- Potential User community - Who lives in, works in and visits
Downtown Dartmouth?
- Small business owners
- Students (who live in the area)
- Seniors
- Ferry users
- Job seekers
- Tourists
- Communicators (email checkers)
- Farmer's market visitors
- Youth
- General population that lives downtown
- Special interest groups
- What are the particular IT needs of the downtown community that are
not currently being met?
- Recreational use - there is demand on current sites
- Small businesses - web page design, advertising (would like to see more
local businesses on-line) internet access, e-commerce
- Training - basic how to use internet
- Tourists checking email
- Long term Maranova residents - checking email
- Laptop plug-in
- Requests for classes at community recreation centre
- Raise awareness/knowledge re: computer/internet - overcome current fear
What type of training/support is needed?
- Basic skills - how to use the internet, etc.
- Troubleshooting need
- Online opportunities - need support to use
- Gates training - internships possibilities
- Awareness of what the internet can offer/do for you
- Internet hype - how reliable is the information - can you trust it?
- How to search for information on the internet
- Community information - need for local businesses,
tourist/historical sites
- Need to link current information - eg: HRM/tourism - there is no link to
Downtown Dartmouth
- Environment for sites needs to be conducive to learning and dissolving fear
of technology
- Parents with computer fears are a target group
- Possible Partnerships
- The training by small businesses with bigger corporate partner/sponsors
- Students provide training as part of an internship program
- Atlantic Regional Learning Centre - can provide hardware/space
- Where would you see the access being made available?
- Hours of operation - e.g.: evenings/night - is it an issue?
- Need different types of sites and different locations - e.g.: sites to appeal
to those with knowledge and sites to appeal to those with no
knowledge/uninitiated/fearful
Possibilities of a collaborative cluster model incorporating:
- Community recreation centre (Findlay Centre)
- Café/small business
- Library
- Museum
- 43 Wentworth Street
- Dartmouth Downtown Development Corporation (DDDC)
- How would you anticipate access arrangements being managed?
- Through a sub-committee of DDDC
- Volunteers would staff - staff sites for different hours
- provide training to others
- Develop a revenue stream
- Information can be distributed through DDDC - newsletter and key people
- Recreation - has a newsletter that goes out 4 times/year and also flyers
that are sent to schools
