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

Recipe for Rural Community Development in the New Economy

The recipe for rural development in the new economy is based on three key ingredients of knowledge, innovation and leadership. Various types of economic and social development in rural communities will require these three elements to be successful. An important starting point is to understand what each of these key ingredients are and how they play a role in the development of rural communities.

Ingredients for e-ready communities

How do you describe the importance of the Internet? How about its potential for communities? That is a question I continue to try and answer after more than 10 years of working in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and rural development. Studies are beginning to calculate its impact with some results indicating that the Internet is responsible for 21% of economic growth in developed nations. Additionally, a study from the World Bank determines that every10% point increase in penetration of ICTs can impact economic growth by up to 1.4% for developing countries.

Unfortunately, in attempts to explain the Internet and its importance, it often comes across as a magic bullet that is going to solve all of the community’s problems (something I'm guilty of on occasion). The natural reaction to this is a “Build it and they will come” approach by community decision makers and governments. Many groups work hard to set up Internet infrastructure and access in a community and then hope for change.

Regrettably, the Internet is not a magic bullet and to fully realize its benefits, communities need to do more than just build ICT infrastructure. While building ICT infrastructure is a critical first step, successful adoption also requires building digital skills, and most importantly, it requires people actively using the Internet.

In 2001, I travelled to a northern community in Canada to help update the software on their community access site only to discover the computer for the access site was still in the original boxes. The local organization that had agreed to host the access site was very appreciative of the computer, but explained matter of fact that they had no idea how to set up the computer, and so it had remained in the box for six months until I arrived.

More than 10 years later, the lesson learned from this experience still holds true, setting communities up with computers and Internet is not the only or final step in unleashing the potential of the Internet for our rural communities. E-Ready communities are those communities that are able to take full advantage of the information society. In my master’s thesis on knowledge planning, I defined an e-ready community as “a community that provides its residents, businesses and organizations with the necessary tools and environment to be successful in the new knowledge-based world” (Kelly, pg 14).

 As the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) describes, it is the combination of ICT skills and ICT access which enables the use of ICT and the Internet. In turn, it is using technology that results in communities taking full advantage of the information society. Another ICT assessment is built on this model, but Function Four Ltd.’s E-Index focuses on community level rather than national level measurements of infrastructure, skills and use.  

Communities that want to effectively participate in the information society, to become e-communities need to address each of these steps of infrastructure, skills and use to fully realize the benefits of ICT. The ITU and the E-Index provide some examples of how to determine progress towards effective engagement in the information society with the ITU focusing on country measurements while the E-Index concentrates at a community level.

Figure 1 ITU Measuring the Information Society 2011

Infrastructure and access

The ITU describes ICT infrastructure and access as the presence and availability of computers, cell phones, fixed phone lines and Internet within a community. While the ITU measures fixed phone lines, it acknowledges that they are becoming less and less important for accessing the Internet and may be removed from infrastructure measurements in the future. The E-Index, a community ICT Index that builds locally on the ITU’s efforts, factors in the presence of more traditional ICTs such as radios and televisions to create an overall measure of ICT infrastructure and access.

Infrastructure and access are often measured by ratios of ICT per 100 people to provide a comparable benchmark between ICTs and between geographies. This type of measurement also provides helpful context for understanding the importance and role of ICTs; for example the country of Taiwan has the highest rate of mobile phones per capita in the world with more than 100 mobile phones per 100 people meaning that many people have multiple phones.

Communities wanting to participate more in the information society need to determine which ICTs are the most beneficial for them and focus on measuring the level of those ICTs. Access becomes an issue when certain groups or parts of the community have unequal access to those ICTs due to issues of cost, control or availability. Recent data shows that in the US, only 46% of the poorest households have broadband access in the home – that figure jumps to 80% in houses with more than $50,000 in household income and to 96% for the wealthiest households.

Skills

ICT skills are also referred to as digital literacy or capacity, typically referring to the ability to use computers and the Internet. While ideally measured through surveys or even testing, the ITU and other agencies often use education enrollments as proxies for ICT skills, measuring capacity through enrollment rates in secondary and tertiary education. The E-Index uses a tiered skill tree for each ICT grouping skills into level of difficulty and measuring survey participant

Communities are better situated to use surveys and even training requests as indicators of ICT skills. Determining the level of comfort and expertise with ICTs locally is an important step in helping to increase and encourage ICT use.

Use

Using ICTs is the only way for a community to benefit from them and to move towards becoming e-communities. Computers, cell phones and the Internet provide the main opportunities for community use. As a result, the ITU focuses its measurements on these technologies, tallying broadband and cellphone subscriptions as their main indicators of use. The E-Index on the other hand focuses on individual time use of technology to help determine a community’s ICT use profile.

Its important for communities to understand current use patterns in their community before trying to focus efforts on a specific ICT or outcome. Is the community strongly engaged in social media or are the majority of residents focused on productivity uses such as word processors and spreadsheets. Once communities know where they are currently in terms of ICT use, it’s much easier to determine and plan for new goals.

The first step in any recipe is to make sure you have the all the ingredients, and both the ITU and E-Index have identified that the necessary ingredients for engagement in the information society are ICT infrastructure, skills and use. Providing Computers and broadband alone will not create e-ready communities, but it is an important step, and the first step in the recipe for creating communities engaged in the information society. 

Sources:

http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/publications/idi/index.html

http://functionfour.com/about/

http://mashable.com/2012/02/05/digital-divide-infographic/

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTINFORMATIONANDCOMMUNICATIONANDTECHNOLOGIES/Resources/282822-1208273252769/Building_broadband.pdf

Kelly (2008). Knowledge Planning, Community Development in the Knowledge-Based Economy. Thesis, Brandon University, Brandon. 

Social Media is here to stay; time to get on the bandwagon

courtesy of dknyprgirl

Social media is now part of how organizations, companies and society operate. Organizations big and small, urban and rural, tech savvy and tech adverse, can no longer ignore or avoid the importance and impact of social media. As I continue to explore what ICT can mean for rural development, the role of social media is quickly becoming a central part of that exploration. As a result, I am increasingly immersed in social media, expanding beyond the longtime facebook presence and establishing more comprehensive profiles and a more active presence in the other main networks including Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter and most recently Pinterest.

Not surprisingly my network of colleagues, friends and family have also been increasing their engagement in social media and I have quickly found that I many of the same connections online as I have offline. However, one of the main differences with social networking is that it is designed to expand your network beyond those people you know face to face, while also greatly facilitating the exchange of knowledge, ideas and even people.

Now, in addition to my current ‘real-world’ or offline network, I have in my ‘circles’, am ‘following’, ‘friends with’, ‘connected-to’, and ‘re-pin’ leaders and practitioners in development, research, technology and even spirituality. The knowledge that flows through my social network on a daily basis is very informative and inspiring. The network of experts and practitioners at my fingers tips to learn from and share with grows daily and far exceeds what I could’ve achieved a few short years ago before social media. All of this has affirmed that rural communities and organizations need to insure that they are also on the social media bandwagon as the dangers of missing it are now too significant to ignore. 

The Social Media “Push”

One of the key benefits of social media is the ability to easily and effectively share information, knowledge and ideas with others. Rural communities are no longer affected by being isolated from networks, businesses, stakeholders or even prospective residents. Social media allows rural communities and organizations to promote themselves and to share their information in a much more effective manner than ever before. As an example, a rural community that posts an event on their website relies on users to come to the website to be aware of the event. While websites are still a very important tool, social media creates a dynamic network of interested participants who are waiting for information to be sent to them and many of whom are willing and wanting to forward that information to their extended networks. A study by the market research company AYTM study indicates that 57% of users on facebook have more than 100 friends and 25% of users on twitter have more than 100 followers; the community event notice can reach thousands of people through social networking in the time it takes dozens to visit the community website. 

The Social Media “Pull”

For those communities and organizations that are not producing lots of content or not ready to share information regularly, social media provides a window into a cycle of knowledge exchange, idea generation and discussion that is seemingly endless in terms of the topics available and in the constant evolution of this content. Social networks are a fantastic source of knowledge and you can find participants, experts and groups of participants and experts that provide a wealth of information. Through social media, rural communities and organizations can easily follow the latest discussions on relevant topics and be up to date on news, events and announcements related to them or their economies. Rural businesses can know what their customers want and what their competition is doing as it happens.

The Social Media “Access” to Talent

One of the most significant indicators of the importance of social media, is the rapid evolution of employee recruitment and hiring. According to Careerenlightnement.com an amazing 91% of companies are now using social media in some manner for recruiting. Recruiters are using social media, primarily facebook and LinkedIn, to verify qualifications, to get a better understanding of applicants’ interests and expertise and to determine if there are any potential character issues. Many companies are basing decisions on what they find as 68% of companies having hired or rejected applicants based on social media. As a result, job hunters are focusing their job searches, networking efforts and communication activities on social media. If rural companies and communities are not engaged in social media, they are going to find that talent is harder and harder to find as potential employees are no longer searching and applying for jobs in the same manner any more. 

Sources

http://mashable.com/2011/08/16/social-media-marketing-stats-infographic/

http://www.mdgadvertising.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/the_roi_of_social_media_mdg_advertising_infographic.png

http://aytm.com/blog/research-junction/branding-and-how-it-works-in-the-social-media-age/

http://careerenlightenment.com/social-media-job-seeking-tips/how-recruiters-use-social-media-to-screen-candidates-infographic