Hervey Bay in Transition

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 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.

Measuring the Effectiveness of Training to Improve Electronic Information Literacy

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 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.

E Bario Project

This chapter highlights an initiative by a group of researchers2 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. 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.

The Design and Implementation of Rural Communication Technology Initiatives

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. 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.

Community Informatics in Perspective

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.

Creating and Sustaining Online Communities

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.

Digital Storytelling

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

Regional Tourism and the Internet

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

Using the Internet in a Physical Activity Health Promotion Campaign

The 10,000 Steps Rockhampton project is a community-based, multi-strategy 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 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.

Wired High Rise

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 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.