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The role of the Internet for local community development - Background article about our workshop
When you live in a rural community like Achill Island,
the Internet can make daily life a lot easier. Instead of having to drive
for about an hour to the next shopping centre for example, you can order
your clothes, CDs, books, train tickets etc. online, and have it delivered
to you. Or you stay in touch with your relatives abroad, or just get the
latest news and information about any topic you are interested in. But
is this really what anybody wants? Are there concerns about negative aspects
of the Internet? Well, that's what we wanted to find out in our workshop.
To
achieve our aim we created a questionnaire in our first meeting on Monday,
which we would then use to evaluate the situation on Achill Island. We,
that is Sarah Davies from England, Nicole Mösslacher and Jens Alderath
from Germany, Magnus Nordström from Sweden and me. Monday afternoon
we went out to ask people on the street, the supermarket, the pubs, the
IT centre, local shops etc. about their opinion on how the internet has
changed their way of life and the way they do business. We continued our
survey on Tuesday and Wednesday, and we managed to get an interesting
and in general very positive response from about 50 people. Almost everybody
we have asked has really embraced the possibilities the Internet can offer.
The main factor that is hindering the islanders from using the Internet
more seems to be that they cannot get a cheap and fast broadband connection
on the island. When this will change, many people said that this would
open a broad scale of new employment opportunities, especially for the
younger generation on Achill.
On Wednesday I had the chance to meet Donald O'Shea, the 
manager
of the local community development centre on Clare Island, a small island
with about 140 inhabitants. I went there with a group of our students,
and it was a rough ride on a small boat, but we all found it was really
worth it. Not only is the island amazingly beautiful, but it was also
very interesting to hear and see that the Clare Islanders actually can
get broadband access if they want to, because the island has a fast radio
connection to the mainland. At the same time my colleagues on Achill were
visited by shop owner Kieran Sweeney and Achill Tourism manager Steve
Corrigan, who are very dedicated to the local community development. It
was a very lively discussion and we gained some fascinating and deeper
insights into the community, which we really enjoyed.
Thursday we had a look at all the answers to our questionnaire and the
comments from our interviews. For our final presentation during the farewell
party we have decided to present a "vision" for a rural community
like Achill Island, which we call "Achill 2015 - the online island".
In this vision we try to incorporate all the new technologies that are
available and to envision how Achill would be like if everybody would
have a fast Internet connection. What we found out in the last days will
help us a lot to make this vision more realistic and to bring all the
different aspects together. Today we will put our presentation together,
rehearse it and in the evening present it to our group and the local audience.
We are all very excited and are looking forward to the feedback and discussions
afterwards.
We can hardly believe how fast this week went by. We had a fantastic time
here on Achill Island and we are so grateful for the warm welcome and
how much we learned and gained from this trip. So we would like to give
our final group applause to each and every one who has helped us not only
with our survey, but to make this a trip we will never forget.
Karsten Kneese
(German group)
Report of the Catering Manager
As
catering manager, my job started some time before the departure from a
cold and snowy Umeå. The first order was placed approximately one
week before our arrival, and the shopkeepers could not have been more
helpful. With a fair share of other catering jobs to my experience I simply
used old calculations and portion estimations for the first order. The
delivery worked without problems and a whole lot of people helped me get
all the groceries distributed to the different cottages despite the torrential
rain and bitterly cold temperatures. As the receipt came, I had my fears
confirmed. Even the very frugal order summed up to a staggering sum, and
the first days of our stay was spent simply keeping track of which cottages
had got what, and what was absolutely necessary to buy more of. I already
from the beginning held the farewell party in mind, really wanting to
provide the best possible for the participants for the limited budget
I had to work on. As it turned out that it was not only myself that appreciated
the spontaneous get togethers of the evenings I also made some of the
selection from the supermarket in Achill Sound available for retail through
the now famous cottage nr 23. According to previous participants of the
project I should also add drinks manager to my title as no one of my predecessors
offered this service. As of time of writing the planned full English breakfast
that has been advertised for cost price has not yet seen the light of
day, but if the interest is there it will become another task of the new
enhanced catering job!
Sebastian Geijer
(Swedish group)
Farewell Party - Friday Night
After
a week of thinking and working together in international groups, finally
we had the chance to present our workshops profiles to each other and
to the kind local audience of Achill. 6 workshops, concentrating on 6
completely different issues from the frisk educational systems to global
responsibility, made 6 outstanding presentations, outlining the mainpoints
of the common work. And there was still more to come in Dublin. However,
the very first presentation as made by the 5-member-Hungarian group, who
joined the "Borrowed Identities" project for the first time
this year. They tried to give an impression about their country with the
help of Hungary's history, culture and landmarks. Then we could see the
five role-play performance of Media workshop, led by Laurent Borgmann.
The members of the group (Julia, Elin, Anda, Berit, Agnes, and Guigui)
have been working really hard all week long to make our travelogue always
up-to-date. The second presentation was by Marlen's group, with an enthusiastic
and environment conscious members (Zaida, Sara, Casey, and Matthias).
Karsten's workshop (Jens, Sara, Nicole and Magnus) about the role of the
internet in everyday life and rural community development, supported by
a professional survey, and its importane in the future of the islanders
made everyone wonder how precise and well-prepared they were. Then we
played all together, as the 4th workshop, led by Vera Colwell, presenting
its brand new online game: How to become an intercultural expert? It was
performed by Alex, Angel, Sara, Ifete, and Katinka. Even the local kids
helped us to find the correct answers. However, it was obvious we all
need a 
game
like that to widen our horizon and general intelligence. Dot's school
project really worked! Her workshop's members (Andrea, Christiane, Raluca,
Michelle and Johan) visited the local school and played and sang with
children giving them the possibility to meet their intercultural group.
Last but not least, we watched the spectacular videos of Theo's working
group offering the audience the chance to decide instead of the characters
of 3 realistic stories what to do. Everyone was excited and tried to find
a solution for the stories. The appropriate end for our perfect farewell
party was an unique poem from Casey about the karaoke night! Finally Vera
said thank you to the audience and the people of Achill. She emphasized
the fact that their cooperation, kindness and friendliness were an essential
part of our staying. Without them we would not have been able to make
anything happen. Thank you!
Katinka Vigh
(Hungarian group)
