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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Telecentre Case Study - Southern Labrador, Canada

• A Beginning Thought

• Labrador's Embracement

• Local Setup & Services

• Staffing

• How The Telecentres Helped The Community

• Summary

Telecentre Case Study - Southern Labrador, Canada

Ten years ago in 1988, someone had a vision of how the application of information technology could help the economy of Newfoundland and Labrador. That person was Richard Fuchs. Having had some knowledge of the potential in this activity and of what was happening in Scandinavia, Richard was able to secure funds to begin the planning for the province’s first information technology project (The Enterprise Network).

One of the first steps of the project was to pull together a Steering Committee to travel to Scandinavia to admire the information technology developments of that region and to specifically see and learn from their tele-cottage (telecentre) concept. The result of that visit was a plan of action to establish a series of community telecentres throughout Newfoundland and Labrador. Funded through a 70/30(%) joint agreement of the federal and provincial governments, there were six telecentres established in rural areas of the province.

One of these telecentres was planned for what seemed like the "most unlikely place" in Labrador. Labrador is a northern area of Canada that has a land mass of 112,800 square miles, is home to thirty two communities and a population of 30,000 people. The communities stretch along five distinct regions. Only the central and western regions (population total 20,000) have highway connections to the remainder of the country. Labrador has a strong cultural spirit with a very active aboriginal community and a rich history that connects with many nationalities. The Southern Labrador Telecentre proved to be one of the most successful centres in the province. The Southern Labrador Telecentre was established in the community of Forteau. Globally speaking, Forteau can be found at N5126 Longitude and W5711 Latitude. Locally, it is a small community of 600 people that is nestled on the South coast of Labrador and twenty kilometres from the Lower North Shore border of the province of Quebec.

Forteau is one of seven communities which comprise a region known as the Labrador Straits. This region has a total population of 2000 people. Traveling to Forteau can be considered a challenge for some. Airline flights are available six days per week and, from May to January of each year, a ferry service is available to the island of Newfoundland. Forteau does not yet have a road connection to the remainder of Labrador or outside the Quebec Lower North Shore.

The economy of Southern Labrador has traditionally been based around the fishery. Men and women of this area have built one of the world’s most successful fishing industries, providing eighty percent of the local employment and bringing a fairly high standard of living to local communities. Unfortunately, fish stocks dropped to an all-time low in 1992 and the federal government declared a province-wide moratorium on the cod fishery. This found communities struggling to hold economies together and local residents scrambling to make decisions about what to do with their lives. This came to be a very important time for the Southern Labrador Telecentre. Many local people opted to change their vocation. They needed information on available training, business support and assistance with developing business plans. The Telecentre was a key partner in the community planning and response to this crisis. It also served as the region’s key information source and business support centre.

Labrador’s Embracement

I came to Labrador from Newfoundland in 1984, with my well-laid plan to "work, make money, and leave". I have since grown to hold an extremely strong allegiance to Labrador, its issues, its people, and its potential. My work in Labrador has been in economic development in one capacity or another and I strongly believe that Labrador holds an abundance of promise for development and prosperity. I further believe that information technology is a key factor to that development.

Living in a rural, somewhat isolated region, ten years ago did not provide easy access to up-to-date information. You did not always know what the most recent developments were or what new inventions had been created. I therefore, must admit my guilt and lack of knowledge and appreciation for the possibilities of information technologies back then. I was involved as a Director of the local Rural Development Association in 1989 when the region first learned of the telecentre concept. Stelman Flynn, an area businessman and volunteer was involved as a member of the steering committee that visited Scandinavia. Being the local champion, he worked diligently to inform local residents of the upcoming plans for a community sponsored telecentre. I recall attending an information session where Stelman tried to rally enthusiasm for this new economic development initiative. There was a natural curiosity and a warm welcome for anything that suggested economic development, but there seem to be little appreciation for the impact that this service would actually have on the development of the communities of Southern Labrador. At that time not even our governments had embraced the magnitude and potential of the information society.

Considering the issues at hand during the time the telecentre concept was being promoted, it’s no wonder people failed to display optimism. People were dealing with employment issues, health care, basic municipal and transportation services. There was no demonstration of telecentre models from the province. The province did not have any such services at that time. In fact, there was no experience in the field of rural electronic communications either provincially or nationally and very little previous effort to bring technology to the rural communities.

Local Setup & Services

The Telecentre was established in 1991 as part of an office complex (E.M. Taylor Resource Centre) that would house various community development agencies. The Telecentre was co-sponsored to the region by the local rural development association (Southern Labrador Development Association) and the tourism development corporation (Labrador Straits Historical Development Corporation).

To ensure local input from the region regarding the operation of the telecentre, a local advisory committee was established with representatives from each of the two sponsoring groups, a representative of the chamber of commerce and a representative of the local telecommunications company (NewTel). This became an excellent forum for evaluation of the facility’s operation. It also helped to build community partnerships for the expansion of information technology initiatives.

The initial setup of the Telecentre drew the first display of real interest from the local residents. Once the community was exposed to the technical setup, the equipment, the furniture, and the physical layout of the facility, it became a much more tangible being. A major portion ( 24'ft x 32'ft) of the E.M. Taylor Resource Centre was used to house the Telecentre and it has served as the core of the complex. Employees within the complex all shared the community development mandate. This was the target market of the Enterprise Network/Telecentre and it was therefore very practical that the very core of the local client base worked in the same building. This provided the ideal circumstance for building strong client relationships. It allowed a daily exchange of information and ideas; was very practical for training purposes and helped to build a very successful "ambassador" marketing strategy. By maintaining this type of relationship with the agencies within the complex, they then became excellent ambassadors of the services of the Telecentre. Being located in such close proximity to other agencies also provided the client with a "one stop shop" service. Clients who came to visit the local employment services in the building often came to the Telecentre to prepare resumes or to do an Internet search for employment possibilities. Enterprising individuals planning a new business venture would come to gather information for their business plans, use the equipment to prepare the plan and then could meet with other agencies, such as the development association or the Chamber of Commerce for support of their business idea.

One of the most common statements given to us in the evaluations of the Telecentre and its services was always regarding the atmosphere of the facility. The Telecentre provided a professional, relaxed setting that provided clients with "hands-on" assistance and access to the technical and/or information resources. With six workstations, two printers, scanning capabilities, electronic mail, and the provision of individual network accounts, the Telecentre soon became the region’s most prized technological resource.

Client usage of the Telecentre was always recorded and used to gauge services and the need for change. Considering the lack of computers in homes, businesses, and local office environments, it was not surprising that the majority of clients came to the Telecentre to avail of the hardware and software resources. The Telecentre carried a wide selection of software to meet the needs of the local clientele, including accounting, word processing, graphic design, and database development. Many local business people saw the Telecentre as an invaluable service. Making the investment for a computer system for a small town business can be very taxing. However, learning the required skills while using the Telecentre resources proved to be very valuable to many of the local businesses. Business clients that used the Telecentre resources to improve their efficiency or to market their products and services became excellent champions for the Telecentre and its objectives. One such client was Phillip Earle. Phillip is a young entrepreneur who first came to the Telecentre as a fisherman looking to become a businessman. Phillip operates a telecommunications company (pager service) and the region’s courier service. Phillip has used the Telecentre to develop his business plan, his marketing materials, and to do his accounting. Phillip now uses his own technology resources to operate his businesses and connects to the Internet to track shipments for his courier business. The Internet has allowed him to be informed of most courier businesses in the country and has also helped him form partnerships with larger courier services to ensure he can provide a full range of services to his customers.

Prior to the Telecentre, there were no plans to move the Southern Labrador region online. There was no local experience with electronic mail, databases or the Internet. Establishment of the Telecentre in Labrador brought with it an immense technological advancement for the region. The only available computer systems within the region at that time were Commodore 64s, and the "state of the art" 286 computers. Very few homes had computers and use of them was primarily at the local schools and office environments. The Telecentre brought the area’s first network with its Novell DOS platform and in the early days provided a long distance dial-up electronic mail service. This later changed to the Windows environment and provided people with a local dial-up number for the electronic mail exchange. This service continues to operate today.

The technical picture of the region has drastically changed in the past six years. According to a recent survey, household computers now total some 235, schools are equipped with state of the art systems, have network capabilities, and do have some access to the Internet. As well, all local offices are using the latest hardware and software and more and more local businesses are recognizing the benefits of technology to their net revenues.

Internet access has been available to the Labrador Straits only since 1995. The primary problem with providing access is the astronomical costs that must be incurred. Because access is available only through long distance lines, an average Internet visit of thirty minutes can cost a user approximately $15 dollars. This has obviously been a major deterrent to any efforts to get local users on the information highway. Local telephone systems operate on an antiquated analog system with a guaranteed bps of 9600. Efforts are being made to encourage the telecommunications company to increase local bandwidth and provide affordable access to the Internet. Plans are in motion for system upgrades and a local Internet node within the next two years.

Staffing

The Telecentre began its operations with only one staff person, the manager. The manager at that time was Dennis Coates, who came to the area with his experience of having worked with the establishment and setup of a telecentre in rural St Alban’s, Newfoundland. It soon became obvious that one staff person was not sufficient if quality service was to be maintained. A second employee was hired through special employment funding from the provincial government. Sheena Dumaresques was hired as an assistant-trainee. Through her skills development and experience from the Telecentre, Sheena later went on to open the region’s first desktop publishing business with her brother. The business continues to operate and has expanded its services to include framing services and computer generated sign manufacturing. The business has two full time employees and an annual net revenue of $60,000 dollars.

I worked as the Coordinator of the Rural Development Association when Dennis moved to assume responsibilities in another position. I believe because of my close working relationship with the Telecentre and my experience as an economic developer that the manager’s position was offered to me. I worked as Manager of the Southern Labrador Telecentre from 1993 to 1997. Those four years provided me with more knowledge, skills, and valuable experiences than many people gain in a lifetime. The Telecentre project held a strong team of employees with a variety of backgrounds in rural development. The project was not a "technology project" but was instead an effort to foster rural development through the application of information technology concepts and support services. Knowing this, my worries did lessen about my extent or lack of technical training. I recall being very apprehensive about my ability to take care of the day to day technical problems that could occur. My technical experience included only the very basics and were to a large degree, very specific to software applications. I generally find technical matters to be intimidating but with the help of the technical staff working from the St. John’s support office, I was able to operate the Telecentre efficiently and with great success. Helping me with the day to day operation was a very capable and skilled assistant, Todd May. As a student of Business Administration in St. John’s, Todd had spent some time working with the St. John’s support office. When the position of Operations Assistant became available in Forteau, he seemed an obvious choice. Todd was very professional and worked very well with the clients and partners of the Telecentre. Todd also had a rural background and was a true asset to the Southern Labrador Telecentre. In reflection, I wish, for my own sake that I had had a natural talent toward technical matters. However, I firmly believe that without the community development knowledge, the job would have been very difficult and would surely not have been successful.

Another attribute of the success of the Southern Labrador Telecentre was definitely the management style of the project leaders. As manager of the Telecentre, I was given complete freedom within the project’s mandate to operate the facility to best meet the needs of the region. Each of the Telecentre’s within the Province were operated to "fit the community". There was a core set of information products and services that became standard to all Telecentres. The promotion of services followed similar guidelines, but the variety of services and the local partnerships varied according to the regions and their development initiatives.

How The Telecentre Helped The Community

Human Resource Development

Aside from bringing the first technological business support centre to the region, the Southern Labrador Telecentre also played a key role in the development of local skills as they relate to software applications, electronic mail, online databases, the Internet, and the World Wide Web. Much of the skills transfer took place through one-on-one sessions. This type of training sometimes took place at the Telecentre and sometimes at the workplace or business of the client. This type of training was generally preferred by the client and was very effective. Many people are intimidated by technology as "first time" users and learn much better through individual training or small group sessions. Most of the Telecentre clients were members of the economic development agencies, and/or the business community. These clients had not been exposed to a great deal of technology and required dedicated efforts to ensure the technology would be of benefit to their work. These same clients are now some of the community’s most proficient users of hardware and software. It is very gratifying for me now to be able to call upon a client of the telecentre for technical assistance, myself.

In the case of the development associations in Labrador, the Telecentre was a key partner in accessing funds to purchase equipment and train the staff of each Association. The objective was to train staff in the basic software applications, electronic mail and the online information products available through the Enterprise Network. These staff could then serve as information agents or resource people for their Board of Directors (volunteers) and their regions. These staff did serve as a network of people to the Telecentre when there were client requests outside of the Telecentre’s immediate region.

One of most memorable clients of the Telecentre for me was Mrs. Mary Taylor. Mrs Taylor is well known locally and worked as a nurse with the Grenfell Regional Health Services. Mrs. Taylor is the namesake behind the E. M. Taylor Resource Centre, where the Telecentre is located. Mrs. Taylor is a very active seventy three year old lady who came to the Telecentre to do her memoirs. She had some experience with typewriters, but very little with computers. She wanted to learn WordPerfect and format her manuscript for submission to potential publishers. She was, in some sense, outside of the Telecentre’s target market but I felt it was important to assist her. She did indeed learn WordPerfect and did complete her book. We are awaiting its release.

Business Community Development

Through its business support services in advice, planning, and information the Telecentre played an important role in helping to increase the business community of the Labrador Straits. At the time of the Telecentre establishment, the federal and provincial governments were providing an array of funding programs to new and existing businesses. This was welcomed news to regions in the midst of a fishery crisis. There were large numbers of people who looked at the possibility of opening their own business. Southern Labrador, at that time, did not have any local consultants and the Telecentre became a very important information source for those who needed information and assistance with the preparation of business plans. It was during this time, that the Telecentre developed a series of information products that could be available on demand for clients. These products included demographic profiles of local communities, local business directories, and contact directories for local municipalities, schools, groups and agencies.

Information sessions, and target promotion to different sectors of the business community saw many of the local businesses coming to the Telecentre to learn how to develop brochures, Web pages, business cards, newsletters, posters, and sales flyers. This type of service has led to a much more professional image of local businesses and formed the basis of the area’s privately owned desktop publishing business. The Telecentre has also had a direct role in encouraging many local businesses to broaden the scope of their marketing through the World Wide Web and open their business to the global marketplace.

The Telecentre also played a key role in establishing the Labrador Straits Chamber of Commerce. During my work as Telecentre Manager I facilitated several consultation sessions with the business community, and in the initial stages of organization I provided the Chamber with administrative support and the resources of the Telecentre. In addition, the Telecentre became a key partner in the development of a proposal for a Business Development Officer for the Labrador Straits. The Telecentre provided office space, a computer, and training for the staff person. The Telecentre has also assisted the Chamber with its campaign to promote the Labrador Straits "As a Good Place to do Business". Through the resources of the Telecentre, the Chamber was able to develop a professional display for conferences, with photos, maps, back grounders, profiles, and brochures. To complement the display, the Telecentre also assisted the Chamber in the development of PowerPoint presentations of the area and its services.

Technology Development

The Southern Labrador Telecentre worked within in a very broad framework. Components of that framework include indicators of actual success of technology development that can be viewed in the following ways:

- the number of actual IT businesses that have started in the region;
- the level of IT awareness of residents, local businesses, and development agencies;
- the local initiatives and support for access to the Internet, equal to that of urban centres;
- the level of IT skills amongst local residents.

One of the most celebrated partnerships of the Telecentre has been with the Southern Labrador Development Association and the Historical Development Corporation to form the non-profit company known as Labrador Software Inc.. This partnership was formed as a result of a project to create an electronic promotional product of the Labrador Straits (Labrador Straits Tourism Database). The project encompassed a team of data and photo collectors and employed two individuals to design an electronic book of the Labrador Straits. The product was created using Toolbook software and was made available in tourist chalets throughout the province. The product has since been converted to CD format and can also be viewed from the region’s web site (http://www.seascape.com/labrador). Following the completion of the Tourism Database project, a decision was made to set up Labrador Software in hopes of securing contracts to employ local people in IT related work. The company has completed a number of activities and has recently completed a suppliers database of the Labrador Business Community for a major mining company involved with the Voisey Bay Nickel Mine.

The six years of operation of the Telecentre brought about many changes within Southern Labrador. Awareness of technology and local IT skill development has increased astronomically. This is evident through a number of factors:

In an effort to improve local access to the Internet, the Telecentre helped to organize the region’s first Telecommunications Group. The mandate of this group is to assume a leadership role in initiating efforts to bring affordable Internet access to the local communities. The group’s membership is comprised of a wide selection of business representatives, development agencies, schools, health care workers, and municipalities. The group is currently working on a campaign with the local telephone company for service upgrades and is coordinating a major initiative to establish seven community public access terminals in the local schools, library, and learning centre.

Partnership Development - Partnership building has definitely been one of the most important elements of my work with the Telecentre. It has been key to the realization and success of many of the initiatives that have been undertaken. Aside from those activities already mentioned, the Telecentre played an instrumental role in several other development initiatives, including:

Mountain Field Academy Computer Resource Centre - The Telecentre worked with the school to secure funding to purchase necessary equipment to establish a computer resource centre that would be available to students and parents after school hours. The school used the facility during the school day and utilized the technical experience of the Telecentre. The Telecentre had access to the facility for training sessions during evenings and weekends. During the summer, the Telecentre used the facility to coordinate a computer camp for children (ages 5 - 13 years).

Partners In Learning - I have represented the Telecentre on this group and have participated as a founding member to address the literacy problems of local communities. The Telecentre provided key information to the group in its organizational development stage and assisted in the development of the group’s three year plan. The Telecentre also provided training to the staff in software applications, electronic mail, and Internet searching. Involvement with the Partners In Learning group eventually grew to include serving as a resource person to a pan-Labrador Literacy Network. My role in this capacity has been to provide advice and information on electronic communication, applicable funding programs, and IT skills training.

Community Access Program - The federal government of Canada provides funding to a maximum of $30,000 dollars for communities to provide publicly accessible Internet sites. While attending a staff training session in 1996, I was informed of this program and took it upon myself to pass the information along to the communities of Labrador. Aside from the two larger towns, Labrador communities do not have any local access to the Internet. This program offers an excellent opportunity for communities to get online and build local skills. Ten proposals were submitted and approved for Labrador for this year’s funding. The Telecentre will play an instrumental role in the Labrador Straits where seven free standing sites will be established in the local communities. These sites will offer free access to the general public and an opportunity to learn Internet skills and html writing and design. Each site will have the capability to dial to a local server, which will be housed and maintained at the Telecentre. This server will be the "Labrador Straits Virtual Community Channel" which will feature daily news reports, weather reports, job advertisements, regional calendar and business directories.

Summary

The Southern Labrador Telecentre has been an instrumental part of the development of Southern Labrador in the past six years. When news of the government’s decision to discontinue funding for the province’s telecentres came to the region, there was a massive public outcry. Unfortunately it did not change the decision. However, the fact that the facility remains open is a true testament to the success of the facility and to the will of the region to maintain a resource, in which they believe.

Following the news to cut the Telecentre funding, the governments announced an Information Technology Development Project to provide funds for an IT development officer for the Telecentre regions. I was hired for the Labrador position and am currently working with the development corporations to assist in the development of information technology in the five regions of Labrador. I am working from the Telecentre in Forteau and am working with the local region to ensure the Telecentre services are maintained.

While evaluating the Telecentre and its six year operation, a client made a statement that I believe best sums up the proof of the facility’s success. "What we were doing six years ago, when the Telecentre began, has become the future - the information technology society. Our history is still the future for many areas."

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