The "Cs" of Cyberspace To Community |
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You may have read a couple of the features in this column on the Internet, information technology, information superhighway ad nauseum. Each has been intended to help the chamber membership adjust to this new age of "Cyberspace." This brings to mind other related elements that begin with the letter "C"....Cultural change is one. The concept of incorporating a new electronic or on-line medium into business and personal life involves a cultural shift, but one that portends an exciting future of rich content, interactivity and a new way of working with information.
Within this cultural adjustment are several other "Cs". Community. The sense of community must be an integral part of the shift with "very strong community-building techniques" at its cornerstone. This has been lacking in the major on-line access providers who have consistently marketed with nary a notion of what the Fort Walton Beach community is about nor where it wants to go. America On-line doesn’t have a clue that I have enough free sampler disks to retile my foyer and still have enough disks left over to replace the heat tiles on the space shuttle. And while the strategic posturing by the major telecommunications stakeholders continues in the wake of dramatic telecommunications reform, their sense of community becomes even more diffused. Fortunately, the local Internet service providers in our area who have a sense of community involvement are setting themselves apart from the major players in this arena.
Connectivity. You’re either connected or you’re not, either by intent or an obstacle. Bringing more of the community into the on-line culture is important or we run the risk of evolving into a community of "haves" and "have-nots". The idea of community connectivity has been articulated on the national level by the National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council to President Clinton in their KickStart Initiative report. This report is a guidepost for communities to migrate to the on-line culture and was compiled from two years of research and studies. The success stories it cites reflects triumphs over funding, political chicanery, ignorance, and apathy to bring connectivity to rural areas, libraries, disabled, low-income, minorities, and the school systems. KickStart is the blueprint that the chamber’s Information Technology Committee is basing a lot of its’ work on.
Content. While connectivity is the hardware/software challenge, the defining element of all of this is content: the material, ideas, thoughts, news, and emotions that make the on-line medium a portal to the world we live in. Our sense of community mention is nourished by the creative content that we produce.
Communication. While it may appear obvious that communication is the natural embodiment of the on-line culture, on-line communication (e.g. e-mail) is not a substitute for traditional means of communications, rather it is an extension. While communications may be enhanced through electronic bulletin boards, e-mail, and the World Wide Web, it will never embrace the soul of face-to-face meetings. But as part of the cultural change we are experiencing in this information age, learning how to communicate with these new mediums will have to be learned. The Fort Walton Beach Chamber of Commerce Information Technology Committee, which is involved with the KickStart Initiative, conducts much of its communications via e-mail to pass along information simply, quickly, and inexpensively. Additionally, the committee posts its meeting minutes on the World-Wide Web for anybody to view. Recently, we received a notice from the Director of the National Information Infrastructure Awards that our chamber committee is being placed in contention for a national award.
Coaching. This boils down to educating people about this medium. Many parents have already been taken to task by a child who can deftly hop around on a computer or the Web with aplomb and dexterity, not unlike the nimbleness they displayed on playground equipment. Many business owners and especially those of who have not had any training on this medium discover that a disproportionate amount of information is being wielded by subordinates who are trained. In the school systems the teachers must be educated on educational technology so that they can incorporate its’ full potential. This is one of the major elements of the KickStart Initiative.
Course. The refrain from Microsoft almost fits, "Where do you want to go today?" That is an individual message targeted towards the hapless consumer, let alone a community. The phrase "Where do we want to go today (tomorrow?) is a COMMUNITY issue.
Commitment. It is a given that the information age will probably exceed the life spans of most of us. But with a commitment from the community to map our own course, we can ensure that our community endures and carves its own stake in its future as one of the most charming secrets this country has to offer.
Collaboration. For our community to further adapt to the information/on-line culture via the "C" elements it will be necessary to have a collaboration of the business, civic, and scholastic leaders of the community. Funding for school enhancements through grants are getting harder to obtain. Perhaps with the recent telecommunications reform a buyer’s market may evolve allowing us to leverage this status into strategic partnerships. While there are many notable efforts to get the schools on-line through business partnerships and volunteers, much remains to be done. Last March there was a volunteer event in California called NetDay in which thousands of volunteers and sponsors strung over six million feet of line to help connect the schools to the Internet. North Carolina intends to do the same this September. Well, as a way of laying down a challenge, it appears that our community is quite adept at pulling lines as well. The founders of this area pulled lines for their nets containing the economic staple at the time, fish. We may very well need to pull lines again, the harvest being our economic health for this beautiful coast.
This article was published in the April 1996 issue of Coastlines, a publication for the Fort Walton Beach (FL) Chamber of Commerce courtesy of the Daily News.