Community groups and Information Technologies IT policies in Qubec and Canada : the case of Communau

1
Community groups and Information Technologies
(IT) policies in Québec and Canada the case of
Communautique

• Nicolas Lecomte
• Serge Proulx
• UQAM

2
Introduction

• Community groups and public policies
• Service provision/agency
• Criticism/activism
• Public debate around ITs ?

3
Theoretical Framework (1/2)

• Whats a public policy ? (Lemieux, 2002)
•  Public policies (...) are regulation processes
  where actors, within power relationships
  (policy), try to find solutions to public
  problems.  (Lemieux, 2002, p.34)
• Regulation - Power - Problems
• Public policies processes
• Emergence - Formulation - Implementation -
  Evaluation

4
Theoretical framework (2/2)

• QC History
• State and community groups conflictual
  cooperation (White, 2001)
• Same within IT policies ? How ?
• Lense Communautique case

5
Communautique's Actions linked to government
funded projects (1/3)

• 1996-1999 Policy emergence formulation
  (uncertain times)
• First Public access points to the Internet
  (Montreal).
• Animation and training sessions offered, to
  citizens or community groups' staff
• Website creation

6
Communautique's Actions linked to government
funded projects (2/3)

• 1999-2001 courrier.qc.ca Inforoutes Points
  d'accès Volnet (CA)
• Equipment for community groups
• Animation and training sessions
• Leading projects
• 2002-2007 Core funding from MEQ, enables
  regular training sessions in its facilities
  following the  Citizen Internet  theme

7
Communautique's Actions linked to government
funded projects (3/3)

• 2002-2008 CAP-YI
• 2004-2007 GI-TI Technical support for
  community groups phone line, DB
• 2004-2007 Consultations held around the E-Gov
  theme
• 2007 Techno-Ecolo

8
Communautique's contributions to the political
debate around the  Information society  (1/3)

• 1995-1996 Policy emergence
• Development of Communautique's vision
• Mémoires for the government (with ICEA)
• 1996 First  Access Needs Inquiry  (Étude de
  besoins) among community groups
• 1998 Policy formulation
• Analysis and public debate around Quebec's
  Information Highway Policy

9
Communautique's contributions to the political
debate around the  Information society  (2/3)

• 1998-2001 Policy Implementation
• public consultations and events (Global CN,
  colloquium  Where will ICT's lead us ? ,
  WSIS...)
• 2001 Second  Access Needs Inquiry 
• 2002 Publication of the Citizen Internet
  Platform

10
Communautique's contributions to the political
debate around the  Information society  (3/3)

• 2004 Third  Access Needs Inquiry 
• 2004-2007 E-Gov Implementation
•  Communautaire en ligne  CEDEL
• Research
• Consultations E-Gov

11
\Act_Think/

• Act
• Through several projects the group promotes
  Internet offers concrete activities that help
  community groups and citizens appropriate ITs.
• Think
• Communautique is a voice for community groups and
  citizens, organizing public debates around social
  and political issues related to IT deployment.

12
Public policies and community needs

• Basic needs (Cpu Net Training)
• Technical support (adapt.)
• -
• New equipments web tools Persistance of DD
• Few Long term and Core Fundings
• Thinking a community-driven Information Society

13
Communautiques community-driven citizen
Internet (1/2)

• The Platform for a citizen Internet (2002)
• Access Right
• DD Poverty factor
• When  the capacity to access equipment and
  networking facilities, and the capacity to
  contribute to knowledge production enhanced by
  the Internet  are unequally distributed within
  society.

14
Communautiques community-drive citizen
Internet (2/2)

• Civil Rights
• Technocracy and control state vs private
  liberties
• anti-utopian?
• Social Rights
• equal and universal access to techno resources
• Central Role for Grassroots Initiatives

15
Conclusion (1/3)

• Communautique thin line between community
  groups' roles of agency/delivery and of
  criticism/activism.
• reflexions contribute for a deeper consideration
  of social unequalities within the government's
  new IT policies, through a definition of public
  problems based on community needs
• the group could be in an intermediary position
  between the government's objectives and these
  needs, but theyre its priority.

16
Conclusion (2/3)

• Communautique and policy processing
• Implication at every step
• Government domination community consent ?
• Reinformations
• Community needs prevail in Communautiques
  definition of public problems regarding ITs

17
Conclusion (3/3)

• Effective Use
• Communautiques actions within communities
   take into account the fact that access is a
  socially situated behaviour and phenomenon. 
  (Gurstein, 2004, p.230)