From Beer to Boats and everywhere in between - travelling on free wifi!

Last month I had the fortune to travel to the United Kingdom and Ireland for work and pleasure. The last time I was in Europe was in 2008 and I was excited to see how traveling had changed with respect to getting online.

Back in 2008, I didn't have an iPhone or iPad and travelled with a bulky laptop which I had trouble connecting to the Internet. So in 2008 I did what I had done on previous trips, track down Internet cafes and spend an hour here or there connecting with everyone through email and downloading and printing my work and travel materials - if that was even possible in the hot and sweaty cafes I found myself in.

This time around I had a fairly busy travel schedule, hitting 5 cities in 6 days. I wanted to stay well connected with family and work as it was busy times for both. To make sure I could travel quickly and flexibly as well as ensuring that I could be in touch most of the time, I needed to have regular access to the Internet and would need more than Internet cafes. Equipped with an iPhone and an iPad, I had portable devices that would keep me connected and let me do my work, but I needed to figure out how to get online regularly. Before the trip I was trying to decide whether or not I buy a data plan in Europe or pay through the nose for an international travel plan through my Canadian carrier.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user oDonovan
(creative commons)

I got as as far as unlocking my iPhone, a new freedom here in Canada, before I stumbled across some blog posts that described staying connected solely via free wifi when traveling in Europe. I was skeptical as I wouldn't want to travel here in Canada relying solely on wifi that may or may not be available and free at airports, hotels - I know I can always get free wifi at Starbucks or Subway here in Canada but that's not often convenient and often not even an option in rural areas. What the heck I thought, lets give it a try - with an unlocked phone I can always grab a SIM card and data plan if i get frustrated by the lack of wifi access in my travels in Ireland and the UK.

As soon as I landed in Heathrow airport, I wanted to double-check my accommodations and low and behold free wifi was available. Travelers in Canada know that free wifi is not a sure thing in our airports.The next day I hopped on a train for my next destination and saw that Virgin trains offers high-speed Internet access on route! This was the only time I paid for wifi but it was only $9 Canadian for 3 hours of wifi while I travelled, which seemed like a bargain to me as it was much cheaper than the $5-10 an hour i paid at Internet cafes in 2008. Wifi while traveling was my favourite feature and this train journey was the first of many opportunities to surf the net while watching rural areas go by.

Photo taken by author

I soon discovered that wifi was available at an extraordinary number of locations and almost all of it free and of good quality as well. I almost always had at least 5Mbps download and often more than 10 Mbps through the free wifi. On this trip I was able to have Skype calls in pubs such as this one in rural England; FaceTime with my wife and kids as I crossed the Irish Sea on Irish Ferries as well as stream satellite radio while I watched the beautiful Irish countryside go by on the Irish Rail trains. Even as I left to come home, my shuttle bus to the airport in Dublin had free wifi which let catch up on email, check the weather and send off some chats to let family know I was successfully on my way home.

On this trip I was able to access wifi easily several times a day at public locations, at every bed & breakfast I stayed in, and on almost every bus, train or boat that I took. This allowed me to keep in constant touch with family, keep on top of things at work, and to change travel plans quickly and easily when I needed, as well as making it much easier to play tourist and find my way round the different places I ended up.

Photo taken by author

Free and plentiful wifi is an amazing thing as a traveller. In small towns and large cities in the UK and Ireland I was able to easily connect to the Internet. In contrast, in Canada I sometimes have difficulty connecting in many large cities let alone in small towns. I know that affordable and quality Internet access offers much more than just benefits for travelers, but from a tourism perspective I can now testify to the importance and benefits it provides when visiting a new town or region and that alone should be more than enough for most communities to ensure that wifi is free and plentiful in their town.

The next big resource? Harnessing Digital Youth in rural Canada

image courtesy of creative commons

After a five year hiatus, I have started doing some work again in the area of rural youth, a critical issue for rural communities. One of the projects I am working on focuses on the importance of digital skills and the knowledge-based economy for rural youth. Economic development in rural Canada is based on resource development and economic opportunities are often developed based on the discovery of new or untapped resources and it seems that one of those untapped resources, especially in recent years is rural youth and their digital know-how. 

The value of digital youth

Digital youth represent an enormous resource that is that is unrecognized by businesses and communities. Youth have an almost inherent or natural understanding of digital technology. In his book Grown up Digital, Don Tapscott identifies that the digital immersion and upbringing of today's youth have created a generation of people that live and breath technology, a generation that has an intrinsic understanding of how to use the internet to search for information, communicate, and generate content. 

Unfortunately these skills and opportunities for youth are not often realized or acted on. A study by the telecommunications provider O2 valued the digital skills of 1 million unemployed youth in the United Kingdom at more than $10.5 billion in Canadian dollars. With the continued rise of the knowledge economy, the importance of digital skills will also keep growing, meaning this valuation of digital skills will only increase. Locally, a labour study in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba identified that computer skills are essential for all but the most unskilled jobs while at the same time youth are over-represented in those unskilled jobs with 83% of all youth under 25 being employed in unskilled jobs in the service sector. While digital skills are in high demand for operating and competing in an increasingly digital economy, there is not a significant recognition of the value of youth’s digital literacy or the opportunities right in front of rural communities. Digital youth are invaluable resource that businesses and organizations in rural communities are sitting on top of, a resource that has not been tapped and is in high demand.    

Developing a digital resource

Typically, youth need to migrate to urban centres to find appreciation and employment related to their digital skills. Richard Florida's urban focused creative economy model i based in part on the fact that creative, knowledge-based employment opportunities are only available in select urban areas. Creating digitally-related opportunities in rural communities could address two rural challenges at the same time: economic development and youth retention. 

Rural communities are always looking for additional or new economic opportunities, striving to maintain or grow the local economy as resource levels and commodity prices fluctuate. Building digital capacity is also an essential requirement for communities to participate in the knowledge-economy.  of effectively part. In addition, retaining their population, especially youth population is another challenge for many rural communities. Harnessing the natural resource of their youth's digital capacity creates opportunities to address both economic development and youth retention for rural communities.  

Organizations and businesses in rural communities can take advantage of their digital youth through creating or hiring youth for employment opportunities related to web development, information searchers and social media; through entrepreneurship support that encourages youth to start digital businesses in rural communities; and through engaging youth in community projects and organizations in roles that build a digital presence and effectively use social media.  

Some initiatives such as the Digital Youth Academy are already starting to mine this resource and create opportunities for youth, setting up internships that build on the natural digital capacity of youth and provide essential skills for businesses and organizations. Rural communities in Canada can do something similar and create local opportunities for digital youth to find employment and to get recognition for their skills, developing economic opportunities while providing youth opportunities and incentives to stay.  

Sources:

Florida, R. (2002). The Rise of the Creative Class. New York: Basic Books.

Tapscott, D. (2009). Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World. McGraw-Hill. 

http://news.o2.co.uk/?press-release=young-peoples-digital-skills-valued-at-6-7billion-by-uk-businesses

http://www.centralplains.ca/documents/PlaP_Phase_III_Labour_Needs_Final_Report.pdf