The Rural Information Society

Rural Communities will not survive in the Information Society if they do not adopt technology. The balance of employment has moved from production to service jobs (Webster 2002) and whilst rural areas still provide primary production, the services surrounding this are using more and more technology. Primary production is also affected by use of technology, for example computer controlled green houses. Developments in telecommunications have allowed cheap and easy communication to take place across the world, giving the potential for many jobs to be undertaken from anywhere as increases in teleworking and home working have shown.(Guardian article).


As rural communities make the transition to the information society some of the key factors will be:

• Broadband – Access to fast, reliable networks, both wired and mobile will be key to ensuring that rural areas can achieve the same service as cities and towns. This is likely to continue to need government support as can be seen in the the initiative to supply broadband to rural areas.
• e-Literacy – Rural people will need the skills to use new technologies. Starting with education programmes such as GLOW , people will need to develop and use technology skills.
• Bridging the Digital Divide – As more and more services go online, physical delivery will decline as can be seen in the decline in rural post offices and banks. Steps need to be taken to ensure that everyone has access to the online resources, this may be through development of support structures such as the Highland Council Service Point network
• eCommerce – Businesses will find that the opportunities available from online selling will enable them to expand their markets. ICT skills will be needed to take advantage of this, for example for a publisher how to maximise the potential from Amazon , or for a rural printer perhaps providing more online design rather than paper based.
• B2B – More and more done online, whether it be banking, tracking deliveries or working with suppliers, for example farmers can now order their cattle tags online.
• eGovernment - The EU is encouraging governments to use ICT to deliver more efficient services, rural areas are well positioned to access these services, which previously might have required a long journey, if they have the access to, and the skills to use, technology.

Security in the Cloud

Cloud Computing is the latest buzz-term. It is a service which for individuals or businesses which allow them to host their software, data and databases in a third party server farm.  The information is then accessed over the internet. The benefits to businesses include: it is cheap, quick to set up, up-to-date, scalable and mobile.

For small businesses in rural areas this service is very attractive, you don't need technical staff to set it up for you, the supplier will fix any issues, web site hosting is not subject to the vagaries of rural internet or electricity supply and the supplier will keep it up to date.

But how safe is it?
The companies who used Amazon as a cloud supplier were not too happy in April when their cloud disappeared for a while, affecting online businesses and companies like TNW who alerted users about it in their article . I'm sure when they bought into Amazon's cloud they though that they would be safe. The down-time will also have had an impact on sales on the hosted websites.

Europe has tight data protection laws: A Guardian article states "Data protection law requires businesses to protect personal data from unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction and damage. In addition, personal data must not be transferred outside the European Economic Area unless it goes to a country that has adequate protection for the rights and freedoms of individuals in relation to the way it is processed and stored.". If your data is kept in a cloud you might not know where the servers are, and how to do you ensure that no-one else can access the data, or that the data is safe from corruption?

If there are problems, then you could suddenly find that your brand has been threatened as Sony are finding out when it was discovered that play station user data was stolen (Guardian). The information stolen includes credit card details and customers are worried - are they going to trust Sony with their information in the future? It's not in the interest of big companies to damage their own brands through lax security but as Sony have found out it can happen.

For rural businesses IT security is an issue - and a cost - but cannot be ignored in the global economy. Services like cloud computing are helpful, but don't remove the security problems.

EU – Changing Priorities

There is a move in the EU priorities from the eEurope/i2020 programme with it’s focus on broadband and being more social than competitive (Dang Nguyen & Maya Jollès) to the Digital Agenda with it’s overall aims of “The overall aim of the Digital Agenda is to deliver sustainable economic and social benefits from a digital single market based on fast and ultra fast internet and interoperable applications.”.

The report – User-Created-Content: Supporting a participative Information Society is a good overview of user created content (UCC) and what role the EU should play in this arena, from developing policy to supporting and advising businesses. There is a recognition that the economic value is not only financial but also valuable in the exchange of knowledge for example medical, educational and agricultural and that “There is a growing awareness that the real financial value of UCC is often not in the content itself but in the services surrounding the content”.


The report makes policy recommendations for the EU in:

• access – broadband affordability, ease of use etc.
• interoperability – developing standards such as the universal mobile phone charger
• quality – education of users as to the quality requirements needed in different areas
• legal issues – such as privacy and artistic rights.
• socio-cultural issues – UCC can support EU policy in other areas such as Media Literacy in the school curricula.

Rural and mobile?

Mobile broadband is an issue for rural areas. With the rise in the numbers of iPhones, Androids etc. comes more demand for 3G and 4G connection technologies. At my home on Skye, I get a great mobile signal from Orange – unfortunately only 2G, with no prospect of an upgrade. There is some hope on the horizon, The EU has opened the bandwith available for mobile broadband to make it more affordable in rural areas.

What kind of use could rural businesses make of mobile broadband?
The tourism industry is well placed to take advantage of mobile broadband as many tourists will arrive with their iPhones and expect the same services as they get in the cities. Some examples from the apple AppStore. A quick check of the phone using the built in GPS identifies the nearest restaurants, a quick look at the menu and decide where to go. Many city restaurants offer discounts, downloaded to your mobile, rural restaurants can do this too. Craft shops could use this too to advertise themselves to visitors.

Business
For business use, access your company documents or database on the go, especially useful for the unexpected at a business meeting far from home. Contact clients -and colleagues – using skype or instant messaging. More and more business will expect immediate access to information on the go.
Then there’s the business that can be generated by developing your own app, this Guardian article discusses the benefits to developers (and to Apple) – hillwalking routes, identify that plant are possible opprtunities.

I’ve almost convinced myself to sign up for that iPhone – but still no 3G on Skye!