reason for lack of use of the Internet to access information. Qualitative information from the study also suggested that information from the World Wide Web was generalized and often not current. At the same time, specific local information (e.g., weather) could be obtained from other sources such as regional radio without having to log on to a computer and search out specific sites. Accessing sites takes time and one is bound to a computer terminal, whereas some general information is available through radio at a variety of locations: at a farm, the shop, in the car, or at home. (SMS messaging may be a viable option to make Internet-based information access more convenient.) There is also the question of whether a need exists to develop a regional Web site to respond to business/community information requirements, or to better coordinate existing regional Web sites such as Mysouthwest (http:/ /www.mysouthwest.com.au) or the Albany gateway (http://www.albanygateway. com.au/) across regions. This is an issue that needs to be examined further. Overall the ease of access and the appropriateness of available information seem to be the key factors limiting the use of computers and the Internet in these regional towns. The majority of the respondents appeared comfortable in using both computers and the Internet. Among those who were ‘very comfortable with the Internet’ and those who ‘can manage to use the Internet’, however, the usage pattern showed a distinct difference. A chi-square test showed that, at a 0.01 level of significance (99% confidence), there was a significant difference in the degree of Internet usage between those who were ‘very comfortable’ and those who ‘can manage’. While this evidence suggests the need for computer and Internet training in regional areas, it should be borne in mind that the relevance (real and perceived) of the technology influences people’s usage choices. If World Wide Web information does not respond to local needs, what motivation have people to access it?

DIGITAL DIVIDE ISSUES IN THE REGION Information and infrastructure access has been a key element of the digital divide debate in the literature. The present study identified the following broad themes as relevant to businesses and communities in a regional context: • Access Physical and technical infrastructure Access to trained personnel and resources Access to current information Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


• • •

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Awareness Competition through Internet Business processes discouraging the use of Internet Knowledge, training, and informal IT networks

Access •

•

•

•

•

•

Given the vast distances, sparse population and high cost of telephone service in the regional areas, one would expect the cost of access to be a major problem. However, businesses did not appear much concerned about the cost factor. Internet access was mostly available at the cost of a local call. However, speed of communication (bandwidth) was identified as a major problem. Technical infrastructure and access to skilled personnel emerged as an important bottleneck. Often, businesses did not have information on what IT products were available in the market and lacked local resources to advise them. Further, the remoteness of these business communities from large business centres had a significant effect on the level of service they received. As buyers, these businesses had limited access to external market, thereby reducing their choice of products. To get a wider choice, they had to travel to regional centres, incurring additional cost. Their search for information online was hampered by time and knowledge constraints. Price and product comparisons, which are often easy in a large market, were difficult for regional businesses, thus restricting their ability to make an informed judgement. Often, the online sources had outdated information which, in turn, reduced their relevance and value. Overall, access to market information was a major issue for these businesses. In some community groups, limited access to basic equipment such as a computer significantly curtailed their ability to access essential services such as social security and Job Network. Added to this was the widening knowledge gap in the use of computers and Internet. Rapid changes in technology such as upgrades and new versions of software required users to update their system to communicate with government agencies and others and perform essential operations like banking online. With limitations on financial and technical resources, regional businesses were often left behind.

Awareness •

Some essential services such as banking were available only online. The survival of most businesses operating franchises or agencies in the regional areas was also dependent on their ability to go online to communicate with their parent business. As a result, there was a general awareness in the community that computers and Internet will influence the future.


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•

However, business owners were not sure that Internet and e-commerce could pose a competitive threat to their business. Many viewed such a threat as nonexistent or being still far away in the future. In contrast, a majority of consumers interviewed readily opted for ‘online’ purchase subject to price, payment security and other issues being addressed.

•

Thus, there was a lack of awareness of how online competition may impact regional businesses.

Business Processes Discouraging the Use of Internet •

The responding businesses were mostly family owned and small, and very few had a separate administrative structure. The owners were also personally involved in the production of goods and services. Under these conditions, their ability to use e-commerce and Internet tools was limited.

Knowledge and Training •

•

Regional areas lacked a viable mechanism to provide basic IT training and constant updates. As a result, businesses with simple IT problems often had to seek the help of outside experts, incurring additional cost. The informal networks that are often available in large organisations were not accessible to regional businesses. Diverse and low-volume IT knowledge requirements required the business operator to know several things without really gaining expertise in any area.

Limitations of the Study While this study highlights the issues in regional Western Australia, several of these findings can be generalized and applied to regional areas of other developed and developing countries. However, a major limitation of this study is that it is done in Western Australia where the population is sparse. Consequently, the results may not be applicable elsewhere. Such results may be more relevant to large states such as Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia, compared with much smaller states such as Victoria. Further, variations among towns must also be taken into account.

CONCLUSION It appears that IT issues in regional Australia are putting small regional businesses at a disadvantage, and conventional IT solutions have limited impact in solving these issues. The social structure and traditional nature of many businesses in the regions appear to influence the adoption of information Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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technology and other tools. The ageing population in certain regions could have a significant impact on the adoption of IT tools. However, the emergence of these modern business tools also opens the opportunities for the younger generation to live in regional areas, and to apply new technology in their traditional family businesses. Information needs varied widely among the businesses and households studied in these two case studies, but certain trends emerged. Overall, there was more need for local and targeted information as compared to the generalised information available on the World Wide Web. To encourage more users to access the Internet, the provision of more locally relevant information may be necessary; this would respond to people’s own expressed demand. Already several small regional Web sites are available, but a more coordinated approach may add synergy to the local efforts and bring down the cost. While the optimistic view suggests that information technologies and ecommerce may benefit small regional businesses by opening access to information and new markets, these technologies may also create an adverse impact. For instance, e-commerce may open up local markets to outside competitors. Meanwhile, new information and communications technologies require technical expertise which businesses such as those in this study find difficult and costly to access. Existing constraints on these businesses (for instance, their distance from urban centres and the time constraints of owner-operators) can make it more difficult for regional businesses to access the benefits of new technologies. Meanwhile, this study found that the information available on the Internet often did not address local businesses’ needs. Overall, the promised benefits of Internet and e-commerce were found to be limited for regional businesses. In the future, given the small size and limited influence on the market, it is expected that conventional solutions such as individual Web sites or portals are likely to have limited impact for any but large regional businesses. Cooperative strategies, on the other hand, may offer more possibilities for small regional businesses to overcome challenges, demand relevant information, and tap external markets. In conclusion, the concept of ‘digital divide’ helps to draw attention to the social context of technology usage. Current IT solutions are technology driven, yet attempts to transform regions using new information and communications technologies should take into consideration the issues facing regional areas in their particular social and geographic contexts. This study on information access in two rural communities in Western Australia suggests that, along with technical infrastructure, equal emphasis should be placed on the human/community element of change: how people do things, their information needs, and the specific environments and constraints which they face. Without this understanding, regional transformation will remain mere rhetoric.


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GlobalTechnoScan. (2001). Researchers tackle search engine ‘information overload’. Retrieved January 28, 2003 from: http://www.global technoscan.com/1Aug-7Aug01/search_engine.htm. Heylighen, F. (1999). Change and information overload: Negative effects. In Heylighen, F., Joslyn, C., & Turchin, V. (Eds.), Principia Cybernetica Web (Principia Cybernetica, Brussels). Retrieved January 24, 2003 from: http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/CHINNEG.html. Hoffman, D. L., Novak, T.P., et al. (2000). The evolution of the digital divide: How gaps in Internet access may impact electronic commerce. Journal Of Computer Mediated Communication, 5(3). Lieberman, D. (1999). America’s digital divide — On the wrong side of the wires. USA Today. Management Accounting. (1996). SMEs top performers in manufacturing sector. Management Accounting, 74(6), 5. MarketEquity. (2001). Bridging the digital divide in Western Australia — An understanding of WA computer literacy training needs. Department of Training and Employment. MRP. (2000). Closing the digital divide. MN: Minnesota Rural Partners. NOIE. (2000). The current state of play - July 2000. National Office of Information Economy, Canberra, 1-49. NOIE. (2001). The current state of play - June 2001. National Office of Information Economy, Canberra, 1-74. NOIE. (2002). The current state of play Australia’s scorecard - April 2002. National Office of Information Economy, Canberra, 1-39. Novak, T. P. & Hoffman, D.L. (1998, April 17). Bridging the racial divide on the Internet. Science. Rogers, J. (2001). Six keys to B2C e-commerce success. Insurance & Technology, 26(8), 49-55. Sangaran, S. (2001). Room for growth in B2B local marketplace. Computimes Malaysia. New York. SETEL. (2001). The Other Digital Divide: E-Commerce and Australian Small Business. SETEL Position Paper No. 3, Small Enterprise Telecommunications Centre Limited. Spiegel, R. (2000). Loyalty is the final E-commerce hurdle. E-Commerce Times, 1-3. Timmons, J. A. (1990). New venture creation: Entrepreneurship in the 1990s. Irwin, IL: Homewood. UNCTAD. (1998). Policy Issues Relating to Access Participation in Electronic Commerce. Geneva, Report by the UNCTAD secretariat (circulated in TD/B/COM.3/16). Venkatesan, V. S. & Fink, D. (2001). Joondalup Business Audit. Report to the Joondalup Business Association, Perth, Western Australia. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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Venkatesan, V. S. & Fink, D. (2001). Moving into New Economy — Strategies for Businesses in Wangara Industrial Park. Report from the Small and Medium Enterprise Research Centre to the City of Wanneroo, Western Australia. Venkatesan, V. S. & Fink, D. (2002). Adoption of Internet technologies and e-commerce by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Western Australia. IRMA Conference, Seattle, WA, USA (May 19-22). Veronica, C. S. (2000). More aggressive APEC action sought to bridge Digital Divide. Business World (Philippines), 1.



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SECTION III COMMUNITY INFORMATICS FOR SPECIFIC ISSUES


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Finquelievich

Chapter XI

Social Organization through the Internet: Citizens Assemblies in Argentina Susana Finquelievich, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina and Central Queensland University, Australia

ABSTRACT How can the Internet help organize a country’s population who wishes to change their political system? The crisis that crashed the Argentine financial system in December 2001 did not just generate a powerful social explosion; it also created a new citizens information outburst. The night of December 19, 2001, when thousands of indignant citizens went to the streets clattering their pots and pans to protest against the Etat de Siege was the first of many massive citizens’ public manifestations. In a few days, these demonstrations were organized through the Internet. Gradually, different neighborhood assemblies contacted each other through e-mail or their Web sites. Two weeks later, they had 3,000 people involved in inter-neighborhood Sunday meetings for debates and proposals. In September 2002, a national-wide Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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meeting of neighborhood assemblies took place in Buenos Aires. Both leaders and members of these movements agreed on one thing: this massive organization could not have been implemented without the Internet. This chapter analyses this innovative ICT-supported massive citizens’ movement. Are they socially revolutionary, or socially conservative? Are ICTs a means, or a goal in themselves? Are ICTs — supported social movements a way to e-democracy? How can global citizen networks support these movements? These and other issues are developed as a contribution for an international debate.

INTRODUCTION The crisis that crashed the Argentine financial system in December 3, 2001, did not just generate a powerful social explosion that caused the demise of two presidents; it also created a new citizens’ information outburst. Hundreds of email chains against the government started circulating among the 3.5 million Argentine Internet users. The night of December 19, when thousands of indignant citizens went to the streets clattering their pots and pans, in one of the first “cacerolazos”, to protest against the Etat de Siege, was the first of many citizens’ public manifestations. Exhausted by four years of economic recession, indignant because of the Economy Minister, Dr. Cavallo’s determination to block all the savings accounts, either in Dollars or in Pesos, angry with President De La Rua’s hesitant ways, tired of the incessant political corruption, the Argentines found that the government’s measure to implement an Etat de Siege was the drop that filled the cup; it was too evocative of past dictatorships. In anger, citizens took to the streets. In the beginning, these demonstrations were spontaneous, but in a few days, they were organized through the Internet. Neighbors in different areas of Buenos Aires and in the largest cities began to meet in street corners, or cafés, after hours. They fixed some evenings a week to meet, and discuss “proposals for a new Argentina”, but they also started electronic forums to continue online their face-to-face debates, and to inform the neighbors who could not get to the meetings. They designed Web sites to spread their actions and proposals. Gradually, different neighborhood assemblies — currently, there are more than 50 of them in Buenos Aires- contacted each other through e-mail or their Web sites. Two weeks later, they had inter-neighborhood Sunday meetings in Centenario Park for debates and proposals. More than 3,000 neighbors from different social classes assisted these open air political debates. In September 2002, the neighborhood assemblies celebrated a national meeting at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Buenos Aires. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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The results of these citizens’ movement’s actions and debates were disseminated through Web sites, and electronic — as well as chapter — newsletters. The best designed and more complete is the Indymedia Argentina Web page (http://argentina.indymedia.org), an international organization which informs about protest in dozens of cities in the world. The Web site (http:// elatico.com) features analyses on the national reality and a “cacerolazos” agenda, among other articles. The Web site Vaciamiento.com (www.vaciamiento.com) analyses the national politics. In Yahoo! Groups (http:/ /ar.groups.yahoo.com), in Politics and Government, and People’s Opinion, many e-mail groups are tentative and are there to generate civic awareness about the importance of fighting together. Among other active sites, there are www.Cacerolazos.com, www.CacerolerosArgentinos.com, Argentinos de pie. Some of them, such as — a virtual site for political debate, were born on the days that followed the December 19, 2001 demonstration. Others were already in cyberspace. Both leaders and members of these movements agree on one thing: this massive organization could not be implemented without the Internet. This chapter analyses this innovative ICT-supported massive citizens’ movement. • Are they socially revolutionary, or socially conservative? • Is ICT social appropriation a means, or a goal? • Is it a new form of participation? • Is it a way to e-democracy? • What is its future, now that the present Argentine government has shown a complete lack of interest towards the Internet, and that the peso devaluation makes it far less possible for the majority of the population to have access to ICT tools? • How can global citizen networks support these movements?

ICT-Supported Social Movements: A New Form of Social Organization? At present, Argentina continues being, in spite of the constant aggravation of its economic crisis, one of the Spanish-speaking countries which features greater dynamism in the Internet sector, considering the increasing number of users. In December 2001, there were around 3.5 million Internet users. A quarter of a million more are connected from cybercafés, booths, access centers, community technological centers, public libraries, etc. The economic crisis caused many middle-class cybernauts to give up their home connections, but this was compensated by a rapid increase in cybercafés openings. The Internet has become for the middle class sectors, its typical users, a fundamental organizational tool.



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Neighborhood groups, either already existent or hastily assembled, organized the protests and demonstrations. The Assembly’s discussions were uploaded to Web pages. Electronic lists of information and proposals for the country arose. In , “an international portal of civil protest” according to its self-definition, people can participate in a protest forum and leave messages, e.g., “we don’t lower the saucepans, we have to have them visible, don’t let them manage us.” “Let’s all march to claim May Square.” There is also a quote by Albert Camus: “The rebellion movement is not, in its essence, selfish. It can have, without a doubt, selfish determinations. But the rebellion is made as much against the lie as against the oppression.” “Become a correspondent cacerolero of your neighborhood keep your community informed”, invites the place . Neighbors can upload their information and become columnists of the events in the local assemblies. The Web site is an electronic newspaper that publishes up-to-date alternative information. These movements are no longer limited to the middle-income groups: a convocation of the Federation of the Earth, Housing and Habitat of the Workers Power — an organization of blue collar workers, unemployed since the recent de-industralization of the country — disseminated by e-mail, inviting the unemployed to dialogue with the victims of the financial corralito,1 “so that the saucepans and the picketers may meet for the first time in May Square, as a symbol of a new alliance of the workers, the unemployed, and the middle classes.” The alliance was brief, but it certainly lit an alarm red light for the politicians in power. These movements slowed down during 2002, but nevertheless they had already alerted the population about its own capacities to build an unofficial public sphere.

Democracy and Public Sphere Is the Argentina case an example of the construction of an innovative public sphere? In his classic book Virtual Communities, Howard Rheingold builds his concepts on the basis of the Habermasian conception of public sphere: “The idea of modern, representative democracy, as it was conceived by the Illuminist English philosophers, included the concept of a living communications network, from citizen to citizen, known as the civil society, or the public sphere. (…) In spite that elections are the main and most visible characteristic of democratic societies, it is assumed that these elections are supported by discussions among citizens from all society levels, on issues that are important to the Nation” (Rheingold, 1993, p. 146).


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In present democracies, communication may be classified in two fundamental notions: 1. Democratized, or participative and alternative media, including computermediated communications, and 2. Social groups and movements, which use these media to protest, build proposals, and generate social changes. The origin of ideas on the public sphere and their central role in democracy goes back to ancient Greece. The Greek definition of public and private has strongly influenced the occidental concepts about these terms, and democratic ideals still incorporate the Greek notions. In his book The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (Habermas, 1989), Habermas develops a normative notion of the public sphere as a part of social life, in which citizens can exchange viewpoints on important issues for common good, forming public opinion. This public sphere exists when individuals meet to discuss political issues. Habermas’s work is based on the description of the historical moments during the 17th and 18 th centuries, in which cafés, salons, and other social meeting points had became debate centers. He extends these concepts to a participation ideal in the present public sphere. The discussion process must adopt the form of a critique and rational debate. Participants have a common interest: truth.

The Role of Communication and the Internet in Democracy Habermas stresses the fact that citizens’ individual opinions, when given as an answer to a specific demand (e.g., a public opinion survey) do not constitute the public sphere, because they are not inscribed in a process of public opinion construction. Habermas (in Porter, 1996) argues against the “envy of Athens”. He states that, if democracy is implemented in the present huge, complex societies, the idea of a physical collective of consenting members should be overcome. He proposes instead that citizens who are not necessarily present can develop other non-physical ways of communication. Habermas (in Porter, 1996) perceives deterioration in this public space, and he blames publicists in the first place. Public opinion can only be built if there is a public engaged in a rational debate. Plebiscites, public opinion surveys, and similar mechanism do not offer a potential for democracy, because they do not offer the opportunity to create a discursive will. Communication does not mean just to unveil what individuals have already decided or learned; it is a process of debate through which public opinion is created. Far from the Athenian democracy, the Internet holds the potential to build public opinion, according to the Habermasian ideals. In “Virtual Communities”, Howard Rheingold states that, since the public sphere depends on free discussion and the communication of ideas, “as soon as a political entity grows larger than Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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the number of citizens that can get into the meeting room of a modest City Hall, this “marketplace”, vital for the generation and discussion of political ideas, can be powerfully influenced by changes in communication technologies.” Virtual communities may help citizens to revitalize democracy by enabling massive participation in the political process, or they may cheat them into buying attractively packaged substitutes of democratic discourses.

ICTs and the Multitude The motto “Internet for all” is spreading around the world. The Internet’s defendants claim that Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), sooner or later, will satisfy the democratic ideal of universal access to knowledge, as well as genuinely democratic societies based on transparency, solidarity, citizen’s participation, and human rights. A less utopian position states that ICTs can be used to impose hegemonies that tend to benefit the already existing elite, deepen social gaps, accentuate social inequalities, and, as a consequence, debilitate the smaller or marginal economies and the most fragile countries (León, Burch, & Tamayo, 2001). Both situations (as well as many others from both sides of the spectrum) are feasible, and can be facilitated by ICTs. The sort of technologies used, the goals pursued by these means, and the results obtained, will depend on the social agents that participate in these processes, the correlation of strengths in the power structure, and the social structures in which ICTs are used. In the present world, ICTs’ use, if governed only by market-imposed rules, contributes to the aggravation of social contradictions. However, the current tendencies of social appropriation of ICTs are a powerful counterbalance to this. ICTs are now an object of social claim. They are powerful tools for the organized civil society, and in more recent times, for “the multitude”, a whole new concept.2 Paolo Virno, an Italian philosopher and a pillar of the so-called “new left”, struggles to conceptualize a utopia without opposing globalization, but trying to discover in it its creative potential. In his book Il ricordo del presente (Remembrance of times present) Virno emphasizes the existence of a new political subject: the multitude, the many. In Argentina, who are these many? From December 2001 onwards, the multitude was the middle-income social groups that react against their savings expropriation; it is civil society, wanting to go beyond “politics” and “politicians”, and who assume the duty of saying no, and “basta” to the State’s abuses; it is the urban poor, claiming jobs and food for their children. It is maybe the first urban anti-globalization massive protestation in the country. It could be what Virno3 calls “the multitude”. Virno’s concept of multitude appears in his chapter “Virtuosity and Revolution: The Political Theory of Exodus,” in the book Radical Thought in Italy4: he sketches a political theory of the future, based on the exodus as action, and on the multitude as social subject. Virno’s political theory is based on resistance, Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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which authorizes the use of violence each time that a positive prerogative is altered by central power. “Civil disobedience” (e.g., refusal to pay taxes, to obey certain laws) is for Virno the sine qua non condition for political action; this disobedience is different from the one conceived by liberal tradition, because it questions the State’s command capacity. Exodus, says Virno, is an action model capable of confronting the large issues articulated by Hobbes, Rousseau, Lenin, and Schmitt: command/obedience, public/private, friend/enemy, consensus/ violence. It is not a protest, but an act of collective imagination: a massive escape from the State. The key-words of the exodus potential politics are: right to resistance, disobedience, intemperance, multitude, soviets, and — surprisingly — miracle. The concept of multitude opposes the concept of people, linked to the State. For those who defend the sovereign power in the 17 th century, writes Virno, “multitude” is a negative concept: the entry of the State in civil society’s nature. Citizens, when they revolt against the State, are the multitude against the people, states Hobbes (1968). But this negative destiny has reached its end, because today the multitude is not a “natural” phenomenon, but the historical result of a process of social transformations. Virno writes that the “many” burst in the scene when a crisis in the work society has taken place, and the usual dichotomies of public/private, and individual/collective are no longer useful. The multitude that resists obedience is a multiplicity without political unity. It never achieves the status of legal persona. It is incapable of making promises, agreements, or of acquiring or transferring rights. It expresses itself as an ensemble of “acting minorities”, neither of which aspires of becoming a majority. The multitude develops power, but it refuses to become a government. What the multitude does is to obstruct the mechanisms of political representation. Today, democracy is the construction and the experiment of non-representative, extra parliamentary forms of social functioning: councils, leagues, citizen’s assemblies, which reduce the State’s structure because they interfere with its administrative apparatus. The multitude — increasingly organized — together with the already organized civil society (NGOs, citizens’ organizations, etc.), is demanding public access to the Information Society’s tools. It is using them to achieve its own goals. Argentina has become a laboratory for innovative social experimentation.

What is the Future of Neighborhood Electronic Networks? Will the Argentinian population continue using Internet for social organization? The answer is not easy: it is certain that in late 2001, a remarkable increase in the use of home banking, cybercafés, Internet booths, Community Technological Centers [CTCs — free-use public Internet access places, etc., took place in Argentina (3.5 million individual Internet users, 250,000 public Internet users)]. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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The question at present is “what will become of ICT and Internet use in a country whose middle class (typically the main information technology users) becomes impoverished, because of unemployment, the lack of new sources of revenues, or for not being able to use their savings?” According to a Prince and Cooke study, from February 2002 onwards, one million telephone users have resigned their telephone connections, and many Internet users have cut their connections to servers, as well as diminished drastically their telephone expenses (Prince & Cooke, 2002). On the other hand, availability of bandwidth has decreased, because many ISPs found it difficult to pay the cost of it; so too, of international carriers, which reduced the bandwidth of international connections. Under extreme conditions, Argentina runs the risk of becoming a giant Intranet, without exit platforms to the external cyber world. Another risk is the fast climb in cost of informatics goods and services, which are imported and valued in US dollars. The Chamber of Computer Services Companies (CESSI) has already warned both the national government and the community about a new danger: the stopping of informatics and telecommunications supplies as a result of the current economic policies. Will this decrease the dissemination and appropriation of ICTs? Evidently, domestic connections to Internet could be replaced by Community Technological Centers (CTCs). At present, from the original 1,300 CTCs, 700 still survive, coordinated by the National Communications Secretariat (SECOM). CTCs would be an excellent solution for citizens’ networks, but even this is complex since CTCs have become a political stake. The SECOM was acephalous for almost four months, and CTCs have become a desirable prey for the politicians and local leaders who favor clientele-ism. For example, they used to grant CTC equipment only to specific neighborhood leaders who belonged to their political parties. On January 9, a small group, brandishing a note of a Secretary of Municipalities of the Ministry of the Interior, attempted to take the Program Information Society of the SECOM that the CTCs coordinates. They used physical threats and verbal aggressions to intimidate the officials that tried to defend the Program, and only departed when the press intervened. ICTs are and will continue to be a key part of the new social movements and in the power stakes. However, it is difficult to foresee their future development.

Issues to Debate Some questions arise: are these movements representative symptoms of the present society? Are they socially revolutionary, or socially conservative? Will they be successful in generating political, economical, social, and cultural changes in the targeted population, or in the wider society? One of the risks for neighborhood assemblies is that they might become conservative movements, i.e., leave aside their desire to plant new political seeds, to “refund” the Argentine society, to participate proactively in the nation’s Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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politics and policies, in order to become mere neighbors’ associations charged to help organize day care centers for the elderly or raise funds for shelters for street children. Many neighbors’ assemblies in fact play both roles: they develop solidarity actions, and they act as public political awareness places. Neither of these movements are revolutionary, since they do not intend to take over local or national power. They are, like no previous movements in Argentinian history, innovative, since they are directed towards the construction of public opinion through constant debates that raise social, political, and economic awareness in the population, become new respondents to the political blocks in power, and act as new urban actors in solidarity actions. Based on the research the author has conducted and coordinated, as well as the information and research in the bibliography, the author believes that these social movements are, indeed, representative symptoms of the present society. As Litz Vieira states: “... the democratization process has stopped being fleeting and functional, and has become permanent. It is a process of adjustment between legality and genuineness, between morals and Law. This new interpretation opens a space for the social movements and civil society organizations, while it incorporates new concepts, including a revision of the public sphere into the democratization process.” Vieira adds: “The processes of reproduction of cultural patterns become political forms in the public space” (Vieira, 2001). A space that, as the anti-global social movements have proved it, belongs as much in the physical space of streets and cities, as in the space of flows in the Web. These social organizations enlarge the concept of public space, exceeding political parties, incorporating new topics to political agendas, and playing a fundamental part in the construction of a new public sphere, supported by electronic networks. In this sense, they are movements, neither revolutionary nor conservative, but socially innovative. They have been successful in generating social and cultural changes in the target population, and in society, in a wider sense: the creation of a new associative concept of democratization, identified with the practice of citizenship, highlighting the limitations of both the State and the market, and allowing the concept of democracy as a social practice, with the citizens (or as Virno would say — “the multitude”) as direct actors in the democratization processes. One of the most direct cultural impacts — a process and a tool — is the social appropriation and the dissemination of the Information Society tools, no longer available only to an elite. Another is the construction of a social, public subjectivity: the values and present actions in the civil society which frankly oppose the characteristic systemic values of the State and the market, and generate new forms of sociability, as well as the reciprocal alteration among instances of social practice and the production of subjectivity. Yet another is the practice of operational solidarity, through which the neighbors have implemented, organized and sustained help to elderly people’s homes, street children, unemployed parents, and other kinds of needy social groups. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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The impacts are less perceptible in the formal political sphere, although, as Vieira outlines, the plural occupation of public space can carry an imbalance in the relationship between the actors and the political system, with prevalence of the political society, and with the insertion or participation of civil associations in the State, conferring on them a semi-public status (Vieira, 2001). It is certain, however, that at least some of the political and social claims will find a place in the political agendas in national and international organisations. At an economic level, some impacts have been registered around the country: many factories that had been abandoned by their owners after a financial crash have been taken over by their own workers, organized as cooperatives, and helped by the neighbors’ assemblies, lawyers and economists. Some outstanding examples in Buenos Aires are the factories Grissinopoli (bread and cookies), and Brukman (electrical domestic appliances), as well as Zanon (construction ceramics) in the Patagonian region. ICT-supported citizens’ assemblies in Argentina show that community networks can become social actors.

ENDNOTES 1

2

3

4

“Corralito” (little corral) is the popular name given to the system implemented by the Government to inhibit financial outflows from the banks in December 21. It blocks the bank accounts, so that account holders cannot touch their own savings. The system was loosened by the end of year 2002, although not completely. Notes on Virno are taken from Josefina Ludmer’s paper: Argentina, en la Serie de Seattle, La multitud entra en acción, http://www.clarin.com/ suplementos/cultura/2002-01-19/u-00201.htm. Paolo Virno, Il ricordo del presente. Saggio sul tempo storico (Bollati Boringhieri, 1999). Grammatica della moltitudine (Rubettino, 2001). In English: Radical Thought in Italy (University of Minnesota Press, 1996), anthology, coedited with Michael Hardt.

REFERENCES Finquelievich, S. (2000). ¡Ciudadanos, a la Red! (Citizens, to the Web!). Ed. La Crujia, Buenos Aires. Finquelievich, S. (2002). Hacia una nueva ciudadanía: Argentina y sus TICs. En ENREDANDO, http://www.enredando.com, Núm. 305- 57º de la 4ª versión - Semana del 05.2.al 11.2. 2002. Finquelievich, S. & Schiavo, E. (1998). La ciudad y sus TICs. National University of Quilmes, Buenos Aires. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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Gurstein, M. (2000). Community informatics: Enabling communities with information and communication technologies. Hershey, PA: Idea Group Publishing. Habermas, J. (1989). The European nation-state: On the past and future of sovereignty and citizenship. Public Culture, 10(2). Hobbes, T. (1968). Leviathan. Edited with an introduction by C.B. Macpherson. Penguin, Harmondsworth. Lago Martínez, S. & Jara, A. (2000). Un ensayo sobre los movimientos sociales en la sociedad de la información. International Seminar Lo urbano en el Pensamiento Social, IIGG, UBA, Buenos Aires, (September 29-30). León, O., Burch, S., & Tamayo, E. (2001). Social movements on the Net. Agencia Latinoamericana de Información – IDRC, Quito. Ludmer, J. (2002). Argentina, en la Serie de Seattle, La multitud entra en acción. Retrieved from: http://www.clarin.com/suplementos/cultura/200201-19/u-00201.htm. Martínez, S.L. & Jara, A. (2001). Nuevos interrogantes sobre los movimientos sociales antiglobalización: de Seattle a Porto Alegre. 1ra. Conferencia Regional de la Asociación Internacional de Sociología en América Latina, Venezuela (May 7-11). Porter, M. (1996). CyberDemocracy: Internet and the public sphere. University of California, Irvine. Rheingold, H. (1993). The virtual community: Homesteading in the electronic frontier. New York: Harper Collins. Schuler, D. (1998). New community networks: Wired for change. New York: ACM Press. Serra, A. (2000). Community networking: Shaping a “new” society. First Global Congress on Community Networks, Barcelona (November 2-4). Vieira, L. (2001). Os argonautas da cidadania. A sociedade civil na globalizaçao. Ed. Record, Rio de Janiero. Wellman, B. (1999). Networks in the global village. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

ADDITIONAL SITES (ARGENTINA) http://www.argentina.indymedia.org — Alternative communication network http://nuevasbases.org — Contributions to build a new Argentina http://www.cipe.org/pfc — Journalists fighting corruption

ADDITIONAL SITES (INTERNATIONAL) http://www.derechos.org — Human Rights in the Internet http://www.destroyimf.org — Alternative press in USA Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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http://www.efa.org.au — Citizens rights in the Internet http://www.globalexchange.org — Globalization, free exchange http://www.nettime.org — New journalism http://www.nodo50.org — Alternative information, social movements http://www.rebelion.org — Alternative information for Latin America


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Chapter XII

Measuring the Effectiveness of Training to Improve Electronic Information Literacy Nicole Fahey, Werribee South, Australia Wal Taylor, Central Queensland University, Australia

ABSTRACT This chapter uses a case study approach to highlight issues surrounding the provision of government agency sponsored programs aimed at increasing Electronic Information Literacy (EIL), as a basic requirement for community engagement in an electronically enabled world. The Skills.net program was designed to increase EIL skills by providing “free or low cost access to training in online services and the Internet for those in the community who are least likely to have access” in Victoria, Australia. This study found that whilst the Skills.net program did increase EIL, it did not adequately address the accepted training needs of the participants nor did it adequately adhere to known guidelines for success in information literacy enhancement. This experience provides further evidence of lessons being learned from many Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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government agency imposed programs which do not provide adequate outcomes for regional areas as they grapple with the impact of being increasingly marginalized in an electronically enabled age.

INTRODUCTION The global economy is currently undergoing a transformation in which information is a major producer of wealth. There is a growing importance for individuals to be able to access and interpret information from a variety of sources (Kling, 1996). If a people are not able to access and adequately interpret a variety of information they can be faced with what is being termed ‘information poverty’. Information poverty can not only be brought about by reduced access, but also by over-reliance on mass generated information from oligopolies within a narrow cultural base and by low skill/interest in interpreting available information. Fundamental issues for effective democracy in an electronically enabled age include effective access to information from a variety of sources, the ability to interpret information and the capacity to respond to the issues this raises in terms of governance, personal wealth, health, security, education and service provision. There are many interrelated factors that contribute to information poverty, including governance, public policy, access, language, culture, poor or single language literacy skills, lack of recognized need, habituated behaviour, socio-economic circumstance, education, technology access skill and psychographic profile. As the impact of uneven access and utilization of electronically enabled communication processes becomes more evident, both within and across nation states, governments and global agencies are striving to address the issue of electronic information poverty (Fahey, 1999). In an attempt to reduce this new age poverty, many nations have pledged to develop a global information infrastructure to enable universal access to telecommunications. This has involved infrastructure and training programs both within developed countries by government agencies and in developing countries by external funding agencies. Further, the United Nations (UN) through its subsidiaries has implemented many programs aimed at addressing the economic, cultural and social issues that uneven adoption of Information Communications Technologies (ICT) starkly brings into focus. These include the necessity of having to deal with mixed cultural understanding and the increasing visibility of inequitable wealth distribution that ICT facilitates. That this is an important issue is underpinned by the United Nation’s sponsored World Summits on the Information Society in Geneva 2003 and Tunis 2005.1 There is increasing recognition with global agencies that the provision of ICT infrastructure by itself will not address the major problems that beset



developing countries. There are often pressing survival issues and literacy is also an obvious impediment. Thus, many programs around the world have also implemented measures to improve general literacy skills in their communities such as reading, writing, and mathematical skills. However, wide international experience in developed countries where literacy levels are much higher shows that programs aimed at providing ICT infrastructure with short-term funding for adoption support are not reaching the expected utilization levels in regional areas. So that, even when literacy and access levels are relatively high, there are still significant issues to be addressed if communities are not to be negatively affected by the centralizing effects of the information technologies. For while ICT do provide wonderful opportunities for individuals and communities, they can be a double-edged sword for economic, social and cultural sustainability for smaller communities (Gurstein, 2000). In aiming to address these issues, some governments and government agencies in developed countries, such as the Victorian Government (Australia), the Canadian National Literacy Secretariat, the UK-established National Council for Educational Technology, and the Singaporean Ministry for Education have implemented EIL programs (Miller, 1997). These EIL programs aim to increase a people’s ability to use electronic means to extract, interpret, develop and apply information in order to improve their personal situations and increasingly participate in the electronic information age. Information literacy has been described as “the ability to locate, process, and use information effectively regardless of delivery mechanisms and the type of format in which the information appears; that is, to be literate, one must be literate with both print and electronic formats” (McClure, 1994). Whilst the term EIL used here relates closely to McClure’s definition, it refers specifically to literacy in information presented in electronic formats. In order to gain a better understanding of the issues surrounding EIL in a developed country situation, this chapter discusses the ability of a particular training program (Skills.net) to address accepted training needs in increasing people’s EIL.

AN OVERVIEW OF SKILLS.NET Skills.net’s purpose was “to provide free of charge or at a low cost, access to training in online services and the Internet for those in the community who would otherwise not have access” (Cavill & Miller, 1998). It aimed to address the first objective of the Government’s ‘Victoria 21: Into the Information Age’ policy to develop a multimedia-skilled community (Multimedia Victoria, 1999). The Skills.net program attempted to reduce the widening gap between information-rich and information-poor individuals in Victoria by providing participants



with training and access to computing facilities, thus allowing them to develop some degree of EIL. Skills.net was provided with AUD $5 million by the state government to be spent over three years to create a network of more than one hundred selfsustainable training projects across Victoria, Australia. Victoria is the smallest and most densely populated state in Australia, covering some 227 600 sq. kms with a population of 4.5 million, 70 percent of whom live in the capital city, Melbourne (ABS, 2001). Skills.net aimed to provide 40,000 people with the skills and resources they needed to understand and use the Internet (Cavill & Miller, 1998). By 2002, the Skills.net network consisted of 408 projects which provided training to over 89,856 participants (Skills.net, 2003). The Skills.net participants received training from Leader Projects (provided with AUD $100,000 to train 1,000 participants), or General Projects, (provided with AUD $10,000 to train 100 participants). Both types of projects were to provide five hours of training in the use of online technology, as well as 10 hours of access to the Internet for each participant. Participants were expected to have Internet access and to have accessed the Internet for at least five hours in the previous six months. The program provided funding for five hours of training in Web browsing, e-mail, downloading files, and creating Web pages (CIRCIT, 1998). However, after introduction, there was general agreement from the trainers that this amount of training could not be adequately delivered in the time allowed (CIRCIT, 1998). As a result, many trainers altered the training time and/or the type of training delivered in an attempt to meet perceived participants’ needs.

RESEARCH ON EIL Although information literacy is extensively discussed in information systems, education, and librarianship literature, there has been no specific definition of the exact skills required to achieve EIL. The Washington Library Media Association (WLMA) outlined essential skills for information literacy (WLMA, 1996). The WLMA guidelines on skills for information literacy were used to assess whether Skills.net addressed accepted training needs and provided participants with the skills required to become literate in electronic information. Three WLMA information skills had application for EIL in this assessment because they could be directly related to the Web-searching and e-mail skills taught by Skills.net. 1. Construct strategies for locating information — Skills.net attempted to enhance participants’ strategies for locating information by providing them with knowledge of additional information resources including the Web and e-mail.



2. 3.

Locate and access information — Skills.net training aimed to enable the location and accession of information via Internet searching and e-mail. Evaluate and extract information — This skill relates to the participants’ ability to identify whether information obtained is suitable to their needs. Extraction of the information may simply be the ability to read and assimilate the information. However, in this study, extraction of information related to the participants’ ability to access information via electronic sources and to locate it again for future use. Some of the methods used to extract information included downloading, bookmarking, and printing.

Three of Kirk and Todd’s guidelines (as cited in Booker, 1993) for underpinning information literacy programs were also used to evaluate the ability of Skills.net to meet user needs throughout the design, development, and delivery stages of training. 1. Information literacy is relative to the individual, a particular need, and the situation of the individual. Therefore Skills.net training should be sensitive to participants’ needs. 2. Planning and development of the information literacy programs should be based on needs as determined by the users, not defined by the organisation. 3. Program evaluation needs to be evaluated in terms of users’ needs, and the benefit and satisfaction derived.

RESEARCH This research aimed to determine if Skills.net training increased participants’ EIL while at the same time addressing accepted training needs. The major questions revolved around determining: • ‘Does Skills.net address accepted needs for training?’ • ‘Do Skills.net trainers believe they are achieving their goals of training?’ • ‘Do Skills.net participants think they are achieving their goals through Skills.net training? Are they satisfied with the skills they are taught?’ Three regional training cases were selected, covering a large rural area, a small rural area and a metropolitan area. A multiple case-study research method and two separate data collection techniques were used to answer these questions (Neuman, 1997). A survey was used to collect necessary quantitative data about participants’ skills levels before and after Skills.net training as well as determining participants’ goals from the training (Dillman, 1978). From the 412 surveys successfully mailed to respondents, 140 useable surveys were returned. This gave the survey a total response rate of 33.98 percent. A semi-structured interview technique was used to assess the perceived needs and goals of the Skills.net trainers and to determine whether Skills.net Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


addressed accepted needs for information-literacy training. It also provided an insight into the background and culture of the organization.

Overview of the Three Case Studies The regional context, program setting and gender and age differences between the three cases are briefly outlined below.

Case One Case One was situated in a large rural community which had limited Internet access (5,998 access lines to the Internet; ABS, 2001). Therefore people in this region were only moderately likely to have access to the Internet. It had a wellresourced learning centre largely focused on training teachers in IT skills, before it received Skills.net funding. The Skills.net funding enabled it to bring forward by three years its long-term plan to extend training to the broader community (CIRCIT, 1998). It was given funding to provide training for 1000 participants. The Skills.net training provided consisted of an initial three-hour training session and nine hours of self-guided access to Web and e-mail technologies. This was an hour longer than the basic Skills.net requirements. The primary trainer had five years experience in teaching computer applications such as MS Word, MS Office, and Internet applications.

Case Two This case was also funded to provide training for 1,000 participants as a ‘start up project’ to service a small rural community in the Western Victorian region and was the result of a joint partnership between local government and the Figure 1. Case Study Locations

Skills.net Regions

South Western Victoria

2

Central

1

3 Melbourne



local university. This case was the least likely to have access to the Internet (in 2001 the region had a mere 1,113 access lines to the Internet; ABS, 2001). This case provided 10 hours of training to its participants in the form of five two-hour sessions, which allowed them to provide more training than other organizations adhering to Skills.net guidelines. The primary trainer at this organization had worked as a teacher for 13 to 14 years and had several formal teaching qualifications but no IT teaching experience. This trainer played a large role in developing the curriculum taught at this venue.

Case Three This case was a General Project (providing training for 100 participants), which conducted training from a well established community centre in the capital city metropolitan area. The community centre’s general aim was to provide programs to enhance social justice, access, and equity to its community and to provide lifelong learning opportunities to all individuals regardless of age, gender, race, or disability. It provided five hours of online training and ten hours of access to participants as outlined in the Skills.net guidelines. This centre had a flexible approach which allowed it to alter the course content to suit participant needs. Being in the capital city metropolitan area, it was the most likely case to have access to the Internet (ABS, 2001). The Skills.net trainer at this location was employed on a session basis to deliver Skills.net and adult literacy training. The trainer had significant teaching experience in areas other than information technology, but had been incorporating the use of information technology into literacy teaching for some time. According to the ABS (2000), adults residing in metropolitan areas were more likely to have accessed the Internet than adults residing outside of metropolitan areas (52 percent compared to 44 percent). The sections below describe the regional, age, gender and overall satisfaction features of the three cases studied.

Age Research in Australia similar to that in other developed countries determined that during the early to mid adoption phases, Internet access decreases with age (ABS, 2000). Figure 2 outlines the age distribution across the three training cases examined in this study. Over 55 percent of the trainees surveyed at Case One were aged between 36 to 55 years. This demographic is consistent with national trends (ABS, 1998, 2000). Almost 70 percent of those surveyed at Case Two were between the ages of 56 to 75 years at the time they were surveyed. National survey work indicated that this cohort was least likely to access the Internet, with access rates growing from 7 percent to 19 percent between 1998 and 2000 (ABS, 1998, 2000). Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Figure 2. Age Demographic Across the Three Sites Age by Cases 50.00%

45.00%

40.00%

35.00%

30.00%

19-25yrs 26-35yrs

25.00%

36-45yrs 46-55yrs 56-65yrs

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66-75yrs 76yrs+

15.00%

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5.00%

0.00% Case 1

Case 2

Case 3

Case Three had the youngest population of all the cases surveyed, with over forty percent of respondents aged between 26 to 45 years. National trends indicate that up to 64 percent of people in this age cohort were likely to have Internet access (ABS, 1998, 2000).

Gender Figure 3 displays the gender distribution across the three training case studies. Gender has been found to have a slight impact on national Internet usage, with 53 percent of Internet users being male (ABS, 2000).

Figure 3. Gender Distribution Across the Three Case Studies Gender by Cases 80.00%

70.00%

60.00%

50.00%

Male Female

40.00%

30.00%

20.00%

10.00%

0.00% Case 1

Case 2

Case 3



Figure 4. Sites

Overall Satisfaction with Skills.net Training Across the Three Satisfaction by Cases

70.00%

60.00%

50.00%

V. Sat.

40.00%

Sat. Indiff. Dis. 30.00%

V. Dis

20.00%

10.00%

0.00% Case 1

Case 2

Case 3

Cases One and Two had a predominance of female participants (72 and 63 percent respectively). In Case Three 41 percent of the participants were female.

Overall Satisfaction with Training Figure 4 displays the overall satisfaction by participants with the training received from the Skills.net program. In general terms participants in Cases One and Two were not well satisfied with the training, whilst those in Case Three were much more satisfied. It should be remembered that Case One offered participants less contact hours of training. Participants in Case One were also significantly less satisfied than other groups with teaching support, reliability of equipment, and course content, although they were more satisfied with the ten hours of free Internet access that was provided. Case Three reported high satisfaction with the training delivered, with significantly higher perceived satisfaction with their teacher and the course content.

FINDINGS This initial examination of the Skills.net program through survey and interview with three case studies was aimed at providing some insight into not only satisfaction with the training but also opening discussion on whether the program met needs for training to improve EIL. The design, development, and delivery of the Skills.net programs were analysed and compared to the guidelines for successful information literacy training defined by WLMA (1996) and Kirk and Todd (cited in Booker, 1993). Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Constructing Strategies for Locating Information Skills.net addressed this guideline by providing participants with knowledge of information resources including the Web and e-mail. Once participants had knowledge about how these information resources could help them locate information, they could include the use of these resources into their informationgathering strategies.

Locate and Access Information The Skills.net program addressed this guideline by providing training in skills, which enabled access to information by using the Web and e-mail. The training also provided students with the ability to refine and narrow Web searches to allow them to locate the most relevant information for their needs.

Evaluate and Extract Information The Skills.net program only provided participants with basic training (bookmarking, downloading and saving, and printing) to locate and extract information. It should be noted that the amount of training given on information extraction for future use differed between Skills.net groups. The ability to evaluate information was beyond the scope of this course and hence the program failed to meet this guideline.

Information Literacy Training Needs to be Relative to the Individual, a Particular Need and the Situation of the Individual In order to meet this guideline, the Skills.net training had to demonstrate a user orientation to the design, development, and delivery of the training. The trainers recognised the importance of participants’ needs and attempted to tailor the course to meet these needs. However, Skills.net training was designed as a curriculum to teach a standard set approach and therefore it did not allow a great deal of flexibility to enable trainers to meet individuals’ needs.

Planning and Development of Information Literacy Programs to be Based on Needs as Determined by the Users, not Defined by the Organization Skills.net was not successful in this area because the training program was designed on the basis of a predefined set of user needs determined by the government agencies administering the program. There did not appear to be any prior studies by these organizations to identify a set of user needs based on heterogeneous understanding within the community. It appears that the training



program curriculum was developed on agency-based perceived needs and a standardized ‘schooling’-based approach. As a result, several proposed training areas such as creating Web pages were identified by participants as being far too advanced for their immediate needs. Also, participants did not view some areas of the course content such as the history of the Internet as relevant or a good use of the limited training time. These experiences forced trainers to redesign the program ‘in situ’ and this created inconsistencies in training between the projects.

Program Evaluation to be in Terms of Users’ Needs, Derived Benefit and Satisfaction Although a prior evaluation of Skills.net recommended investigation into the satisfaction of participants (CIRCIT, 1998), until this study no such evaluation of user needs, benefit, or satisfaction had been undertaken. This study has found that Skills.net achieved mixed success in its ability to meet accepted needs of training. While the program was partially successful in achieving relevant WLMA guidelines to improve EIL, the training did not meet user needs adequately enough to be successful in terms of the Kirk and Todd guidelines.

Trainer Belief in Achievement of Goals of Training The cases studied here had different mission statements and slightly different training goals. However, all trainers believed that their organization was successful at achieving its goals through the provision of Skills.net training. In Case One, the trainers believed they were successful because they seemed to meet most of the funding agency’s training targets while also providing training to the broader community. In Case Two, trainers believed that they had met their goals by providing training to those in the broader community who were potentially disenfranchised by not having access to the Web and e-mail. In Case Three, trainers provided training to individuals regardless of age, gender, race, or disability. They believed that they exceeded the aims of the Skills.net training goals.

Participant Perception of Goal Achievement and Skill Satisfaction Participants most frequently cited ‘computer skill development’ and ‘exploration of a new area of interest’ as the reasons for undertaking Skills.net training. Skills.net training was successful at developing computer skills because most of the participants perceived themselves as more skilled after completing the training. The ability of Skills.net to enable participants to explore a new area of interest was unable to be measured. Overall, participants were satisfied with the skills they gained through Skills.net training. However, Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


because of the lack of an adequate testing mechanism, this finding does little to determine whether participants’ skills were sufficient to address EIL.

Does the Training Empower Users? This aspect was not possible to measure in a meaningful way in this study. Although feeling that empowerment is a difficult thing to quantify, the trainer at Case One believed that the Skills.net training empowered users by providing them with the basic skills necessary to explore their areas of interest and by allowing them to “air their views publicly via the use of e-mail.” The primary trainer at Case Two believed that Skills.net training raised the awareness of participants, which could be empowering. The trainer also felt that the degree of empowerment achieved by the training depended on “what people are expecting to get out of it.” The trainer at Case Three believed that Skills.net training empowered people by providing them “with a new set of information communication and information gathering possibilities.” The perceptions of trainers, who obviously have a bias, were that Skills.net training did empower participants by providing them with skills to access a broader range of information resources. However, without a useful means to measure empowerment from a user’s perspective, this aspect lacks objectivity.

CONCLUSIONS Like many training programs delivered through public agency funding around the world, the Skills.net program was a well-intentioned initiative designed to increase the EIL of information-poor individuals. However, the potential impact of the Skills.net program on increasing EIL was limited due to the failure of the program to adequately address accepted training guidelines. Skills.net did appear to meet the WLMA guidelines for constructing strategies to locate, assess, evaluate, and extract information. However, the depth to which these areas were taught and the time spent teaching them varied greatly between the training venues. Therefore it seems that it was not Skills.net’s original design that met user needs in this matter, but instead the trainers’ modifications to the course structure. These discrepancies made evaluation of the program difficult. The major failing of Skills.net was that during its development there was no consultation with potential participants to determine their perceptions of their training needs. This meant that the course was developed on what the funding agency believed to be the needs of potential participants and not the actual needs of participants. The findings of the study imply that Skills.net would have been more effective if it had taken into account the Kirk and Todd guidelines and focused on user needs during its design, development, implementation, and evaluation. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Results from the study indicate that Skills.net participants want strategies for locating, extracting, and evaluating information. This concurs with the WLMA guidelines. Although developing an effective EIL course design was outside the scope of this evaluation, the results clearly indicate that funding agencies aiming to develop and deliver programs to address EIL in both developed and developing country situations would achieve more useful outcomes from adhering to the accepted guidelines used in this study. Such an approach would not only ensure that the course design was as effective as possible at meeting user needs but also maximize the achievement of improved EIL. These issues have major implications for addressing economic, social and cultural equity in the emerging global environment which is increasingly dependent upon effective EIL. This work highlights several areas for future inquiry into EIL. In particular, the development of a flexible skill assessment tool is an important evaluation issue. Whilst electronically enabled testing is available for commercial product certification, there appears to be little on offer in this regard to assess several levels of EIL which could be used across a range of cultural and socio-economic circumstances. Further, this exploratory study highlighted the need for useful instruments to adequately measure achievement within the suggested guidelines in voluntary learning situations.

ENDNOTES 1

For details see: http://www.wsis.itu.int

REFERENCES Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). (1998). Use of the Internet by householders. Canberra, Aust. Govt. Publishing. Retrieved from: http:/// www.abs.gov.au. Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). (2000). Use of the Internet by householders. Canberra, Aust. Govt. Publishing. Retrieved from: http:/// www.abs.gov.au. Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). (2001). Internet activity. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Canberra, Aust. Govt. Publishing. http:/// www.abs.gov.au. Cavill, M. & Miller, S. (1998). Report to multimedia Victoria. Evaluation of the community skills and networking (Skills.net) Program. Melbourne: CIRCIT, Ltd. CIRCIT. (1998). Report to multimedia Victoria. Evaluation of the community skills and networking (Skill.net) program. Melbourne: CIRCIT, Ltd. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Dillman, D. A. (1978). Mail and telephone questionnaires. The total design method. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Fahey, N. (1999). An investigative report into client empowerment and the Skills.net project. (Deakin University). Retrieved August 4, 2000 from: http://www.skills.net.au/download/BCHthesis.pdf. Gurstein, M. (2000). Community Informatics: Enabling communities with communications technologies. Hershey, PA: Idea Group Publishing. Kirk, J. & Todd, R. (1993). Information literacy – Changing roles for information professionals. In Booker, D. (Ed), Information Literacy, the Australian Agenda. Proceedings of Information Literacy Conference. Adelaide: University of South Australia. Kling, R. (ed.) (1996). Computerization and controversy: Value conflicts and social choices (2nd ed.). CA: Academic Press. McClure, C. (1994). Network literacy: A role for libraries. Information Technology and Libraries, 13(2),115-125. Miller, S. (1997). International approaches to skills development in the use of information and communication services (vol. 15). Melbourne: CIRCIT, Ltd. Multimedia Victoria. (1999). Multimedia Victoria Website. Retrieved June 5,1999 from: http://www.mmv.vic.gov.au/. Neuman, W. L. (1997). Social research methods: Qualitative and quantitative approaches (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon. Skills.net. (2002). Skills.net Website. Retrieved February 25, 2003 from: http:/ /www.skills.net.au/projects/default.cfm. Washington Library Media Association Online. (1996). Essential skills for information literacy. Retrieved November 13, 1998 from: http://wlma.org/ literacy/eslintro.htm#esbench.


192 Meredyth, Hopkins, Ewing and Thomas

Chapter XIII

Wired High Rise: Using Technology to Combat Social Isolation on an Inner City Public Housing Estate Denise Meredyth, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia Liza Hopkins, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia Scott Ewing, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia Julian Thomas, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia

ABSTRACT The chapter poses questions about the goal of building community through the creation of local networks, using the example of an entrepreneurial scheme to create a resident-run computer network in the Atherton Gardens high-rise housing estate in inner Melbourne, Australia. The scheme stems from a social partnership between a not-for-profit organisation, government and community groups; the aim is to enable residents to re-enter training, employment and community activities. The first stage of the paper places the scheme in the context of broader debates on the digital divide, information poverty and social capital, drawing out existing problems in the field. The authors discuss the problems of tracking the social impact of computer networks on ‘communities’, especially where there is a great diversity of Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

Combat Social Isolation on an Inner City Public Housing Estate

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interest and allegiance. The Atherton Gardens Reach for the Clouds initiative exemplifies such difficulties. The chapter argues that enthusiasm for this innovative scheme should be balanced by caution in using the vocabulary of social capital and community building. It cannot be assumed that online communication will build social connection off-line, given the diversity of interests, groups and allegiances within groups. This argument is made drawing on the initial stage of survey-based research on Atherton Gardens residents’ patterns of computer and media use, of employment and training, social connectedness, use of social services and experience of living on the estate. The authors conclude by reflecting on the broader implications of the case study for research on the social impact of computer networks on multiethnic populations with diverse needs, interests and allegiances.

INTRODUCTION This chapter draws on the first stages of a three-year evaluation of the social impact of the Atherton Gardens network, or ‘Reach for the Clouds’, in Melbourne, Australia. This is a bold scheme for community renewal through technology; it involves installing free, donated and network-ready personal computers in the apartments of a high-rise public housing estate in inner city Melbourne, wiring the buildings of the estate and providing an estate-wide intranet, e-mail system and cheap Internet access. The aim, ultimately, is to encourage residents to own and run the network themselves, to train one another and develop partnerships with private sector and community bodies around the estate, and to develop employment opportunities and economic benefits from the enterprise. The project was developed by a not-for-profit Internet Service Provider (InfoXchange Australia). It has also drawn on support from state and local government departments (Department of Human Services, City of Yarra), private firms (Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard) and welfare organisations (Brotherhood of St. Laurence, Outreach Victoria, Jesuit Social Services). The Atherton Gardens network project depends on a number of cooperative agreements and partnerships. Support came from various quarters. The computers were donated by big business and state government departments when those organisations upgraded their own hardware. Computers, monitors and printers recycled in this way were refurbished through a program called ‘Green PC’, funded through the State Government Community Jobs Program, employing long-term unemployed people. The local council provided workshop space for this program. In order to be eligible to receive one of the reconditioned computers, Atherton Gardens residents were required to complete ten hours of training in basic hardware and software use. This training was carried out by a large pool of volunteer trainers drawn from the estate and the wider Melbourne community. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


The project depended on a complex network of funding and in-kind support. New computers, printers, scanners and a digital camera were donated to equip the training rooms by Hewlett-Packard through their corporate philanthropy program, whilst Microsoft donated site licences for Windows 95 and Office 97, both for public access training computers and for the computers to be installed in residents’ homes. The Victorian State Government’s Office of Housing, which was responsible for managing the estate, paid for the network wiring to be installed, as well as providing flats for use as training facilities and some operational funding. Not-for-profit organisations such as Outreach Victoria, Jesuit Social Services and the Brotherhood of St. Laurence provided support to the project both in cash and in kind. Evaluation was funded by the Commonwealth through the Australian Research Council’s Linkage Program, in partnership with the Victorian government’s Primary Health Branch and Office of Housing. After some delay, the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet agreed to support the scheme through the Community Support Fund, enabling the employment of a project manager and staff to install and maintain the computers. By August 2002, around 300 residents had completed the training, 250 households had received their computers. The buildings were wired up in late 2002, at which point the intranet was being established and funding had been found for free Internet access. The longer-term impact and significance of the network is difficult to predict, as we shall argue. We will also seek to show, though, that even in its early stages, the initiative offers a rich case study of the conceptual problems associated with research on the social impact of technology. The initiative offered a rare instance of a successful effort to build a computer network for and with a low-income and multiethnic population, on the one site. The project was neither initiated nor driven by government agencies, although state and local governments made contributions. Instead, it was an instance of an entrepreneurial scheme for self-help and community building emerging from the not-for-profit sector. The intention was for the community network to be owned and run by the residents themselves, as the not-for-profit agency bowed out of the project. Although there are equivalent low-income wired community experiments in North America and the UK, the authors know of no others directly comparable to the Atherton Garden Reach for the Clouds initiative. The initial stage of research on this developing project, reported in this chapter, focuses on the conceptual and practical problems of tracking the social impact of the network on the lives of residents within the housing estate, and on the surrounding social and economic environment. Understanding this involves placing the case study in the context of rapidly moving policy and research debates on information poverty, on the digital divide and potential remedies, and on community building and social capital. Reach for the Clouds was able to couch its appeal to funding bodies and government agencies within these terms. It is therefore important to understand the extent to which it represents a trend Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


195

in social policy and information policy, towards seed-funding community-based information technology initiatives, even where it is not clear what constitutes community.

DIGITAL SOCIAL DIVISION The ‘digital divide’ entered the policy lexicon via Falling through the Net, an influential 1995 study by the NTIA within the US Department of Commerce, which began a series of reports tracking the relationship between ‘information haves’ and ‘have-nots’ in terms of household access to a computer and modem. Access to telephones, personal computers and computer networks at work and at home was linked to race, income, education and location (NTIA, 1995). By the time the second report was published in 1998, the ‘digital divide’ tag was in wide use (NTIA, 1998). Educated professionals, white-collar workers and middleclass families who had embraced technology at work and home, it was argued, enjoyed an advantage in the school system and the labour market (Aspen Institute, 1999). Because they were able to call on information, cultural resources and communications networks, they had more options for extending professional, friendship and family networks, or for exercising consumer choice (Pew Internet and American Life Project, 2000). Those who did not enjoy these advantages remained marginalised from the new economy, the changing labour market and the online resources offered by banks, supermarkets, schools, real estate agents and government. In the last decade, government-sponsored and independent research has focused on persistent patterns of disparity in access to technology — telephone connections, personal computers, Internet access or broadband connections. In Australia, this pattern of disparity is most clearly marked in differences between urban, rural and isolated communities, but it is also related to income, to levels of education, to gender and to indigeneity (ABS 2001; Lloyd, Given, & Hellwig, 2000). Educated young urban professionals are still most likely to access the Internet at work or home. Those in isolated and regional areas are likely to have lower rates of access, as are indigenous people and those with little English or poor literacy (ABS, 2001). The same populations are likely to need access to the commercial, social and governmental services that are now being provided online. Their children are also likely to lack access to a computer at home — the most recent national survey of school students’ access to information technology indicates that early home access is significant in building computer skills, especially where schools have comparatively poor facilities (Meredyth et al., 1999). The broader public policy debate on the digital divide has established a nowfamiliar equation between information poverty and risk of economic marginalisation (DETYA, 2000). In the context of preoccupation with the Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


information economy, globalisation and the comparative mobility of ‘knowledge workers’, technological and problem-solving capacities are seen as critical to effective negotiation of the world of work (Giddens, 2001; Latham, 1998; Tanner, 1999). Those who cannot seek and find information will be marginalised; those who can do so will be able to seek help, find local resources and re-enter the labour market, education and training. The digital divide policy debate has shifted since the mid 1990s, however, in tandem with political shifts away from an emphasis on centralist national information policy. In the US, the Bush government wound back the interventions of the Clinton-Gore administration, which had favoured federal intervention and subsidy to even out disparities in access to computers, especially in schools. Critics were able to argue that the digital divide problem had been solved, as expanding markets made personal computers and connections affordable, helping groups to achieve connectivity (see Compaigne, 2001). The most recent NTIA report now speaks of the goal of a ‘nation online’, as more than half the population had an Internet connection at home (62% in the case of households with children) (NTIA, 2002). Digital divide experts have pointed out, however, that access to computer hardware and Internet connections does not in itself overcome information poverty. Other barriers remain, including illiteracy, the dominance of English on the Web, the lack of culturally appropriate content and, perhaps most importantly, broader patterns of educational disadvantage that limit individuals’ ability to navigate online information and communication systems (Norris, 2001). The link between education, social exclusion and information poverty is an important one, given that citizens and consumers are increasingly expected to be able to find services online (Fountain, 2001; Compaigne, 2001; Norris, 2001). Across the OECD countries, governments have been promoting electronic government and online social services, from tax to unemployment and sickness benefits. Provision of services online may help agencies to cut costs, channel inquiries and target services to particular groups (Fountain, 2001). However, lower-income and less educated people are likely to remain less adept in using technology to find information, especially where they are not fully literate or do not speak English. Policy options for addressing information poverty are evolving. Current research indicates that having access to a computer and Internet connection in the home is important. The problem is that, notwithstanding the increasing affordability of personal computers, the choice to buy a computer remains a private one. Governments are already reducing their commitment to subsidising computers and connectivity in schools, libraries and technology centres. It may be increasingly difficult to persuade them to support the provision of computer access in private homes, or that such provision should take priority over improving traditional public services. Making the case for intervention may involve advocating programs across portfolios as diverse as telecommunications, Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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education and training and family and community services. Nor is it clear whether the digital divide is a problem to be solved at the federal, state or local level. The alternative approach, which has been favoured in the US and UK, is to devolve the issue of access to technology and online social services to the local level, making funding available to support social partnerships. Community groups are encouraged to work with business to invent solutions, persuading community members to volunteer their labour to wire up the local school for instance, or convincing banks and local businesses to invest in community networks. Often, a technology company is used to ‘incubate’ such schemes, using money won by community agencies. This is the pattern followed by the Wired Up Communities scheme developed by the Blair government under the aegis of the national education department. In terms consistent with that government’s focus on ‘joined up government’, community-based computer networks are seen as a remedy for social exclusion and as a recipe for regional renewal (DfES, 2003). Nevertheless, despite the enthusiasm that such ‘community building’ technology schemes are able to generate, there is as yet little long-term and detailed research on their social, civic and economic impact. Experiments in the creation of community-based computer networks remain rare; it is even rarer to find studies of computer networks for low-income and multiethnic populations, of the kind being created at Atherton Gardens. Tracking such social impact requires the careful identification of social indicators based on patterns of interaction within the groups concerned, both before and after the introduction of the computer network. In developing such research, various conceptual difficulties arise, not least the question of how to understand the relationship between online communications and off-line social contacts: this is important in clarifying current understanding of the extent to which computer networks can be expected to offset social exclusion by fostering trust, generating social capital and building community.

COMMUNITY BUILDING AND SOCIAL CAPITAL The broader literature on community informatics is ambivalent about whether or not giving people intranet and Internet connections makes local communities more connected and cohesive. Some warn that computer use and connectivity may reduce social connectedness by stranding people in front of private screens. Others hope that it may reduce social isolation, helping people to find new points of exchange with those of similar interests. In the absence of substantial longitudinal studies, it is still difficult to tell how much the social impact of Internet, e-mail and computer use bears out fears that technology will encourage social isolation or vindicates those who expect technology use to Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


create ‘more and better social relationships by freeing people from the constraints of geography or isolation brought on by stigma, illness or schedule’, linking people ‘on the basis of common interests rather than convenience’ (Kraut, Patterson et al., 1998: p. 1017). Chat groups, e-mail and online forums may help to offset the geographic and social isolation of those in remote communities or of families separated by distance and migration. New means of communication which are comparatively cheap, quick and safe to use may help those with physical and mental disabilities that prevent them from leaving their homes. They may enable people to connect with each other, find support, express opinions and shape decision making, whether among family and friends in different places or among strangers, such as members of a support group or association. They may help people to find information in their own language, to contact government agencies and use online goods and services such as banking, using e-mail and chat groups. Socially excluded groups may be better able to express opinions, form communities of interest and participate more effectively in local decision-making. These possibilities and predictions have helped us to frame our research expectations of the likely social, economic and civic impact of the Atherton Gardens network. This project will assess the extent to which residents have not only used the donated computers but have also become involved in the processes of installing the network, training themselves and others and making decisions about the network. Our research tracks the extent to which online patterns of connection between residents and resident groups alters the existing patterns of social exchanges and social attitudes on the estate. One way to interpret such patterns is in terms of the relationship between trust and social capital. Developing indicators of social capital and adapting them to research on computer networks requires some adaptation of existing frameworks. Much social capital and community participation research in Australia has focused on the small, relatively homogeneous traditional face to face ‘community’ (small rural town or urban neighbourhood). This is consistent with the model of ‘social capital’ developed by American researchers (Putnam, Leonardi, & Nanetti, 1993) who focused on contrasts between civic life in the north and south of Italy in the 1970s. Their proposition was that communities in the north were prosperous, successful and civic-minded because people engaged with their neighbours, participated in voluntary organisations, read daily newspapers and maintained an interest in political affairs. In the south, by contrast, individuals put the family unit ahead of the wider community and distrusted outsiders, even elected public officials; consequently, civic life was characterised by corruption, crime and economic stagnation. Civic-mindedness, on the model of northern Italy, is the model for social capital as Putnam and others redefined it. Successful communities are strong in the ‘networks, norms and trust’ that enable individuals to work together for the common good, not just the good of kith and kin. Those who lack Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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such mechanisms of incorporation and cooperative behaviour are suspicious, individualistic and poor in social capital. This model of social capital remains influential. Various Western countries, including America and Australia, have been diagnosed as plagued by declining levels of social capital, as measured through participation in voluntary activities, church attendance, interest in political affairs and involvement in local issues and events. Social capital is now strongly associated, in Australian and other national social policy debates, with civic participation and with the ability to bond with others outside the family. The term is widely used to refer to the need to monitor the social effects of economic policy changes. The expanding literature on social capital and community building is too broad to canvass here. There are clear problems, however, with assuming that ‘community’ is organic or naturally cohesive. In popular understanding, the notion of community usually translates to a geographically co-located group who utilise shared facilities (schools, hospitals, parks), participate in the same political process (local council area) and who share an interest in local issues and amenities. Thus the community of a single suburb may share concerns around local council decisions on planning, whereas the Australian community as a whole shares concern for issues of national importance. Communities can exist at different scales and are not mutually exclusive (Bryson & Mowbray, 1981, p. 262). The classic sociological definitions of community involve groups that have more than just a single strand of interest to bind members, but consist of a network of people linked by a shared set of interests and concerns (Bender, 1982, cited in Galston, 1999, p. 8; Bryson & Mowbray, 1981, p. 256). The difficulty is to distinguish between the shared interests that bind narrow and exclusive groupings based on loyalty to kith and kin from those that foster the general good (Granovetter, 1973). To recall the long-standing debate between communitarian and liberal thinkers, definitions of the general good needs to encompass the needs and interests of individuals, who may wish to identify with one or more groups, moving between identifications and affiliations (Kymlicka & Norman, 1994). Our evaluation of the Atherton Gardens network has sought to build on these more complex understandings of community and social capital. We have not assumed that social contact (online or off-line) necessarily leads to neighbourliness, altruism and trust. Nor have we assumed that the benefits to be derived from the social capital built by groups (trust, social co-operation and economic exchange) are always likely to promote the greater good of the general population of the housing estate. As an alternative, we have sought to adapt Woolcock’s (1998) revisionist account of social capital, which builds on Putnam’s distinction between different kinds and dimensions of social exchange (see Hopkins, 2001). We anticipate that when residents of the estate use the computer network, they will be building, in part, on complex existing allegiances, identities and communities of interest, shaped by factors such as age, length and place of Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


residence, country of origin, language group, faith, family structure and so on. If this is the case, they may build on associations that have both negative and positive elements. The network may strengthen bonding social capital: the ties that bind small groups of kith, kin and other affiliations. The results could be both positive and negative, promoting general sociability or exclusion. The network may also strengthen bridging forms of social capital: exchanges beyond existing groupings on the estate, either within or outside Atherton Gardens. Again, we will need to assess the effect of this in terms of our general interest in the extent to which the computer network enables socially excluded individuals and households to access a wider range of information, social contacts, educational opportunities and cooperative resources in their immediate environment and in the institutions around them.

USING TECHNOLOGY TO BUILD COMMUNITY When assessing the social impact of the computer network, it is important to avoid assuming that, in themselves, e-mail, intranet and Internet necessarily build social connections in the off-line world. Discussions about online communities aim to distinguish between the bonding created by shared physical location or place, and the links created by shared interests and activities. However, the existing research on online community is sparse. No doubt cyberspace does allow some users to overcome place-based limitations to communication. Fans of soap operas, new parents and cancer sufferers in Australia can exchange news, gossip and items of interest with others in Sweden and South Africa. On the other hand, these online forum communities of interest could be regarded as insubstantial compared to face-toface patterns of sociability and exchange (Galston, 1999, p. 3). Unless a computer user is communicating with someone that he or she already knows from face to face contact, the relationship does not function in the same way as a real world relationship does. Issues of identity, trust, honesty and responsibility can be subverted in an online environment. Anonymous or pseudonymous communication allows a sender to deny or evade responsibility for the outcomes of their actions, hence the proliferation of anti-social content in Web pages, email messages, bulletin boards and the like. Some research suggests that access to computers and online communications does not automatically lead to social connectedness and can in fact have negative consequences for social capital and community development. Some studies of social connectivity in Internet users found that greater use of the Internet was associated with declines in communication with family members, shrinking social circles, and greater depression and loneliness (Kraut et al., 1998, Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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p. 1017; cf., Nie & Lutz, 2000). Others found that Internet and e-mail use in particular built on existing social ties, sociability and family connection, enabling women in particular to create stronger relationships with friends and family (Pew Internet and American Life Project, 2000). Much depends, however, on the interests, capacity and location of the individuals and groups concerned (see Benton Foundation, 1998). For this reason, the Atherton Gardens case study promises to be a rich one, not least because of the diversity and complexity of the resident population itself. Not only is it difficult to define and apply terms such as social capital and community building to online and off-line patterns of social connection, but it is also difficult to do so when addressing the attitudes, habits and needs of a multiethnic, multilingual and multifaith population that is highly mobile and muchstudied. Where Atherton Gardens differs from accepted models of both geographic communities and communities of interest is in its multiethnic, mobile and diasporic population. Not only is there no single linking theme or interest, but there is also no single sense of place. Given residents’ cultural, economic and imaginative links to other places, we could say that the estate recombines in one place fragments of many places.

A SOCIAL PROFILE OF ATHERTON GARDENS The Reach for the Clouds initiative is described by its organisers as “a community building project designed to assist the development and maintenance of community capacity and cohesiveness at the Atherton Gardens estate, Fitzroy by utilising new technologies” (InfoXchange, 2001). The stated aims are to: ‘improve the social, economic and environmental circumstances of the Atherton Gardens community’; and ‘strengthen the capacity and cohesiveness of the community and its networks’ (InfoXchange, 2001, p. 2). Understanding these objectives and assessing the extent to which they are likely to be met depends on a good understanding of the Atherton Gardens estate, its reputation and the characteristics of the residents, as we have begun to identify them. Atherton Gardens consists of four twenty story tower blocks with 10 flats on each floor, comprising a total of 800 dwellings and housing some 2,000 individuals. The estate has a reputation, fed by tabloid profiles, for being a centre of crime, drug use and domestic violence. It is surrounded by a cluster of welfare and community agencies. Welfare organisations such as the Jesuit Social Services have documented long-standing problems on the estate. According to the research, Atherton Gardens residents tend to have low incomes, long-term problems with unemployment or underemployment, low levels of formal education and limited English. They tend to be socially isolated, particularly those who Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


have limited mobility due to disability, other health conditions or childcare and other family responsibilities (see e.g., Guinness, 2000). Many are immigrants to Australia who do not have extensive networks of family and friends in the Melbourne area. Whilst a significant minority of residents on the estate have arrived in Australia from Vietnam and speak Vietnamese as their preferred language (~40%), residents belong to more than 30 different language groups and come from countries as diverse as Turkey, the former Yugoslavia, Spain, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Chile, China, Laos, the Philippines, Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia. Less than 30% of residents were born in Australia. Lack of a common language inhibits the development of neighbourly ties with other residents, even after many years of tenancy. Fear of violence and robbery in public areas of the estate prevents many people from using common facilities such as stairwells, laundries and playgrounds, or participating in community events. Residents report constant problems with the cleaning and maintenance of the aging buildings; they say they would like more information on the management of the estate, on their own tenancies and maintenance and safety, but many find it difficult to access that information in their own language. This, in brief, was the available social profile of the Atherton Gardens estate when we began the research. Based on our understanding of the literature on the digital divide, social capital and community building, we assumed that the place to start, in tracking the social impact of the developing computer network, was with the existing social networks on and around the estate. A number of research tools have been deployed in this first stage of research, largely carried out in the year between the first rollout of the computers into apartments and the wiring of the buildings. The organisers and partners involved in Reach for the Clouds have been interviewed, a round of resident focus groups has been held and a first round of resident surveys has been conducted. The focus groups indicated that despite the proximity within which resident groups live to each other, the high degree of diversity among estate residents’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds (i.e., there is no majority cultural or language group) leads to limited mixing between members of different groups. Many residents, even those who have lived on the estate for a long time (more than 10 years, for example), socialise only with members of their own language groups, and do not exchange more than a nod or smile with next-door neighbours who speak a different language or who come from a different ethnic background. Chinese and Vietnamese residents say that they tend to shop out of the Fitzroy area surrounding the estate, going instead to the nearby suburb of Richmond, where there is a concentration of shopkeepers speaking Asian languages and shops selling Asian groceries and foodstuffs. This pattern also emerged in discussions with residents involved in the training sessions. Here it appeared that while residents were eager to find out about using the Internet and getting access to e-mail, this was rarely because Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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they were committed to the idea of a local Atherton Gardens intranet or to making more contacts on the estate. Most expressed little interest in using the network to access local government information or to learn work skills such as the use of word processing packages. Instead, they were most eager to communicate with friends and family a long way away, both in Australia and overseas. E-mail in particular looked likely to provide a cheaper alternative to weekly interstate and international phone calls.

EARLY RESEARCH FINDINGS Our early results from focus groups and interviews undermined any lingering assumption that there was a single Atherton Gardens community that pre-existed the construction of the computer network, and on which we could expect it to build. While to outsiders the estate seems to exist as a distinct entity among its gentrifying surrounds, for residents there is no real sense of a single estate community. Instead, some residents see themselves as belonging to small, generally ethnically-based community groups, such as the Cantonese speaking group or the Turkish group. In some respects, residents are linked by religion as well as country of origin or language spoken; initial results from the first survey indicate high rates of participation and active involvement in local places of worship, Christian, Buddhist and Muslim. The strong, mutually supportive and self-sustaining small ethnic communities on the estate can be seen to be high in social capital at one level. They exhibit what Granovetter (1973) calls strong ties and what Woolcock (1998) calls ‘bonding capital’, which supports the members of the group and reinforces social solidarity among them. On the other hand, such groups may be exclusive of outsiders and may unduly restrict members from seeking or establishing relationships with others outside the group (Granovetter’s weak ties, or Woolcock’s bridging capital). Thus the ethnically or linguistically-based social groups can be seen to be low in social capital at the estate community level. Improving social capital will require not just a simple maximising of social relationships and increasing communication channels, but the establishment of a delicate balance between strong groups that are high in bonding capital and wider, more diverse social relationships which contain multiple, weaker ties, or are high in bridging capital. Attempts at ‘community strengthening’, ‘community building’ and ‘community renewal’ need to take these different levels of social capital into account if they are to contribute to building healthy, inclusive communities. These research observations were confirmed by results from the first survey, conducted over six weeks starting May 27, 2002. This sought residents’ views about computers, about conditions on the estate, and about their current patterns of media use, social connection, friendship and family networks, employment circumstances, health needs and attitudes to their neighbours and to Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


the Atherton Gardens estate itself. The survey was conducted through an initial phone contact with residents. This was followed up by face-to-face interviews conducted by speakers of the tenants’ main language groups (Vietnamese, Cantonese, Mandarin, Macedonian Turkish and Arabic). Of the approximately one-third of households that were contactable, around 70 declined to be interviewed, thus resulting in the total of 199 responses. The sample of respondents included residents from 31 countries of birth, principally Vietnam (44%), China (12%), Australia (13%), Macedonia (6%), and Eritrea (5%). These results will be balanced by those derived from a ‘control’ group (a similar estate in the neighbouring suburb of Collingwood, which is not part of Reach for the Clouds). The survey will be repeated in mid-2004. Follow-up interviews will also be held with a smaller number of households as the network use expands. Further focus groups will also be held, supplementing the second round of surveys. Uses of the intranet and the Internet will be tracked, although the anonymity of the users will be preserved. Drawing on a sample of Atherton Gardens households (200 households out of 800), it was possible to establish a social profile of residents. We confirmed that most are low-income [58% of respondents are from households living on less than $20,000 p.a., while about a quarter (27%) live on less than $10,000 p.a.]. The vast majority of households do not have a person working full-time (90%). Just under three-quarters of households do not have anybody working either full-time or part time. A quarter of the respondents had, however, been looking for work in the past two weeks. About a third were not looking, either because they were looking after children or family members (28%) or because they had medical conditions (22%). Nearly half of the respondents (49%) said that they spoke English ‘not well’ or ‘not at all’. About 15% of respondents have only primary level education (three-quarters have senior secondary). This appears to be a population with high educational needs. Those who had a Reach for the Clouds computer reported that they used them for educational purposes, either for their own study (41%), or to help children with homework (36%). Overwhelmingly, respondents said they enjoyed learning new skills and wanted to do further study. Some were studying (15% F/T, 13% P/T). Those who were not gave reasons such as caring for family members, lack of time, expense and either a lack of literacy or inability to speak English (12%). This is also a population with high communication needs. A quarter of respondents reported that they have face-to-face contacts with their family, siblings and friends very rarely (less than yearly for a quarter of respondents). They tend not to use letters to sustain contact; about half of the respondents make telephone contact with parents and with siblings either monthly or weekly. However, 87% of respondents said that their residence had a telephone. The majority said that they were not satisfied with the amount of international news available to them, especially from their home country. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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Questions designed to build a picture of social connectedness, trust and social capital on the estate elicited a more ambiguous set of responses. The majority of respondents agreed that Atherton Gardens was a good place to live (66%). They also agreed that the estate had good facilities and ‘a good mix’ of people. Nevertheless, about a third of respondents said that they felt unsafe on the estate. Most did not know their neighbours well; the majority said that they knew their immediate neighbours slightly, but about a third did not know them. More than half trust none of their co-residents in the same tower. They trust those in other towers even less. The research continues to map patterns of social connectedness both online and off-line, tracing different forms of association, identification and allegiance. The difficulty appears to be to determine whether the provision of computers, connectivity and activities associated with training and use build cohesiveness within and between these different groupings on the estate. The computer network offers residents both cheap long distance communication and accessible local information. In that respect it depends on both location and dispersion of interest. Some residents may want to use either or both of these services, without necessarily wanting to get to know their immediate neighbours any better, or indeed trusting them any more than they do now. So while the network may build online communities, it will not necessarily build community on the estate, if by that we mean promoting social connection, mutualism and altruism between residents. Even if the residents do e-mail one another or have more contact with others on the estate through bulletins, forums and chat groups, this will not necessarily mean that they are more likely to attend or speak up in public meetings off-line, or to listen better to others. Nevertheless there may be many activities associated with setting up and sustaining the computer network that will build cooperation and self-help, both within Atherton Gardens and between the estate and the wider world. These include the mixing of residents in the computer training rooms and interaction with volunteer trainers, who come both from the estate and from the wider community. The involvement of residents in project steering committees and the intranet working group builds skills in participation and network management. Use of the training room computers for sending e-mails and accessing the World Wide Web gives residents more access to information and new communication channels. Children’s educational outcomes may be expected to improve, given increased access to computer technology and information sources. Employment opportunities may emerge, both from the ultimate handover of the network to resident management and from the effect of training in helping people acquire work skills and conduct job searches. Dissemination of information from government, not-for-profit agencies and businesses may draw residents into the information society. The main lesson of



the Atherton Gardens project lies in the observation that the network cannot be expected to ‘fill in the social capital gaps’ in a simple way.

CONCLUSION There is a pressing need for fine-grained, local studies of the connection between domestic access to new technologies and integrated social services, especially for low-income and multiethnic populations. Notwithstanding the current enthusiasm for online services, government and community service providers need to know much more about how low-income populations are likely to use network-based services. These agencies need to know whether or not home-based access to computers and digital resources does help to make citizens and consumers more active, self-reliant and informed. Projects such as Reach for the Clouds can contribute to such discussions by gathering information on residents’ use of information technology and social services both before and after the computer network has been established. These initiatives may provide a convincing model of ways in which low-income communities can participate in programs designed to make social services more accessible. Equally, there are lessons to be learned for policy and scholarly debate from the obstacles and problems it encounters, as these low-income residents make use of the computers and network for their own purposes.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks to David Hayward, to the residents of Atherton Gardens, to Mark Daniels, Rosalind Vincent and the staff of InfoXchange, especially Andrew Mahar. This project was funded by the Australian Research Council and supported by the Victorian Department of Human Services (the Office of Housing and Primary Health).

REFERENCES Aspen Institute. (1999). Information literacy: Advanced opportunities for learning in the digital age. Washington, DC: Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program. Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2001). 8153.0 Internet activity, Australia summary of Internet activity findings, Australia, September quarter, 2001. Retrieved July 22, 2002 from: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/ [email protected]/Lookup/NT00018FEE.



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Benton Foundation. (1998). Losing ground bit by bit: Low-income communities in the information age. Washington, DC. Retrieved February 7, 1999 from: http://www.benton.org/Library/low-income. Bryson, L. & Mowbray, M. (1981). ‘Community’: The spray-on solution. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 16(4), 255-267. Compaigne, B. (ed.) (2001) Digital divide: Facing a crisis or creating a myth? Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs (DETYA). (2000). Learning for the knowledge society: An education and training action plan for the information economy. Retrieved August 22, 2001 from: http:/ /www.dest.gov.au/edu/edactplan.htm. Fountain, J. E. (2001). Building the virtual state: Information technology and institutional change. Washington, DC: Brookings Institute. Galston, W. A. (1999). Does the Internet strengthen community? Philosophy & Public Policy Quarterly, 19(4). Retrieved January 15, 2002 from: http:/ /www.puaf.umd.edu/IPPP/fall1999/internet_community.htm. Giddens, A. (2001). The global third way debate. London: Polity Press. Granovetter, M. (1973). The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78(6), 1360-1380. Guinness, C. (2000). Assessment of the service needs of low income families: Collingwood and Fitzroy Housing Estates. Retrieved November 19, 2001 from Jesuit Social Services at: http://www.jss.org.au/reports/ cg_doc.pdf. Hopkins, L. (2001). What is Social Capital? ISR Working Paper, No 2. Retrieved September 15, 2002 from Swinburne University Institute for Social Research at: http://www.sisr.net/publications/workingpapers/ No2_LH_final.pdf. InfoXchange. (2001). Reach for the clouds: e-ACE (electronic - Atherton Community Enterprise). Melbourne, InfoXchange. Retrieved September 15, 2002 from: http://www.highrise.infoxchange.net.au/. Kraut, R., Patterson, M., Lundmark, V., Kiesler, S., Mukopadhyay, T., & Scherlis, W. (1998). Internet paradox: A social technology that reduces social involvement and psychological well-being? American Psychologist, 53(9), 1017-1031. Kymlicka, W. & Norman, W. (1994). Return of the citizen: A survey of recent work on citizenship theory. Ethics (104), 257-289. Latham, M. (1998). Civilising global capital. New thinking for Australian Labor. Sydney, Australia: Allen & Unwin. Lloyd, R., Given, J., & Hellwig, O. (2000) The digital divide: Some explanations. Agenda, 7(4), 345-358. Meredyth, D., Russell, N., Blackwood, L., Thomas, J., & Wise, P. (1999). Real time: Computers, change and schooling. Canberra: AGPS. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), US Department of Commerce (2002). A nation online. How Americans are expanding their use of the Internet. Washington: Department of Commerce. Nie, N. H. & Lutz, E. (2000). Internet and society: A preliminary report. Stanford Institute for the Quantitative Study of Society. Stanford University. Norris, P. (2001). Digital divide: Civic engagement, information poverty and the internet in democratic societies. Cambridge: CUP. NTIA US Department of Commerce (1995). Falling through the net: A survey of the “have nots” in rural and urban America. Washington, DC: National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Retrieved September 15, 2002 from: http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/fallingthru. html. NTIA US Department of Commerce (1998). Falling through the net II: New data on the digital divide. National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Washington, DC. Retrieved September 15, 2002 from http:/ /www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/net2/. NTIA US Department of Commerce (2002). A nation online: How Americans are expanding their use of the Internet. National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Washington, DC. Retrieved September 15, 2002 from http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/dn/. Pew Internet and American Life Project (2000). Everyday Internet use. Pew Research Center: Washington, DC. Putnam, R., Leonardi, R., & Nanetti, R. (1993). Making democracy work: Civic traditions in modern Italy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Tanner, L. (1999). Open Australia. Annandale, NSW: Pluto Press. United Kingdom Department for Education and Skills (DfES) (2003). Wired up communities overview. Retrieved from: http://www.dfes.gov.uk/wired/ over.shtml. Woolcock, M. (1998). Social capital and economic development: Towards a theoretical synthesis and policy framework. Theory and Society, 27(2), 151-208.


Portals for Older People in Regional Areas 209

Chapter XIV

Portals for Older People in Regional Areas: The Greypath Virtual Community Jerzy Lepa, Victoria University, Australia Arthur Tatnall, Victoria University, Australia

ABSTRACT GreyPath is a Web portal designed to provide information, services, facilities and links useful to older people. Although carrying some advertising and offering some services for a charge, use of the portal is free. This chapter examines potential uses of this portal and how it might be able to foster the creation and maintenance of virtual Internet communities of older people that could be of benefit to older Australians regardless of where they live. Virtual Internet communities like this are of particular importance to people living in regional or remote areas, those with a disability of some kind, and those who, for whatever reason, find it difficult to mix with other people with similar interests. Although further work needs to be done to assess the effectiveness of the GreyPath portal in fulfilling the needs of older people, this chapter identifies potential advantages of portal technology in this context. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

210 Lepa and Tatnall

INTRODUCTION: OLDER PEOPLE AND INTERNET USAGE There are several different definitions of what constitutes an ‘older person’ but for the purposes of this chapter we will define older people as those of 55 years of age and over, regardless of whether they are still in the full-time workforce. The proportion of older people in Australia will increase dramatically over the next 25 years. Foskey (2001) notes that since the 19th century there has been a ‘longevity revolution’ in the Western world and that in Australia during the past decade the over 65 age group living in non-metropolitan areas has seen the greatest rate of growth. The Australian Federal Government has released a number of issues papers that are related to older people’s capacity to remain active and independent (Bishop, 2000). An important feature of these papers is an emphasis on communication, in particular through the Internet that enables older people to communicate via e-mail with family and friends, to access information and to purchase goods. This emphasis is also consistent with literature sourced from overseas (Franklin, 1997; Coulson, 2000). The use of e-mail can also reduce social isolation for those older people with reduced mobility or those living in remote or rural areas (Parekh, 1998; Bishop 2000). Information and communication are crucial components of human life at all ages. In this chapter we will argue that the Internet, by potentially overcoming some space and time constraints, could enhance the information and communication options available to many older people, thereby improving their lifestyle (Fozard, 2000). Services and facilities available in regional areas, small rural communities and remote areas of Australia may often be limited compared to those available to people in metropolitan areas (Foskey, 1998). This chapter, through its examination of the virtual community represented by users of the GreyPath portal (http://www.greypath.com/), explores the potential of the Internet to provide regional and rural communities with services and facilities which are often readily available only to older Australians living in the large cities.

PREVIOUS AUSTRALIAN RESEARCH ON OLDER PEOPLE, COMPUTERS AND THE INTERNET There have been a number of recent studies focusing on older persons and their use of computers and the Internet. Barker (2001) examines the barriers facing older people in their attempt to adopt basic computer technology. He notes that there is a steady decline in the fear of technology, and that seniors’ children, Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


coupled with societal changes, are “powerful driving forces in lowering the barriers.” Information and communication practices, in the context of age and gender, are examined by Barnett et al. (2000). A recent study by Cameron et al. (2000) on older persons and emerging technologies examines their perceptions, experiences and anxieties. A Tasmanian study (Tasmanian Community Network Southern Regional Taskforce, 1999) was an innovative pilot project investigating secondary school girls sharing their computing skills with the frail older people in a residential home. Buys (1998) looks at the very old of the older adults in residential care and their reaction to an individualised learning computer system. The findings may provide a basis for future computer instruction courses for the elderly. A number of studies looking at older people living in rural areas have been conducted by Foskey et al. (2000) with a focus on Internet access problems. There has been an emphasis on older people using the Internet for ecommerce. Older people and e-commerce issues, focussing on barriers and adoption, are examined by Lepa and Tatnall (Lepa, 2002; Tatnall & Lepa, 2001). In 2001 a public seminar on e-commerce for older people was convened at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia, with several key presenters (Scott, 2001; Lewis, 2001; Bosler, 2001). A Tasmanian study by Hazzlewood (2001) on older person Internet use categorises the participants into four mainly sequential groups: ‘Window Shoppers’, ‘eMailers’, ‘Searchers’ and ‘eSeniors’. These recent Australian studies provide some valuable insights into the use of computers and the Internet by older people. This chapter seeks to extend and enhance this information by exploring the services that a particular Web portal (www.greypath.com) can provide to regional older people in a virtual community context. We have not, at this stage, been able to gather all the data necessary to show conclusively that GreyPath is able to fulfil the information and communications needs of older people. What we are attempting to do in this chapter is to outline the potential of this portal and similar technology to fulfil these needs.

THE GREYPATH PORTAL The concept of the GreyPath portal was created by Ray Lewis, a 66-yearold senior. Lewis commenced his working life in 1966 as a Royal Australian Airforce officer and since then has held many top-ranking executive positions such as director or chairman, of various Australian companies. Currently, as chairman, he heads a computer software solutions company. At the age of 65 Lewis felt that he could make a contribution to society by looking after his own demographic: the community of older people. He perceived a need for an Internet portal dedicated to Australian seniors, and as a consequence has developed and manages the GreyPath portal (Lewis, 2001, 2002). A portal, as defined by Rao (2001), means gateway and in terms of WWW sites a portal is seen as a major starting point for users when they access the Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Figure 1. The GreyPath Portal

Web, or one that users tend to visit as a base-site that provides links to multiple Web sites offering the content they require. Many portals operate by transforming the content from third party providers into suitable packages for their target audience with the intention of making revenue through advertising. The portals do not necessarily have to develop their own content. The creators of portals aim to provide a comprehensive service to encourage visitors to regard the portal as a permanent ‘parking space’ on the Internet. “No matter what the goals, the key to a successful portal is to offer an oasis of organisation within the ‘tangled’ Web” (Rao, 2001). When accessing the Internet, the portal should be the first site that users visit and return to each day. Lynch (1998) suggests that, historically, portals developed out of search engine sites such as Yahoo!, Excite, and Lycos which can now be classified as first-generation portals. These sites, however, quickly evolved into sites providing additional services such as e-mail, stock quotes, news, and community building rather than just search capabilities (Rao, 2001). There can be horizontal portals or vertical portals (Lynch, 1998). Sites such as Yahoo!, Excite and NetCenter can be considered as horizontal portals because they are accessed by a broad base of users. Vertical portals, however, have “a tightly focused content area geared toward a particular audience” (Lynch, 1998). As GreyPath has content geared to the older people of Australia it may, using Lynch’s definition (1998), be classified as a vertical portal. Lewis (2002) describes GreyPath as “a uniquely styled, demographically ‘inclusive’, user-friendly, seniors web portal and virtual community that has been designed first and foremost to empower seniors and enrich the quality of their lives.” He claims that it has an ability to encourage site loyalty, as well as Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


identification with, and participation from, its constituency. However as he has spent a large amount of money for GreyPath’s development, Lewis’s (2001) ultimate aim, along with providing a service to seniors, is to make GreyPath a successful money-making venture. GreyPath has three major components: firstly, there are links that are informational, or categories that pertain to the ‘mind’ (Lewis, 2002). These include finance, legal, health, education, services, travel, art and culture, and entertainment. The second group are more everyday needs type categories that Lewis describes as pertaining to the ‘heart’ such as relationships, news and the weather. The third major component of the portal is the Village, an innovative virtual community where older people can chat and communicate with each other anonymously about common interests. Lewis (2002) describes the Village as a “world’s first with a carefully specified and atmospherically crafted Virtual 3D community for seniors.” He suggests that older people will find it more attractive to chat in the Village compared to many other more sophisticated sites spread across the world. He considers that its advantages include simplicity (user friendliness), a naturalised visual environment, and clear potential for further development.

VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES AND THE INTERNET The Collins English Dictionary (1991, p. 327) defines a community as “a group of people having cultural, religious, ethnic or other characteristics in common.” A virtual community is a group of people who share a common interest or bond, but rather than meeting physically they “form communities that cross geographical, social, cultural and economic boundaries” (Matathia, 1998, p. 156) and communicate via the Internet (Matathia, 1998; Schneider, 2000, p. 10). Rheingold (1993, p. 5) defines virtual communities as “social aggregations that emerge from the Net where enough people carry on those public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace.” Examples of virtual communities, using computer and modem, include the group of older people who share a common life stage, music lovers with an affection for a particular genre, and teenagers battling through ‘the trials and tribulations of adolescence’ (Matathia, 1998, p. 156). There are a number of alternative names for virtual communities such as ‘communities of interest’ (Hagel & Armstrong, 1997) and ‘Internet cultures’ (Jones, 1995). From an online marketing perspective Muniz (1997) calls them ‘brand communities’ and Kozinets (1998) uses the term ‘virtual communities of consumption’. Barnatt (1998) suggests that there are two categories of virtual community: off-line and online. Both categories share common interests and bonds, but online, Internet-based virtual communities today “allow a wide range Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


of global individuals to argue, share information, make friends, and undertake economic exchanges, in a flexible and socially-compelling common on-line arena” (Barnatt, 1998). In contrast, members of an off-line virtual community do not communicate directly with one another but are reliant on ‘broadcast’ mediums such as newpapers, TV and radio to sustain their common interests or bonds. As the group of Australian older people who use the GreyPath Village chat facilities share the common bond of ageing (Bosler, 2001) they can be considered to form an online virtual community. Matathia (1998, p. 156) suggests that these online relationships can be every bit as strong and permanent as their ‘real world’ counterparts.

VIRTUAL INTERNET COMMUNITIES AND THE NEEDS OF OLDER PEOPLE Older people have many needs, and a recent study in the United States showed a wide range of responses in terms of the concerns of older people (Wenger, 1997). The study did reveal, however, that health (physical and mental) and mobility concerns were paramount and showed a larger degree of consensus across the sample.

Mental Health and Social Environment Maintaining communication skills into old age is an important factor contributing to health and well-being (Worrall, 1998). Communication skills can deteriorate with age due to reduced memory capacity, sensory deficits, and increasing word-finding difficulties. Shulman (1988) suggests that as people grow older it is vital that their social networks and independence do not diminish in a society that revolves around more complex communication systems. Reduced communication skills in older people can result in social isolation. The Internet, particularly through its e-mail and chat technology, may help older people to avoid this isolation. Social isolation can, potentially, be reduced through communication by accessing the Greypath Village chat rooms and also by leaving mail on the GreyPath Message Board. In the Village 3D virtual community visitors can chat anonymously at any time but particularly at popular times advertised by the Village Bulletin Board. Another way that the GreyPath portal may help older people to maintain social communication skills is by providing access to free online advisors who may not be available in a small local community either through physical access or via phone contact. For example, on the portal: • Tony Barber will answer questions on travel. • Free advice is available on gardening. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Figure 2. The GreyPath Village

• • •

Medical advice is available for queries on disability issues. Enquiries can be made regarding the health of pets. Assistance is also provided on problems with computers or the Internet.

These can be significant services as small rural communities, in particular, may not have a local travel agent and it may be too expensive or inconvenient for these people to phone one in a larger town or city. Similar comments may also be applied to pet shops, computer stores and gardening centres.

Physical Health and Well-Being Byles (1996) points out some other health concerns of older people including falls, inappropriate medication use, incontinence and nutritional deficiencies. These medical problems, he notes, can often be alleviated with appropriate health education programs, and the Internet may be an effective medium for the delivery of these programs. By entering the GreyPath Village older people may easily find their way to the Village Interactive Health Centre where they can obtain one free health consultation from qualified medical personnel. Future consultations are charged for. Also there is a pharmaceutical link which enables older people to purchase medications both prescription and non-prescription types. The site also caters for those visitors wanting information on pharmaceuticals and also to purchase these products. The Village Interactive Health Centre also has a chat facility where Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


people can share and discuss health problems anonymously. For many older people, this is an important vehicle whereby concerns regarding health may be aired and others who have had similar problems in the past may share their experiences and course of treatment.

Financial Security Older people in retirement feel a need to be assured of adequate income to maintain their lifestyle. Many older persons must arrange their own finances, and seek appropriate investment information relating to direct shares, managed funds, and fixed interest situations such as bonds and term deposits (Cutler, 1997; Manchester, 1997; Sherman, 1997). The Internet could also be of assistance in providing information for this purpose. The main page of the GreyPath portal has a ‘Finance’ information button, allowing visitors access to general finance advice from organisations such as National Seniors Association, Financial Planners Association of Australia, Comsec, Australian Pensioners Network, the Australian Tax Department and many others. There are also a number of government programs including CentreLink and the National Information Centre on Retirement Investments.

Intellectual Endeavors Many people are now working past the minimum retirement age of 55 (in Australia); indeed some older people are commencing new careers and having to learn a new set of skills (Baldi, 1997). Others are taking up the challenge of further study, some even commencing degrees at university. Lifelong learning is seen to be a very positive aspect of a healthy ageing process (Bishop, 2000, p. 26), and while this is often delivered well by institutions such as the University of the Third Age (U3A) and the Centre for Adult Education (CAE), the Internet offers the possibility of providing a suitable vehicle for this purpose. The GreyPath portal has also considered things that pertain to the ‘mind’; catering for older people’s intellectual needs. For example, the Village has a number of buildings with chat facilities where people can discuss matters of importance to themselves. The Lyceum building, a site for art enthusiasts, enables visitors to discuss their art interests anonymously. A single click allows the visitor entry to the Lyceum building where they can participate in an anonymous chat session. In addition to chatting, visitors to the Village Lyceum have the opportunity to enjoy a free art appreciation course, covering post 1945 Australian ‘icon’ artists (GreyPath Village Bulletin Board, 2002). ‘Lookart’, a virtual gallery, together with GreyPath, will be showcasing the works of a series of famous Australian artists over the next 12 months, focussing on a new artist every two weeks. Visitors are encouraged to return to the site via GreyPath with the promise of being able to explore the works of many other Australian artists



such as Albert Tucker, John Perceval, Fred Williams, Joy Hester, Russell Drysdale, Arthur Boyd, Brett Whiteley, Jeffery Smart and Sidney Nolan. The Lookart virtual gallery provides links back to art gallery sites where some of the pieces displayed will be available for sale along with those advertised through Lookart.

SPECIAL NEEDS OF OLDER PEOPLE IN RURAL AREAS People living in regional areas and rural communities may not have the access to all the facilities that are available to those residing in metropolitan areas of Australia’s large cities. For example, information needs and provision in rural areas can be different and some rural councils can offer only very limited transport for older and disabled people (Foskey, 1998). Because of these problems, people living in regional and rural areas may find the Internet even more valuable than their counterparts in metropolitan Australia. The Internet is location independent and so ideal for use in these areas, providing the communications infrastructure is present. Foskey (1998) speaks of the rhetoric in discussions of aged care that concerns enabling people to ‘age in place’ and points out how this is particularly significant in the case of rural communities where economic and emotional ties make moving an “unacceptable or unviable option” for many older people. She notes that in some cases they are ‘locked’ in place by not being able to afford to move because of declining rural property values.

METHODOLOGY, LIMITATIONS AND FURTHER RESEARCH As mentioned previously, this chapter aims to illustrate the potential of a Web portal like GreyPath to fulfil some of the information and communication needs of older people, but not to set out research evidence to show that it is currently achieving this potential. This research forms a part of an on-going ethnographic project being undertaken by the authors of this chapter (Lepa, 2002; Tatnall & Lepa, 2001), to investigate how older Australians make use of Internet technologies, and how this use affects them in their daily lives. Further research will involve detailed investigation of the virtual community of GreyPath users and will consider the relationship between the portal’s designers/ implementers and its users. Interview material obtained in this research, in conjunction with that already collected, will allow much more critical analysis than is currently possible. The authors assume that many or most of the visitors



to GreyPath are older Australian people, but acknowledge that younger people may also find the site appealing and useful. Unfortunately this makes using the ‘hit statistics’ made available by those operating the site a little suspect. Further research would consider general issues such as: how do older people gain access to the Internet? Do they use it mainly from home, from local libraries, clubs or elsewhere? What induces them to use the Internet? What barriers make Internet use difficult? What do they gain from using the Internet? More specifically related to GreyPath, further research will determine which features of the portal older people find useful and worthwhile, and which they do not. It will also attempt to judge whether the portal is providing a service to older people that they see as valuable. Much of the literature discussing the needs of older people comes out of the USA, and some of this research is based upon such literature. Further work is needed to ascertain how the needs of older Australian people and those from other origins differ from those of North Americans. Further contact also needs to be made with researchers in the gerontology field, particularly regarding consideration of the effectiveness of the information included on the Web site, and how this is displayed to them. In the remainder of this chapter we will describe a case that sheds some light onto the benefits and deficiencies of the portal.

EXAMPLES OF ONE OLDER PERSON’S EXPERIENCE OF USING THE GREYPATH PORTAL The experiences with GreyPath by one 84-year-old grandmother are most interesting. Gran is quite technologically literate: she does much of her banking using an ATM, writes her letters and invitations using Microsoft Word, carries a mobile phone, and drives around in her own car. She enrolled for an Internet course at the local library last year and found it very interesting, but has made little use of the Internet since as she does not have it operating at home. Gran looked carefully through the GreyPath pages and thought that much of the information there would be of some interest. She indicated that she, personally, had no interest in being part of an Internet chat group, but thought that other people might. She has just started classes in Tai Chi and thought it would be good to find out a bit more about this. Looking around the GreyPath site, however, she had great difficulty in finding any links to Tai Chi. Eventually she found one, but asked if it might be possible just to type this in and have the computer find it for her next time. The site does not currently have a search engine, but the addition of one would be an advantage. Gran has a particular interest in genealogy and was somewhat disappointed not to find GreyPath links to genealogical sites.



Initially, Gran was disappointed that the GreyPath site did not have a direct link to a bridge game Web site, a game she had much enjoyed in her youth, and currently a much favoured game by many older people. However, on closer examination and much to her delight, she discovered the bridge link at the bottom of the main GreyPath screen. She suggested that this link should be situated more prominently on the Web site. On the other hand, after some browsing in GreyPath’s ‘Potluck’ category, Gran was pleased to find a site (http://www.the freesite.com/Other_Freebie_Sites) where she could search for games. She noted that online games were available and suggested, hesitantly, that she might, at some stage, be able to play bridge with other GreyPath users. Finally she indicated that although the GreyPath site was interesting, most of her friends did not use the Internet and so she would not be able to speak with them about GreyPath or send e-mail to them. It should however be noted that many older people do use e-mail, and that anecdotally this appears to offer a very useful and valuable communications facility for this demographic. Whilst at a recent conference on ageing and the Internet, one of the authors was chatting with one of the older participants who indicated that she liked the GreyPath portal because it gave her some sense of what other older people maybe had in common with her. Along with many other similar examples, it thus seems reasonable to suggest that GreyPath users feel a sense of community when they access the GreyPath portal.

CONCLUSION In this chapter we have outlined some of the needs of older people and proposed that use of Internet portals such as GreyPath offer a means of addressing these needs. In particular we have argued that because of their location-independence, Internet portals like GreyPath can be especially useful in providing services in rural areas. Regional centres serving these rural areas could make good use of Internet portals to better serve their rural constituents by providing additional regional or local content. Our investigations suggest that the operators of most portals, such as GreyPath, would be quite open to requests for links to ‘local’ pages to serve any given regional community. This technology has the potential to strengthen the bonds between older people living in a region that may be geographically far-flung, to make it into a vibrant virtual community. We acknowledge Foskey’s concern that a reliance on information and communications technologies should not be allowed to replace other means of communication with those older people living in regional areas. Apart from the de-humanising aspects of such reliance it is clear that not everyone has the ability or interest in learning to use computers or even other devices like automatic teller machines (Foskey, 1998). However, we do contend that if used appropriately,



that is using Internet technology to supplement the ‘normal’ modes of communication, there can be many benefits for some older people. Gran is just one example of an older person’s use of the GreyPath Web site. She thought many of the links would be useful, but found some things missing. To her, however, email was not particularly useful as none of her friends were Internet users. While GreyPath offers a useful way of providing facilities and contact for older people in regional areas, it is not the only portal available for this purpose. Other sites that provide useful information and services for older Australians include: www.govolunteer.com.au, www.seniorcomputing.org and www.golden age.com.au. Other countries, of course, also have similar sites.

REFERENCES Baldi, R. A. (1997). Training older adults to use the computer: Issues related to the workplace, attitudes, and training. Educational Gerontology, 23(5), 453-466. Barker, N. (2001). Barriers facing older people accessing Council on the Ageing WA’s computer training courses. COTA Congress, Canberra. Barnatt, C. (1998). Virtual communities and financial services — on-line business potentials and strategic choice. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 16(4). Barnett, K., Buys, L.R., & Adkins, B.A. (2000). Information and communication practices: The joint concerns of age and gender in the information age. Australasian Journal of Ageing, 19(20), 69-74. Bishop, B. M. (2000). Attitude, lifestyle and community support discussion chapter. Canberra, Australian Government Printing Service. Bosler, N. (2001). Communication, e-commerce and older people. Electronic banking and older people seminar. Victoria University, Melbourne. Buys, L. R. (1998). Computers: A learning system that increases interest and confidence. Australasian Journal on Ageing, 17, 40-41. Byles, J. E., Garris, M.A., Nair, B.R., & Butler, J.R.G. (1996). Preventive health programs for older Australians. Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 6(2), 37-43. Cameron, D., Marquis, R., & Webster, B. (2000). Older adults’ perceptions, experiences and anxieties with emerging technologies. Australasian Journal on Ageing, 20(3, supplement 2), 50-56. Collins Publishers. (1992). Collins English Dictionary. Australia: Harper Collins. Coulson, I. (2000). Introduction: Technological challenges for gerontologists in the 21st century. Educational Gerontology, 26(4), 307-316. Cutler, N. E. (1997). The false alarm and blaring sirens of financial literacy: Middle-agers’ knowledge of retirement. Generations, 21(2), 34-41. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Foskey, R. (1998). Changing families, challenging futures. 6th Australian Institute of Family Studies Conference, Melbourne (November 25-27). Foskey, R. (2000). Making the connections: Non-metropolitan older people and technology: Final report. TRDC publication: Rural Development Centre, University of New England, 201. Foskey, R. (2001). Technology and older people: Overcoming the great divide. Communications Research Forum, Canberra. Fozard, J. L., Rietsma, J., Bouma, H., & Graafmans, J.A.M. (2000). Gerontechnology: Creating enabling environments for the challenges and opportunities of aging. Educational Gerontology, 26, 331-344. Franklin, M. B. (1997). Caught up in the ‘Net’; More and more seniors are discovering the usefulness of computers. The Washington Post. Washington: Z17. GreyPath Village Board. (2002). Retrieved October 17, 2002 from: http// village.greypath.com/Village/. Hagel, J. & Armstrong, A. (1997). Net gain: Expanding markets through virtual communities. Harvard Business School, Boston, MA. Hazzlewood, J. (2001). Window shoppers to eSeniors: Seniors learning online. Australian Journal of Adult Learning, 41(2). Jones, S. (1995). Understanding community in the information age. In Jones, S. (Ed.), Cybersociety: Computer-Mediated Communication and Community, (pp. 10-35). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Kozinets, R. (1998). On netnography. Initial reflections on consumer research investigations of cyberculture. In Alba, J. & Hutchinson, W. (Ed.), Advances in Consumer Research (pp. 366-371). Association for Consumer Research, Provo, UT. Lepa, J. (2002). Internet information services for older Australian people. Proceedings of the Pan-Pacific Conference XIX e-Globalization and the Pacific Age, Bangkok, Thailand. Lewis, R. (2001). Seniors and information technology. E-commerce, Electronic Banking and Older People Seminar, Victoria University of Technology, Melbourne. Lewis, R. (2002). Greypath Portal Interview, Interview data, (March). Lynch, J. (1998). Web portals. PC Magazine, (November 13). Manchester, J. (1997). Aging boomers and retirement: Who is at risk? Generations, 21(2), 19-27. Matathia, I. S., M. (1998). NEXT trends for the future. Australia: McMillan. Muniz, A.M. (1997). Brand community and the negotiation of brand meaning. In Brucks, M. & MacInnis, D.J. (Ed.), Advances in Consumer Research, 24, (pp. 308-309). Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research. Parekh, J. P. (1998). Distance learning for enhancing senior productivity. IEEE Computer, 1, 4805-4808. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Rao, S. S. (2001). Portal proliferation: An Indian scenario. New Library World, 102(9), 325-331. Rheingold, H. (1993). The virtual community: Homesteading on the electronic frontier. New York: Harper-Collins. Schneider, G. P. & Perry, J.T. (2000). Electronic commerce. South Melbourne, Australia: Thomson Learning. Scott, H. (2001). Old dogs learning new clicks — older Australians in the information age. E-commerce, Electronic Banking and Older People Seminar, Melbourne, Victoria University. Sherman, R. H. (1997). Sources of help in financial preparation for retirement: AAAS to Web sites. Generations, 21(2), 55-61. Shulman, M. D. (1988). Communication training of relatives and friends of institutionalised elderly persons. The Gerontologist, 28, 797-799. Tasmanian Community Network Southern Regional Taskforce. (1999). Communications across the generations — Using computers. Retrieved April 20, 2002 from: http://www.tcn.net.au/Publications/stanns_ collegiate.htm. Tatnall, A. & Lepa, J. (2001). Researching the adoption of E-commerce and the Internet by older people. We-B Conference, Perth. Wenger, G. C. (1997). Reflections: Success and disappointment — Octogenarians’ current and retrospective perceptions. Health Care in Later Life, 2(4), 213-226. Worrall, L. Louise (1998). An evaluation of the Keep on Talking program. Educational Gerontology, 24(2), 129-141.


Hervey Bay in Transition: The Role of Community-Based Information Technology 223

Chapter XV

Hervey Bay in Transition: The Role of Community-Based Information Technology in Overcoming the Great Digital Divide Wayne Pease, University of Southern Queensland, Australia Lauretta Wright, University of Southern Queensland, Australia Malcolm Cooper, University of Southern Queensland, Australia

ABSTRACT In regional Australia there is a growing interest and investment in community capacity building and this is beginning to be formalised in a desire to integrate information communications technology opportunities with other forms of community development. This paper explores the opportunity for greater social integration based on the formation of community-based information communication technology (ICT) driven organizations, using a case study approach. It is suggested that whether disseminating information, collaborating with other communities, assisting the development of new industries, or simply by sharing the lessons learned along the way, community-based IT can assist and support a community’s economic and Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

224 Pease, Wright and Cooper

social development. Further, the paper supports the view that, where understanding and developing new forms of information technology through community informatics is accepted as an integral part of such development, communities will not just ‘improve the old’ but will more radically restructure themselves towards a knowledge-based future. The case study that underpins these observations is that of the development of Bay Connect, a community-based Internet development and training project, begun in Hervey Bay with Networking the Nation support, and which is now expanding into the adjacent Maryborough and surrounding Shires. It is also supported by the University of Southern Queensland’s Wide Bay and has an emergent role in supporting new and existing IT businesses, Bay Connect and the Hervey Bay City Council, in the creation and nurturing of an IT skills base within the region.

INTRODUCTION The Wide Bay region of Queensland, Australia, is, on nearly every indicator, an economically and socially disadvantaged region (Planning Information and Forecasting Unit, 2001). In regional Australia there is a growing interest and investment in community capacity building to ameliorate this type of disadvantage. Community capacity building is designed to assist groups and individuals within an area to provide greater opportunities for social and economic participation by building their social capital (through stronger networks, trust and shared values). If this can be achieved, communities can offer individuals more opportunities for economic and social participation. A key part of community capacity building is connecting individuals in ways that enable people to support each other or to access greater levels of information. One of the ways that this has been achieved in the context of Hervey Bay is through the integration of information communications technology opportunities with other forms of community development. This chapter explores the opportunity for greater levels of such integration based on the formation of community-based information technology driven organizations. It is suggested that whether disseminating information, collaborating with other communities, assisting the development of new industries, or simply by sharing the lessons learned along the way, community-based ICT can assist and support a community’s economic and social development. Further, the paper supports the view that, where understanding and developing new forms of information technology through community informatics is accepted as an integral part of such development, communities will not just ‘improve the old’ but will more radically restructure themselves towards a knowledge-based future. The development of Bay Connect, a community-based Internet development and training project begun in Hervey Bay with Australian Commonwealth Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Government funding provided by the Networking the Nation (NTN) program, is one such example. Its development and expansion into Maryborough and surrounding shires is used as a case study in this chapter. The University of Southern Queensland’s role in the creation, nurturing and expansion of an ICT skills base within the region through its Wide Bay is also discussed.

BACKGROUND Australian Internet Activity Statistics Australia has consistently demonstrated a high level of adoption and use of technologies such as the Internet, with significant levels of economic and social activity now occurring online. The National Office for the Information Economy (NOIE) ranked Australia third overall behind the United States of America and Sweden in a benchmarking index which ranked fourteen key countries across 23 statistical indicators relating to progress in developing the information economy (National Office for the Information Economy, 2002). In this study the United States of America, Scandinavia, Australia, New Zealand and the smaller countries of South East and East Asia are considered to be in a strong position to take advantage of the potential benefits of the emerging global information economy, having the beginnings of the necessary infrastructure and a critical mass of people actively online. It was, however, noted that for the majority of countries benchmarked, there is still significant room for improvement, with large sections of their respective populations remaining outside the information economy, either having access to the Internet and not using this resource, or not having the opportunity to use the Internet due to lack of access opportunities. The data presented in the NOIE report shows that Australians are major adopters of information economy enabling technologies such as the Internet, computers, and mobile telephones, and increasingly use the Internet for a wide range of activities associated with their day-to-day lives. Some of the findings presented in the report include: • 52% of Australian households connect to the Internet (ranked seventh in the world); • Approximately 5% of Australians using the Internet at home were estimated to have accessed the Internet from home at high speeds (DSL, Cable, LAN, etc.) (ranked ninth); • 54% of persons gained Internet access via a home PC (ranked eighth); • 72% of persons 16 years and over could access the Internet from any location (ranked fifth); • 80% of Australians aged 16 to 34 years of age were estimated to have access to the Internet compared to 68% of Australians aged 35 years and over (ranked first);



Table 1. Selected Internet Activity by Statistical Division, Queensland for the Three Months Ended — September 2001

Statistical Division

ISPs

POPs

Access Lines

Queensland Internet Subscribers ('000)

Percentage of Total Queensland Internet Subscribers

Average Number of Subscribers per Access Lines

Average MB Data Downloaded per Subscriber

Estimated Total Population June 2001

Percentage of Estimated Queensland Population

Brisbane

98

119

48454

460

56.1

9.5

276

1656731

45.7

Moreton

57

82

16147

152

18.5

9.4

192

713525

19.7

Wide Bay Burnett

16

30

4116

26

3.2

6.3

149

237753

6.6

Darling Downs

22

41

4392

35

4.3

7.9

186

203564

5.6

4

17

248

na

na

na

36

25567

0.7

16

32

6710

45

5.5

6.7

215

182349

5.0 0.3

South West Fitzroy Central West

3

5

na

na

na

11.7

50

12034

Mackay

17

23

2495

23

2.8

9.2

186

142063

3.9

Northern

11

15

3143

30

3.7

9.4

137

190170

5.2

Far North

19

32

4302

43

5.2

10.1

192

228154

6.3

5

12

na

4

0.5

na

na

35906

1.0

North West

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2002

• •

73% of males and 72% of females aged 16 years and over in Australia had access to the Internet (ranked first); Australia had created an environment conducive to the emergence and development of e-business opportunities (ranked second).

Table 1 shows the extent of Internet activity conducted through the Internet Service Provider (ISP) industry in Queensland, by regions. It contains results from all identified ISPs operating in Queensland in respect of the three months ended September 2001 (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2002). Comparison of the estimated number of subscribers with the estimated statistical division populations for Queensland (see Figure 1) shows a distinct disparity for the Wide Bay — Burnett statistical division. With approximately 6.6% of the estimated state population, this division has only 3.2% of Internet subscribers. While it is true that all regions apart from Fitzroy (based on the City of Rockhampton) outside of the Brisbane metropolitan area exhibit somewhat similar patterns, Wide Bay Burnett is particularly under-subscribed on a per head basis with respect to the Internet. As a measure of the twin benchmarks of a developed economy of connectedness with the outside world and information richness, this is a particular problem for the Wide Bay region.



Figure 1. Comparison of Internet Subscribers Compared with Overall Estimated Statistical Division Populations N or th W est

Fa r N orth

No rthe rn

E stima te d P opu lation Estimated Population Intern et Su bsc ribe rs

Internet Subscribers

Statistic al D ivision

M ac kay

C entral W es t

Fitzr oy

S ou th W es t

D ar ling D own s

W ide Ba y - B urn ett

M or eton

B risba ne

0 .0 %

10 .0 %

2 0.0%

3 0.0%

40.0%

50 .0 %

60 .0 %

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2002

Hervey Bay and the Wide Bay Region — A Snapshot Connectedness with the outside world, the availability of information, and the ability to use it is heavily influenced by the high population growth rate of the Wide Bay-Burnett region. With an average annual growth rate of over 2% for Hervey Bay (representing 36% of total regional growth) and approximately 1.3% for the region as a whole (KPMG, 2000), the region as a whole is expected to grow from 236,700 in 2000 to 284,000 by 2016. Within this pattern, the case study cities of Maryborough-Hervey Bay and their surrounding Shires had a combined population in 2000 of 76,200, and this is expected to grow to 100,000 by 2016 (Planning Information and Forecasting Unit, 2001). This on-going high growth rate will take Hervey Bay from 19th place in Queensland population ranking (as at 1996) to 16th in 2016 (above Rockhampton at 17th and Bundaberg at 20 th), but also hides an influx of the traditionally less well-connected lowincome earners and the aged. This very high growth rate has thus paradoxically resulted in the Wide Bay Region having the second highest welfare recipient rate in Australia, with a ratio of Department of Social Security (welfare) payments to personal disposable income of 27.9% (Bray & Mudd, 1998). Part of this is because unemployment



Table 2. Demographics of the Wide Bay Population Regional Area

Median Age

Dependency Ratio†

Sex Ratio†

1996

2016

1996

2016

1996

2016

Queensland

34

42

100.4

99.5

49.7

59.4‡

Wide Bay region

36

41

101.4

98.8

59.2

61.1

Hervey Bay

38

41

98.0

89.9

63.1

55.5*

Bundaberg

36

39

95.5

94.4

61.2

61.7

†

Dependency ratio is the number of dependent age persons (0-14/65+) compared with those of working age. Sex ratio is the number of males to females. * Note that Hervey Bay median age and dependency ratio is predicted to fall — meaning more youth and working age people coming in/staying as the economy and education opportunities expand. This refutes the commonly held belief that Hervey Bay represents a retirement village — it is actually an emerging regional economy. ‡ Note that the data for the State as a whole refers to 2036, whereas that for the individual cities and Shires refers to 2016, so the projections are not directly comparable.

levels are high in the region — being around 16% in Hervey Bay itself. The latter situation is particularly difficult for Indigenous peoples, with only 39% in Hervey Bay being employed compared with a state employment level for Indigenous people of 59% (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1998), and youth, whose unemployment is around 23% across the region. As a result, income levels in the region are low compared to state and national benchmarks. For example, Hervey Bay’s median household income level in 1999 was 25% below the Australian median, at 68 out of 70 of the cities surveyed (KPMG, 2000), while median personal income was one-third that recorded for Brisbane, at 427 out of 447 localities in Queensland. This in turn means that, while as a consequence of recent immigration patterns the school-aged proportion of the population of the region is actually slightly higher than the national average (Department of Education, Science and Training, 2001) and new groups of professionals are now entering the population, the historic take-up of IT access opportunities has been limited by socioeconomic factors in the Wide Bay Burnett region. This significant level of socioeconomic disadvantage at least partly explains the low rate of take-up of Internet communication opportunities, but also means that there is opportunity for change if community capacity building in the IT area can be achieved in some other way. It is to the socio-economic growth opportunities inherent in IT that we now turn.



COMMUNITY CAPACITY BUILDING THROUGH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY The growth in the use of online technologies for communication purposes is one of the most interesting phenomena of our time. Digital technology has created complex links between telecommunications and computing technologies, transforming the ways in which information is exchanged and accessed (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1999). One regional community in southeast Queensland, the City of Hervey Bay, has become increasingly aware of these rapid advances in information and telecommunications technology and of the ways in which personal computers and the Internet have begun to contribute to social and economic change in Australia. It has attempted to solve a community problem by establishing a public Internet access project — Bay Connect — to counter the existence of an ‘information poor’ section of the community (Langtry, 1998) in the and its surrounds.

Engaging the Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Technology is embedded within a socio-political system and each social structure has choices to make about how, or whether, a new technology will be used (Lyon, 1998, p. 133). There are social and political implications inherent in the introduction of every new technology. It is important then to consider the Networking the Nation program and the Bay Connect project in its socioeconomic and political context. Networking the Nation was conceived during a period of rural disenchantment and economic decline, with the considerable political hope that new forms of communication technology would help to minimize some of the disadvantages experienced by Australians living in rural and remote areas (Molnar, 1998), and be seen to do so. Langtry (1998, p. 8) commented on the political climate within which this Federal program emerged: “All this is occurring at a time when government is increasingly inclined to let ‘market forces’ have their head. There are big policy issues here, some of which have been discussed publicly only in the vaguest terms, and a great deal more needs to be known about what is actually going on. Voiced concerns about the development of a new ‘information poor’ will remain hollow unless policy-makers and the public have access to better information, and are prepared to recognize the full dimensions of the ethical issues involved.”

Bay Connect In 1994 Hervey Bay City Council (HBCC) hosted a Community Development Workshop to look at the socio-economic position of the people of Hervey Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Bay. From this workshop, the Council produced a needs analysis in which they identified inadequate access to information and information networks as contributing to social fragmentation and isolation in the Hervey Bay community. In 1995, the Council received funding under the Social Infrastructure Program from the Department of Families, Youth & Community Care to set up an interim steering committee to discuss this issue, prioritise needs and formally set up a structure to deal with those needs. The committee became known as Community Solutions Hervey Bay Association Inc., and one of its first actions was to seek support for a local online database or Intranet to address the lack of access to relevant and up-to-date information for the residents of Hervey Bay. In April 1998, Community Solutions received a grant of $715,000 over four years from Networking the Nation, and the Bay Connect project was realised. This funding accounted for only 54% of the amount sought however, and required supplementation by the HBCC (which supported the establishment and maintenance of the Bay Connect Web site) and Community Solutions, which supported the telecommunications costs of the public Internet access sites in the first year, and continues to subsidise usage. Within the City of Hervey Bay, Bay Connect is primarily concerned with building community awareness of available services, facilities and programs designed to enhance information exchange for the socially disadvantaged. It directly addresses the ‘Great Divide’ through training and Internet access points for all, but concentrating on the needs of the aged, pensioners, and the disadvantaged. The management structure for the project is relatively simple. Strategic management is the responsibility of a committee formed from community representatives, the Hervey Bay City Council and the Community Solutions group. Members of this committee are chosen on the basis of their various skills technical, management and individual awareness of community needs. Operational management is the responsibility of a project manager who reports directly to this committee. Initially, Bay Connect was set up like a Freenet with free public access to maximise pensioner use; however, a user-pays system was introduced on February 21, 2000. Up until that point, the project had provided free training, plus free electronic mail (e-mail) and Internet access to holders of Health Care Cards and Pension Concession Cards who represent approximately 40% of the community. Six Internet access sites were set up at geographically significant points throughout the city (including educational institutions, government agencies and the library), with volunteers stationed at each to support site operations. After 2000 the charges outlined in Table 3 were made (plus $0.50 per half hour or part thereof for Internet access), in order to stretch out the initial funding and give the project an impetus towards permanency after grant funds are exhausted.



Table 3. Bay Connect Charges Post February 2000

Price per hour for Training Course Description

Non-Bay Connect Member

Bay Connect Member

Level 1 – ‘Computers don’t Byte’ – 8 hours tuition, first 4 hours free

$10

$5

Level 2 – ‘Computers and the Internet’ – 20 hours

$10

$5

Level 3 – ‘More than Bits and Bytes’ – 20 hours

$10

$5

Keyboarding Skills

$10

$5

Bay Connect in Practice Despite the demise of other Networking the Nation projects, Bay Connect has been able to establish partnerships for support and sponsorship, and thrive. Bay Connect management supported the Maryborough City Council and the Tiaro Shire with their successful funding applications in recent rounds. The Maryborough project has the access sites as locally self-sufficient and the training room as a joint venture with the Wide Bay Resource Centre of Queensland Education. The Resource Centre will be able to provide ongoing training to Bay Connect clients after the initial funding has been expended. In the last round of NTN funding — March 2002 — the Gympie and Bundaberg Councils also sought Bay Connect’s guidance with their respective applications. The Maryborough, Tiaro, Gympie and Bundaberg areas have received funding to set up Internet access programs modelled after the Bay Connect operation in response to the goal to provide public telecommunication access in a range of regional locations. This mentorship is an indication of the success of the Bay Connect model (McKeehan, B., personal communication, February 28, 2002). Bay Connect itself also applied for and received funding in March 2002 in the NTN final funding round to set up an adaptive training room. In keeping with Hervey Bay City Council’s theme of Access, the Bay Connect training programs will continue to support a range of clientele with a variety of needs. With over 1,100 people having passed through Bay Connect’s training programs since their inception in 1999 they remain flexible, responding to varying



conditions and priorities in the Hervey Bay community. The recent addition of a fourth on-going training course is the result of their ability to respond to community demand. Bay Connect supports their community in their use of ICT and the Internet, and does so only with the co-operation of a range of partners. They expect to divest themselves of the access site responsibility (to each access site host) by the end of June 2003, which will decrease the technical support requirement of Bay Connect. The equipment, which requires replacement shortly, will hopefully be replaced by the site hosts via the Gambling Benefit Fund, or a similar source of community funding. The Manager reports that Bay Connect is funded to the end of June 2004 and they are currently working on securing further joint ventures to source funding, equipment and software. They are also attempting to raise awareness in the Hervey Bay community that will better enable it to gain from the benefits of modern technology (McKeehan, B., personal communication, January 22, 2003). In order to test the client effectiveness of the Bay Connect model, a survey was undertaken in 2000-2001 by one of the authors (Wright, 2001) that sought, inter alia, to understand Bay Connect clients and their relationship with the Internet medium. The results indicated that while there were operational issues with the enterprise, the new Internet users attracted by the Bay Connect project had experienced a change in their media use patterns. Exposure to the Internet affected the way they sought information and the ways in which they communicated. The study showed that Bay Connect clients were (a) purchasing computers, and (b) seeking supplementary and alternative Internet access to that of Bay Connect. A majority of surveyed individuals (more than 90%) indicated that they would use the Internet if it were available. This shows that Bay Connect has enhanced the awareness and utilization of this form of communication within its membership. This is not a phenomenon restricted to Hervey Bay: the Internet is changing millions of people’s lives by altering the way in which they obtain information. With its “mutability” the Internet is also changing rapidly — daily — introducing users to many new functions, faster speeds, more Web sites and information (Newhagen & Rafaeli, 1996). It is also quickly becoming a ‘place’ where mediated communication forms occur as O’Regan (2000) posited, and this would suggest that the potential for use of the Internet as a community integration tool could exceed the variety provided by most other media (Wright, 2001). The evolution of mediated Internet communication has not led to extinction of conversation, lecture, letter writing, or storytelling; neither have the broadcast industries disappeared. The long-term impact of this public Internet access program on its community is still being assessed, and this will be an ongoing process. With the up-take of broadband and a new Web page, the manager of the project is optimistic that Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Bay Connect will continue to serve its community’s changing needs and also mentor further regional Internet access projects (White, T., personal communication, February 28, 2002). A group of 60 active Bay Connect volunteers also foster this optimism. The volunteers drive the success in the take-up and utilisation of the Bay Connect services. As site supervisors they are stationed at the any of the six access sites to provide advice, assessment of user skills, and referrals to training, as well as handle the administration and log on procedures. Support at the Internet access sites is a critical issue. Site operation is conditional upon their presence. The Bay Connect volunteers are a dedicated contingent and the lifeblood of the project; they now ‘own’ the project. Their active involvement has lead to greater efficiencies and is paving the way to project sustainability. Hervey Bay’s Bay Connect has thus at least partially succeeded in developing a regional community that is aware and skilled in the use of advanced telecommunications services, in line with the original objective.

The University of Southern Queensland and Partners The University of Southern Queensland’s Wide Bay campus has made a significant contribution to the overall development of the communication and information technology expertise of the local community in line with its role as a regional higher education provider. Information technology staff (both academic and support) have been involved extensively with community-based projects including Bay Connect, setting up the first Macromedia Users Group outside of the Capital Cities in Australia, fostering the emergent information technology industry within Hervey Bay, and were instrumental in setting up a branch of the Australian Computing Society in Hervey Bay. The University teaches and delivers in full day mode a range of information technology-based degree courses and provides specialised professional development courses for Hervey Bay’s business community. On the basis of this increase in expertise and the University’s strengths in software engineering and business management, the Hervey Bay City Council has recently launched the Fraser Innovation Zone (adjacent to the CBD in Pialba and based on the University campus). Local IT is an emerging industry in the Region; the first FIZ meeting in June 2001 attracted 100 business people to the University to videoconference with the Gartner Group (a major international player in IT). Start-up firms are seeking assistance with software solutions, and a number of contracts have been or are being negotiated, which will form the basis of a significant IT Research and Development capability within the Innovation Zone and contribute to tertiary level economic activity in the region. Additionally, the University currently houses Bay Connect within this precinct. Local high schools also participate in the University’s early start programs, introducing University courses to Year 11 and 12 students. Currently courses are offered to IT and LOTE students, with opportunities for expansion of seamless Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


education pathways being actively developed. These are critical in respect of the regional program of achieving higher tertiary participation rates, especially in the emerging information economy.

FURTHER DISCUSSION Australia Bureau of Statistics data shows that the overall level of Australian digital inclusion is increasing (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2001). Evidence of the rise is the increase in the share of households with Internet access, which suggests that the digital divide may be starting to narrow, although this appears to be by no means uniform as evidenced by the following: • As age increases, the likelihood that an adult is either a computer user or an Internet user decreases; • Older adults are more likely to use a computer or access the Internet at home, younger adults at sites other than home or work and the remaining adults either at home or work; • Employed adults are more likely to have used a computer or access the Internet than adults who are not employed; • As income increases, the likelihood that an adult is either a computer user or an Internet user increases; • Adults in metropolitan areas are more likely to have used a computer or to have accessed the Internet than adults in other areas. These trends highlight the importance of public Internet access programs for the unemployed and older person living in a regional community in Australia like Hervey Bay. With the world’s economy now driven by information technology, the persistence of a divide of have and have-not Internet users could have serious social consequences in the not-too-distant future. However, such technologies need to service Australian communities rather than simply to service commercial interests. The issue of equity of access must be addressed. While the Internet already connects 100 million computers, this figure represents less than 2% of the world’s population (Amor, 2000), and it has become increasingly obvious that IT is designed for those who pay for its development: typically large commercial companies in developed countries. While understandable, this means that if you are too poor to afford a telephone connection, you may become excluded from certain services like the Internet (Thomas, 1995). Consumers need access to computers, modems and networks — not everyone has a telephone, some communicate an unwillingness to invest capital in the purchase of a computer, and many express a fear of technology. To complicate the issue of equitable Web access, not everyone knows about the Internet (Newman, 2000), or even if they do, not everyone takes advantage of Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


the full potential of media literacy. The challenge then for Australian communities is to establish mechanisms like the Bay Connect project to increase awareness and provide local training in the use of such technologies. It is clear that Internet-mediated communication is an increasingly important phenomenon in Australian society. It is unlike any media formerly used for either interpersonal or mass communication. The very form and function of the Internet provides a channel that facilitates a hybrid of traditional media to be used in very non-traditional ways. Most significantly, Internet access allows for many types of participation in the communication process. While the long-term impact of the Bay Connect Public Internet Access Program on its community is still being assessed, Bay Connect must continue to attract new customers in order to maintain a viable business front after the Networking the Nation grant is exhausted. It is important for Bay Connect at this juncture to identify further strategies for Web site development, training programs and Internet Access Sites, as well as to evaluate its progress. These strategies would then be integrated with the organization’s goal “to enhance the awareness and utilization of the Internet and online services by the community of Hervey Bay, particularly those residents who are economically and/or socially disadvantaged” in order to address its founding objective (Wright, 2001). Inadequate access to information and information networks has been seen in the past as contributing to the fragmentation of the Hervey Bay community and the felt isolation of its residents. Bay Connect was established to challenge these community conditions and all available research has found that the community has begun responding to that challenge.

CONCLUSIONS Internet access allows for many types of participation in communication processes. Through engagement in its processes, the empowerment potential of Internet use is great. As the 1994 Community Development Workshop in Hervey Bay pointed out, such opportunities could be especially important to the community members of Hervey Bay who are marginalized culturally and socially (the unemployed and other welfare recipients). Reducing marginalisation through the provision of public access information technologies such as the Internet by organizations like Bay Connect and the University of Southern Queensland has significant implications for community identity construction and maintenance. This is the real outcome and strength of the Bay Connect experience. When considering the present and future of networked information and communication technology, however, it is certain that while the Internet seems to have many positive and democratising uses, there are also many obstacles that limit its potential. Thus, further research into the cultural, political, social and economic implications of Internet use by marginalized groups must be underCopyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


taken to ascertain if the Internet’s potential is being realized. A second step would be to analyse what groups or interests are using which technologies for what purpose.

REFERENCES Amor, A. (2000, October 5). WRI conference explores new businesses to transform global digital divide into dividends. Seattle, WA. Retrieved November 23, 2000 from: http://www.igc.org/wri/press/dd_transform.html. Australian Bureau of Statistics (1998). 1996 Census of Population and Housing. ACT: Belconnen. Australian Bureau of Statistics (1999). 1301.0 1999 Year Book Australia. ACT: Belconnen. Australian Bureau of Statistics (2001). 8147.0 Use of Internet by Householders November 2000. ACT: Belconnen. Australian Bureau of Statistics (2002). 8153.0 Internet Activity Australia September Quarter 2001. ACT: Belconnen. Bray, J. & Mudd, W. (1998). The contribution of DSS payments to regional income. Retrieved March 23, 2002 from the Department of Family and Community Services Web site: http://www.facs.gov.au/Internet/facs/ Internet.nsf/aboutfacs/respubs/tech2dload.htm. Department of Education, Science and Training (2001). Atlas of higher education: A community focus, Retrieved March 23, 2002 from Higher Education Division, Department of Education, Science and Training Web site: http://www.dest.gov.au/uniatlas/paper/default.htm. Dizard, W. (1997). Old media, new media: Mass communications in the Information Age (2nd ed.). New York: Longman. KPMG (2000). Population Growth Report 2000. Sydney, Australia: KPMG Consulting. Langtry, B. (ed.) (1998). All connected: Universal service in telecommunications. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. Lyon, D. (1988). The information society: Issues and illusions. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Molnar, H. (1998, August). National convergence or localism? Rural and remote communities. Media International Australia Incorporating Culture and Policy, (88). National Office for the Information Economy (2002). The current state of play Australia’s scorecard. Canberra, ACT. Retrieved May 10, 2002 from: http://www.noie.gov.au/Projects/information_economy/research&analysis/ ie_stats/CSOP_April2002/index.htm. Newhagen, J. & Rafaeli, S. (1996, Winter). Why communication researchers should study the Internet: A dialogue. Journal of Communication, 46(1). Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Newman, D. (2000). Inequality of access, awareness and social exclusion. Retrieved January 23, 2000 from: http://www.qub.ac.uk/mgt/itsoc/sem/ socshape.html. O’Regan, M. (2000). Television and culture. Retrieved December 27, 2000 from: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/mediarpt/stories/s226416.htm. Planning Information and Forecasting Unit (2001, March). Demographic profile for Hervey Bay 2001. Brisbane: Queensland Department of Local Government and Planning. Rubin, A. (1984). Ritualised and instrumental uses of television. Journal of Communication, 34(3), 67-77. Rubin, A. (1993). Audience activity and media use. Communication Monographs, 60, 98-105. Thomas, R. (1995). Access and inequality. Information technology and society. Heap, N. et al. (Eds.), Sage Publications. Witmer, D. & Tawesuk, C. (1998). Why business people use the World Wide Web. In Ess, C. & Sudweeks, F. (Eds.), Proceedings Cultural Attitudes Towards Communication and Technology ’98 (pp. 289-316). NSQ: University of Sydney. Wright, L. (2001). Bay Connect: A public Internet access program, a community solution, Hervey Bay, Queensland. Unpublished BA Honours Thesis University of Southern Queensland, Qld.


238 Schofield, Mummery, Brown, Eakin, Trost and Abernethy

Chapter XVI

Using the Internet in a Physical Activity Health Promotion Campaign: The 10,000 Steps Rockhampton Project Grant Schofield, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand Kerry Mummery, Central Queensland University, Australia Wendy Brown, University of Queensland, Australia Elizabeth Eakin, Queensland University of Technology, Australia Stewart Trost, University of Queensland, Australia Peter Abernethy, National Health Foundation, Australia

ABSTRACT The 10,000 Steps Rockhampton project is a community-based, multistrategy health promotion program focussing on physical activity and the social determinants of health in a regional Australian setting. As yet there is no available literature about the process of constructing health promotion Web sites. The chapter describes the processes involved in the construction


The 10,000 Steps Rockhampton Project

239

and evaluation of a physical activity health promotion site. The static side of the site gives health promotion information and messages related to physical activity, along with contact information and registration information for the project. The dynamic side of the site allows online tracking of dailyaccumulated physical activity.

INTRODUCTION There now exists a general consensus regarding the benefits of a physically active lifestyle. Researchers, practitioners, and public health officers concur that an active lifestyle contributes to increased health and relief of economic strain (Stephenson, Bauman, Armstrong, Smith & Bellow, 2000). Specifically, recent evidence has shown relationships between physical activity and lowered risk of many non-communicable diseases. These findings, well summarised by the 1996 US Surgeon General’s report, present epidemiological evidence of the graded health benefits of physical activity for the reductions of coronary heart disease (CHD), some cancers, Type-2 diabetes, injury reduction (including falls in the elderly) and mental health (Bouchard, 2001; US Department of Health and Human Services, 1996). The US Surgeon General’s report recommends at least 30 minutes of moderate activity on most, if not all days of the week as the duration and frequency necessary for health benefits. Ways of communicating this message to those who are presently inactive are varied. The ultimate goal of physical activity health promotion is to motivate the inactive population (around 50% of the population in most Westernised countries) to first consider becoming active, and second actually become engaged in regular health-related physical activity. Attempts to achieve this goal have been through a number of different theoretical frameworks in a number of different media. These include the use of new technologies such as the Internet to achieve these goals. To this point, there are no published accounts of the processes used in the methodical construction and evaluation of Internet health promotion sites. To the authors’ knowledge there are no published articles dealing specifically with population physical activity health promotion online. The authors searched all relevant health databases including pubmed (medline), ovid (current contents and psychinfo), and the Web using google.com. The primary aim of this chapter is to describe the processes involved in the construction and evaluation of an online health promotion tool for a community-wide physical activity health promotion project called 10,000 Steps Rockhampton. The 10,000 Steps Rockhampton project is a community-based, multistrategy health promotion program focussing on physical activity and the social determinants of health. The overarching goal of the project is to work with a



regional Australian community to increase the community’s capacity to address the determinants of physical activity.

Delivering Messages about Physical Activity and Health A popular way to educate the public about the benefits of physical activity has been through mass media campaigns. Marcus and Associates (Marcus, Owen, Forsyth, Cavill & Fridinger, 1998), in a review of the impact of mass media campaigns on physical activity epidemiology, found that although traditional television-based media campaigns had a high recall rate their efficacy in increasing physical activity was limited. Further, they found that print–based material and telephone promotions were more effective, at least in the short term, in changing behaviour. They comment that, “…personalized print, interactive computer-mediated programs, and Web-based formats for program delivery also are needed. The integration of media-based methods into public and private sector service delivery has much potential for innovation” (Marcus et al., 1998). Certainly the Internet can be used to deliver health care value. MacStravic (2001) suggests that health care organizations may categorize their health care possibilities as follows: wellness promotion and risk reduction, prevention and early detection, symptom, life event, and acute condition management, chronic disease management, quality-of-life services, and end-of-life treatment. Increasingly heath care companies are turning to the Internet as a resource for the dissemination of health care information. If statistics in the United States reflect the pattern in Australia, more than half of Internet users have sought health information online (MacStravic, 2001). The delivery of information over the Internet has many advantages and some disadvantages. In particular, the delivery of public health information over the Internet needs to be carefully examined. The following list of advantages and disadvantages, although not exhaustive, goes some way to summarizing the possible benefits of promoting health via the Internet.

Advantages of Internet Delivery of Public Health Messages 1. 2. 3.

4.

The Internet, in theory, is very accessible to large numbers of people. Internet use in Western countries is increasing at a massive rate. The distribution of health promotion material via the Internet is relatively inexpensive. The Internet may assist in empowering the public in self-management of health care. People are able to make more informed decisions about their health care options. Information is available on demand 24 hours a day, seven days a week.



5.

6.

7.

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Internet technologies such as chat and discussion provide communities of those with the similar problems, care requirements, and management issues. Once connected with the correct hardware and software, Internet access becomes relatively inexpensive. This may encourage a preventative approach to health care (Hill, 2001). Health messages can be individually tailored. It has been shown that this sort of tailoring substantially increases the chances of messages being read, up-taken, and acted upon (Marcus, Nigg, Riebe & Forsyth, 2000).

Disadvantages of Internet Delivery of Public Health Messages 1.

2. 3. 4.

5.

There are large differences in the ability to access the Internet. From a health promotion standpoint those who do not have access may be more likely to be at risk than those who do have access. This is often called the digital divide (Sorensen, 2001). Sorensen has shown that access to technology is directly correlated with education and family income. Not all health-related information on the Internet is of high quality. Access to personalized, interactive programs may be as time consuming or more time consuming than traditional counseling methods. Actually getting people to your site or to read your e-mails may be difficult. Procedures for health promotion over the Internet are underdeveloped, and research into the effectiveness of any health promotion procedure is lacking. It may be that even when people do access a site they are not comfortable with using the Internet in an interactive rather than passive manner. Limited research is available about the effectiveness of Internet-based health promotion.

Internet Health Promotion Although there are many Internet health promotion sites, there have been relatively few health promotion interventions reported in the recent literature. Searches of Medline, Current Contents, Proquest, and Psychinfo electronic databases found only a handful of relevant reviewed articles. McKay and colleagues (McKay, King, Eakin, Seeley & Glasgow, 2001) evaluated the shortterm benefits of an Internet-based supplement to usual care that focussed on providing support for sedentary patients with Type-2 diabetes to increase their PA levels. They found that there were no significant differences in condition effects between control and intervention groups. However, there was variability in both site use and outcomes within the intervention and control conditions. Analysis among intervention participants showed that those who used the site



more regularly derived significantly greater benefits, whereas those in the control condition derived no similar benefits with increased program use. In a weight loss program delivered over the Internet, Tate, Wing, and Winett (2001) found that the Internet was effective in promoting weight loss. They used two groups: a behaviour therapy group and an education group. The efficacy of the behaviour therapy group program was high and the weight loss was greater than the education group. However, the authors concluded that Internet and email were viable means for the delivery of a health management program. The Internet is a medium that offers the possibility of engaging people in the management of their own health. As such the Internet has formed a key element to involve a community in the adoption of a physically activity lifestyle. The balance of the chapter refers to the community-based physical activity promotion project called 10,000 Steps Rockhampton currently being conducted in a regional Queensland center.

10,000 STEPS ROCKHAMPTON Goals and Objectives The goals of this project were to develop, implement, and evaluate an innovative community-based and multi-strategy health promotion program focusing on physical activity (PA) and the social determinants of health. The ongoing goal of the project is to create a sustainable model of PA promotion by working with the Rockhampton community to increase its capacity to address the determinants of physical activity. The main outcome goal of the program is to increase regular participation in PA in the community. The specific objectives of the program were to create sustainable strategies for promoting PA at the local level by: a. Raising community awareness of the health benefits of moderate PA; b. Strengthening the capacity of general practitioners and other health professionals to promote PA; c. Strengthening the capacity of the community to provide improved opportunities, social support, policies and environments for PA; d. Strengthening the capacity of individuals to be more active, by addressing modifiable individual, social and environmental determinants of (in)activity.

Approach This program has a specific focus on reaching and engaging sedentary individuals among men, women, older people, and the unemployed. The Rockhampton community was chosen as a large regional centre that evidences both socio-economic and health disadvantage reflected in all parts of regional Australia. Importantly, the project team has, through their previous work with this community, already established an infrastructure and strong links with Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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community groups and collected valuable baseline data on physical activity and its associated determinants. Five strategies were used to increase population prevalence of physical activity. These strategies build on previous programs conducted by the project team and include: 1. Local Media Campaigns to raise awareness of the low levels of physical activity in the community, profile the program themes (‘Ten thousand Steps a Day’ and ‘Physical Activity…Every Step Counts’), profile community role models, and promote associated activities. 2. Promoting PA through general practice and other health services. This was guided by the Active Practice protocol that has been successfully trialled in NSW and Victoria. Allied health care providers are also being used to make referrals to physical activity resources, disseminate current activity guidelines, and advocate behaviour change. 3. Improving Social Support among Disadvantaged Groups. This strategy involved working with community partners in the health, sport, recreation, and fitness sectors to provide leadership for activity programs targeting the needs of disadvantaged and special needs groups. 4. Policy and Environmental Change. This was guided by the recently published ‘Creating Active Communities: Physical Activity Guidelines for Local Councils’, with a focus on developing infrastructure to promote active living within the community. This overall plan raises awareness in the community, and in specific target populations, of the benefits of physical activity and physical activity best practices, and provides contact information/promotion of local facilities, activities and services. Specifically the promotion was aimed at: • Developing an identifiable project brand — “10,000 Steps Rockhampton”, and • Promoting the use of pedometers (electronic step counters) to assist individuals in accumulating and measuring more physical activity through the course of their normal daily activities.

Key Messages The key messages of the campaign were consistent with the Active Australia National Physical Activity Guidelines. The principle difference, and one of the unique features of the project, is that the message will be more specific, promoting both the mode (walking) and volume (10,000 Steps) of activity. The project was meant to build on existing physical activity campaigns including the national Active Australia campaign, which emphasizes multimodal movement and the state-wide Just Walk It program, whose focus is on walking. Overall there were three categories of messages: Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


•

•

•

General physical activity messages — aimed at raising the awareness of the public and target populations to the benefits of, and general guidelines for, physical activity. These messages articulate with existing physical activity campaigns/programs, such as Active Australia. General walking messages, which provided information specific to the activity of walking. This included the benefits of walking, the ease of walking, the social aspect of walking, the energy expenditure associated with walking and hints to increase the amount of movement accumulated in a normal day. Program specific messages, which are essentially 10,000 Steps Rockhampton branding messages. The objective of these messages was to raise the awareness and understanding of the public to the 10,000 Steps Logo and the overall purpose of the project — to increase incidental physical activity in the adult population of Rockhampton.

The use of interactive technology via Web site health promotion, whilst not a specific strategy in itself, was developed as a key support plan for all of the intervention strategies above. The specific goal of this chapter is to describe the planning, implementation, and uses of the Internet component of the 10,000 Steps Rockhampton project (http://10000steps.cqu.edu.au). This site has five primary purposes: • To inform the general public about the project • To accept program registrations • To educate providers as to the status, benefits, and best practices regarding health-related physical activity • To provide information about the project to a wider range of interested parties, including health-care professionals, educators and researchers • To provide an interactive walking logbook that tracks the cumulative steps by registered members and automatically prompts them if they have not utilized the Web site logbook for a specified period of time The remainder of this chapter discusses progress towards these goals using a variety of evaluation techniques.

WEB SITE DEVELOPMENT This section focuses on the process around the development of a health promotion Web site for 10,000 Steps Rockhampton. The first developmental aspect was to examine existing Internet health promotion sites with special attention to those promoting physical activity. This was achieved through search engine examination by Goggle search (www.google.com) using the following key words in separate searches — health promotion, physical activity, physical Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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activity health promotion, and walking program. Viewing of sites within each search engine output was limited to the first 20 hits in each case. Links were followed from each of these sites as appropriate to locate other relevant sites. A list of the top 20 Web sites as rated through consensus by the research team was compiled. The research team comprised a group of physical activity health promotion experts from around Australia, all of which were involved in the overall management of the 10,000 Steps Rockhampton project. The 20 selected sites were examined and themes were drawn out on the basis of content analysis of each site. The major themes that came out of this content analysis were: 1. Provide information about the specific nature of that project. 2. Provide contact information about that project. 3. Provide general health promotion information specific to that area of health promotion (e.g., physical activity health promotion). 4. Provide interactive components where possible. 5. Provide information that is not static and changes on a regular basis. 6. Keep information simple enough that the site can be easily navigated and all major information groups can be found.

10,000 Steps Web Site Features On the basis of the themes extracted form the content analysis of the most informative and attractive Web sites already available the shell for the 10,000 Steps site was developed. This included the themes listed above but was not necessarily limited to those themes. The overall goals of the project were also taken into account to combine the identified themes and the project goals. Five headings were developed to form a horizontal banner that remained constant across all pages in the site. These headings were:

1. “The Project” This gave information about the 10,000 Steps project in general and the specific goals of the project. It also contained information about the constituent partners: the main funding body, Queensland Health; the research partners, Central Queensland University, The University of Queensland, and Queensland University of Technology, in addition to the many community-based partners,

2. “Personal Logbook” This gave the opportunity to utilize an online daily diary that records the number of steps recorded each day. This logbook can be personalized to each individual who registers on the Web site at no cost. Participants can record their daily pedometer step counts and receive weekly, monthly and annual totals. An auto-reminder e-mail is generated and sent to a participant after an absence from the Web site for two weeks. A further reminder is generated another week after that. The auto-reminder reads as below: Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Hi (NAME). It has been a week since your last logbook update for the 10,000 Steps project. We hope that you have remained active during the last week and have just not been able to update your totals. If so, please take the next opportunity to log in and do so. If your activity has dropped off, please take this opportunity to re-charge your batteries and re-establish some achievable goals in terms of the number of steps you take per day. 10,000 steps is an admirable target, but if you are not achieving this goal try setting your own, individual target based on your normal activity levels. The most important thing is to try to make physical activity a habit. Your logbook will help you along as you gradually change your normal daily patterns to include sufficient physical activity to gain health and well-being benefits. We will remind you in another two weeks if you have not logged back into the web site. In the mean time best wishes on adopting and maintaining a health, physically active lifestyle. You can visit the Web site at http://10000steps.cqu.edu.au.

3. “Physical Activity, Fitness and Health” One of the main goals of the program was to motivate people who do not do sufficient physical activity to gain health benefits (generally defined as a minimum of 150 minutes of accumulated physical activity per week) to start being more physically active. The inactive population can be categorized into three groups of motivation based on the stages of change outlined in the transtheoretical model of behaviour (Prochaska & DiClemente, 1992). Specifically these are: pre-contemplation, contemplation, and preparation. Pre-contemplators are not presently even considering starting any physical activity. Contemplators are presently thinking about starting some sort of regular activity. Those in preparation are currently preparing themselves for engagement in physical activity. Therefore the health promotion messages targeted these groups with an emphasis on contemplators and preparers. It was thought that those in precontemplation would be unlikely to seek electronic information about physical activity if they were not even considering beginning a lifestyle change. Therefore, this section provided information about the health benefits of physical activity. The main page displayed “benefits” information in bullet-point form. Bullet-point information is easier to read, especially online. A “FAQ” (frequently asked questions) section was also developed. This had more expansive answers to common questions about physical activity and health, and adherence to walking programs. This section is in a constant state of change, given feedback and common questions the project staff receive from the public. The final component to this section was a “Tips and Tricks” area. This contains a series of handy tips for becoming engaged in physical activity on a regular basis. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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Table 1. Hits to the 10,000 Steps Web Site One Month after Launch of the Project

Site area

Page Name

Contact the project Main entry page Interactive step counter Merchandising Physical activity, fitness, and health About the project Register for the project

contact.php

No. Hits – One month after launch 130

No. Hits – Six months after launch 443

index.php login.php

534 62

2499 317

merchandise.php pafh.php

40 202

104 802

project.php regMain.php

261 197

1047 635

4. “Contact Us” This section contains information about contacting the project office. Efforts were made to keep this area simple. As the Web site address appears solely on some of the project promotional material this page needed to load quickly with accurate easy-to-find information.

5. “Register” Registering for the project was an important way to get individuals involved in the project at a personal level. Registration allows evaluation of public interest through tracking of registration fluctuation over time. It also allows a database to be developed where physical activity health promotion material can be mailed out on a regular basis to those in the community already interested in becoming physically active. The registration page allows people to choose one of two registration options. The “free” option signs the individual up to the program and to receive free mailed information about physical activity from the project office. The “Pedometer” option includes the free material and a Yamax Digiwalker pedometer on a cost-recovery basis. Promotional merchandise ordering was also available from this part of the site. T-shirts, caps, and water bottles were made available, again on a costrecovery basis, to allow additional marketing/branding opportunities of the 10,000 Steps Rockhampton project. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Promotion of Site Despite the numerous advantages on delivering health promotion material electronically there are significant challenges in directing traffic to your site. Strategies to help direct traffic to the 10,000 Steps Rockhampton site included: electronic links from the Web sites of key project partners, including Queensland Health, Rockhampton City Council and the local Division of General Practitioners. In addition, the Web site address is prominently displayed on all promotional material developed for the project. Key corporations in the city were targeted by a mass electronic mail campaign, linking directly back to the project Web site. Professional contact was made with the health and safety officers in charge of employee health in the major city corporation, and the site itself was submitted to numerous Internet search engines submission. The success of any site is usually evaluated by the Internet traffic that moves through that site. The following section evaluates these data at an early stage (one and six months) into the 10,000 Steps Rockhampton physical activity campaign.

Data from Site The 10,000 Steps Web site launch corresponded with other media including television, newspaper and radio commercials. Table 1 shows hits to the 10,000 Steps Rockhampton site after the first and sixth months. Overall, the number of hits received was moderate given a fairly high profile media campaign. However, all of the major sub-sections of the site were hit at roughly similar rates except for the interactive step counter. Very few people have taken advantage of the interactive step counter and diary. Only eight people had registered for this service after a month of operation. This is despite over 1000 pedometer registration packages being bought from the project office during the same time period. Every pedometer registration package also contained a paper logbook that essentially did the same thing as the Web-based version. Those electing to log on to use the interactive diary were quite physically active with an average daily pedometer count of 9,402. The interactive pedometer log may be more successful in the future as the health promotion campaign engages more of the community. The data from the Web site show that the majority of the hits were related to obtaining project-specific information, as opposed to project registration or the utilization of the interactive data tracking features. More research must be done to identify the nature of such inquiries to gain a more specific understanding of the nature of the individuals utilizing this, and similar sites. The current tracking methods did not allow for the differentiation between individuals seeking information regarding their own health and individuals who may be searching project-specific information aimed at further dissemination of the information in other personal or professional contexts. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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FUTURE TRENDS For the future the use of the Internet to deliver health promotion information will no doubt become more widespread. The major barrier at present is the lack of access to computers by all of the population. Those who do have regular access in many cases do not have connections any faster than 56 KB, which makes downloading of advanced material impossible. Although this may not necessarily limit accessibility to the 10,000 Steps site it may limit accessibility to the Web in general. Dial-up delays and frustration in using some sites are possible limiting factors to these users. The social gradient issue is large and not readily solved. Those at the most at-risk end of the social gradient are unlikely to receive many of the media messages for health promotion. This is only exaggerated when these messages go online. The use of Internet technologies has had high uptake from the adolescent population. This has led to concern amongst many researchers (Ebbeling, Pawlak, & Ludwig, 2002). Computer use is of course a sedentary activity. Many youth now recreate using computers and the Internet when their counterparts from previous generations were active in play and/or sport. Habits developed in adolescence may have long-lasting effects on health. This is a group that could be targeted by online physical activity health promotion campaigns. The United States Center for Disease Control’s “VERB: It’s what you do” campaign to get US youth more active is an excellent example of such a campaign. The Web site (http://www.verbnow.com) is designed to appeal to youth and motivate them to become active everyday. It must be noted, however, that the Web site does not stand alone and is only a part of a much larger mass media campaign. This brings us to our last point: that Internet-based health promotion will most likely play a role in larger mass media campaigns of the future. The Internet is here to stay and is an integral communication tool, especially for certain demographics. However, the authors suggest that it should not be seen as a tool in isolation. It complements other health promotion activities nicely and will play an increasingly important role as technologies and access both improve.

CONCLUSIONS Web sites for the promotion of physical activity remain relatively new. The 10,000 Steps Rockhampton Web site was not in itself a specific physical activity health promotion intervention; it was part of a larger intervention and serves a useful role in achieving the overall goals of the project. Although electronic delivery has many advantages over traditional delivery methods in terms of cost effectiveness and reach of materials, the efficacy of such technology for community health promotion interventions is yet to be determined. Problems of access, especially for the socially disadvantaged, mean that the effectiveness of reaching those most at risk in a health setting is unlikely, at least in the near future. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


However, such technologies used in a supporting role in community-wide interventions such as 10,000 Steps Rockhampton are a useful and modern way to deliver messages to the public. More complete data on the effectiveness on the 10,000 Steps Rockhampton Web site will only be available upon the completion of the project after two years. However, early indications are that Internet health promotion sites can have an assisting role in community-wide health interventions in regional Australia. The use of the Internet as a health promotion tool is still a new and relatively unevaluated area. The process of construction of these sites, especially in physical activity health promotion, is undocumented. This chapter goes some way towards documenting construction and evaluation processes in this area for the first time.

REFERENCES Bouchard, C. (2001). Physical activity and health: Introduction to the doseresponse symposium. Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise, 33, S347-S350. Ebbeling, C., Pawlak, D., & Ludwig, D. (2002). Childhood obesity: Public-health crisis, common sense cure. Lancet, 360(9331), 473. Hill, C. (2001). Health online: Should your company purchase a corporate health Web site? Compensation and Benefits Management, 17(1), 52-55. MacStravic, S. (2001). Using the Internet to deliver health care value. Health Mark Q, 19(2), 23-31. Marcus, B. H., Nigg, C. R., Riebe, D., & Forsyth, L. H. (2000). Interactive communication strategies — Implications for population-based physicalactivity promotion. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 19(2), 121-126. Marcus, B. H., Owen, N., Forsyth, L. H., Cavill, N. A., & Fridinger, F. (1998). Physical activity interventions using mass media, print media, and information technology. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 15(4), 362378. McKay, H. G., King, D., Eakin, E. G., Seeley, J. R., & Glasgow, R. E. (2001). The diabetes network Internet-based physical activity intervention — A randomized pilot study. Diabetes Care, 24(8), 1328-1334. Prochaska, J. O. & DiClemente, C. C. (1992). Stages of change in the modification of problem behaviors. Progressive Behavior Modification, 28, 183-218. Sorensen, A. A. (2001). Promoting public health through electronic media: A challenge for schools of public health. Am J Public Health, 91(8), 11831185.



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Stephenson, J., Bauman, A., Armstrong, T., Smith, B., & Bellow, B. (2000). The costs of illness attributable to physical inactivity in Australia. A preliminary study. Canberra: Commonwealth Department of Health and Family Services. Tate, D. F., Wing, R. R., & Winett, R. A. (2001). Using Internet technology to deliver a behavioral weightloss program. Journal of the American Medical Association, 285(9), 1172-1177. U.S Department of Health and Human Services. (1996). Physical activity and health. A report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.


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Simpson, Burmeister and Docherty

Chapter XVII

E-News: Community Interaction through Journalism Matthew Simpson, University of Queensland, Australia Jay Burmeister, University of Queensland, Australia Michael Docherty, University of Queensland, Australia

ABSTRACT This chapter describes the development of the E-News project which examined an interactive journalism approach in Rockhampton, Australia. This project provided an opportunity to examine how the introduction of this new technology into regional media and communication brings into question the traditional roles of the journalist, the editor, the graphic designer and the audience in the production and ‘consumption’ of written material. Such an approach provided the opportunity for grass-roots journalism to be examined for its capacity to provide a clearer insight into the nature of a community journalism-based approach such as the E-News system. It also allowed the examination of the resultant interaction that


E-News: Community Interaction through Journalism

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occurs between users and community. The experiences resulting from the ENews project provide a framework for discussion regarding the potential of approaches such as E-News for community informatics in regional areas resulting from online news environment.

INTRODUCTION Online development in the area of media and communication has taken many forms in the last decade. Information Communication Technologies (ICT) has enabled many areas which were traditionally physically orientated to emerge and explore a new dimension of online interaction. This chapter looks at the impact of community informatics on regional communities through exploration of collaborative issues in an educational context. The nature of interaction between ICT and journalism is examined in the context of the issues that arose during the E-News project, and its implication for regional media and communication. This interaction occurred through collaboration between IT students at the University of Queensland’s Ipswich campus and journalism students at the Central Queensland University’s Rockhampton campus. It investigates the development and implementation of a real-life online journalism scenario. The E-News project provided an opportunity to examine how the introduction of new technology into regional media and communication brings into question the traditional roles of the journalist, editor, graphic designer and audience in the production and ‘consumption’ of written material. The aims of the project were two-fold. First, it examined the development of an online environment for reliable information delivery for regional community-based journalism. The underlying assumption in this approach was that by enabling online collaboration, it is possible for a range of participants from varying backgrounds with non-technical levels of computer literacy to meaningfully interact in a news-based environment. The second aim was to examine how education could assist in addressing multi-disciplinary issues between all parties involved and the end consumers of the service: the community. The application of an educational framework to analyse a digital news perspective can reveal valuable lessons for community informatics. The changing role of the traditional journalist because of ICT has been a rapid one. Despite this, the traditional definition of journalism has not changed, but has evolved along with the technology. Journalism still involves the collation and production of news and news articles for public consumption. What have changed are the process and the people able to conduct the preparation and publishing of news. Because of the increasing ability to post stories remotely or work online using ICT, community members can now share concerns, and


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provide opinions and information into the news delivery systems. This has been termed ‘grass-roots journalism’. In this chapter, the use of the word ‘journalist’ will include a non-professional, ‘grass-roots’ approach, describing an individual wishing to publish community information on a topic or event. This allows discussion regarding community involvement in topics of interest to consider professionals in the same sense as those who have a view on the topic in question. By adopting such an approach, the broader issues of community informatics in regional areas can be discussed, addressing all participants on equal terms. The following section outlines the nature of the project and the participants. It explores project aims and the mechanisms by which the project was conducted and reviewed. Studio pedagogy and its role in providing a structural framework for project development is explored while examining the impact of the technology in this process. The chapter then moves to exploring a series of broader issues, particularly the interaction between users, which arose during the project. This approach lays the framework for discussion on the potential of E-News for community informatics.

BACKGROUND — THE E-NEWS PROJECT The overall aim of the E-News project was to develop a Web site for the creation and modification of online news stories. The site was required to be highly usable and easily updateable. The nature of the project was collaborative, involving students from Information Environments (IE) at the Ipswich campus of the University of Queensland (UQ) and E-Journalism students at the Figure 1. An Example of a Completed E-News Database Web Site



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Rockhampton campus of the Central Queensland University (CQU), and conducted in the second half of the year 2000. The IE students were required to function as a team of Web designers in order to develop a fully functioning database-driven Web site for an external client (shown in Figure 1). The EJournalism students acted as the client for this purpose, providing the requirements and the content for the site. Communication between the Web designers and the clients occurred through many forms of the technology. Initial communication between the two parties occurred through video conferencing, followed by e-mail. Another aspect of the project was to explore the impact that interactive technology can have on the presentation of news information that has traditionally been displayed in printed form. Throughout the course of the project, the nature of work practice in the creation, modification and utilisation of the system was observed through ethnographical approaches in order to gauge the comparative success of techniques applied by different groups. This was to be achieved through the re-representation of a real-life design environment in a Studioteaching model. By teaching in such a manner, students were able to engage the client and gain experience in the nature of the design world. The nature of this pedagogy is effective not only in aiding the instruction and learning of students, but also in creating a realistic environment for the testing of new methods and approaches in industry.

Pedagogy The pedagogy underlying the Studio approach has its theoretical origins in social constructivism and is influenced by the work of Lebow (1993), Jonassen, Mayes and McAleese (1993) and Jonassen and Reeves (1996). The Studio approach places the learner at the core of the teaching and learning experience, and, like Simon (1960), emphasises the importance of learner activity and interaction as viable mechanisms to support learning. According to the Studio approach, ‘what the student does is actually more important in determining what is learned than what the teacher does’ (Shuell, 1986). In a break from the transmissive mode of delivery, characteristic of many lecturing situations and increasingly evident in the design of many content-driven online courses (Brown, 1997), the Studio approach creates both a learning environment in which students are actively engaged in the learning process, and a more fluid and responsive learning environment. The project-based approach of the Studio provides an environment for learners to: • Plan and develop their own learning projects, • Apply the skills and knowledge learned in concurrent subjects to the specific real-life scenarios provided by the projects,


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•

Work collaboratively with other learners to develop knowledge and understanding, Work with mentors and coaches, Work as mentors and coaches.

• •

Studio projects provide realistic and relevant contexts, which encourage ownership and a voice in the learning process. They also provide an opportunity for authentic assessment by assessing the learner’s ability to use and apply the knowledge acquired in the learning process in the types of settings and situations where it is ultimately destined to be used. This is contrasted with approaches that use the number of facts or concepts that are memorised and reproduced under examination conditions. Transfer and application are also important outcomes of learning in the Studio-teaching approach.

The Role of Technology in the Pedagogy Technology is used in the Studio approach, not to deliver content, but to move the classroom focus from the teacher to the learner, and to create a more active and engaging climate for the learners. Oliver (1998) argues that such a shift will encourage learners to develop their understanding and their capacity to think and act critically. Students are encouraged to use hardware and software to create new Information Environments, and the World Wide Web is used to support communicative, collaborative and cooperative activities among students and teachers. The Studio approach aims to foster creativity, reflection, articulation and reasoning. All of these aspects are important lifelong learning skills and valuable graduate attributes. The purposeful use of technology and of group work is central to these aims. This approach to Studio-teaching and real-life projects can be applied so that both the students and the client benefit from a rich, industryorientated format. The nature of these outcomes is explained in the following section.

Final Product In accordance with the nature of the Studio pedagogy, the IE students were initially briefed about the nature of the project, technical attributes and the context of the material to be displayed. Over the eight-week duration of the project, the clients informed the development process for the design of the project, the creation of the initial concept designs and the selection of several preferred designs, which were short-listed through an online presentation. From this point the IE students were formed into Web design production teams. The structure of these teams was similar to professional Web design production teams, consisting of graphic designers, project managers, interface designers,



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programmers, and other relevant members of the team (DiNucci, Giudice, & Stiles, 1998). Communication with the clients was initially through video conferencing. This allowed personal initial introductions between students at the separate campuses, a more personal formation of conceptual ideas and increased project understanding between both parties. This level of discussion and the establishment of understanding were comparable to that which could be achieved through a physical meeting. By ‘breaking the ice’ through video feed, a familiarity between the clients and designers began to develop and continued through other less ‘physically constraining’ forms of communication. From this point, most communication and discussion occurred through e-mail and bulletin board discussion. During the group development process the client group reviewed the designs online through their Web sites. The clients provided feedback to the individual Web site production teams through use of e-mail. The evaluation of the process by the clients allowed prevalent issues about electronic news systems to be revealed. These were used to further the potential of the specific E-News project discussed here. Application of the Product: Online newspapers allow much easier archiving than traditional printed newspapers. They also provide increased potential for forward chronological linking through post-hoc modification. In a traditional newspaper, cross-referencing between stories can occur, but unless the reader has direct edition access to the previous linked stories the link is of minimal practical benefit. However, digital linking provides the potential for easy back referencing which allows the context to be further understood by the reader. Electronically enabled news also allows for easier forward chronological linking as well; that is, to provide links to relevant articles written after the one being currently read. This process requires post-hoc editing, an issue that is addressed in further detail later in this chapter. Multiple Layering: Multiple layering of digital information is a further advantage of E-News systems. Traditional news is subtly framed by story construction conventions deployed by mainstream journalists (Fuller, 1997). International news agency style, which was developed to send stories by telegraph, can be identified in newspapers, radio and television broadcasts across the world. This style usually demands a lead sentence, which summarises the key points followed by a second sentence, which provides context and a third, which consists of a direct quote (Cappon, 1982). Television reporting adds another dimension by layering on the perceived need for colourful moving pictures. News agency style explicitly shapes story construction while implicitly ordering and informing content selection. This process is recognised by public relations practitioners who create events which serve these stylistic demands and are therefore advantaged in the news making process. For example, news Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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releases are usually constructed in news style, so that they can be more easily integrated into material offered as news by journalists. According to Knight and Nakano (1998), events can be staged to satisfy news values linked to news style. The Internet allows stories to be multi-layered. For instance, a story delivered on the Internet can include hyperlinks to other sites which provide background information. News stories presented in this way can carry colour photographs, audio grabs and short QuickTime movies. Since all of these additional layers can be created, edited and lodged on the Web from a laptop in the field, gatekeepers who might misinterpret or even seek to censor the material can be excluded from the process (Stevens, 2002). This enables a trade-off between the levels of physical discontinuity and increased digital continuity which not only can achieve actions and events, but also report on current actions or situations from remote locations. Another important issue raised by an electronic news system is article ownership. In an ICT environment, initial ownership comes down to those who posted the article. However, a further issue of ownership revolves around the point about who should be able to edit the articles — the contributor only, or other associated parties. In an ICT-enabled process these issues relate to overall site management which can have an overall editor or have contributors as editors. Thus, the impacts of digital news delivery results in not only challenging the roles of journalism, but also in causing changes in the basic relationship between traditional news providers and the larger community. Such discussion begins to expose the potential of E-News for collaboration, community-based discussion and issue awareness in regional areas. The specific approach taken in this project builds upon these initial concepts of usability and informance and examines the potential of expanding them to achieve greater community awareness.

Community Journalism in Action The Web sites constructed by using the Studio approach went live at the end of eight weeks of consultative development. The end result was an online design presentation to the client groups which involved the client groups conducting user testing on the sites. The journalism students involved in the testing of the Web sites used them in a manner to reflect real life work. They achieved this by working in groups to upload an assortment of news stories which included images, video footage and sound files. This level of analysis of usability allowed further understanding of not only existing capacity but also potential applications for the E-News Web site to be explored. With such prototyping, inherent in the nature of ICT, it was possible to examine the constraints of these Internet applications, in terms of social control, collaboration and technical approaches. This experimentation revealed the potential of E-News systems to act as tools for improving community informatics Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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in regional settings. The final site structures developed in this manner clearly demonstrated the potential of E-News as a collaborative community tool. The final sites developed through the processes outlined above consisted of two major sections: the public Web site that displayed the articles, and the administration section that enabled the uploading of articles and associated files by journalists. The administration section required a login access which provided some level of control (see Figure 2). This administration section enabled the journalists to be able to upload, edit and delete their stories with relative ease, through an easily used Web-based system (as shown in Figure 3). Journalists only needed to enter a title and summary and cut-and-paste the story into the text field. Adding the local file name and location on the computer through a series of simple online operations uploaded all associated files. In some sites, the ability to choose the location of a file-based image was also provided. When a story was uploaded, journalists were able to view the layout of the article and remove it if it was considered that the layout was unsuitable for public viewing. This provided a very useable means for editorial control. An extensive help section was created to guide less experienced users through the process of uploading stories. Online collaborative communities are not a new concept. Particular issue Web sites, such as Rugby Online (www.rugbyonline.com.au), have been focusing and drawing together like-minded people interested in particular topics. There are also many Web sites such as Yahoo groups (groups.yahoo.com) dedicated to allowing individuals to start their own groups for discussion, and

Figure 2. Administration Login Page


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Figure 3. Adding News Articles

where people can moderate and manage their own lists. Using the Internet for connecting people who reside in the same spatial area or who have similar geoand socio-economic circumstances is not yet quite as common as the more wellknown global approaches. This style of Web site connects people of a spatial location and allows them to communicate about a range of issues that affect them as members of that community. Whilst some online newspapers such as the Sydney Morning Herald (www.smh.com.au) do provide a level of regional information, they do not provide the ability for readers to act as a content provider. As an example of the type of Web site approach now making its appearance in communities all over the world, a recent initiative by a local government in Victoria, Australia, has begun to see online regional community collaboration increase in particular areas. For example, the Moreland Community Council trialled an E-Discussion forum and electronic newsletter for local residents. This E-Discussion forum worked through an e-mail list system to share information rather than a Web site which was viewable by the whole community (www.moreland.vic.gov.au/news/mr190802.htm). The E-News system has the ability to provide not only a supplementary online news service but also an asynchronous collaborative medium for sharing local content news in regional communities.

Advantages and Potential of E-News The E-News system has a number of very clear advantages. It allows for not only increased flexibility, but also for greater media utilisation through processes easily accessible to regional communities. The major attributes which Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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make the system beneficial as both a journalistic tool and a collaborative community medium are described below.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY The key underlying aim of developing and examining this system was to enable users who only have basic computer skills to be able to competently use the Web site, by providing usable layout, well-structured pages, simple upload mechanisms and clear instructions. As home adoption of Internet technology increases in developing and developed countries alike, the basic computer literacy is increasing. The system developed here only requires basic Web searching capacity. Another aspect of access for E-News is access to basic computer equipment inside the regional community. Effective community use of an E-News facility does not require all community members to have Internet access. Rather, it requires that some of the key players (community figures, such as head of schools, mayors, community leaders and so on) have access, with others in the community being able to access the Internet. Whether this occurs through public or private resources is not relevant, just as long as large sections of the community can be involved in E-News with limited effort. It is in this sense that the community can be and is actually involved, which ultimately drives the usability of the E-News system. Synchronous news delivery is made possible by such a system, by enabling users to contribute online and in real-time. A synergy is formed through this level of collaboration with the ICT facilitating the community interaction. Future directions for this E-News system are considered later in this chapter in terms of community interaction and involvement while considering the technical attributes and constraints. The system employs a considerable level of flexibility involving such attributes as multiple file types and cut-and-paste which reduce the need for a content editor through real-time synchronicity. Further explanation of the role of editors continues in the discussion related to community below. As with normal practice of e-lists, E-News systems can be moderated or un-moderated. Moderated lists obviously require more effort from employed or voluntary resources. This can be in the form of formal editors or subject specialist voluntary moderators. The system described above may be seen to blur the lines between bulletin boards1 and online newspapers. The expiry date of news articles for E-News is relatively short in the traditional sense. The E-News online equivalent to ‘letters-to-the-editor’ may be implemented as a bulletin board. Essentially, readers may post comments related to articles that in turn may be replied to by other readers. Such an interactive Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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discussion is called a ‘thread’. 2 Through adding aspects of bulletin boards and online newspapers, a richer online environment for E-News can be created by merging these two systems. Such an approach allows the E-News service to not just disseminate news but to also encourage community involvement.

Community E-News aims to bring journalism to the community. However, by developing such an online environment to aid journalism delivery, it may also contribute to bringing community to journalism. The system described above has added to existing mechanisms of traditional journalism, and in so doing, has expanded the scope of journalism to include informative members of the community. This has enabled the E-News service to adapt the potential nature of interaction between community members with traditional news services. Such community involvement provides challenges to the traditional roles of journalists and editors. An initial step could involve the selection of community members that have trusted status to publish online. These community members would have the ability to write their own articles on local situations, events or public comments. Essentially this allows a set of ‘grass roots’ journalists to bring the mass media back to the community level. This is an extension of public journalism, which not only displays topical information but also engages the community through readers’ opinions and values. ‘The public journalists newspaper is doing what the conscientious citizen would do given the time and resources to do it’ (Rosen & Merritt, 1994). It opens an opportunity to engage in the user’s stories through community discourse, which enforces a reader’s sense of involvement and their perceptions of worthiness to state an opinion. This community interaction provides a potential catalyst for regional areas to regain a holistic feeling of belonging. Interactivity: Traditional journalism has a distinct hierarchy of structure in its nature, with editorial control being applied across all stories and their headlines. The traditional role of the journalist is challenged by empowering untrained community members to make contributions of newsworthy items in a public place of mass dissemination. This challenges the traditional role of the editor in as much as the editorial role is thus devolved to the individual contributors. This can result in the contributors growing to be part of a trusted community who self-publish on a credible site which has regional community ownership in the same sense as a daily print newspaper. It is worth noting that this approach varies with the ability of contributors to post discussion and editorial comment adding to existing stories rather than the simple posting of articles. Figure 4 depicts the overlap in the roles of community, writers and key community members. It is possible for a system to be structured in such a way that the approach of traditional journalism is encompassed in the new system. From a journalistic approach, this requires the editor to moderate stories, and from an ICT approach, Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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Figure 4. The Nature of Connections with E-News

a Web master to manage the structure of the site. However, these roles can be encapsulated into one, essentially combining the editor and the typesetter (i.e., Webmaster). For a community, this results in the hierarchy of information providers being diminished, allowing open discussion to occur, and encouraging greater community awareness. Real-time synchronicity: Real-time synchronicity allows contributors to engage with E-News systems at several levels. This occurs directly, by encouraging interaction through discussion on community issues, but also indirectly by fostering community awareness. This occurs because users can interact (chat) in real-time, thus encouraging an approach that through its very nature, is community-orientated. In such a site, even with contributor moderation, a greater sense of local ownership can occur, and may lead to encouraging the community as a whole to interact and participate in the ‘local’ online newspaper. Ownership: The issues of ownership essentially arise from adding and editing articles post-hoc completion. From an ICT perspective, the implications of ownership are almost non-existent. The ICT can be structured to deliver any ownership situation that is desired. The issue resides with the sense of ownership from a community viewpoint. If community control is achieved, as discussed in areas above, post-hoc altering can encourage: • Forward chronological editing to articles, • Additional information added to a story, thus enriching the reader’s experience, and • Information updates to correct errors.


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Essentially, this approach adds to the community’s body of knowledge. So if the approach outlined here can be so beneficial to community journalism, there is the question of what can work against its implementation. Major issues are article ownership and authenticity. In cases where people are free to update, correct and change the article content, who owns the article and is it credible information? Thus, the potential to free journalism from the traditional constraints which restrain and centralise control of public knowledge through online collaboration raises questions about comment ownership and all of its legal implications, authenticity and community demand. However, we suggest that like most other products of technology, community based E-Journalism should be seen as an adjunct rather than a substitute for traditional journalism offered online. Web sites such as the Sydney Morning Herald Online (http://www.smh.com.au) or the Washington Post Online (http:/ /www.washingtonpost.com) continue to attract significant hits in part because they offer badged information, which is presented in recognisable and therefore more easily assessable packages. These packages are framed by the publishers’ familiar political, cultural and social assumptions (news values) and contain stories created within journalistic conventions including notions of accuracy, fairness and writing styles. In light of this complimentary approach, the creators of local newspapers, which in the case of smaller circulations are run by those who have a community interest rather than just those who are professionally trained, can benefit. Developing a resource which encourages and allows the sharing of news, views and information in a continuous format, rather than on a weekly or fortnightly basis as is traditional in print formats increases community awareness and knowledge of local events and happenings. While stories made available through this means can be seen as subjectively selected and assembled arguments, there is a qualitative difference between journalism, which should contain identifiable reference points (quotes and undoctored photos), and unsubstantiated rumour or intentional misinformation. It follows that consumers might more easily judge a Washington Post report of President Bush’s latest news conference than a Matt Drudge (Drudge, 1998) essay based on anonymous tip-offs from the Web. While all community members who wish to contribute to the online formats outlined here should be considered equal, the information they produce should and could not be considered equally informed. One only has to log into any one of hundreds of Web sites, such as Yahoo’s Washington Politics Arena, to see ignorance, arrogance, national chauvinism and unbridled racism paraded as the free exchange of ideas. In this sense, journalism’s hierarchical gate-keepers (editors) can be seen to be responsibly serving communities by excluding vilification, defamation and intentional rumour mongering. Freedom of speech demands responsible contributors as well as a discerning public, if it is to underpin democratic decision-making3. The Internet provides Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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the public with greater choices but it does not necessarily validate the information it makes available. The legality surrounding the publication of electronic material is an evolving area of law. As a rule of thumb, the common legislation of publishing printed material tends to apply in the virtual realm as well. This encompasses such issues such as defamation of character, slander, mis-representation, privacy, and intellectual property. While this is not an area of expertise for the authors of this chapter, there are still several general issues that require addressing in this discourse. From a legal standpoint, all users should be required to register before they can upload information to an E-News type of Web site. This essentially makes each user accountable for the material they upload, and also associates a user’s name with an entry which results in an informal community moderation process. From an ICT perspective, the Web site administrator (responsible for technical issues) could potentially double as a secondary moderator. It is also possible with the use of smart coding to have the system scan all articles upon upload. The kind of technology is currently used on forum (chat) Web sites to either remove or replace offensive language with emoticons (icons, to imply the desired expression). Ultimately, by making users responsible for their own content and producing automatic safeguards on derogatory language, constructive community discussion can occur online. Further, it is possible to require individual computer registration before access is granted. The potential of E-News as a tool for collaborative interaction at the regional community level is apparent. The ability of any community member to deliver information in a near synchronous format, to a wider audience, encourages a level of interactivity and a sense of belonging not limited by physical constraints. With such a system which enables grass-roots journalists to express views on events, E-News can work as a stimulant in community informatics for encouraging community practice (development, service and action) in regional areas.

Future Trends The full potential of the E-News system has not yet been realised. The system described in this development shows the potential for online community journalism which at the same time could be applied to issues of issue-based collaboration inside a community. From an ICT perspective, E-News is flexible, interactive and adaptable, and can build upon the base of the traditional newspaper. From the community viewpoint, E-News can potentially be of great value by bringing journalism to the community, the community to journalism, increasing community awareness of local issues, providing new opportunities for community involvement in news, providing a basis for community action and increasing the sense of place which has been thus far threatened by all forms of new technology. However, issues of authenticity and the legal issues surrounding this are still problematical areas. This project has demonstrated the ‘do-ability’ Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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of such an approach; however, there is great scope for research into application issues. The future of such an approach described here lies in the ability to not only draw the community together, but for the system to be used as a vehicle for providing community standpoints to an external audience. The result is a potentially well-formed discussion catalyst and entity to encourage community cohesion.

Information Technology From an information technology viewpoint the E-News approach has very few constraints. The real benefit of E-News lies in the flexibility of the system, providing information upon demand by the readers combined with delivery on demand by the contributors. The two exciting areas in which ICT enabled regional news can be further explored are in ‘threads’ and ‘moderation’. The concept of threads can be taken one step further than the majority of current use. Using threads, stories can be linked to other articles that contain relevant information, expanding the body of supporting knowledge that both a contributor can rely upon and a reader can obtain. Viewing these ‘threads’ and previous discussions provides a further understanding and contextualisation of other articles posted. Moving to more editorial control can deliver an ability to connect threads between discussions and link them to related articles. Through maintenance of editorial control, contributors need only have average computer skills — in particular the need for skills in linking articles or discussion through hypertext. This inverse relationship between level of moderation and skill level required can be shown in Figure 5. Through the expansion of technological aspects, the usability of E-News is in turn increased. With the increasing access and uptake of Internet technologies, the nature of Web-based news systems such as that briefly described here, will result in increased possibilities for many communities in both developing and developed situations.

COMMUNITY From a community viewpoint, the potential of the E-News approach needs to be dynamic and informative. The future trends need to incorporate the formation of virtual communities to support the physically distinct locations, whilst enabling these groups to interact both as groups and as individuals with the greater virtual world. The current E-News approach incorporates substantial community involvement through grass-roots journalism and an increased feeling of belonging as



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Figure 5. The Trade-Off of Skills to Centralised Editorial Control

Level of moderation

Level of skill set required

mentioned above. Because of its ability to be a catalyst for extending community interactivity and awareness, the future potential for E-News approaches are numerous. Some of the more easily achievable extensions are outlined below: Forum: A relatively synchronous, two-way interactivity. This application will allow more direct discussion beyond the scope of merely posting comments to articles, thus encouraging continuous communication. Interactive Newsletter: Such a newsletter could focus on a lower level of involvement through one-way asynchronous interactivity, thus encouraging engagement with people who are interested and want to be aware but who are passive consumers. Empowerment: The technology and its applications briefly outlined above allow people to choose their own level of involvement. The relatively low threshold, both journalistically and technically, empowers people to become involved at whichever level they desire. Community Journalists: Community journalists can push information into the system, whilst allowing news consumers to discriminate what they draw from the E-News site. Future trends are towards an increasing percentage of the community having computer access, which allows an increase in push technology. The involvement of community journalists is shown in the following diagram (Figure 6). The various levels of synergy between intra- and inter-community interaction are shown in Figure 6. The involvement of community journalists is depicted in Figure 6 and shows that the E-News system can be a catalyst for intracommunity interaction. In a larger setting, the ability for communities to interact with each other as a whole can be motivated to a level of a co-ordinated local public approach. The holistic virtual community can also act to enable substantial interaction, through a critical mass, with society. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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Figure 6. The Levels of Community Interaction Surrounding E-News

In this way individual members of particular communities can be engaged in discussion at a societal level. This empowerment mediated through an E-News approach increases the value of community discourse at an intra-, inter- and societal level.

CONCLUSIONS The experience described here, when coupled with similar experiences all around the world, demonstrates that the limiting factors of the E-News systems are in the bounds of community values and traditional organisational restraint, rather than in technology. By challenging the traditional roles of journalism through approaches similar to E-News, there is large potential for regional communities to make better use of Internet technologies in a social context through the resultant interaction that these approaches can deliver. This provides a framework to consider how regional community-based journalism may be reconceptualised. This chapter has also demonstrated that there is value in using studio pedagogy to develop and test real life projects without affecting future success prospects through adverse experiences in undertaking pilot projects. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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ENDNOTES 1

2

3

A system that enables users to send or read electronic messages, files, and other data that is of general interest and addressed to no particular person. A thread is a set of posts on a newsgroup, composed of an initial post about a topic and all responses to it. First Amendment, US Bill of Rights.

REFERENCES Brown, A. (1997). Designing for learning: What are the essential features of an effective online course? Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 13(2) 115-126. Cappon, R. (1991). Associated press guide to news writing: A handbook for writers from America’s leading news service. New York: Macmillan. De Fleur, M. (1997). Computer assisted investigative reporting. NJ: Erlbaum Associates. Di Nucci, D., Giudice, M., & Stiles, L. (1998). Elements of web design. Berkeley, CA: Peachpit Press. Drudge, M. (1998). Anyone with a modem can report on the world. National Press Club Address. Retrieved November 4, 2002 from: http:// 216.247.220.66/archives/drudge/drudge.htm. Fuller, J. (1997). News values: Ideas for an information age. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Jonassen, D. & Reeves, T. (1996). Learning with technology: Using computers as cognitive tools. In Jonassen, D. (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Educational Communications and Technology (pp. 693-719). New York: Macmillan. Jonassen, D., Mayes, T., & McAleese, R. (1993). A manifesto for a constructivist approach to uses of technology in higher education. In Duffy, T., Lowyck, J., & Jonassen, D. (Eds.), Designing Environments for Constructivist Learning (pp. 231-247). Berlin: Springer-Verlag. Knight, A. & Nakano, Y. (1998). Reporting Hong Kong. London: Curzon. Lebow, D. (1993). Constructivist values for instructional systems design: Five principles toward a new mindset. Educational Technology Research and Development, 41(3), 4-16. Oliver, R. (1998). Teaching and learning on the World Wide Web: A guide for teachers. Perth, Australia: Edith Cowan University. Rosen, J. & Merrit, D. (1994). Public journalism: Theory and practice. Dayton, OH: Kettering Foundation. Shuell, T. (1986). Cognitive conceptions of learning. Review of Educational Research, 56, 411-436. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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Simon, H.A. (1960). The new science of management decision. New York: Harper & Row. Stevens, J. (2002) Backpack journalism is here to stay. Online Journalism Review. Retrieved November 4, 2002 from: http://www.ojr.org/ojr/workplace/1017771575.php.


E-Business Structures for Regional Tourism Organisations

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Chapter XVIII

Regional Tourism and the Internet: E-Business Structures for Regional Tourism Organisations Dean Carson, Southern Cross University, Australia Pramod Sharma, University of Queensland, Australia Iain Waller, Southern Cross University, Australia

ABSTRACT Tourism, and especially regional tourism, is facing the same challenges that have emerged in most industry sectors as a result of online technology availability. There are concerns that access to tourism products are likely to be impeded if online technologies are not effectively employed by the whole tourism industry in Australia. A common understanding of the purpose of engaging online is critical to the development of sustainable models for regional tourism organisations. This paper discusses a case where FRANK (The Framework of Regional Tourism and Network Knowledge) was used to help a tourism organisation describe their approach to E-business development. The framework emerges from the four Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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Carson, Sharma and Waller

considerations discussed in this paper: governance, value adding, positioning and evaluation.

INTRODUCTION Online technologies have had an enormous influence on communications and product promotion and distribution for the tourism industry worldwide (see Sheldon, 1997; Buhalis, 1998; O’Connor, 1999; Werthner & Klein, 1999; World Tourism Organisation, 1999). These technologies have contributed to expanding potential markets for tourism products and improving the efficiencies in managing relationships between enterprises and industry, government, and consumers (Sharma, Carson & DeLacy, 2000). In Australia, key consumer markets are already using the Internet as a primary source of information about tourism products, and are increasingly looking to book and purchase those products online (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2000). However, despite the considerable progress, there are concerns that access to tourism products is likely to be impeded if online technologies are not effectively employed by the whole tourism industry in Australia (Department of Industry, Science and Resources, 2000). These concerns include: • Overly optimistic assumptions about the utility and beneficial impact of online technologies for ALL tourism businesses. These assumptions run the risk of ignoring the real ‘divides’ of the Australian tourism industry, e.g., between large and small players, between major centre enterprises and regional rural enterprises, and between Indigenous enterprises and others. • Concern that small and medium tourism enterprises (SMTEs) may be deterred from participating in the online economy. • Concern about the processes used to move online. SMTEs are perceived to have poor business planning skills generally; much of the impetus to adopt technologies comes from technology vendors; planning advice for online technologies focuses on design rather than utility. As a recent study has observed “…the key to a wider use of information, its analysis and application, should not just rely on educating the SME sector on the benefits of IT adoption, but also in fostering a planning orientation which will encourage management to utilise their existing capabilities more fully” (Bridge & Peel, 1999, p. 86). • Previous research has concentrated largely on the ‘usability’ (effectiveness) of the Web site from a consumer perspective (e.g., Weeks & Crouch, 1999) rather than ‘usability’/effectiveness from the business perspective of the enterprise, i.e., contribution to the ‘bottom line’. Regional Tourism Organisations (RTOs) have been brought into this environment as a result of their perceived role in supporting SMTEs (Benckendorff Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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& Black, 2000). RTOs across Australia have developed Internet sites that have been reported as focussed almost entirely on promotional functions rather than issues of integration and functionality within the broad range of RTO business objectives and processes (Carson & Sharma, 2001; Benckendorff, 1999). The literature clearly identifies four considerations in developing E-business strategies for RTOs: governance of E-business applications; value adding to business objectives/practices; positioning; and evaluation. This chapter describes the four considerations and reports on a case study of a Regional Tourism Organisation and its experience with E-business development.

Governance In organisations with limited experience with information technology, Internet applications often become the domain of outsourced agencies such as Web site designers and ISPs (Reedy, Schullo, & Zimmerman, 2002). In some cases, a dislocation of online activities and offline activities results. Governance issues involve not only ensuring that appropriate decisions are made about outsourcing and the agencies contracted for specific tasks, but that the organisation retains control of the development of its E-business. There are financial and legal implications of poor governance structures, as well as a reduction in the overall effectiveness of online initiatives. Poor governance also often leads to poor consideration of the costs and benefits of Web site (and other online applications) development. In many destination-marketing organisations, online activities have been costed separately to ‘core’ business and other marketing ventures (Vaughan, Jolley, & Mehrer, 1999). This demonstrates a lack of recognition of the role of the Internet in value adding to business practices (Gretzel, Yuan, & Fesenmaier, 2000). Costs and benefits should be instead reviewed in a ‘whole of strategy’ approach which sees the Internet as an essential component of business practices and marketing campaigns.

Business Objectives Over the past three years, many organisations have struggled to develop sustainable online business models (Reedy, Schullo, & Zimmerman, 2000). In the case of RTOs, this struggle has been reflected in a lack of impetus to manage content (particularly updating dynamic content), and a dislocation between online activities and RTO activities generally reflected in poor handling of online inquiries and spiralling costs of managing online applications. In many cases, the technology and the technology providers have been allowed to lead the development of the business through the Web site. Where this happens, poor performance is inevitable. Online applications must be developed and maintained on the


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basis of clear integration with the business objectives of the RTO (Werthner & Klein, 1999). The Cooperative Research Centre for Sustainable Tourism1 developed a framework (tagged ‘online architecture’) for classifying the range of functions which supported the use of online technologies (Sharma & Carson, 2000). The framework suggested that all businesses should evaluate their online initiatives according to the contributions made to: 1. Communication — online technologies allow communication both into and out from the organisation. Many organisations focus on how to deliver information to consumers and partners using the Internet, but it also serves an important function in receiving information. 2. Research — the Internet contains a range of information which may be of value to the organisation. Organisations need to be aware of the total range of relevant information on the Internet, and position their contribution to that information accordingly. Organisations can also use the Internet to maintain internal knowledge. 3. Promotion — the Internet theoretically provides a global audience. However, the sheer volume of information on the Internet, and the shortcomings of search engines in providing good access to this information, make audience identification and reach strategies at least as important as for offline promotional strategies. In addition, effective promotional information online needs to be dynamic, and allow audience response. 4. Product Distribution — Tourism product is readily distributed using Internet technologies as its fulfillment requirements are suited to ‘virtual’ purchase. Product distribution technologies include E-commerce as well as other technologies to facilitate bookings without payment. 5. Internal Management — Research has conclusively shown that Internet strategies fail unless use of the Internet is accepted as the norm within the organisation. For network organisations such as RTOs, this presents substantial challenges. However, internal functions, especially communications, are effectively handled in the online environment. Training and professional development, financial management, and regulatory compliance are also potential online functions. Significantly, successful online projects are managed in such a way as to ensure that benefits are delivered throughout the organisation and its partners. Table 1 provides some indication of the potentials, risks, and requirements associated with typical online applications as identified in the literature. Potentials enable an organisation to increase efficiencies or otherwise profit from technology change. Risks occur both in the sense of unfulfilled potential, and in increased costs to human and financial resources. Requirements identify the resource implications of any technology change. Assessing whether the Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


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Table 1. Potentials, Risks, and Requirements of Online Applications Application COMMUNICATION Implementation of e-mail

RESEARCH Link outs to complementary/ partner sites

Potentials Enhanced record keeping Fewer ‘missed’ communication Cheaper transmission of text and graphical information Better customer service Enhanced partner relationships

PROMOTION Advertising material posted online

Increased reach Dynamic material Lower costs of distribution

PRODUCT DISTRIBUTION Electronic booking facility

Faster fulfilment of booking enquiries Enhanced record keeping

MANAGEMENT Online distribution of internal newsletter

Improved internal communication

Risks Aversion to using e-mail Communication responsibilities not made clear E-mail overload Dead links Inaccurate information at linked sites Copy produced twice Information not consistent online vs. offline Undesired expansion of business functions Inefficient cost recovery model Newsletter not accessed

Requirements Staff training Clear protocols

Awareness of partner online projects Monitoring of content and link addresses Integration of online project with other promotional projects Capacity to respond to inquiries Inventory management system Comprehensive technical support Commitment to publishing schedule Response to return communications

organisation is able to implement systems which avert risk and fulfil requirements is at least important in calculating the viability of an online project as is calculating the direct financial cost.

Positioning In terms of consumers and their content expectations, it is important to recognise that any RTO will have a range of target audiences, and that the content expectations of these audiences will differ. Communications initiatives, including Web site development, must recognise the range of audiences and where the RTO information fits in relation to the total volume of information accessed by those audiences (Lawrence et al., 2000). In general, the larger the geographic scope of a RTO Web site, the less detailed information is expected to be (Balaglu & McCleary, 1999). This creates a ‘flow down’ model wherein consumers require generic region branding information from national scope Web sites (such as ‘See Australia’ http://www.seeaustralia.com.au); information about activities, events, and showcase product from state or ‘super region’ Web sites (such as those operated by State Tourism Organisations); more comprehensive product information and itineraries from regional Web sites; and detailed product information, including booking and transaction facilities where appropriate from product sites (Benckendorff, 1999). The literature also identifies ‘function specific’ target audiences for online marketing. These are groups of consumers or businesses that have a known and specific reason for gathering information at an identified point in time (Frew & O’Connor, 1999). Examples of this approach include: delegates at tourism trade exhibitions where the region is represented; consumers responding to a promotion event (also known as ‘markets in a role’) such as a national media campaign; Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

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and existing or potential suppliers of products for exhibitions and campaigns. The information needs of these groups are detailed and predictable. However, these groups also have a low ‘information search’ tolerance. In other words, if the information they expect is not clearly identifiable and quickly available, they become less likely to respond to calls to action. These audiences are unlikely to adopt ‘browse’ behaviour online (Buhalis, 1998).

Evaluation Many models of Web site evaluation focus on content, design, and technical performance (Lawrence et al., 2000). A more complete evaluation process would also include considerations of contribution to business functions, and interactivity (Reedy, Schullo, & Zimmerman, 2002; Weeks & Crouch, 1999). Content evaluation considers the quality and quantity of content on the Web site, along with its relevance and accuracy. Indications are also sought that content is well-maintained and consistent with other content provided by the organisation. A content evaluation will also consider the relationship between content on the organisation’s Web site, and content on partner/competitor Web sites. Design and technical performance criteria include: layout and navigation; simplicity and aesthetic appeal; speed; stability; scalability; and the overall creativity and appropriateness of design and technical features. Significantly, these criteria must be assessed in relationship to the functions of the Web site, rather than the ‘cleverness’ of the technology used (Weeks & Crouch, 1999). In evaluating performance against business functions and interactivity, Web sites can be reviewed according to the online architecture (Carson & Sharma, 2002). Web sites must add value to the communication, research, promotion, product distribution, and management functions of RTOs (Borge, 2000). There must be clear target audiences, and clear strategies for managing relationships with these (internal and external) audiences. Relationship management can be facilitated through appropriate use of interactive technology (Tierney, 2000). Issues such as inquiry management and the Web site’s ‘call to action’ are also important in this context. The current research involves a case study of an RTO and its experiences with developing E-business applications. The following case study is used in this chapter to illustrate the four considerations described above. The RTO examined here has since reviewed its E-business strategy, and a planning tool has been developed to facilitate that process. The remainder of this chapter will detail the characteristics of the case study against the four considerations, and describe the FRANK (Framework for Regional Tourism and Network Knowledge) framework which can be used as a planning tool for improved E-business strategy for RTOs and tourism businesses generally.



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E-BUSINESS AND THE CASE STUDY RTO Commercial-in-confidence considerations preclude the authors from specifically identifying the case study RTO. It is a small tourism region consisting of two local government areas. The region is approximately two hours’ drive from a state capital. Its major tourism markets are short break (‘romantic getaways’) and wine/food tourism. The region is successful in terms of visitor numbers, but faces issues of seasonality (especially poor visitation mid-week), and the need to manage a growing international market. The RTO is administered by a board made up primarily of industry representatives. Membership of the board is at an association level only (i.e., individual operators cannot be members of the board). There are four Local Tourism Associations, two industry associations, and two local councils represented on the board. The objectives of the board are:

Strategic Objective To establish the regional tourism strategy that will position the area as a premier national and international tourism destination based on sustainable principles.

Marketing Objective To establish and implement the marketing plans and structures that will grow tourism yield through a cooperative single-region approach.

Industry Development Objective To establish the industry development plans, networks and structures that will influence the professional and sustainable growth of tourism businesses and infrastructure while enhancing natural and community environments.

Corporate Objective To establish and implement effective organisational structures, communication networks and administrative processes to support ongoing tourism marketing and development programs. In summary, the board is charged with implementing strategies to market the region externally through cooperation of product and other stakeholders. Further analysis of strategies to achieve these objectives suggest that the programs are aimed at consumer direct cooperative marketing ventures through a variety of media, and trade show/wholesale travel buyer audiences. The RTO has invested heavily in identifying target markets, and has adopted a strategic as opposed to a ‘shotgun’ approach to reach these markets.


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Case Study RTO and the Internet In 1999, the board successfully applied, via a University partner, for federal government funding to develop an Internet presence. The funding was provided to the University partner for two years to develop a Web site which was required to meet some minimum criteria. These criteria included: • Promotion of product in the region • Demonstration of technology transfer through remote authoring systems for product on the Web site • Capacity for the Web site to deliver promotion campaigns • Development of an E-commerce facility for product distribution • Integration of community information (such as heritage information) with product promotion information On commencement of the project, a project manager was appointed by the University partner, and a steering committee was appointed by the board. The site was developed under the criteria established in the grant contract. Funding under the grant ceased in June 2002. The board used this opportunity to review the site and evaluate the effectiveness of their Internet presence.

Case Study Methodology The case study methodology was derived from the ‘Tourism Online: Getting Value’ approach developed by the Cooperative Research Centre for Sustainable Tourism (Sharma & Carson, 2002). The methodology involved the conduct of semi-structured interviews with stakeholder representatives. The key stakeholders (with indication of their stake) were: 1. The Regional Tourism Board • Contributed to grant funding • Technically the owner of the site 2. The four Regional Tourism Associations • Board members • Content providers and key intermediaries with products who supply content 3. Tourism enterprises in the region • Content providers 4. Specific enterprises who had accessed the E-commerce facility • Content providers • Invested financially in developing the E-commerce facility 5. Local Governments in the region • Board members 6. The State Tourism Organisation • Is responsible for the core funding of the RTO



7. 8.

• • • •

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The University partner • Has developed the existing site The ISP and site host • Have contributed in-kind to site development through reduced hosting rates and technical support Interviews were structured around issues of: Level of engagement with the project Perceptions of past performance of the project Identification of key issues relating to the future of the project Suggested models for carrying the project forward

RESULTS The information elicited from the interviews was initially analysed individually by each of the authors to determine the meaning of the commentaries and the direction of these meanings in comparison with other interviewees. The three authors then collectively shared their conclusions and derived an aggregation of the meanings and directions to construct the results. There was a large degree of agreement between stakeholders concerning both their past experience with the Web site and the vision for the future of online technologies for the board. Overall, there was a high level of engagement with the project. Stakeholders have invested goodwill in the project. General perceptions of performance of the Web site had been good. However, there had been a strong feeling that the project had focused on delivering the technology rather than delivering business. Local Tourism Associations had been concerned about how they integrate Web-based systems into their operations, and how they evaluate use of the Web. There had been a poor experience with the Ecommerce component of the current project where a working piece of technology (the E-commerce ‘engine’) had been compromised by a lack of sound business planning behind the venture. All stakeholders recognised that the sustainable future of the Web project would be based on delivering information and communication consistent with the business objectives of the board. It was generally agreed that the board should concentrate on targeted cooperative marketing ventures, and provide a ‘portal’ for less structured product information housed through other RTO and individual product sites. There was also a perceived need for the board to facilitate sustainable Web applications for member LTAs, and to more effectively use the Web for internal communications.


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Governance There was a clear desire by the board and the stakeholders generally to engage with online technologies, given the prominence of the Internet in the distribution of travel and tourism products. In the past, the online project had been substantially managed without direct input from the board. The steering committee was labelled as largely ineffective. The Web site had been administered by the project manager appointed by the University partner, and the project manager had made decisions about the scope and nature of Internet applications. In some cases, these were in direct contradiction to campaigns being run offline by the board. For example, a ‘Valentine’s Day’ package promoted online was not a feature of the board’s campaign strategy for that year. In essence, there was a feeling that the Web site had become a second board, administered by the University partner. The board had considered the ongoing development of the Web site (once grant funding was expended) as an additional cost to the organisation. There was no sense that sufficient benefits had accrued to allow the Web site to become a core component of the board’s activities. This view was not universally shared amongst stakeholders. For example, Local Tourism Associations (LTAs) saw enormous value in the board as an agent of technology transfer — providing a framework in which LTAs could improve their online skills. Enterprises saw value in the Web site as a public display of their attachment to the region and its objectives.

Business Objectives While there could be many online applications which may be considered of value for tourism enterprises and other related interests in the region, the capacity for the board to sustain an online project would be determined by the consistency of the project with the board’s overall business objectives. Stakeholders could be disappointed with the direction of the online project, but the business objectives implied limitations on what could be managed and resourced through the board, irrespective of the activity under consideration. To reduce the burden of maintaining content and strategies online, there must be strong coordination between online and offline activities of the board. For example, content produced for traditional offline publications must be available for posting online. Target audiences must be aligned as closely as possible. Methods for managing contact with target audiences (consumers, intermediaries, trade) online would ideally be identical to those offline in regards to: management responsibilities; turnaround times; and nature of information/ response.



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Positioning Stakeholders were aware of a number of partner/competitor Web sites which seemed to replicate many of the functions of the board Web site. Specifically, the Web site was limited to product promotion information that was not specifically targeted at identified consumer audiences. It was felt that not enough attention had been given to the role of the board site in relation to these other sites. Table 2 illustrates the types of online information stakeholders considered to be important to marketing the region, and the organisational responsibilities they perceived for this information. Clearly, stakeholders perceived important roles for the board online; however, they also saw the need to manage these roles within the total scope of online information about the region. There was no system in place for evaluating the Web site against recognised criteria. Stakeholders were asked to comment on their impression of the site against a specific set of criteria: content; design; technical performance; business functions; and interactivity. The existing site performed well in design and technical capacity. There were some concerns regarding content (particularly the limited types of content), business functions (the limited number of functions being performed online), and interactivity. The call to action and inquiry management processes were inconsistent. Many product sub-sites had no contact details, and most inquiries were managed by the University partner without reference to the Board. Design and technical capacity rated very highly, although there were some concerns about core navigation issues around accessing content levels according to enterprise names rather than locations, which was a concern for some stakeholders.

LESSONS FROM THE CASE STUDY This case study has highlighted the need for Regional Tourism Organisations to more clearly identify the role that online technologies will play in their business. The region was aware of the potential benefits of online business in the broad sense, but had been unable to convert these to practical outcomes. The resultant issues were a lack of good governance, a lack of long-term planning, and poor positioning within the total online environment for marketing the destination. This case study points to the need for a model to help Regional Tourism Organisations develop better online applications. Such a model would include identification of WHO online applications are directed at, HOW they perform their role in the total business, and WHAT needs to be done to develop such applications. To conclude this paper, the authors propose one such model.


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Table 2. Nature of Online Content and Perceived Responsibility

Nature of Content Product promotion to consumers Generic destination information (including general descriptions, heritage…) Information aimed at media audiences Cooperative marketing material (consumer oriented) Cooperative marketing material (trade oriented) Communications with trade and industry partners Communications with Board members Communications with operators E-commerce

Responsibility Local Tourism Associations (LTAs) State Tourism Organisation Individual product sites LTAs Other community sites

Board Board LTAs State Tourism Organisation Board State Tourism Organisation Board Board LTAs State Tourism Organisation Individual product sites

FRANK The Framework of Regional Tourism and Network Knowledge (FRANK) provides a means for tourism organisations to more adequately describe their approach to E-business development. The Framework emerges from the four main considerations discussed in this paper, and guides planning in relation to these considerations. The core components of the framework are: 1. Identifying the target audiences for E-business applications 2. Describing the organisation’s ambitions in building relationships with these audiences 3. Describing the online tactics which could be used to add value to relationships 4. Identifying a reach strategy to maximise audience awareness of the online applications Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

Tactics Make reports, reviews and other key documents available Online discussion forum Post significant internal documents online

Reach Strategy Board meetings reinforce availability of material

Local Tourism Associations and Visitor Information Centres

Maintain and enhance information flow Provide input and assistance/ coordination of LTA web sites Increase consumer access to VIC services

Coordinate web marketing committee involving LTAs

Tourism Enterprises

Technology transfer Encourage participation in RTO activities

Local Government

Provide information about RTO activities Encourage support for tourism initiatives Raise awareness of the value of tourism Contributing to sense of community Provide access to product ‘packages’ tailored to specific targets

Post critical documents online Provide portal service to LTA web sites via a geographic interface Assist LTAs with web management protocols/ standards Protocols for managing visitor enquiries via email ‘development’ site to enable enterprises to explore online possibilities in low risk framework Use link off visitVictoria.com to expose product not prominent at state level Linking to community promotion information on Local Government sites ‘development’ site for exposing Local Government to RTO initiatives Contribution to development of community oriented content for placement on Board X or other local sites Online presentations of packages for trade shows etc. Encourage e-mail communication

Residents

Trade targets

Management protocols required for identifying documents suitable for posting online protocols for moderating discussion group copy for documents produced in single format for online and offline distribution web marketing committee protocols and standards for regional content on LTA sites coordination of copy between offline and online media monitoring of visitor response performance

Resources staff capacity to update web site (training in HTML, for example) costs of web hosting and technical support

Via LTAs

clear plan for technology transfer procedures engagement of enterprises in online committee

costs of web hosting and technical support provision of training for enterprises requirement for an RTO staff member to have the skills to maintain content

through direct contact with Local Government

provision of material in formats suitable for online posting as part of production process

staff training costs of web hosting and technical support

Media coverage

coordination with other agencies hosting regional content

staff time to research local content and participate in coordination and development of copy

Demonstration of online systems at trade shows

preparation of existing trade show material in web friendly format consolidation of product and promotion material throughout online value chain (national and State RTO, LTA, product supplier) through a portal facility protocols for reviewing material protocols for inquiry management consolidation of product and promotion material throughout online value chain (national and State organisations, LTA, product supplier) through a portal facility protocols for reviewing material protocols for inquiry management system for monitoring content on other sites featuring the region

skilling of staff involved in trade shows to be able to develop online material and/or appointment of support staff member within RTO responsible for online material costs of web hosting and technical support

coordination between offline and online offers emphasis on content accuracy and currency

costs of web hosting and technical support

Consumer direct cooperative marketing campaign targets

Value add to promotional material delivered by other means Extend life cycle of campaigns

Provide a structured portal to detailed information to support campaigns Enable e-mail inquiries about promotions

Prominent display of URL in campaign material

New consumers

Raise awareness of destination and products

Through links with visitVictoria.com and other destination marketing sites Through links with icon product sites in the region

Repeat visitors to the Region

Encourage repeat visitation through announcement of specials, etc.

Ensure accuracy and presentation standards of material provided via visitVictoria.com web site and other key initiatives Assist in implementation of standards and protocols for sub-regional web sites Research markets and their online information search behaviour Post specials information online Maintain contact via e-mail newsletter announcing specials

E-mail newsletter Promotion of site through products/ services in the region

Resources for training LTA staff in web maintenance Costs of web hosting and technical support

skilling of staff involved in campaigns to be able to develop online material and/or appointment of support staff member within RTO responsible for online material costs of web hosting and technical support staff time costs for content monitoring


Ambition Maintain and enhance internal information flow Engage in direct decision making

Table 3. Case Study Application of the FRANK Matrix

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Audience Board Members

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5. 6.

Establishing the management systems for the online relationship Identifying the resource implications for implementing these tactics.

Table 3 illustrates FRANK with data gathered from the regional case study outlined in the chapter. Having compiled this matrix, organisations are then able to prioritise online activities to manage resources.

CONCLUSION Community informatics has a primary goal of enabling communication (social, commercial or governance) between individuals and stakeholders in regional communities, therefore making it a logical part of the required strategy for developing a sustainable regional tourism industry. RTOs face similar challenges to many other businesses in developing and maintaining sustainable E-business models. In particular, issues of: governance; relationship of Ebusiness to overall business objectives; positioning of online content within the value chain; and evaluation of Web site performance have been highlighted in this research. RTOs have a variety of stakeholders, and a common understanding of the purpose of engaging online is critical to their sustainability. This is true for all regional industries. This research has described a case study of an RTO and its experience online. It has also described the FRANK system for better identification of E-business goals and strategies. Whilst FRANK has been effective in planning and developing E-business systems in regional tourism communities, the authors see the model as capable of offering help to E-business in general, and beyond regional tourism.

ENDNOTES 1

The Cooperative Research Centre for Sustainable Tourism (CRC Tourism) is a collaboration of fifteen Australian Universities and a similar number of national public and private sector tourism stakeholders. It encourages a diverse, industry-driven, research agenda using the most qualified academic researchers available in the network in fields such as: economics, environmental science, marketing; and geography.

REFERENCES Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2000). Use of the Internet by Householders, Australia (8147.0). Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics.



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About the Authors 287

About the Authors

Stewart Marshall is the foundation Dean and a Professor of the Faculty of Informatics and Communication at Central Queensland University in Australia. Although originally an electrical engineer with the Central Electricity Generating Board in the UK, Professor Marshall has worked in higher education since 1973 in England, Papua New Guinea, Australia and Southern Africa. He was the foundation Professor of Communication at the Papua New Guinea University of Technology, foundation Professor of Communication Studies in the Faculty of Arts at Monash University, and foundation Coordinator of Academic Studies and Professor of Distance Education at the Institute of Distance Education at the University of Swaziland in Southern Africa. His research interests are in the role of communication and information technologies in distance education, especially in developing countries. Professor Marshall has published several books and more than 70 book chapters, refereed articles and conference papers. Wal Taylor is a Senior Research Fellow with the COIN Internet Academy, Rockhampton, Australia. COIN is a collaboration between the Faculty of Informatics and Communication at Central Queensland University and the Rockhampton City Council and operates as a participative action research centre examining the adoption of community informatics in Central Queensland. Dr. Taylor has a long public agency and community experience in community development in regional and Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

288 About the Authors

rural areas in central and northern Queensland. He has served at board level on a number of regional development organisations and travelled widely across Australasia, North America, Europe and South East Asia examining regional development. His efforts in regional development have been recognised by the city and the state by being awarded Citizen of the Year for Rockhampton in 2000 and a Public Service Achievement Award. Dr. Taylor’s PhD research examined factors affecting the adoption Internet technologies for community practice, and he holds qualifications in management and science. He has more than 80 publications in community informatics, regional development, community development, leadership and agricultural research. His current research interests are in the use of information technology products and services as enablers for self reliance in regional and rural areas. Dr. Taylor is a member of an international alliance of researchers working in community informatics, the role of civil society in the information age and the development of online resources to advance this knowledge. Xinghuo Yu is Professor and Associate Dean Research & Development of the Faculty of Engineering at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Melbourne, Australia. He was with the Central Queensland University, Australia, from 1991-2002 where, before he departed in early 2002, he was a full Professor and the Associate Dean (Research) of the Faculty of Informatics and Communication. He has held Adjunct/Visiting Professorships at City University of Hong Kong, Harbin Institute of Technology China, Bogazici University, Turkey, and Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China. He has recently been conferred Emeritus Professor of Central Queensland University. His research interests are predominately in the areas of information technology, intelligent systems and their applications in industrial, social and economic systems. Professor Yu has published more than 200 refereed papers in technical journals, books and conference proceedings. He has co-edited five books and one special issue in the International Journal of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, including “Variable Structure Systems: Towards the 21st Century” (Springer Verlag, 2002), “Applied Decision Support with Soft Computing” (Springer Verlag, in press), and “Closing the Digital Divide: Transforming Regional Economies and Communities with Information Technology” (Greenwood, in press). He is a Senior Member of IEEE and was the sole recipient of the 1995 Central Queensland University Vice Chancellor’s Award for Research. He was also the General Chair of the Sixth International Workshop on Variable Structure Systems held on the Gold Coast, Australia, in December 2000. He has been on the program committees of many international conferences. Professor Yu is a member of the following professional organisations: the Australian Computer Society National Committee on Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems, the Technical Committee on Modelling and Simulation, and the Technical Committee on Control of the International Association of Science and Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Technology for Development (IASTED). Currently he is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems — Part I, a leading journal in the areas of systems, control and information sciences. He is also on the Steering Committee of IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, a leading journal in telecommunication. *

*

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Peter Abernethy (PhD) is the Director of Cardiovascular Health Programs for the National Heart Foundation (Queensland, Australia) and is located in Brisbane. He is also currently Chair of the Queensland Public Health Forum, the Just Walk It Advisory Committee, and a number of Heart Foundation Committees. Prior to this he held appointments at the University of Queensland, the University of New South Wales, and the Sydney College of Advanced Education. Isola Ajiferuke is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Information and Media Studies, University of Western Ontario, Canada. Dr. Ajiferuke has previously lectured at the Africa Regional Centre for Information Science, Nigeria, and the Department of Library and Information Studies, University of Botswana, Botswana. His areas of research interests include the impact of information technology on development, knowledge management, informetrics, and modelling of information systems. Poline Bala is a Lecturer at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia. Her area of interest and research includes examining the impacts of political boundary lines on the formation of cultural, political and economic units at the border regions of Borneo. Besides that she is keen to learn about the role of information communication technologies on development activities, specifically in designing and implementing assessments of the social change that is connected to the use of ICT in rural areas in Sarawak. She now is the Team Leader for a group of researchers working on the E Bario Project. Chris Bigum is a Professor in the Faculty of Education at Deakin University, Australia. His research interests have largely remained in the field of the new computing and communication technologies in education. The development of actor-network theory approaches to key problems in education and in educational innovation and change in particular has been his primary focus for some years. His current work is concerned with developing the notion of schools as significant and serious providers of knowledge for their local communities. Other, related interests include: new literacy studies, digital epistemologies, and scenario planning in education. A recent book with Leonie Rowan, Michele Knobel and Colin Lankshear was Boys, Literacies and Schooling: The Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Dangerous Territories of Gender-based Literacy Reform, published by Open University Press. Wendy Brown is the Professor of Physical Activity and Health in the School of Human Movement Studies at the University of Queensland, Australia. Wendy’s current research interests focus on health promotion and on the prevention and management of chronic illness, as well as on the measurement of physical activity, and the links between physical activity and all aspects of health and wellbeing. Jay Burmeister has a background in computer science, cognitive science and cognitive psychology. Jay is involved in research in the HCI area including improving the usability of e-mail clients in order to assist people to overcome email overload. Jay is a member of the Computer-Human Interaction Special Interest Group of Australia. Dean Carson is the Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Regional Tourism Research, Southern Cross University, Australia. His research interests include managing regional tourism for economic and social gains and the use of information and communications technology in tourism product distribution. Dean has degrees in history, communications, tourism, and science. He has worked in rural and regional Australia researching topics as varied as: infrastructure and housing needs in remote indigenous communities; health workforce retention in rural areas; and the role of local government in tourism management. Shirley Chikowore-Kabwato currently works as the Information Services Manager for the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care, Southern African Regional Office in South Africa. Previously she had worked for the National Archives of Zimbabwe. Shirley holds a master’s Degree in library and information studies from the University of Botswana, Botswana, and a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Zimbabwe. Her research interests include the effects of information and communication technologies on development, especially in developing countries. Malcolm Cooper is Foundation Dean, Wide Bay Campus, University of Southern Queensland, Australia. He was educated in New Zealand, the UK and Australia. He has studied, taught and researched since 1970 at the Universities of Birmingham and Glasgow (UK), New England (NSW), South Australia and Adelaide (Australia), and the Waiariki Institute of Technology (New Zealand). He has been Visiting Professor at Institute of Technology, Bandung, Indonesia and Jilin University, China. In addition to these academic positions he has held senior positions in state, federal and local government in Australia, and has been Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


a consultant to the governments of China and Vietnam on the development of tourism. His publications include more than 95 books, journal articles, book chapters, consultant’s reports and research papers on a variety of topics, but specialising in regional development and tourism management. Leonie Daws has recently moved from her role as Director of the Centre for Policy and Leadership Studies, Faculty of Education, QUT to establish Kihi Consultancies, Australia, a qualitative research training and consultancy service. Leonie has lectured in the fields of curriculum studies and educational policy over the past 24 years in Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales. She has conducted research projects in the areas of women in management, gender issues in curriculum policy and practice, and rural women’s use of communication technologies for networking and information access. Peter Day is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Management and Information Sciences at the University of Brighton in the UK and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Faculty of Informatics and Communication at Central Queensland University in Australia. He has a Community Informatics PhD and is an active contributor to the emerging international community informatics network. Dr. Day’s research interests focus on the use of ICTs as tools for community building in the network society. He is a member of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) and a Director of the Sussex Community Internet Project (SCIP), a community sector training provider and advocacy organisation that raises awareness of the potential of ICTs to support and underpin the social networks upon which community life is based. Michael Docherty is the Director, Information Environments Program, of the School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering at the University of Queensland, Australia. Michael was appointed to the University of Queensland, Architecture Department in 1984, and seconded to the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering (CSEE) in 1998. He was principally involved in the development of the Information Environments Program at the University’s new Ipswich Campus from 1998, and appointed Program Director in 2000. Prior to his appointment to UQ, Michael was a practising architect in Adelaide and Canberra (1978-1982). From 1982-1984 he was the Software Development Manager, Computerworld P/L, Adelaide. Michael’s research interests include human-computer interaction, computer-supported cooperative work, intelligent tutoring systems and pedagogy of design. He is currently researching the efficacy of a studio-based approach to teaching and learning in IT, with particular emphasis on how the use of physical space supports pedagogy. Qualifications: BArch, University of Adelaide, 1978; BArch, (Hons 1) University of Adelaide, 1978; MArch (Research), University of Queensland, 1992. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Elizabeth Eakin is a Senior Research Fellow at Queensland University of Technology in the Schools of Public Health and Human Movement Studies (Australia). She is one of the principle investigators on the 10,000 Steps Rockhamptom project, and has been working with general practitioners in Rockhampton to get them to do more physical activity counselling with their patients. Her research interests are in the area of behavioural interventions in chronic disease prevention and management. Robyn Eversole is originally from West Virginia, USA, and holds a PhD in economic anthropology from McGill University, Montreal, Canada. She has conducted extensive research on local economies in Bolivia, and more recently in Australia, publishing in both academic and practitioner journals internationally. She is the editor of Here to Help, NGOs Combating Poverty in Latin America, a collection scheduled for publication in April 2003. Her primary interests are in social justice and resource access among disadvantaged populations. Scott Ewing has been with the Institute for Social Research at Swinburne University of Technology, Australia, since 1997 as a senior researcher and teacher in the Graduate Housing program. He is currently working on the ARC funded Wired High Rise project and is enrolled in a PhD program which will build on this work. His research interests center on housing and urban issues, the use of new technologies and public policy. Scott is the co-author (with Sarah Pinkney) of Responding to Youth Homelessness — The Economic Costs and Benefits of a School-Based Early Intervention Program, published in 1997 and has published a number of refereed articles and conference papers. Nicole Fahey is an IT professional with experience in application and web design, development and training. Nicole has had a consistent interest in issues surrounding information literacy, information poverty and the digital divide since undertaking research in the area in 1998, which led to her BCom (Hons), at Deakin University, Australia. Nicole is keen to promote the importance of training communities to become information literate and speaks frequently on the need for information literacy training. Susana Finquelievich has a PhD in social sciences (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, 1980. Director. Prf. Manuel Castells). Susana speaks, reads and writes Spanish, English, French, Italian and Portuguese. Her present positions include Senior Researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research, Argentina (http://www.setcip.gov.ar); Research Secretary, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Buenos Aires (http:// www.fsoc.uba.ar); Director of the Research Program on Information Society, Instituto Gino Germani, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Buenos Aires; Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Professor of Introduction to Information Society, Career of Sociology, University of Buenos Aires; Professor at the Master of Communication, Walter Benjamin Foundation, Buenos Aires; Professor at the Master of Communication, Enredando, Barcelona, Spain, (http://enredando.com);Vice- President of LINKS, Civil Association for Information Society; and Honorary Professor at Central Queensland University, Australia. Susana has been involved in teaching, conferences and consultant work in: Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, United States, Canada, Argentina, Sweden, Spain, France, Belgium, and Uruguay. She has published numerous books, chapters in books, and journal articles. Roger W. Harris holds a PhD in information systems from the City University of Hong Kong, where he now lives and works as a consultant in ICTs for rural development. In 1998 he pioneered E-Bario, a remote rural ICT project on the island of Borneo, and has since been involved with rural ICT projects in India, the Philippines, and Mongolia. Most recently he has been consulting with the United Nations Development Programme in Nepal, helping the government establish a national pilot scheme for rural access to the Internet. He consults with various international agencies including UNDP, FAO, UNESCO and UNESCAP. Liz Hills lectures in multimedia in the Faculty of Informatics and Communication at the Central Queensland University, Australia. Her research and teaching interests relate to cultural transformation, gender studies, film theory, and new media studies (specifically digital moviemaking). She obtained her PhD with her thesis on action heroines in contemporary Hollywood cinema. Liza Hopkins is a post-doctoral fellow working on the Wired High Rise project at the Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia. She comes from a background in social research, and recently completed a PhD at the University of Melbourne with an ethnographic study of contemporary villagers in north-eastern Turkey. She has worked in numerous other countries including Jordan, Syria, Uzbekistan and, most recently, Pakistan, and as a researcher and writer in fields as diverse as archaeology, mental health and communication Jerzy Lepa is a Lecturer in the School of Information Systems at Victoria University, Australia. He holds a science degree, a diploma of education and graduate diplomas in business science and computer education. In his Master of Business he examined data warehousing design and implementation problems. He is currently working on a PhD focusing on the use of the Internet by older people and has published several conference papers and journal articles in this area. His other main research interests are in data modelling and database management. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Denise Meredyth is a Senior Research Fellow and leader of the Citizenship and Social Policy Program with the Institute for Social Research. Her research interests include information policy, education policy, the digital divide and wired communities, civics and citizenship education, governance and cultural policy. Denise is currently working on a book with Julian Thomas, titled, Liberal Machines: Thinking the Information Age, and on three ARC-funded projects. These include the Wired High Rise project and Retrieving the Record, a project on the use of archival sources on immigration and refugees in civics education, developed with Klaus Neumann and the National Australian Archives. She is also the project manager for the Measuring Progress towards Democracy project. She is on the editorial boards of Southern Review and Australian Universities Review. Recent publications include: Meredyth, D. & Minson, J. (2001). Citizenship and Cultural Policy (Sage); Ferres, K. & Meredyth, D. (2001). An Articulate Country: Reinventing Citizenship in Australia; and Meredyth, R., Blackwood, T., & Wise (1999). Real Time: Computers, Change and Schooling. Kerry Mummery is an Associate Professor at Central Queensland University, Australia. Kerry works in the School of Health and Human Performance teaching and conducting research in the area of health-related physical activity. Kerry is one of the Principal Investigators on the 10,000 Steps Rockhampton project, Australia’s largest community-based physical activity promotion project at the time of writing. Kerry’s research interests are in the area of exercise psychology and health promotion. Wayne Pease is a Lecturer in the Department of Information Systems, Faculty of Business at the Wide Bay Campus of the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. His employment background is in senior management with Queensland Health and he has worked in higher education since 1998 when he accepted a lecturing position in information systems at the then new USQ Wide Bay Campus. His research interests include electronic commerce and its impact on rural and regional communities; payment and security systems in electronic commerce; web design and web data delivery systems including DBMS integration and query optimisation; and windows application development. Ken Robinson is Associate Dean for research and higher degrees at Edith Cowan University’s Faculty of Regional Professional Studies in Bunbury, Western Australia, where he also directs the Centre for Regional Development and Research. Grant Schofield is a Senior Lecturer at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. Grant works in the Division of Sport and Recreation teaching and Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


researching in the area of physical activity and health. Originally trained as a psychologist, Grant has recently relocated from Central Queensland University’s School of Psychology and Sociology where he was working on the 10,000 Steps Rockhampton project. His research interests are in encouraging an active and healthy lifestyle. Pramod Sharma is the Director of the ITR&D Program of the CRC for Sustainable Tourism based at the University of Queensland, Australia. His research interests include GIS and the use of information and communications technology in tourism. He has worked as Program Leader in various information technology projects in Oman, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Laos. Lyn Simpson is Coordinator of the Service Leadership and Innovation Research Program (formerly The Communication Centre) at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. Lyn has conducted research and consulting projects in the areas of social and policy implications of emerging communication technologies, women and business, and mentoring for women’s career development. In collaboration with others, she has pioneered the body of literature examining Queensland rural and remote communities and communication technology, and has authored or co-authored more than 30 papers, book chapters, conference presentations and research reports in this area since 1995. She is particularly interested in enhancing women’s use of communication technologies by demystifying the technology, and in understanding how communication technologies can contribute to rural community development. She is currently undertaking a PhD in this area. Matthew Simpson is an Associate Lecturer in the Information Environments Program, School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering at the University of Queensland, Australia. His background is in architecture, with a first class honours degree in Design Studies. While architecture is a major contributor to Mr. Simpson’s background, recent interests have seen a divergence into IT, applying design to more technology-orientated contexts. He is also involved in web design production and management, with a focus on usability and accessibility in several Brisbane based firms. Present research interests include the nature of collaborative virtual design, effective studio-based teaching environments, and remote interaction techniques and approaches, with several publications in these areas. Peter Songan is an Associate Professor of Human Resource Development at the Faculty of Cognitive Science and Human Development, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. He has 20 years of teaching experience at the university level. His research interest is in the area of human resource development, and also in the Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


role of information and communication technologies in social development. He is currently involved in a number of research projects: Internet Access for Rural Development; Cognitive Modelling as an Approach to a Systematic Training Need Analysis for Air Traffic Controllers; and Utilization of Information Technologies in Institution of Higher Learning in Malaysia. Dean Steer has a diverse background in engineering, small business, social work, and IT administration and is currently studying for a PhD in Information Systems at the Launceston campus of the University of Tasmania, Australia. His primary research focus is on accessing the assumptions, attitudes and understandings of key regional policy stakeholders with regard to ICT-facilitated regional development. Arthur Tatnall is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Information Systems at Victoria University, Australia. He holds bachelor’s degrees in science and education and a graduate diploma in computer science. In his Master of Arts Degree he explored the origins of business computing education in Australian universities. His PhD involved a study in curriculum innovation where he applied innovation translation theory to investigating the manner in which Visual Basic was adopted into the curriculum of an Australian university. His research interests include the management of technological innovation and change, project management, e-commerce and information systems curricula. He has written a number of books relating to information systems and has published a number of book chapters, journal articles and conference papers. Kevin W. Tharp is a Senior Research Officer with the Faculty of Informatics and Communication at Central Queensland University (Australia) where he serves as a Community Informatics Officer for the COIN Internet Academy. After spending more than a decade in various capacities related to traditional mass media, he came to the field of community informatics as the coordinator of the Ozarks Regional Information Online Network (ORION) in 1994. He later became the Charter President of the Missouri Association of Community Information Networks. His research interest is in using ICT to enhance social interaction, and he is currently pursuing a PhD in this area. Julian Thomas works at the Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia, mainly on media and information policy. Before coming to the ISR, he taught at RMIT, worked on the staff of the Productivity Commission’s broadcasting inquiry, and was a Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Key Centre for Cultural and Media Policy at Griffith University for several years.



Helen Thompson manages the Centre for Electronic Commerce and Communication at University of Ballarat in Australia. Ms. Thompson has extensive experience in managing portal and web-based development projects. Before moving to the higher education sector in 1999, she was employed as a Business Services Accountant and previously spent approximately 10 years in the banking sector. Ms. Thompson’s research interests are in the role of clustering and information and communication technologies, especially in regional and rural development. Ms. Thompson has published several reports, refereed articles and conference papers. Her chapter in this publication represents her first contribution to a book Stewart Trost is a Senior Research Fellow with the School of Human Movement Studies at the University of Queensland, Australia. Stewart is an investigator on the 10,000 Steps Rockhampton project and is primarily responsible for the evaluation of the program. Stewart’s research interests include community and school-based interventions to promote physical activity and prevention and treatment of childhood and adolescent obesity. Paul Turner is an honours graduate of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He has a master’s degree in information systems and a doctoral degree from the School of Informatics, City University, London. His doctoral research focused on the convergence and clash of European legal and regulatory regimes resulting from the challenges posed by the Internet and electronic commerce. Paul, who has a strong research focus in the field of electronic commerce, is currently a Senior Research Fellow with the School of Information Systems, at the University of Tasmania, Australia. Prior to this appointment Paul was a research fellow at CRID (Computer, Telecommunications and Law Research Institute) in Belgium where he worked on a variety of European Commission projects in the field of electronic commerce, telecommunications and intellectual property rights. Paul has also worked as an independent information and telecommunications consultant in a number of countries in Europe and was for three years editor of the London-based monthly publication Telecommunications Regulation Review. V. S. Venkatesan is currently a Lecturer at the Graduate School of Management, University of Western Australia. After a long and successful career in Australia as well as internationally as a biomedical engineer, he completed his doctoral studies in business at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia. Following a period of post doctoral fellowship, Venkatesan took up his current appointment in 2002. Apart from teaching in several overseas MBA programs, Dr. Venkatesan is currently involved in several research projects targeting the



application of Information Technology to the small business sector in regional Australia and elsewhere and has published/presented several papers in national and international journals and conferences. Iain Waller is the Academic Coordinator of the Centre for Regional Tourism Research. He has recently submitted a PhD in marketing examining the impacts of pheromones on purchasing decisions. Iain has worked extensively in the retail, tourism and hospitality sectors in management, education and research consultancy positions. His research interests include: relationship marketing, behavioural complexity in services management contexts, the role of innovation in the emergence of markets, and research philosophy and methodologies. Leanne Wood is Senior Research Officer in the Centre for Service Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Australia, and was project manager for the Creating Rural Connections research project. She is currently undertaking doctoral studies exploring the influence of rurality on the social and business networks of rural small businesswomen. Since 1999, Leanne has authored or coauthored more than 20 papers, book chapters, conference presentations and research reports relating to technology, community, women and work in rural Australia. Lauretta Wright completed her BA (Honours) in 2001 and now lectures in Public Relations and Communication and Media Studies at the University of Southern Queensland Wide Bay campus in Hervey Bay, Australia. She is an Associate Member of the Public Relations Institute of Australia representing the regional consultancy firm Queensland Corporate Communications Network in Wide Bay.


Index 299

Index

Symbols 10,000 Steps Rockhampton Project 238

A access information 187 active community 21 Argentine financial system 167 Atherton Gardens 201 awareness 110, 159 awareness-raising 89

B Bario community 115 Bay Connect project 230 Blackall Bushlink Internet Café 87 BridgIT 87 building community 192 building learning communities 43 business to business (B2B) 150

C Cape York Digital Network 87 citizen networks 167 citizens’ movement 168

Citizenship and Enlightened Expectations 43 civic intelligence 9 clustering 73 communication technology 83 communication technology initiatives 83 community 37, 52 community action 3, 27 community capacity 86 community capacity building 224 community communications centres 2 community cultural development 37 community development 3, 26, 84 community governance 10 community ICT initiatives 19 community informatics (CI) 1, 18, 41, 224 community interaction 252 community networks 2 community participation 9 community planning 18 community practice 3, 18 community renewal 193 community sensitization 110 community service delivery 3 community services approach 26


300 Index

community technology 18 community technology centres 2 community values 20 community-based digital storytelling 37 community-based information technology 223 community-based Internet development 224 community-based organisations (CBOs) 1 community-building 197 competitive advantage 73 computer literacy 122 computing and communication technologies (CCTs) 52 concept of place 69 cross-sectoral partnerships 22 CT-supported development 69 culture 37 cyberdemocracy 42

D death of distance 71 defining place 69 democracy 170 democratic design criteria 18 democratic sustainability 32 descriptive community 20 developing countries 101 digital divide 2, 147, 192, 223 digital revolution 148 digital social division 195 digital storytelling 37

electronic information literacy (EIL) 178 enhanced telecommunications infrastructure 142 ESSENCE project 87

F financial security 216 first-generation portals 212 focus group 121 formative evaluation 112

G gatekeepers 42 gender 185 geo-local communities 2 geographic communities 133 global action project 46 global economy 68 grass-roots journalism 254 Great Divide 230 GreyPath 209 GreyPath portal 211 Gutu World Links Telecenter 103

H hard technology 86 health promotion campaign 238 health promotion Web sites 238 Hervey Bay 223 home economicus 3 horizontal portals 212 horseless carriage perspective 55

E

I

E bario project 115 e-business 277 e-business development 273 e-business opportunities 226 e-commerce 150 e-democracy 167 e-news 252 ecologically sustainable future 70 economic rationalism 68 educational good 55 electronic commerce 132

ICT-supported social movements 168 information access 149 information and communication technologies (ICT) 43, 101, 115, 253 information consumption 57 information economy 68 information literacy enhancement 178 information needs 149 information poverty 179, 196 information revolution 148 inner city 192


Index 301

innovation 85 interactivity 262 internal management 274 Internet 170, 225, 258 Internet access 157, 225 Internet delivery 241 Internet health promotion 241 Internet self-empowerment 43 Internet usage 157, 210 Internet user 107 isolation 116

J journalism 252

K knowledge producing school 52

L literacy level 122 local government 10 local networks 192 local partnerships 8 locating information 187

M MainStreet 146 MainStreet Regional Portal case study 132 Malaysia 115 management capability 122 media 37, 253 media utilisation 260 multi-ethnic populations 193 multiple layering of digital information 257

N neighborhood electronic networks 172 Networking the Nation 87, 224 Networking the Nation (NTN) program 225 non-metropolitan Australia 70

O older people 209 online channels for the channel country 87 online communities 132 online newspapers 257 online tracking 239

P partnership approach 21 personal logbook 245 physical activity (PA) 242 physical health 215 pig principle 55 pluralist approach 8 point of view 59 portals 133 public health messages 240 public housing 192 public sphere 169

R regional Australia 68 regional communities 68, 135 regional development 68 regional portals 135 regional tourism 271 regional tourism organisations (RTOs) 272 regional towns 148 remote 69 remoteness 116 rural 69 rural areas 217 rural Australia 132 rural communities 101, 115, 147 rural community telecenter 102

S Sarawak 116 satisfaction with training 186 schools 52 self-directed learning 43 self-publishing globally 43


302 Index

Skills.net 178 small and medium enterprise (SME) 150 social capital 2, 83, 192 social class 2 social constructivism 255 social determinants of health 238 social environment 214 social exclusion 196 social infrastructure 86 social isolation 192 social movements 167 social networks 83 social organization 168 socially conservative 167 socially disadvantaged 235 socio-economic chasm 148 socio-economically disadvantaged 229 soft technology 86 South Africa 102 structuration 5 studio approach 256

T Tablelands online 87 Tasmanian 69 technical support 88 technological determinism 4, 68 technology-induced improvement 120 telecenter 2, 85, 100 telecommunication infrastructure 68, 152 telecommunications networks 142 telecottages 2, 85 The Project 245 third world majority (TWM) 46 top down approach 37 training initiatives 89 transforming regions 37 tripartite approach 8 tripartite collaboration 23 tripartite partnerships 23

U United Nations (UN) 179 universal participation 25 University of Southern Queensland 233 urban/regional divide 71 user friendliness 213 user-pays system 230

V vertical portals 212 virtual community 209 virtual Internet communities 209 VSATs 115

W Washington Library Media Association (WLMA) 181 weak network ties 3 Web portal 209 Web searching capacity 261 welfare organisations 193 Western Australia 147

Z Zimbabwe 100


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Managing IT/Community Partnerships in the 21st Century Jonathan Lazar Towson University, USA

Managing IT/Community Partnerships in the 21st Century deals with the increasingly important subject of forming partnerships between the academic IT/IS departments at universities and local community-based organizations. The chapters in Managing IT/Community Partnerships in the 21st Century provide a sampling of the many different types of partnerships taking place between communities and academic departments of information technology. As the importance of information technology increases, there are many technology needs in the community that go unfulfilled. The partnerships described take place in different universities, large and small, with different missions, in many different countries. They demonstrate the wide range of partnerships that have taken place, and they can provide a base of literature with which to build future partnerships. ISBN 1-930708-33-5 (h/c) • US$89.95 • 295 pages • Copyright © 2002

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