| Michael Gurstein on Mon, 12 Apr 1999 21:08:56 +0200 (CEST) |
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| <nettime> Cape Breton Island Virtual Economic Community |
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Date: Mon, 12 Apr 1999 14:41:09 +0100
From: "Editor, IIB" <[email protected]>
Reply-To: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Internet Intelligence Bulletin - April 99
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INTERNET INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN
The Email Newsletter On Electronic Government,
UK And Worldwide.
ISSUE 74, APRIL 1999
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SECTION THREE: INTERNATIONAL FOCUS:
CAPE BRETON ISLAND VIRTUAL ECONOMIC COMMUNITY
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The Internet offers exciting new opportunities to overcome economic
development limitations experienced by run-down or isolated
communities.
Cape Breton in Nova Scotia, like many other relatively isolated resource
based communities, has suffered considerably from a decline in the
primary local industries - coal mining, steel-making and fishing, and the
Centre for Community and Enterprise Networking (CCEN) at the
University College of Cape Breton was set up in 1995 to explore
technology-based alternatives to employment being lost from traditional
sectors.
The immediate challenge was to respond to the very high unemployment
in fishing and industrial communities, among young people looking to
work and stay in their communities, and among the older unemployed
requiring retraining and then employment opportunities - all familiar
problems to many areas in need of regeneration.
CCEN identified community applications of technology for non-
metropolitan areas, and invested in training locally-hired staff with
technology training and tools. It then looked to support these people in
developing technology-enabled enterprises.
In carrying out this work, CCEN was making a one-time only investment
in ensuring that the region would "stay in the game". The intention was
that Cape Breton would have access to the types of modern technology-
based skills and opportunities developing at a breakneck pace in other
areas.
One innovative and successful economic development project initiated
by the centre has been the creation of a "virtual community" built around
the Cape Breton variety of Celtic music.
Music, and particularly Celtic music with the associated Gaelic culture
and tourism, has now become the primary resource of Cape Breton Island
and its largest employment sector - greater than steel-making and coal-
mining combined.
In 1995 an email list on the subject of Cape Breton music was
established, { mailto:[email protected] }[email protected]. Cape
Breton Music On-Line (CBMO) and the University host this list, which
attracts subscribers interested in Cape Breton's music legacy.
Participants discuss all aspects of the music scene including performers,
performances and history. It has also become a communications medium for
those active in the industry including agents, technicians and teachers.
Information about the list was circulated to whomever it was thought
might be interested, and it has been remarkably successful. An average
of 20 messages have been posted per day over the life of the list. There
are now around 400 subscribers from some 20 countries.
The list has made some useful contributions to overall economic
development of the region.
An anecdote serves to illustrate this: one list user is a veterinary
technician and music-lover from Pennsylvania, who had not even heard
of Cape Breton music when he noticed and subscribed to the list. He has
now bought a number of music CDs, attended several concerts and had
decided to attend a music festival in Cape Breton, and spend his next
two-week summer vacation there participating in a fiddle course.
Our estimate was that the list was resulting in an annual direct
contribution of approximately 40,000 Canadian dollars (an average of 100
dollars/subscriber) to the economy of Cape Breton. This was being
derived from performances, CDs, and travel/tourism or courses which
were purchased as a direct consequence of participation in the email list.
The contribution is likely to increase over time.
As the cost of creating and maintaining the list is less than 1,000
dollars a year, this means the return for the community is of the order of
4,000 per cent!
Among the other contributions of the list to economic development were
marketing a local summer school for Cape Breton music including
assisting in the recruitment of students from substantial distances;
assisting a music distributor to develop markets for tapes; and helping a
dance instructor find clients.
In fact the email list has, somewhat unexpectedly, evolved into a fully-
fledged 'virtual community'.
Other regions having similar difficulties in keeping up with the economic
race may find similar local resources, such as regional cuisines, crafts,
dance and other traditions, which could be marketed and developed
using new technologies.
The Internet makes it possible for local enterprises like these, which may
be uncompetitive and ineffective in local or regional competition, to find
global markets and outlets.
While such successes may result in only partial solutions to economic
problems they are doorways through which communities can gain
knowledge and experience, and begin to have confidence in their ability
to participate in the emerging technology-intensive global economy and
the bewildering world of electronic commerce.
- Article by Michael Gurstein, Director of the Centre for Community and
Enterprise Networking, University College of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia,
Canada
{ HYPERLINK http://ccen.uccb.ns.ca }http://ccen.uccb.ns.ca
Basedon a paper due to appear in 'Doing business on the internet:
opportunities and pitfalls', Ed. Celia Romm and Fay Sudweeks,
Springer Verlag, Berlin, 1999.
For a full version email the author on [email protected]
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SECTION FOUR: SITES TO SEE -
ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY CENTRES
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{ HYPERLINK http://www.tricare.osd.mil/cap/
}http://www.tricare.osd.mil/cap/
http://www.usda.gov/oo/target.htm
The US Department of Defense and Department of Agriculture are co-
operating on the development of web sites to promote the use of
assistive technologies among their employees. Assistive technologies
are those which allow access to computers to people with hearing,
visual, dexterity and cognitive disabilities.
The Department of Defense work comes under its Computer/Electronic
Accommodations Program, which funds a Technology Evaluation Center
(CAPTEC) where users can test and evaluate technologies.
The department says that access to the centre via the web has allowed it
to provide information to employees with disabilities and their managers
quickly and directly, enabling needs assessment programmes to be
carried out.
The United States Department of Agriculture has set up two
'Technology Accessible Resources Gives Employment Today'
(TARGET) centres which evaluate and demonstrate assistive
technologies using various servers, platforms, operating systems, and
applications.
Working with the Department of Defense, the program has found online
web tours are a strong approach to "bringing employment barriers down
anywhere, at any time".
The TARGET centres also conduct needs assessments by recreating a
user's computer working environment and offering assistive
technologies to close the gap between peoples' functional capabilities
and their job requirements.
For example, people who are losing their vision are sometimes hesitant to
use a screen reader, but by using the centre's web site they can see for
themselves that screen magnification and a screen reader improves their
productivity.
People with ergonomic disabilities (repetitive stress injuries) are able
to
locate new options to reduce their pain such as speech recognition
systems, alternative input devices, and workstation design.
A spokesman for the Department of Defense project says: " Technology
is an equaliser for people with disabilities. Although the information age
is new, we understand the future of work. This future will be based on
computer controls and computer environments. The ability for people
with disabilities to access and manipulate information and environments
will only be possible if more organisations increase their role in
developing online assistive technology centres."
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