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"Experiences of Local and Regional Information Society Projects - How to ensure equal opportunities for citizens?"
The northern Finnish communities of Kuusamo, Taivalkoski and Pudasjärvi have a total of 32.000 inhabitants but they are thinly separated, with less than three people in each square kilometre. The population and therefore the markets was (and still is) declining and this means that tele- and data-operator was more or less decreasing their service level in this area. Three years ago an EU-funded plan was started to create a local net service, which needed the creation of a better telecommunications infrastructure. To make even rough estimate of the impact of the project is difficult,
as it is hard to tell what would have happened along with normal development
of the IT anyway, but here are some figures:
Over 95% of the schools in this area are connected to the local network, which means that even the smallest schools in distant villages are using the web. This gives the number of 5000 students at the moment that has a possibility to access Internet form school. Over 3000 of them have their own personal email address. The challenges of the next year is to get more the new technology be part of the teaching program, as the teachers are getting training in its exploitation. Also the common network can make better co-operation between teachers and schools possible, as soon as the old-fashioned suspicious attitude towards to IT will be history. The Finland’s Strategy of Information Society expects all the Finnish schools be wired up by the end of 2000, so the Koillismaa have been in front of the development by succeeding this goal three years earlier. The meaning of this strategically wise decision by the local authorities is crucial for the whole development of the IT in this area. The more the children are learning and using the new technology at school the easier (and less frightening) it is for their parents to attend as well. As it is possible to access the web also from homes and their jobs, people learn to use this new media in a very sophisticated way. The more their will local authorities and working colleagues with personal email, the more it will be used to supplement the traditional media (phone, TV, letter, etc.)
The fact that was also noticed to be important when spreading the word of these new possibilities was to have these services close to the citizens. The national operators and their services are quite far away from the ordinary person’s world and only the most enthusiastic ones were ready to try out the new media. Also the quite high cost level was scaring many people, as the pricing of the products differ very much and are therefore hard to compare with each other. For this purpose the local Front Office of Information Network was established. The partner in this is nationally widespread IT-corporation ICL Data Oy. The Front Office makes the network to become products which are easy and inexpensive to the locals to buy and use, gives consultation and HelpDesk-services when needed and is responsible for organising the selling and marketing with its partners in the whole area (the distance between Pudasjärvi and Kuusamo is 130 kilometres!).
Other fact to be in the way of the development, was the people’s unawareness
of the networks, email and web. To make situation improve more rapidly
than via demand-leading development, several project were started.
The communities started a wide training program for their employees, where every office worker was trained to use email and electronic calendars and forums. The even wider project of training these people to have their "IT driving license" is taking place during the year 1998.
To ensure better possibilities of also the elderly generations (not only the students) to exploit the new opportunities (or at least not to be afraid of them), project of training to enterprise workers and owners of SMEs was started in the spring of 1997. These people get education on basics of browsers, email and other Internet techniques. Further training on planning the web-sites is also available to those people who are interested enough to make their own homepages. Also training to people, who want to become professionals on this field, is arranged.
Second group that is planning ordering this kind of course tailored to their own needs is the group arranging marketing for tourists in their area.
Among these people are of course some enthusiastic individuals, who get involved partly because they have plenty of time and originally interested in everything new. But these individuals are rare and most of these people stay outside. Biggest paradox is that these people especially would get best benefit from this new media, as they are the ones who live in the smallest villages far away from the centres, and in most cases cannot afford good transportation means. In other words, he problem is more social and political than technical or commercial. The citizens, who are in danger to be outsiders of the whole community, are to stay outside from the Information Society as well. To expect new Information Technology to answer this problem by itself is too optimistic thinking. The problem is not to be without connection to Internet rather than these people don’t feel they belong to the society in general. |