Community Development Research and Knowledge Sharing

From Beer to Boats and everywhere in between - travelling on free wifi!

2013-07-11T08:22:00.000-05:00

Last month I had the fortune to travel to the United Kingdom and Ireland for work and pleasure. The last time I was in Europe was in 2008 and I was excited to see how traveling had changed with respect to getting online.

Back in 2008, I didn't have an iPhone or iPad and travelled with a bulky laptop which I had trouble connecting to the Internet. So in 2008 I did what I had done on previous trips, track down Internet cafes and spend an hour here or there connecting with everyone through email and downloading and printing my work and travel materials - if that was even possible in the hot and sweaty cafes I found myself in.

This time around I had a fairly busy travel schedule, hitting 5 cities in 6 days. I wanted to stay well connected with family and work as it was busy times for both. To make sure I could travel quickly and flexibly as well as ensuring that I could be in touch most of the time, I needed to have regular access to the Internet and would need more than Internet cafes. Equipped with an iPhone and an iPad, I had portable devices that would keep me connected and let me do my work, but I needed to figure out how to get online regularly. Before the trip I was trying to decide whether or not I buy a data plan in Europe or pay through the nose for an international travel plan through my Canadian carrier.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user oDonovan
(creative commons)

I got as as far as unlocking my iPhone, a new freedom here in Canada, before I stumbled across some blog posts that described staying connected solely via free wifi when traveling in Europe. I was skeptical as I wouldn't want to travel here in Canada relying solely on wifi that may or may not be available and free at airports, hotels - I know I can always get free wifi at Starbucks or Subway here in Canada but that's not often convenient and often not even an option in rural areas. What the heck I thought, lets give it a try - with an unlocked phone I can always grab a SIM card and data plan if i get frustrated by the lack of wifi access in my travels in Ireland and the UK.

As soon as I landed in Heathrow airport, I wanted to double-check my accommodations and low and behold free wifi was available. Travelers in Canada know that free wifi is not a sure thing in our airports.The next day I hopped on a train for my next destination and saw that Virgin trains offers high-speed Internet access on route! This was the only time I paid for wifi but it was only $9 Canadian for 3 hours of wifi while I travelled, which seemed like a bargain to me as it was much cheaper than the $5-10 an hour i paid at Internet cafes in 2008. Wifi while traveling was my favourite feature and this train journey was the first of many opportunities to surf the net while watching rural areas go by.

Photo taken by author

I soon discovered that wifi was available at an extraordinary number of locations and almost all of it free and of good quality as well. I almost always had at least 5Mbps download and often more than 10 Mbps through the free wifi. On this trip I was able to have Skype calls in pubs such as this one in rural England; FaceTime with my wife and kids as I crossed the Irish Sea on Irish Ferries as well as stream satellite radio while I watched the beautiful Irish countryside go by on the Irish Rail trains. Even as I left to come home, my shuttle bus to the airport in Dublin had free wifi which let catch up on email, check the weather and send off some chats to let family know I was successfully on my way home.

On this trip I was able to access wifi easily several times a day at public locations, at every bed & breakfast I stayed in, and on almost every bus, train or boat that I took. This allowed me to keep in constant touch with family, keep on top of things at work, and to change travel plans quickly and easily when I needed, as well as making it much easier to play tourist and find my way round the different places I ended up.

Photo taken by author

Free and plentiful wifi is an amazing thing as a traveller. In small towns and large cities in the UK and Ireland I was able to easily connect to the Internet. In contrast, in Canada I sometimes have difficulty connecting in many large cities let alone in small towns. I know that affordable and quality Internet access offers much more than just benefits for travelers, but from a tourism perspective I can now testify to the importance and benefits it provides when visiting a new town or region and that alone should be more than enough for most communities to ensure that wifi is free and plentiful in their town.

The next big resource? Harnessing Digital Youth in rural Canada

2013-01-20T18:49:00.000-06:00

image courtesy of creative commons

After a five year hiatus, I have started doing some work again in the area of rural youth, a critical issue for rural communities. One of the projects I am working on focuses on the importance of digital skills and the knowledge-based economy for rural youth. Economic development in rural Canada is based on resource development and economic opportunities are often developed based on the discovery of new or untapped resources and it seems that one of those untapped resources, especially in recent years is rural youth and their digital know-how.

The value of digital youth

Digital youth represent an enormous resource that is that is unrecognized by businesses and communities. Youth have an almost inherent or natural understanding of digital technology. In his book Grown up Digital, Don Tapscott identifies that the digital immersion and upbringing of today's youth have created a generation of people that live and breath technology, a generation that has an intrinsic understanding of how to use the internet to search for information, communicate, and generate content.

Unfortunately these skills and opportunities for youth are not often realized or acted on. A study by the telecommunications provider O2 valued the digital skills of 1 million unemployed youth in the United Kingdom at more than $10.5 billion in Canadian dollars. With the continued rise of the knowledge economy, the importance of digital skills will also keep growing, meaning this valuation of digital skills will only increase. Locally, a labour study in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba identified that computer skills are essential for all but the most unskilled jobs while at the same time youth are over-represented in those unskilled jobs with 83% of all youth under 25 being employed in unskilled jobs in the service sector. While digital skills are in high demand for operating and competing in an increasingly digital economy, there is not a significant recognition of the value of youth’s digital literacy or the opportunities right in front of rural communities. Digital youth are invaluable resource that businesses and organizations in rural communities are sitting on top of, a resource that has not been tapped and is in high demand.

Developing a digital resource

Typically, youth need to migrate to urban centres to find appreciation and employment related to their digital skills. Richard Florida's urban focused creative economy model i based in part on the fact that creative, knowledge-based employment opportunities are only available in select urban areas. Creating digitally-related opportunities in rural communities could address two rural challenges at the same time: economic development and youth retention.

Rural communities are always looking for additional or new economic opportunities, striving to maintain or grow the local economy as resource levels and commodity prices fluctuate. Building digital capacity is also an essential requirement for communities to participate in the knowledge-economy. of effectively part. In addition, retaining their population, especially youth population is another challenge for many rural communities. Harnessing the natural resource of their youth's digital capacity creates opportunities to address both economic development and youth retention for rural communities.

Organizations and businesses in rural communities can take advantage of their digital youth through creating or hiring youth for employment opportunities related to web development, information searchers and social media; through entrepreneurship support that encourages youth to start digital businesses in rural communities; and through engaging youth in community projects and organizations in roles that build a digital presence and effectively use social media.

Some initiatives such as the Digital Youth Academy are already starting to mine this resource and create opportunities for youth, setting up internships that build on the natural digital capacity of youth and provide essential skills for businesses and organizations. Rural communities in Canada can do something similar and create local opportunities for digital youth to find employment and to get recognition for their skills, developing economic opportunities while providing youth opportunities and incentives to stay.

Sources:

Florida, R. (2002). The Rise of the Creative Class. New York: Basic Books.

Tapscott, D. (2009). Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World. McGraw-Hill.

http://news.o2.co.uk/?press-release=young-peoples-digital-skills-valued-at-6-7billion-by-uk-businesses

http://www.centralplains.ca/documents/PlaP_Phase_III_Labour_Needs_Final_Report.pdf

'The Internet of Elsewhere' works for countries - how about communities?

2012-08-22T14:44:00.000-05:00

After I heard an interview with Cyrus Farivar on CBC radio, I read his book "Internet of Elsewhere" to better understand how the Internet has developed in four countries besides Canada. Farivar’s book describes how the Internet has emerged in four different countries and settings: South Korea, Senegal, Estonia and Iran.This book was an interesting and informative read and did a great job of illustrating how geography, culture, economy and politics all impact the development of Internet in a given location. The main points I took away from this book are that the development and more importantly the application of the Internet is shaped by its locale and context. Different Countries = Different Internet Profiles

Farivar demonstrates that the Internet has developed and been applied in very distinct ways in each of the four countries he examines, and it stands to reason that the same is true for other locations as well. These conclusions provide some interesting and important findings for Internet development in rural Manitoba and rural Canada. Within, the development field, participant input and context is essential for development work and will result in unique projects specific to a community or group. It should be as no surprise that the development of the Internet within a community exhibits similar traits.

Farivar describes more than 15 years of Internet development in South Korea, Senegal, Estonia and Iran; and the levels that have been achieved in each of these countries varies dramatically. While the differences in Internet infrastructure and adoption between the more and less developed countries in Farivar’s writings are eye opening, perhaps most informative is the different paths taken between South Korea and Estonia, two developed countries that have successfully reinvented themselves with the use of Internet and Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

Ranked 2nd and 33rd for ICT in the world respectively by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), South Korea and Estonia are espoused as leaders in ICT infrastructure and adoption. While the ITU identifies strong ICT access, skill and use in both countries, Farivar illustrates that the Internet is being used very differently in each country.

South Korea is a world leader in mobile phone connectivity and has the world’s premiere professional online gaming league. Estonia on the other hand is a pioneer in e-governance and electronic citizenship along with being a leader in offering free wifi to residents and tourists alike.

These countries are amongst the world leaders in ICT and Internet, but they have arrived there via different roads and their citizens have adopted the technology in different ways, creating unique Internet profiles or footprints.

Different Communities = Different Internet Reality
Applying Farivar’s conclusions, to develop effective connectivity and adaptation of the Internet in rural communities, it is necessary to understand the the community and its users. Understanding community characteristics and working with community residents to determine how they might use the Internet helps to increase the effectiveness of Internet infrastructure, skills and applications.

When I worked at Function Four Ltd., I helped to develop an ICT assessment tool called the E-Index that measured infrastructure, affordability, skills, and utilization which I also describe here. When initially applied in 2004 to rural Manitoba communities, it revealed that levels of ICT varied significantly. Amongst the differences, some were not surprising, as in the case of ICT infrastructure - the number of computers, mobile phones and level of connectivity in southern communities near Winnipeg were higher than their more remote counterparts in northern Manitoba.

However, the E-Index also revealed that many northern communities had higher usage rates than their better connected neighbours to the south. Highlighted in both E-Index reports and in my Master’s thesis, follow up discussions in the community of Misipawistick Cree Nation (MCN), revealed that households with computers in northern communities often had a lineup of people waiting to use computers. In 2004, this created the surprising reality where a community in which less than a ⅓ of households had computers, more than ⅔ of residents were using computers regularly.

MCN’s E-Index profile in 2004 is one of my favourite examples of how the Internet can be adopted so differently in communities. On one hand the E-Index revealed that this northern community had lower infrastructure and poorer affordability than its southern neighbours but in spite of this challenge, the residents of MCN still had had higher usage rates than many of the southern communities.

The purpose of this example is to demonstrate that differences in ICT exist at a community level as well as at a national level. In some cases, the differences might be as large and as surprising as they were for MCN in 2004. In other cases, it might be a situation where community A offers free wifi throughout the community while community B doesn’t have free wifi but offers free computer training. Each of these unique characteristics of community infrastructure, skills and applications impact the reality of Internet in those communities and differentiate them from their neighbours.

While communities side by side may appear to have similar Internet histories and characteristics, the realities of Internet in each community is different. Communities have different strategic plans and visions, how about digital strategies?

Unfortunately digital planning in many rural communities stops with achieving general connectivity, while communities should be developing specific digital plans that meets their infrastructure, skill and application goals. Do you know of any examples of rural communities having tailored digital strategies or plans?

Sources:
http://internetofelsewhere.com/
http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/publications/idi/index.html
http://functionfour.com/about/
Kelly (2008). Knowledge Planning, Community Development in the Knowledge-Based Economy. Thesis, Brandon University, Brandon.

Want a good return on your money? Try investing in Highspeed Rural Internet

2012-06-05T21:48:00.003-05:00

Photo courtesy of mikeleeorg (flikr)

Why invest in rural broadband? What is the benefit of hooking up small rural communities? These are common questions when working in the field of rural Internet. While there are a wide range of important benefits from the Internet for rural communities, its the economic benefits and perceived lack thereof for rural broadband that drives most conversations.

I’ve outlined a general importance of the Internet in a previous post here to provide a larger perspective than just the current economic one being discussed in this post.

Unfortunately, for many organizations and governments, specific economic benefits and outcomes are needed to even begin talking about connecting rural communities with effective Internet speeds. Without clear economic benefits and outcomes, i.e. return on investment (ROI), deploying rural Internet of any quality is often a non-starter for governments and stakeholders.

Recent studies though are helping provide more economic rational for Internet connectivity and has strengthened the evidence that providing Internet connectivity creates a positive economic ROI. Specifically, two studies examining the value of Internet searches and the benefits of Fiber To The Home (FTTH) provide additional and compelling evidence of the economic benefits of the Internet.

the value of search
While highspeed connectivity is ideal, the economic impacts of the Internet begins with the ability to search. This basic feature of the Internet is generating revenue and creating savings in large amounts. A study entitled “The Impact of Internet technologies: Search” released by McKinsey and Company in July of 2011 determined that Internet Search is a significant contributor to the global economy, accounting for $780 billion of global GDP.

Time savings, price awareness, and problem solving are some of the key ways Internet search translates to reduced costs for businesses and individuals alike. The study determined that in developed countries, Internet Search saves individuals approximately $20 per month.

Photo courtesy of Graphicsfuel.com

While initially surprised by this amount, I realized as an Internet shopper for clothes, outdoor gear and technology, searches easily save me $20 on monthly basis. Applying the household savings to the province of Manitoba’s more than 512,000 households, Internet Search could result in $10.25 million savings monthly.

The value of Internet search alone raises important questions about connecting rural Canadians. Connecting underserved or unserved communities with high speed Internet can provide substantial benefits from basic Internet functions. Small communities with 50 - 100 homes can still realize tens of thousands of dollars in savings yearly just from being able to do effective Internet searches.

One important note though is as the use of images and videos continues to explode on the Internet, the connectivity needed for basic functions also increases. For individuals, businesses and communities to continue reaping the benefits of basic functions such as searches, connectivity will need to expand along with the Internet.

fiber to the home? No way we can afford that ... can we?
Another recent study highlights the economic benefits of the Internet by calculating the ROI of deploying fiber to the home (FTTH) country wide in Sweden. Fiber to the home connectivey provides connection speeds of up to 100MBps.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

The 2011 study entitled “Prestudy socio-economic return of FTTH” examined the cost and benefits of deploying fiber to Sweden’s 4.2 million homes. The study determined that while the deployment of fiber to ALL households in Sweden would cost about $8 billion ( approx. $900 per person) initially, the economic benefits would reach $12 billion by the 5th year!

The main areas of economic focus for the study included the cost and benefits of deployment, telecommunication savings for municipal and regional bodies and the increased value of homes due to fiber connectivity. It was the combination of these benefits that totalled a 150% ROI for FTTH; the potential benefits for businesses and the social and quality of life benefits were not factored in at all.

The study illustrates that the common approach of cost-benefit exercises from the telecommunication provider’s (telco) perspective does not give a good picture of the basic economic impacts, let alone the overall benefits from Internet connectivity. The highlights from the study revealed that:

estimated cost to connect each home in Sweden to fiber is approx $2,500
estimated 93% of installment costs will be recaptured in GDP through employment and economic activity needed to build the FTTH network
FTTH connection is estimated to reduce municipal administration costs by 30%
FTTH connection is estimated to reduce reduction in data and telecommunication costs by 50% for regional governments
FTTH connection is estimated to increase the rental value of homes by $6.50 monthly

These findings reveal that there is a clear economic benefit and positive ROI for investing in Internet connectivity. For rural Manitoba, some of these figures and approaches may need to be adjusted to provide a more accurate reflection of our geography and population density (while Sweden had one of the lowest population densities in Europe it was still 10X more dense than Manitoba’s 2.2 people per square km) but the overall implications are that highspeed Internet connectivity more than pays for itself.

These studies provide more evidence of the economic importance of Internet in today's society and help to further build the argument that connecting rural Manitobans is not only economically viable, but provides a positive ROI for Manitobans.

What highspeed Internet or FTTH impact studies do you know about that provide even more evidence or details about the economic benefit of high speed rural connectivity?

Recipe for Rural Community Development in the New Economy

2012-05-09T12:30:00.000-05:00

The recipe for rural development in the new economy is based on three key ingredients of knowledge, innovation and leadership. Various types of economic and social development in rural communities will require these three elements to be successful. An important starting point is to understand what each of these key ingredients are and how they play a role in the development of rural communities.

The Knowledge Ingredient

Knowledge has always been a critical part of development and economic success; the knowledge-based nature of the current economy magnifies its importance, relying more and more on higher levels of education and technical capacity along with digital technology. The importance of knowledge and its role as a foundation for this new economy is described here.

The critical role of knowledge and digital information is highlighted for me by two recent examples that I have encountered, one through personal experience with rural communities here in Manitoba and one through reading about small farms in developing countries.

Here in Manitoba, there are several rural communities that are booming from immigration, some of these communities such as Winkler, MB are ranked in the top five communities in Canada in regards to immigrants per capita. For all of these communities with a rapidly expanding immigrant population, knowledge of current population figures is critical for effective service delivery and development projects. Although Statistics Canada collected census data just last year, population numbers can already be off by more than 20% in some of these communities. That size of population variance has substantial impacts on funding, planning and success for these communities. Knowing population figures as accurately as possible is an essential part of development within these communities.

Another example of the importance of knowledge in community and rural development is found in exploring how small scale farmers in developing countries are using access to information and knowledge to completely change their livelihoods. Paul Polak includes access to information as a critical success factor for small farmers in his book Out of Poverty. He describes the importance of knowing daily and even hourly market rates for vegetable and cash crop prices as an important tool for farmers to raise themselves out of poverty. Other examples include mfarmers, connecting farmers with mobile phones and the Internet to provide vital weather and market information to farmers in Ethiopia and other countries.

Knowledge and information are critical in rural community development and as these two small examples illustrate, this ingredient spans the public and private sector as well as the developed and the developing world.

The Innovation Ingredient

Innovation is defined as the use of new methods, tools processes or products. Innovation, or ‘new ways of doing things’ is important to rural communities as it can provide the disruptive opportunity needed to solve geographic, demographic or market barriers that face many rural communities. Doing something new or in a different way can turn the existing situation on its head, providing solutions where before there were none and create opportunities out of challenges.

While it's cliche, Darwin’s quote regarding adaptability definitely outlines a key characteristic of rural community development in this new economy:

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

Recently at an rural entrepreneurship conference in Manitoba, Capturing Opportunities, several of the key note speakers focused on the importance of innovation and doing things differently in rural communities. Dr. Jeff Stamp and John Schneider have both successfully incorporated innovation into development efforts. Dr . Jeff Stamp is an innovation expert who helps entrepreneurs and organizations harness their creative ways. He continually promoted tackling problems with new ideas and solutions, asking core questions such as “why” when deciding on those solutions and the importance of trying and trying again, even when met with failure.

John Schneider is the director of North Dakota’s Agricultural Products Utilization Commission (APUC) whose mandate relies on innovation to: create wealth and jobs through the development of new and expanded uses of North Dakota's agricultural products through a grant program. This program is based on supporting and encouraging innovative adaptations of local agricultural products and it is heralded as a leader in this field. One of the novel aspects of the APUC program in North Dakota is that it walks the talk as well, using innovative approaches to investment and support to ensure that its clients have the best chance of success. Adapting funding and guidelines for its program to meet the needs of clients rather than forcing clients to adapt to the funding is a key to the program’s success.

Innovation is a critical aspect of rural community development success and it is consistently those communities willing to try new things, to focus on creative solutions for needs rather than only depending on what is known and available, that are the thriving rural communities.

The Leadership Ingredient

How do rural communities ensure that the knowledge and information needed is available or even knowing to ask the question “what don’t we know”? Who pushes for creative solutions and does not accept either failure or the absence of an established fix? This is where the role of leaders come in and play such an important part in successful rural community development. While the importance of leaders has not changed over the years, their roles have evolved along with society and the economy. In those successful communities, leaders have been able to access the right information and to foster innovation in order to solve community issues or take advantage of opportunities.

Author Bob Johansen focuses on the evolution of leadership and its changing role in his book Leaders Make the Future. He describes that we are transitioning into a more complex era with the new economy and identifies that leaders are going to be more critical than ever in helping companies, organizations and society transition successfully. Harnessing knowledge and being innovative are two of the key characteristics that Johansen identifies as necessary for successful leaders in this new era.

More than ever, rural community leaders are going to be critical for helping their communities be the innovative community, be the community who understands its current situation and knows the impacts both good and bad of that situation. All in all, leadership is an essential part of rural communities accessing and using knowledge and encouraging innovation within rural communities.

Do you agree that these are essential tools in the journey forward for rural communities? What are some more examples of the application of knowledge, innovation and leadership in successful and in unsuccessful rural community development? What other tools are needed by rural communities to move forward? I look forward to your thoughts and feedback on the post and on these questions!

Photos courtesy of ILRI, TechKnow Tools and Idea Champions

Convergence: bring all our ICT together to create new innovation and opportunities; now lets do the same for urban-rural

2012-03-01T08:41:00.001-06:00

As part of my research manager duties at Brandon University, I was fortunate enough to attend the TRLabs Convergence conference in Winnipeg. The topic of convergence refers to the coming together of media, merging ICT experience and activities into a seamless experience. The day was spent looking at this convergence in ICT and exploring how it is going to impact our lives in the next 5-10 years. Many ideas and directions were discussed, revealing how the integration of technology in our lives is going to continue to increase. It's an exciting time and all of the speakers agreed that we are moving towards a society with more wireless devices that are used more and more throughout our lives, making existing activities easier and more efficient while letting us do completely new activities and interactions as well.

Wireless devices are already transforming how we work, play and communicate and this will continue with further integration of wireless devices into our lives. Many of the presenters talked about how blended or seamless experiences will continue to improve work, play and communication with networks working effortlessly to transfer content and data between devices and locations whether it be on our computers, smartphones, televisions or tablets. From working on documents to taking phone calls to watching movies or reading the news, our lives are going to increasingly get easier and easier as we are able configure how and where we want to do these activities. Presenters also agreed that many of these innovations are already here and that they will just continue to improve and become more widespread.

In addition to further integration and innovation around our current mobile devices, trends indicate that we are going to see a proliferation of wireless devices in our lives, from smart cars, smart appliances and smart apparel to RFID stickers that can be put on anything such as furnaces, pets and even toothbrushes. One presenter indicated that Ford is showcasing automobiles with monitored driver seats that can help control the car in the event of a driver heart attack. Another example provided home communication solutions that let families talk and video effortlessly with each other no matter where they were or what device they were using.

The unifying factor in all of these innovations and trends was the need for a strong connection to the Internet as the data demand from our devices grow. Not only will these innovations and devices require a strong Internet connection, there are is going to be an explosion of wireless devices putting further demand on our Internet infrastructure. A CISCO study was cited which predicted there will be more than 50 billion Internet connected devices by the year 2020, an average of 6.6 devices per person, far beyond the current average of 1.5 devices per person globally today. To put the speed of wireless device growth in perspective, it was only 5 years ago that there were more people than wireless devices and in 8 years from now there will be more than 6 times the number of devices as people.

As I listened throughout the day and as I thought about what I had learned, one question kept coming back to me: how do rural communities fit into this? I'm fortunate enough to have a solid Internet connection in my rural city of Portage la Prairie and I will be able to participate and enjoy society's increasing innovation and blended experience. Like many people, I already do some of these things; I use my smartphone as my alarm clock and to track exercise, I use a tablet for work and entertainment and we use our TV for watching movies from Netflix as often as watching regular TV.

I look forward to what's next in further integrating technology into our lives, but again I am fortunate enough to have the Internet connection to be able to participate in our changing reality. Just 10 or even 5 kilometers outside of my city though, people do not necessarily have the same ability. Having just recently explored the differences in broadband speeds, I know that just 5 km away, people can have difficulty accessing 5Mbps high speed, speeds that are 5 times slower than what myself and other urban residents in Manitoba are able to access.

As the Convergence conference illustrated, all indications are that we are going to increase our connectedness exponentially, both through our existing devices and by the explosion of new devices that become integrated into our lives. While the merits of being able to watch TV seamlessly on all our devices can be debated, the benefits to areas like health and education are exciting and promise to continue improving society. The unfortunate reality though is that not all rural communities and residents are currently able to realize the benefits of those innovations. As demands on Internet connections increase, those without Internet or with slower connections will be the first to miss out on the potential benefits. Ironically, rural communities are some of those places that would benefit the most from health, education and communication innovations, helping to address both geographic and demographic challenges. It will be important for Manitoba and Canada as a whole to think about and plan for this increasing connectedness and to increase efforts to make sure that all rural communities and residents are able to benefit from the related improvements and opportunities along with their urban neighbours.

Ingredients for e-ready communities

2012-02-08T08:53:00.002-06:00

How do you describe the importance of the Internet? How about its potential for communities? That is a question I continue to try and answer after more than 10 years of working in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and rural development. Studies are beginning to calculate its impact with some results indicating that the Internet is responsible for 21% of economic growth in developed nations. Additionally, a study from the World Bank determines that every10% point increase in penetration of ICTs can impact economic growth by up to 1.4% for developing countries.

Unfortunately, in attempts to explain the Internet and its importance, it often comes across as a magic bullet that is going to solve all of the community’s problems (something I'm guilty of on occasion). The natural reaction to this is a “Build it and they will come” approach by community decision makers and governments. Many groups work hard to set up Internet infrastructure and access in a community and then hope for change.

Regrettably, the Internet is not a magic bullet and to fully realize its benefits, communities need to do more than just build ICT infrastructure. While building ICT infrastructure is a critical first step, successful adoption also requires building digital skills, and most importantly, it requires people actively using the Internet.

In 2001, I travelled to a northern community in Canada to help update the software on their community access site only to discover the computer for the access site was still in the original boxes. The local organization that had agreed to host the access site was very appreciative of the computer, but explained matter of fact that they had no idea how to set up the computer, and so it had remained in the box for six months until I arrived.

More than 10 years later, the lesson learned from this experience still holds true, setting communities up with computers and Internet is not the only or final step in unleashing the potential of the Internet for our rural communities. E-Ready communities are those communities that are able to take full advantage of the information society. In my master’s thesis on knowledge planning, I defined an e-ready community as “a community that provides its residents, businesses and organizations with the necessary tools and environment to be successful in the new knowledge-based world” (Kelly, pg 14).

As the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) describes, it is the combination of ICT skills and ICT access which enables the use of ICT and the Internet. In turn, it is using technology that results in communities taking full advantage of the information society. Another ICT assessment is built on this model, but Function Four Ltd.’s E-Index focuses on community level rather than national level measurements of infrastructure, skills and use.

Communities that want to effectively participate in the information society, to become e-communities need to address each of these steps of infrastructure, skills and use to fully realize the benefits of ICT. The ITU and the E-Index provide some examples of how to determine progress towards effective engagement in the information society with the ITU focusing on country measurements while the E-Index concentrates at a community level.

Figure 1 ITU Measuring the Information Society 2011

Infrastructure and access

The ITU describes ICT infrastructure and access as the presence and availability of computers, cell phones, fixed phone lines and Internet within a community. While the ITU measures fixed phone lines, it acknowledges that they are becoming less and less important for accessing the Internet and may be removed from infrastructure measurements in the future. The E-Index, a community ICT Index that builds locally on the ITU’s efforts, factors in the presence of more traditional ICTs such as radios and televisions to create an overall measure of ICT infrastructure and access.

Infrastructure and access are often measured by ratios of ICT per 100 people to provide a comparable benchmark between ICTs and between geographies. This type of measurement also provides helpful context for understanding the importance and role of ICTs; for example the country of Taiwan has the highest rate of mobile phones per capita in the world with more than 100 mobile phones per 100 people meaning that many people have multiple phones.

Communities wanting to participate more in the information society need to determine which ICTs are the most beneficial for them and focus on measuring the level of those ICTs. Access becomes an issue when certain groups or parts of the community have unequal access to those ICTs due to issues of cost, control or availability. Recent data shows that in the US, only 46% of the poorest households have broadband access in the home – that figure jumps to 80% in houses with more than $50,000 in household income and to 96% for the wealthiest households.

Skills

ICT skills are also referred to as digital literacy or capacity, typically referring to the ability to use computers and the Internet. While ideally measured through surveys or even testing, the ITU and other agencies often use education enrollments as proxies for ICT skills, measuring capacity through enrollment rates in secondary and tertiary education. The E-Index uses a tiered skill tree for each ICT grouping skills into level of difficulty and measuring survey participant

Communities are better situated to use surveys and even training requests as indicators of ICT skills. Determining the level of comfort and expertise with ICTs locally is an important step in helping to increase and encourage ICT use.

Use

Using ICTs is the only way for a community to benefit from them and to move towards becoming e-communities. Computers, cell phones and the Internet provide the main opportunities for community use. As a result, the ITU focuses its measurements on these technologies, tallying broadband and cellphone subscriptions as their main indicators of use. The E-Index on the other hand focuses on individual time use of technology to help determine a community’s ICT use profile.

Its important for communities to understand current use patterns in their community before trying to focus efforts on a specific ICT or outcome. Is the community strongly engaged in social media or are the majority of residents focused on productivity uses such as word processors and spreadsheets. Once communities know where they are currently in terms of ICT use, it’s much easier to determine and plan for new goals.

The first step in any recipe is to make sure you have the all the ingredients, and both the ITU and E-Index have identified that the necessary ingredients for engagement in the information society are ICT infrastructure, skills and use. Providing Computers and broadband alone will not create e-ready communities, but it is an important step, and the first step in the recipe for creating communities engaged in the information society.

Sources:

http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/publications/idi/index.html

http://functionfour.com/about/

http://mashable.com/2012/02/05/digital-divide-infographic/

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTINFORMATIONANDCOMMUNICATIONANDTECHNOLOGIES/Resources/282822-1208273252769/Building_broadband.pdf

Kelly (2008). Knowledge Planning, Community Development in the Knowledge-Based Economy. Thesis, Brandon University, Brandon.

How fast is fast enough?

2012-01-22T10:30:00.001-06:00

Image courtesy of techline info

Rural Canada and rural Manitoba are experiencing an ever increasing Internet speed gap. Over the last ten years, broadband speeds have been increasing around the world with the leading countries increasing from 1.5 Mbps to over 50 Mbps.

According to netindex.com, the average bandwidth speed globally is 9.9 Mbps. As a previous post indicated, Canada and Manitoba’s average speeds are slightly faster than the global average at 12.3 Mbps and 11.3 Mbps respectively. Most of the communities in Manitoba under 5,000 people are averaging under 5 Mbps and most out-of-town households average less than that. The target Internet speed still being used as standard for rural Manitoba and Canada is 1.5 Mbps. This standard for access was set 10 years ago in Canada and neither Canada nor Manitoba has revised this standard or put forward a new broadband plan.

While 10 years ago, 1.5 Mbps was considered leading edge Internet access, times have changed and now, Internet speeds of 1.5 Mbps are 10x slower than the Canadian average and 20-50x slower than what is available to many in Canada and Manitoba. While residents in cities have access to 25 and even 50 Mbps broadband, many rural residents are lucky to have access to 5 Mbps and for many out-of-town residents, it can be a struggle to even achieve the 1.5 Mbps broadband minimum.

Does speed matter - Is 1.5 Mbps fast enough?

Maybe the difference is not important. If rural Manitoba's de facto standard is 1.5 Mbps, an important question for rural residents and community decision-makers and developers alike is: “Is this fast enough? Or, to phrase it another way, “Is the speed of our rural Internet sufficient?”

A 1.5 Mbps connection speed does meet minimum/recommended standards for many popular Internet activities, including voice and video calling on Skype, streaming audio and streaming video, accessing youtube and other social media sites. However, due to the fact that 1.5 Mbps is the minimum for many of these applications and that users very rarely achieve their advertised speeds, the quality of the experience and the content may be impacted, often requiring minutes to view a 30 second youtube clip or repeatedly experiencing lagging/dropped Internet calls.

As this table from broadband.co.uk illustrates, while 1.5Mbps meets the minimum requirements for many web applications, the quality of that experience and those applications will be substantially improved with faster speeds:

Internet Connection Speed	Time to load a typical web page*	Time to download a typical 5-minute song**	Streaming Video Quality
56K dial-up modem	14 sec	12 min 30 sec
256K broadband	3 sec	3 min	Low Quality
512K broadband	1.6 sec	1 min 30 sec
1Mb broadband	0.8 sec	41 sec
2Mb broadband	0.4 sec	20 sec	Medium Quality
4Mb broadband	0.1 sec	5 sec
6Mb broadband	Instantaneous	3.5 sec
8Mb broadband	Instantaneous	2.5 sec	TV Quality
Note: all figures are approximate and represent best-case download speeds. Actually speeds will generally be lower. * Assumes a typical web page is 100 kilobytes of data. ** Assuming a typical song is a 5 megabyte MP3 file.

Needs to be faster

While 1.5 Mbps does allow for access to the majority of the Internet and Internet activities there are Internet applications and uses that are clearly beyond the capacity of 1.5 Mbps broadband. Streaming HD video for example requires 6-8 Mbps and for group video calling on Skype 2Mbps is the recommended connection. Unfortunately for rural residents, these are the types of applications and Internet use that are increasing in popularity and importance in areas such as online education, health and business activities.

Rural Manitoba clearly needs, and would benefit from, faster Internet access. While rural users with a 1.5 Mbps connection are currently able to use many of the same Internet applications that their faster counter parts are, they do so with a noticeable reduction in quality. In addition, more advanced and bandwidth heavy applications are simply beyond the limits of their access.

While 1.5 Mbps may meet the absolute minimum Internet requirements, this will not be the case for long. Increasingly rich media content on websites means that the Internet connection speed requirements are going to keep increasing and 1.5 Mbps will soon be insufficient for many activities it currently allows. Reflecting ever-expanding Internet and bandwidth requirements, the FCC in the United States has recently raised the definition of minimum broadband from 1.5 to 4 Mbps.

Improvements underway in Manitoba

Luckily for rural residents in this province, Manitoba is working hard to expand its Internet availability and speed in rural areas. The rural-focused initiative Manitoba Netset is now to offering up to 7 Mbps connections in many parts of the province and is continuing to expand in its efforts to serve more rural Manitobans. Efforts such as this are a very important step in improving rural Internet access, but efforts will need to continue. While Rural Manitobans will definitely benefit from the doubling/tripling of their Internet speed, the Canadian average will still be more than 2x faster and city residents will still have access of speeds up to 10x faster than their rural counterparts. More initiatives like Manitoba Netset will be needed for rural residents to be able to keep pace with the changing Internet and to continue to shrink the access gap for rural Manitobans.

Sources

http://support.google.com/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en-GB&answer=78358

https://support.skype.com/en-us/faq/FA1417/How-much-bandwidth-does-Skype-need

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streaming_media#Streaming_bandwidth_and_storage

http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/5kg9sr5fmqwd-en

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_access

Social Media is here to stay; time to get on the bandwagon

2012-01-06T19:20:00.000-06:00

courtesy of dknyprgirl

Social media is now part of how organizations, companies and society operate. Organizations big and small, urban and rural, tech savvy and tech adverse, can no longer ignore or avoid the importance and impact of social media. As I continue to explore what ICT can mean for rural development, the role of social media is quickly becoming a central part of that exploration. As a result, I am increasingly immersed in social media, expanding beyond the longtime facebook presence and establishing more comprehensive profiles and a more active presence in the other main networks including Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter and most recently Pinterest.

Not surprisingly my network of colleagues, friends and family have also been increasing their engagement in social media and I have quickly found that I many of the same connections online as I have offline. However, one of the main differences with social networking is that it is designed to expand your network beyond those people you know face to face, while also greatly facilitating the exchange of knowledge, ideas and even people.

Now, in addition to my current ‘real-world’ or offline network, I have in my ‘circles’, am ‘following’, ‘friends with’, ‘connected-to’, and ‘re-pin’ leaders and practitioners in development, research, technology and even spirituality. The knowledge that flows through my social network on a daily basis is very informative and inspiring. The network of experts and practitioners at my fingers tips to learn from and share with grows daily and far exceeds what I could’ve achieved a few short years ago before social media. All of this has affirmed that rural communities and organizations need to insure that they are also on the social media bandwagon as the dangers of missing it are now too significant to ignore.

The Social Media “Push”

One of the key benefits of social media is the ability to easily and effectively share information, knowledge and ideas with others. Rural communities are no longer affected by being isolated from networks, businesses, stakeholders or even prospective residents. Social media allows rural communities and organizations to promote themselves and to share their information in a much more effective manner than ever before. As an example, a rural community that posts an event on their website relies on users to come to the website to be aware of the event. While websites are still a very important tool, social media creates a dynamic network of interested participants who are waiting for information to be sent to them and many of whom are willing and wanting to forward that information to their extended networks. A study by the market research company AYTM study indicates that 57% of users on facebook have more than 100 friends and 25% of users on twitter have more than 100 followers; the community event notice can reach thousands of people through social networking in the time it takes dozens to visit the community website.

The Social Media “Pull”

For those communities and organizations that are not producing lots of content or not ready to share information regularly, social media provides a window into a cycle of knowledge exchange, idea generation and discussion that is seemingly endless in terms of the topics available and in the constant evolution of this content. Social networks are a fantastic source of knowledge and you can find participants, experts and groups of participants and experts that provide a wealth of information. Through social media, rural communities and organizations can easily follow the latest discussions on relevant topics and be up to date on news, events and announcements related to them or their economies. Rural businesses can know what their customers want and what their competition is doing as it happens.

The Social Media “Access” to Talent

One of the most significant indicators of the importance of social media, is the rapid evolution of employee recruitment and hiring. According to Careerenlightnement.com an amazing 91% of companies are now using social media in some manner for recruiting. Recruiters are using social media, primarily facebook and LinkedIn, to verify qualifications, to get a better understanding of applicants’ interests and expertise and to determine if there are any potential character issues. Many companies are basing decisions on what they find as 68% of companies having hired or rejected applicants based on social media. As a result, job hunters are focusing their job searches, networking efforts and communication activities on social media. If rural companies and communities are not engaged in social media, they are going to find that talent is harder and harder to find as potential employees are no longer searching and applying for jobs in the same manner any more.

Sources

http://mashable.com/2011/08/16/social-media-marketing-stats-infographic/

http://www.mdgadvertising.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/the_roi_of_social_media_mdg_advertising_infographic.png

http://aytm.com/blog/research-junction/branding-and-how-it-works-in-the-social-media-age/

http://careerenlightenment.com/social-media-job-seeking-tips/how-recruiters-use-social-media-to-screen-candidates-infographic

Playing catch-up: putting rural ICT in perspective

2012-01-02T19:44:00.000-06:00

The more I explore and practice rural development, the more I am convinced that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a core pillar of development for rural areas, not only creating new opportunities for rural communities but necessary in able to keep pace and participate in the increasingly Internet and knowledge-based economy. As I research ICT in rural Manitoba, I’m always trying to data sources that help put the quality of Internet access in perspective for rural areas. Recently, I came across a fantastic resource for benchmarking and comparing rural Internet access and speeds, Ookla’s Net Index.

The Net Index is a real time, comprehensive assessment of broadband speed and value. Populated by the popular Speedtest.net and Pingtest.net Internet testing sites, Net Index provides results for download speeds, upload speeds, broadband costs and even explores the difference between promised speeds and actual speeds. Understanding the different aspects and speed levels of Internet access creates a much more informed discussion around rural Internet

In addition to its detailed measures for Internet speed, Net Index also creates a comprehensive geographical profile as well with results available and comparable between city and province, and from national to international. While it does not let rural Manitobans identify their specific towns, villages or locations, it does provide detailed results for the province as a whole as well as the urban centres, allowing more specific and localized comparisons than most broadband metrics and repots. While it does not capture use or capacity and does not yet provide results for small, rural areas, Net Index establishes an important benchmarking and comparison tool for Internet speed and value.

Using Net Index then, we are able to create a detailed overview of Internet access in Manitoba and Canada. For a rural context, it is worth remembering that Canada has not established a new target for rural Internet access and that it currently sits at 1.5Mbps, well below global averages and comparable to many developing countries. The results below provide Winnipeg, Manitoba and Canada Internet levels along with comparisons to global averages and leaders, creating clear targets and comparisons for rural communities and residents.

The results illustrate that Canada has average Internet access overall, but is well behind global leaders, especially in upload speeds. Additionally Manitoba is slightly below the Canadian average in every category. Finally, Winnipeg is above the provincial average in every category and above the national average in all but one category.

Internet Download Speed

Global average = 9.88 Mbps (Global Leader: Estonia = 55.61 Mbps
Canada average = 12.29 Mbps (Global ranking = 33^rd)
Manitoba average = 11.27 Mbps
Winnipeg average = 13.61 Mbps

Internet Upload Speed

Global Average = 3.71 Mbps (Global Leader: South Korea = 27.65 Mbps)
Canada Average = 1.82 Mbps (Global ranking = 65^th)
Manitoba Average = 1.60 Mbps
Winnipeg Average = 1.81 Mbps

Internet Cost/Mbps

Global average = $9.74 USD/Mbps (Global Leader: Bulgaria = $.64 USD/Mbps)
Canada average = $5.86 USD per Mbps (Global ranking = 33^rd)
Manitoba average = $5.66 USD per Mbps
Winnipeg average = $4.39 USD per Mbps

Internet Promise Index – comparison between the promised Internet speeds and the actual results (100% would meant that actual speeds are equal to promised speeds)

Global average = 86.28% (Global Leader: Slovakia = 100.76%)
Canada average = 88.32% (Global ranking = 33^rd)
Manitoba = 87.71%
Winnipeg average = 87.85%

All data was provided by www.netindex.com on January 1, 2012 and covered a data range from July 2, 2009 to December 31, 2011.

How do you measure Community Quality of Life? Not the GDP!

2011-12-27T10:32:00.000-06:00

How do you measure the quality of life for a community? a province? a country? As I start to explore this question, I realize its important start with the basics. What’s being used to typically being used to measure quality of life, what are the drawbacks, what are the alternatives.

Currently the most commonly used measurement is the GDP. ‘GDP’ is term that we hear a lot in the news and from our politicians and they typically use it to refer to the state of the economy. So what is the GDP then?

What is the GDP?

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is used as a measure of economy, growth and progress; being used as a proxy for standard of living and quality of life. However, as soon as you start to explore the GDP, you come across concerns around its use, especially its role as an overarching indicator of well-being. The GDP only measures economic aspects of society; and even then the GDP only captures economic activity based primarily on spending and does not include the cost side of the balance sheet. Other important social and environmental factors are not included in the GDP either. One common formula for calculating GDP is:

GDP = private consumption + gross investment + government spending + (exports − imports)

(wikipedia)

While there are numerous arguments for and against the GDP as an economic indicator, there are two general concerns to be considered when using it as a quality of life indicator at a community or country level: (1) the GDP only measures economic activities and not economic costs and (2) the GDP does not measure any social or environmental aspects.

GDP Economic Shortcomings

On the economic front, the GDP only includes spending and expenditures in its calculation and does not differentiate between what the spending is for, including negative societal expenses such as prisons, or health out-breaks and natural disasters . Natural disasters are an example of how the GDP approach is not an accurate reflection of the economy as all costs associated with a natural disaster are included in the GDP calculation as government spending or consumption. The cost of the 2011 flood in Manitoba is now being estimated to be over $800 million and the GDP calculation for Manitoba will include the $800 million burden of this disaster as a positive for the Manitoba economy.

GDP Quality of life gaps

Another main concern surrounding the GDP is its use as a proxy or indicator for how well a country or population is performing. Without including measurements of social and environmental aspects, the GDP is not an effective measure of quality of life or standard of living, although it is often treated as such. The overall health of society and the environment are not factored into the equation, meaning that even if spending and economic activity is focused on addressing negative aspects of society such as pollution, crime or disease, it is considered to be a positive impact on the economy and therefore society. As result, when the GDP is used as an indicator of success and quality of life, it ranks countries that consume and spend the most at the top of list regardless of the impacts of that consumption or the state of their society or surroundings.

Canada’s health care future is tied to GDP

Canada’s federal government has just announced that future (after the year 2016) health transfers from the federal government to the provinces will be tied to GDP increases. It is not clear how this will actually reflect the health needs or realities in each province and this transfer tie between health and GDP is another example of how the GDP is over-used as a proxy for quality of life and doesn't necessarily reflect the well-being of a society. While most news articles around this subject are focusing on the $ amount of transfers and the % change, a more important question needs to be asked about why are is the government of Canada tying health transfers to GDP rather than to more specific health data or more comprehensive societal indices.

If not the GDP then what?

So if the GDP is not the best measure of well-being, what should be used. How are countries or communities supposed to assess their quality of life? There are several measurement indices that have been developed to help fill the gaps surrounding the GDP including:

Each of these measurement tools/indices provide a more comprehensive assessment of quality of life and well-being. Some of these tools have already been adopted by countries and even communities. Understanding what each of these assessments offer and how they are applied is an important part of deciding how to measure quality of life at a community level.

Canada's Broadband Slide

2011-12-11T09:34:00.001-06:00

10 years without change

In 2001, Canada was considered a global leader in Internet connectivity, ranking third in broadband penetration (high-speed Internet access of at least 1.5Mbps) and leading most of the developed world in that area. At this time, 85% of Canadians were able to access high-speed Internet at 1.5 Mbps and Canada had the third highest number of broadband subscribers per capita in the world at 11.1 subscribers per 100. The pace of this adoption was also leading internationally with 100% growth in subscribers every year from 199 to 2001. A national task force on broadband recommended that 1.5 Mbps broadband be universally available to Canadians by 2004.

Ten years later, Canada is no longer a world leader in broadband penetration, ranking 13th globally in broadband subscribers, a drop of 10 positions in 10 years. Seven years after the recommended target for Canada to have universal broadband accessibility (2004), the number of homes with broadband availability has finally hit 95%. The table below compares Canada's broadband penetration per 100 inhabitants to the leading OECD country on a yearly basis.

Leading OECD Country Canada

Source: http://www.oecd.org/document/54/0,3746,en_2649_34225_38690102_1_1_1_1,00.html#Penetration

In 2001, Canada’s 1.5 Mbps standard for broadband access was comparable to the other global leaders, unfortunately, Canada still uses that 1.5 Mbps target for availability 10 years later. While the speed of Internet available in Canada has increased over the past decade, it has not kept pace with the other global leaders in Internet. When comparing the average advertised rate of available broadband, Canada ranks 22nd internationally, below the OECD average. Over the last decade, other global leaders have seen more than a 50 fold improvement in the speed of their broadband, resulting in average offered speeds over 50 Mbps and even up to 80 Mbps. Canada on the other hand, has increased broadband speed from 1.5 Mbps on average to 20 Mbps on average, a substantially smaller increase than other leading countries.

Overall, Canada’s role in broadband has been reduced from leading the world in Internet access and quality to lagging behind numerous countries and there is a risk that Canada’s global position in broadband will continue to slide. Examining national broadband plans, the OECD identified that Canada is one of only a few OECD countries without specific broadband targets and timeframes. Canada is currently revisiting national broadband planning through its ‘Building a World Class Digital Infrastructure’ process. Hopefully these efforts will help drive Canada to reposition itself once again as a global leader in broadband adoption and growth, returning to where we were 10 years ago.

OECD National Broadband Plans:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/5kg9sr5fmqwd-en

International Telecommunication Union: Case of Canada Report:

http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/ni/promotebroadband/casestudies/canada.pdf

National Broadband Task Force Report:

http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst.nsf/vwapj/C2-574-2001E.pdf/$FILE/C2-574-2001E.pdf

ITU Digital Access Index:

http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/dai/

CRTC Monitoring Report 2010

http://www.crtc.gc.ca

The Internet and Community Development

2011-12-06T09:48:00.001-06:00

How important is the Internet? In 15 years or so of mainstream use, the Internet has been a game changer for society. Simultaneously reducing geographic boundaries, increasing universal access to knowledge and connecting people around the world instantly, the Internet has changed how we work, learn, play and communicate. It has also changed the face of local development and decision-making.

Businesses and organizations, including communities are constantly trying to harness the latest Internet trend, as each evolution completely reshaped the playing field, from static websites and our emails in the mid 1990's to Facebook and twitter today. 20 years ago people used telephones and printed materials as their primary source of communication and information - today emails and digital content are the norm. 5 years ago most of us were just learning about social networking - today it has become a dominant source of news, entertainment and of course socializing. To put the growth and importance of social networking in context, Facebook, the top social network, now has more than 750 million users, more than 10% of the world's population (Wikipedia).

In terms of community development, computers and the Internet have become the buildings and highways of the new economy. Access to the Internet has become an essential tool shaping how people work and live, and community development is no exception. Accessing information, communicating with partners, finding funding grants and proposals, interacting with community members are all essential ways in which the Internet is used in community development. More important however, is the extent to which Internet access has become fully integrated into our lives.

For many of us, the Internet had become something we can't live without either at work, school or at home. For most of us, geographic barriers are gone, news and events are followed in real time, knowledge is available at our finger tips. Experts are beginning to use terms such as dependency and addiction when referring to the extent that the Internet has become integrated into our lives, or most of our lives. Many people, especially in the younger generations, cannot imagine living in a home or community without access to the Internet.

The speed in which the Internet has reshaped our lives is impressive, and the importance of having quality access to the Internet cannot be understated. Ensuring quality access to the Internet and engaging residents through social media should be pillars of any community's development plan. This is especially true for rural Canada, where many people struggle to find decent and affordable Internet access. Further exploration into the levels of Internet access for rural communities would be an important contribution to the community and rural development field.

Making informed decisions in an information society

2011-11-27T22:05:00.001-06:00

Knowledge-based economy, information age, internet-era. These are all descriptions of our current society emphasizing the importance and abundance of knowledge. With the role of knowledge and information in our society reaching new heights, its time that we make more decisions that are informed and information-based. While the importance of informed and knowledgeable decisions applies in virtually all parts of our lives, community development and decision-making is a good place to start.

At a time when knowledge work and workers have overtaken the service and manufacturing sectors (Florida), when strangers are collectively creating free encyclopedias online, and events around the world are being documented and shared instantly, it's time to more effectively harness and apply this culture of knowledge and collaboration to improve our communities. Local decision-makers and community developers work hard to make the best decisions and create the most effective and appropriate development projects that they can. Their efforts can be hampered however, by the simple absence of information or due to the difficulty of using information that is available.

It's important to distinguish between expertise-based knowledge, knowing how to build a pedestrian bridge for example, versus more general knowledge and information. While it requires specialized engineering knowledge to know how to build a pedestrian bridge, community residents are the best source of knowledge for informing the look and feel of that bridge and for identifying who would use the bridge most often. It is necessary for all people involved to understand and appreciate the importance of both types of knowledge. While you wouldn't try to create a bridge without an engineer, the voice and input of the community should be considered vital as well.

Similar to community input and engagement, it is essential to make sure that community level facts and knowledge are available to make the best decisions. Continuing with the bridge example, having access to traffic and transportation information at the local level would be required to make effective decisions when building the bridge. Understanding resident commuting patterns and exercise habits would also be very helpful for decision-makers. It is the integration of all of these forms of knowledge and information that enables local decision makers and development practitioners to make the best decisions and design the most effective projects.

Unfortunately, local knowledge is not always available or taken advantage of. Many community projects suffer from not having the right information or having difficulty in using that data. Community input can be undervalued, community data often doesn't exist, and expertise is typically expensive. These are the challenges facing more informed local decision-making and these are the barriers that we need to address. Local decision-makers and development practitioners are doing great work and helping them to increase the availability of knowledge and information will make their efforts even more effective.

Florida, R. (2002). The Rise of the Creative Class. New York: Basic Books.

What does OWS mean for rural Canada?

2011-11-21T08:03:00.000-06:00

The Occupy Wall Street movement has been focusing on the gap between the 99% and the 1% for two months now. As the OWS movement continues, whether we agree with the movement or not, it forces us to look closer at the issue of income inequality and other related issues in our society, including in rural Canada.

Economic and quality of life inequality is an important issue for rural Canada. Canada's economy is based on exporting the country's natural resources, from oil and gas to canola and beef, all of which comes for rural Canada. However, even though rural Canada drives Canada's economy it faces substantial government service challenges in many areas creating a disconnect for rural communities between their role in the economy and their benefit from it. In rural Canada, the division between the 99% and the 1% has a geographic element as well as those rural communities that contribute to the export economy don't usually receive the same quality if life improvements as their urban counterparts.

Rural Canada is traditionally conservative in nature, supporting conservative governments, along the emphasis on small government philosophy that accompanies them, especially at a federal level. While this general philosophical nature of rural Canada probably helps explain why there are no occupy wall street movements in places like Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, an agricultural and conservative stronghold, it doesn't always align with the best interests of rural communities. One of the major inequalities for rural Canada is the reduction in government services impacting quality of life. Places like Portage la Prairie are always on the front lines to receive cuts in government services in areas like education and health, factors which lead or substantially contribute to rural depopulation and community decline.

As the ows movement continues, it will be very important to better understand the state of income and economic inequality in rural canada and how it impacts both rural communities and Canada's economy. The sustainability of rural Canada and the Canadians living there is affected by the same issues that the ows movement is raising and it is essential that we In rural Canada make sure that these issues receive the attention and answers they deserve.