Suzanne Klinga and Peter Royce gave a workshop on Access at the Career Develelopment in the New Economy conference on May 5, 1998. It was well attended (80+) and quite lively.
We talked about the steady drift toward commercial web ownership, traffic and sites, the focus of Government on developing websites, the increasing gap between the "knows and know nots", equity of access, related social issues,
We asked some questions re. the way people used the internet when dealing
with their clients. We talked about the recent Statisics Canada figures
for access and the Angus Reid poll for BC - pointing out that looking for
a job figured highest
for both users and non-users of the Internet. We also talked
about the relatioinship between use of the Internet with income, education,
location, employment, gender, age etc.
We discussed the importance of access in promoting knowledge, equity, improved opportunities. The move from passive involvement to interactive, contributing use of new communications technologies - the need for community input to ensure relevant timely information (ie. Labour Market Information at local levels). Part of the overall revitalization of community, allowing for commuity particulars and keeping the human element in the fore. (Schuler).
We then asked participants to generate their ideas on barriers to access which we compared with Schuler's ones and those referred to by the Angus Reid survey on Provincial Government services on the Internet.
We also of course described the Vancouver Community Network and the
Job Seekers Access Project and
how we trying to address some of these issues through Public Access
etc.
Notes from the flip charts:
ASSUMPTIONS