Trás-os-MONTES
DIGITAL and CES – a case of social benchmarking
Leonel Morgado,
Isabel Bastos, Jacinta Vilela, Jorge Machado, Márcia Santos, Luís Ramos
University of
Centro de
Informática, Quinta de Prados, 5000-199 Vila Real, Portugal
ABSTRACT
The Trás-os-Montes Digital project, covering the
Portuguese Northeast (a region known as “Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro”) took a
novel approach to the problem of the digital divide: to take the
KEYWORDS
extension,
ICT, digital divide, regional development, Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro,
Trás-os-Montes.
1. INTRODUCTION
The USA Cooperative Extension Service (CES) was created in 1914 by the Smith-Lever Act (Rasmussen, 1989). Its aim is to generalize the use of modern agricultural methods and techniques, so as to increase production levels, as well as to promote overall evolution in rural societies.
Initially, the project yielded poor results, mainly due to lack of motivation on the part of the target population, whose social and cultural setting was highly unprivileged. To reverse this situation, effective means of dissemination were required. The chosen approach was to build upon the momentum of the Youth Clubs. These clubs aimed at creating a healthy community life and an improved sense of citizenship, encouraging young people to develop their critical judgment abilities and fostering personal growth. Primarily established in rural areas and with a membership possessing some measure of know-how and expertise, these clubs were an ideal setting for introducing the CES. Furthermore, the very concept at the basis of the creation of such clubs made them a model to be followed, also at the agricultural level.
Little by little, what became known as the 4-H service (Head-Health-Hands-Heart, seen as the fundaments of growth) emerged. Nowadays, the CES and 4-H are interlinked: they use similar methodologies and share similar overall goals.
Using these principles as a guideline, the Cooperative Extension Service in Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro was created in 1999, later renamed “Trás-os-Montes Digital/SCETAD”.
Trás-os-Montes is a region ridden with economical and social hardships. By making available the means for providing citizens with a better knowledge of the world, and working towards their increased use, we hope to contribute towards a more dynamic and active society.
Widespread use of the New Information and Communication Technologies (NICT) – particularly the Internet – are of paramount importance to reach the intended goals. The Trás-os-Montes Digital/SCETAD project aims at filling a gap that has, otherwise, been hard to overcome. Considering the intended outreach, work teams were created for the creation and development of projects.
Although inspired on the
A network of Internet-access points was created, called GAC (Gabinetes de Apoio ao Cidadão – Citizen
Support Offices). These were set-up at selected sub-counties (“freguesias”) and
each had a clerk or mediator (“intermediário”) in order to provide adequate
support for the needs of the population. Only by being on the terrain, close to
people’s everyday life is it possible to effectively meet people’s needs.
However, this initiative was only made possible through the support of the
municipalities (“Câmaras Municipais”), where County Extension Agents were
located, working within a County Extension Office (GEA, Gabinete de Gestão Autárquica). Their mission is to monitor,
support and develop the mediators’ activities and act as liaison between them
and the Coordination Team at the
The overall goal of SCETAD can be described as:
“To
make the new information and communication technologies an instrument for the
improvement of the quality of life, for social and economical development and
for the modernization of the corporate fabric, particularly in what concerns
rendering local public services and information generally available in the
fields of education, health, agriculture, tourism and local government.”
2. The trás-os-Montes digital/scetad
extension Network
SCETAD
was developed from a multi-institutional partnership promoted by the
Initially,
10 county governments embraced the launch of the project, and two GAC were
set-up in each county. Currently, the second phase of the project is underway,
and this network of offices was extended and consolidated: 21 new counties
embraced the project, adhering to the original goals. For this second phase, an
additional 62 GACs were created. All of these have Internet-access by means of
a 64 kbps ISDN line.
Therefore,
31 GEA/Agents and 82 GAC are currently in operation (Figure 1).
Figure 1 - Citizens Support Offices and
3. MOTIVATION FOR THE PROJECT
SCETAD was
created under two major guidelines: Information Society in
The creation
of the Portuguese Government taskforce Missão
para a Sociedade de Informação (“
§
MEASURE
1.3 – To promote citizen-information programmes;
§
MEASURE
1.5 – To foster local administrations’ initiatives, that aim to democratize
access to the Information Society;
§
MEASURE
2.1 – Drive towards an electronic public administration;
§
MEASURE
2.2 – A state administration open to the citizens and businesses;
The region
of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, due to several distinct reasons, does not
possess neither a developed agriculture nor a developed industry. The
population, partly living abroad, is scattered and with low-quality accessibility.
It is not easy for citizens to contact the public administration bodies.
Under a
regional perspective, SCETAD was launched under the goals set forth at the time
for the Portuguese society, Ministry of Science and Technology, under its
“Digital Cities” programme:
“…to mobilize and render widespread in society
the instruments, techniques, and methods of information-organization,
information-communication, and action, used in advanced societies. The
application of digital services in an integrated way can, if directed with the
goal of improving the quality of living of all citizens, be decisive for the
future of many cities. The use of the digital information and communication
technologies to improve health care, diminish the administration bureaucracy,
empower for the generation of qualified work and tele-work, simplify and render
transparent the decision processes; the quality and diversity of the received
or processed information; acceptance and recognition of processes for education
and professional training; rendering widespread a safe electronic commerce;
providing new recreation activities; supporting citizens with special needs,
among many other viewpoints, are all elements of the “Digital City” model.
(Excerpt
from the speech given by the Minister of Science and Technology, at February 10th,
1998, in Aveiro, Portugal.)
4. The trás-os-Montes digital/scetad
Operational team
Figure 2 - Operational Team -- organization
chart
As mentioned
earlier, the SCETAD Operational Team comprises Extension Agents and Extension
Mediators (directly in touch with the population), and also team coordinators
(Figure 2). These coordinators are responsible for organizing and maximizing
the results of the work performed by the Extension Agents and the Mediators.
Also, the coordinators cooperate with the remaining SCETAD teams (technical
support, educational staff, management staff, and other sub-projects), acting
as a communications channel between Agents, Mediators and all the project
resources and know-how. In this way, any problems and the solutions thereof are
quickly and expediently reported. Coordination tasks also include the
development of a regular training plan for the team members (Agents and
Mediators). Agents then act as trainers, responding to the Mediators’
difficulties and any staff changes that may occur.
Lastly, the
coordinators also prepare and launch specific initiatives, deploying them
through the agents, in order to establish a direct contact between these and
the population, further contributing to the use of the services rendered
available by the new technologies. Team coordination ensures that each agent is
part of a team instead of being a disjointed speck in a geographical scattering
of human resources and skills.
5. network of county extension offices
(GeA)/agents
Each County
Extension Office (GEA), equipped with a multimedia computer, a colour printer
and a scanner, is located at a County capital. Such facilities are not meant to
cater to the public, but rather as technical and physical base for supporting
County extension agents.
The main
functions of Agents are:
·
Face-to-face
contact with the county’s population, aiming to acquire insights on the needs
of the citizens, in order to improve their living conditions;
·
Liaise
between all municipal bodies (population, county government, sub-county
governments, agricultural agencies, organizations, businesses, etc.) and the
team at UTAD;
·
Whenever
a service is requested at a GAC, the county Agent must track its progress,
intervening in all cases of severe delay on the part of the organization
involved. If such a request is directed to the
6. network of citizens support offices
(GAC)
This network
aims at rendering available services and information requested from any of the
organizations that embraced the project (County Governments, Regional Office of
Agriculture, Regional Office of Health, etc.), in order to prevent needless
travel beyond any sub-county.
These GACs
have a multimedia computer with an Internet connection (ISDN), colour printer,
scanner and NetPin™ terminal (for electronic bank payments). They are installed
at the sub-county government offices, open 40 hours a week. A clerk (Mediator)
ensures service support (for those who experience difficulty in using the
equipment) and ensures adequate office operation.
The major
functions of Mediators are:
·
Reception
desk and instructions to users;
·
Submitting
citizen’s requests for services;
·
Making
the GAC more well-known and improving its usefulness;
·
Communicating
to the Agent any information collected, that may contribute for better support
of the citizens.
7. Example of agent-developed
activities
The
face-to-face contact with the population of the 31 counties allowed the Agents
to develop several activities, directly inspired by the population’s specific
needs. Given the great diversity of such activities, we decided to present just
a few, which hopefully show the thematic richness of this approach.
The scarce number of jobs available in the
region, the limited offer of labour in some areas, particularly in seasonal,
agricultural-related activities led to the creation of a jobs’ gallery. This
activity, launched in one county, was later to spread to all 31 counties. All
interested parties can approach a GAC or contact a county Agent and fill in a
form. Initially, this jobs’ gallery was operated through the simple use of
e-mail; after a trial period that verified its pertinence, a Web interface was
developed to manage and operate it.
National
Post services made available at the GAC
Many
subcounties do not benefit from the presence of a National Post office.
Therefore, the GAC’s Internet connection was used as a basis for establishing a
cooperation protocol between SCETAD and the National Post (“CTT”), so that this
agency’s services could be made available to the population, dispensing with
the need to go the county capital post office.
Support
to Colonial War veterans
Agents
perceived that a large number of war veterans were only vaguely aware of the
existence of Government diplomas entitling them to a pension plan. Pensions had
to be applied for until end 2002, but the sizeable paperwork involved and the
entailing trips to county and regional capitals rendered the process difficult.
The Agents quickly gathered all relevant information and used the Ministry
Of Defense Web site to obtain
the necessary forms. Eventually, when such an option was made available, the
Agents helped the veterans submit their applications by e-mail.
8. Example of coordinator-developed
activities
Improved
use of e-services
The Trás-os-Montes
Digital/SCETAD project rendered available forms for requesting Social Security
documents. The Agents were instructed to identify all places, within their
allocated county, where citizens might need to obtain such documents. The
survey also announced at such places that people could see to matters at the
subcounty council or at the GAC, without having to travel all the way to the
County capital.
This
activity prompted Agents to favour direct contact with the citizens, in order
to better identify needs.
9. statistics on CITIZENS SUPPORT
OFFICES
There has
been a regular and sustained increase in the use of the services made available
at the GAC offices in all 31 counties.
The 82
subcounties where Citizens Support Offices are located have a total, highly
dispersed population of 78,746. It is well to mention that the subcounties of
Moimenta and Lavandeira have, each, only 184 inhabitants and that the most
highly populated one – Outeiro Seco – has a mere 3,436 inhabitants. Considering all 82 subcounties, 66% (54)
have less than 1,000 inhabitants (figure 3).
Such
demographical limitations severely condition the project’s success. We are
pleased to note that level of use of offices is fairly acceptable and steadily
increasing, as shown in the following (Figure 4). A sustained average of 140
users per month and per GAC has been reached.
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|
|
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Figure 3 - 66% of the sub-counties have less than 1,000 inhabitants |
Figure 4 - Average monthly users per GAC, 2002 |
|
Between January 1st and |
Figure 5 - Overall GAC users per month, 2002 |
AsSeSSMENT FRAMEWORK
SCETAD
evolution and implementation are managed by an internal Centre for Management
and Tracking (Centro de Gestão e
Acompanhamento); it is also this entity that can propose new action plans.
It is composed by a general coordinator and its supporting staff.
The
assessment proper of the project is performed at the national level by the
Portuguese government body POSI (Programa
Operacional Sociedade da Informação, Information Society Operational
Programme), which approves, oversees execution and analyses results of all
Information Society projects launched originally under the “Cidades Digitais”
and later under the “Portugal Digital” programmes.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This project is supported by the POSI (http://www.posi.pcm.gov.pt/),
under the Portugal Digital programme,
and by European Union funds (FEDER).
REFERENCES
Rasmussen,
Wayne David, 1989. Taking the University
to the People: Seventy-Five Years of Cooperative Extension. ISBN:
155-75326-7-2,
MSI (Missão
para a Sociedade da Informação), 1997. Livro
Verde para a Sociedade da Informação em Portugal, ISBN 972-97349-0-9,
Missão para a Sociedade da Informação / Min. da Ciência e da Tecnologia,
Lisbon, Portugal.