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!

Developing eSkills... or not

The Scottish Government strategy - Scotland's Digital Future: A Strategy for Scotland is clear in the role of HIE:

During 2011, HIE is looking to provide additional support in the highlands and islands region to:

    * Improve connectivity (including the Highlands and Islands next generation broadband project (described in more detail in Chapter 5)

    * Provide ICT business and community support

    * Develop ICT skills and digital participation

    * Grow the ICT supply chain consistency

However looking at HIE’s website it is difficult to see any evidence for work in this area. Their skills development for business focuses on entrepreneurship and leadership. There are graduate programmes in ICT for graduates, but there is nothing to be seen to support the development of general ICT skills. The 2008 report clearly identifies the need for ICT skills within communities, it recommends development of ICT champions and buddy systems to develop skills, it also suggests that community groups develop ICT strategies or 5-year plans – I’m not convinced that many community groups would have the time, or the energy for yet another strategy.

HIE is in a period of change and has recently re-launched their website both of which may account for the lack of visibility on their website for more detailed information on what they are actually doing to support ICT development in the Highlands.

eBusiness on Skye

This BBC report is about remote working but whilst it's not particularly about rural working contains items that should be of interest to rural businesses. The interviewees use http://www.peopleperhour.com/ to recruit staff when they need them, great for rural businesses - I've already sent the link to a company I sometimes work for, as I'm also self employed I'm wondering if there are any opportunities there for me. It can be a challenge for rural businesses to get the right people, being able to get people with the right skills at the right time would make the job a lot easier - that said there's the downside of not interviewing people. Of course, there's Skype for that. I've used Skype to talk to colleagues, clients, to help sort out my parents IT problems... all for free (since I have the IT set up anyway).

Using the Internet also allows businesses to establish their brand, one local business http://www.magpiejewellery.net/  started a website in 2004 and "In June 2010 we opened our first shop on the Isle of Skye, and as well as retailing via this website, we also sell on Amazon and Ebay." The website, as well as allowing payments via PayPal which means that international orders can be taken, also has it's own developing community through "how-to" videos on the web, and a FaceBook page with 124 friends (I'm one). The Facebook page allows friends to find out about the latest stock, any offers etc. Use of the internet also allows the business to source suppliers and bring in unusual items from around the world, again B2B payments can be paid using PayPal and online banking.

web 2.0 - building a rural business

The WalkHighlands website is an award winning website which shows to web 2.0 technologies can be brought together to create a rural business. This video gives a good overview of how they started the site and the technologies they use to maintain the site.

Core to the website is the ability to add your experience of a walk, great way to find out what it's really like - this helps build a community around the site. The website also provides RSS feeds/Facebook and twitter links - good for building that community. You can see from the feeds that the site is kept active, it is so easy for websites to have lots of good intentions, but if information is not kept fresh and up-to-date people will lose interest.

They make money from the site by selling targeted advertising, to accommodation providers, cafes, guides and holidays etc.

They also use a variety of maps, find a walk on Google Earth and print out an OS map for when you do the walk.

This website shows the characteristics described in this article - a blend of business and passion. Other characteristics include consistency, reliability of experience, approachability and communication.

As well as providing a business for themselves the site, can help boost other local businesses through its cheap, targeted advertising. 

Love my kindle

I got a kindle for Christmas and have spent a lot of money on Amazon since then. Amazon has reported that their eBook sales have now overtaken paperback sales (Guardian 2011). Some publishers are doing well, Bloomsbury are seeing an increase in eBook sales (FT 2011). Bookshops are having problems, although say that this is due to the bad weather just before Christmas. Waterstone’s parent company the “HMV Group has "substantially" backed a social networking site called aNobii, which aims to help readers find buy and share books.” (Bookseller, 2011) They’re planning on selling books and ebooks via the website. A commentator on the Guardian post added the comment:

“Note to publishers and bookstore owners:
Please work out a system where I can browse in your high street store, then purchase a digital format at the counter that works on my kindle instead of just stocking the paper format.

You’ll get more sales.”

I like this idea and would definitely buy from bookshops for my kindle. This could also help booksellers in rural areas, especially when tourists arrive with their kindles. I’m looking forward to traveling with my kindle, especially for the long flight to America when I can have lots of books with me, and no extra weight in my hand baggage.

Writers are also benefiting, they can publish directly to Amazon without the need for a print publisher, some have been very successful in this, Stephen Leather has stayed at the top of the kindle charts for three months, and made lots of money from it (Guardian, 2011). He has priced his books to attract buyers, but still has made money from it. For Gaelic writers this could be a way of making their books available, since their small sales don't make them attractive to print publishers.

Bridging the digital divide in Education

The Digital Divide can take many forms, apart from access to digital resources, one of these is about the level of ICT knowledge as it affects education.

Peña-López  states “the digital divide in education – and especially as we move along and up the educational system until reaching university – is not a matter of physical access but a matter of digital skills and how competent students (and teachers) are at computer and Internet usage.” He discusses the types of digital skills needed including technological, information, media literacies and awareness.

A TES article mentions a Microsoft survey in which 6 out of 10 pupils reckon they know more about technology than their ICT teachers. The article suggests that in some aspects this may be true, but that teachers can help young people be more critical and give them the skills to understand the information they find.

I used to work for Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS) developing educational software, at the time we viewed educational software as a tool which used digital resources to bridge the academic divide. We developed additional resources for learners and allowed people to find different ways of learning, perhaps more appropriate to their own learning style. LTS has been instrumental in developing GLOW, the intranet for Scottish education, it’s purpose: “Glow is transforming the way the curriculum is delivered in Scotland. It breaks down geographical and social barriers and provides the tools to ensure a first-class education for Scotland.”

Initiatives like GLOW, and good quality freely available resources, such as Wikipedia are good ways of bridging the digital divide in education. GLOW however is a closed environment (or walled garden) and schools in other countries can't access the resources developed for GLOW - creating another divide.

Of course, if all else fails in rural areas we could fall back on ferrets!

Broadband for Skye

The Herald Scotland reports on a Scottish survey that finds that “Home broadband was far and away the most popular innovation of the last decade, named by half of all respondents as having the biggest impact on their lives since the turn of the millennium.” I moved to Skye in August 2006 and have lived in three different houses with different solutions to the problem of achieving home broadband.

The first was a wee cottage, too far from my landlords house and wireless access, luckily the landlord was a technical wizz and implemented broadband down the electricity line, so that I could plug in my Airport and make my own wireless network.

Next place, even more remote but with a telephone, so I used dial-up until the exchange was upgraded, being just at the maximum distance from the exchange I managed a very slow broadband connection, but at least my phone line didn’t get tied up. As I left satellite broadband was on offer.

Now, I live about 200m from the exchange and have 8Mb broadband.

Some of the other options on Skye include building a wireless ring around the Internet connection at the local college (BBC). European funding for broadband is available for communities via the Leader programme.(Scottish Government)

Recovering from Information overload

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Organization/Talent/Recovering_from_information_overload_2735

The title of this article says it all "Recovering from Information overload". My brother-in-law happened to retweet a link to it yesterday, so I found about it on twitter. You have to register to see the full article, but it is free - and yes, I can now get even more free information to my email box.

The article suggests that business productivity is being affected because executives are spending too much time on myriads of different information streams, as a consequence they are not getting enough, good quality time to sit down and think through issues properly. "The whole organization’s productivity can now be affected by information overload, and no single person or group can address it in isolation."

The article goes on to suggest that we're becoming addicted to multitasking "Nonetheless, evidence is emerging that humans can become quite addicted to multitasking. Edward Hallowell and John Ratey from Harvard, for instance, have written about people for whom feeling connected provides something like a “dopamine squirt”—the neural effects follow the same pathways used by addictive drugs. This effect is familiar too: who hasn’t struggled against the urge to check the smart phone when it vibrates, even when we’re in the middle of doing something else?" I think that it's not really multitasking we're addicted to, it's more about finding out more information - just what is the text that just pinged about?

The need for information filters and information light periods is advocated. The article concludes by extolling "The benefits of lightening the burden of information overload—in productivity, creativity, morale, and business results—will more than justify the effort. And the more we appreciate the benefits, the easier it will be to make new habits stick."

Working in a small rural business, I can see this happening time and time again, the amount of time I waste, "emailing that document again", is frustrating. I find that it's becoming more challenging to handle all the information which comes through - mainly be email. It's also a challenging time for small rural businesses at the moment, we need to use information more effectively in the competition for business.