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Bernie Hart, Peter Morgan and I have been involved with some initiatives
which the IP committee should know about. This email is dealing with the
local activity. I will make a second post about volnet which is a
national initiative.
The meetings referred to (Dal Family Medicine and Central Regional Health
Board) in the forwarded post have taken place. Both groups are
interested in further discussions. Discussions to date have been very
positive.
----
Peter Mortimer
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 11:18:20 -0400
At this point we have arranged meetings with
Family Medicine at Dal, Brenda Patterson CRHB and we are working with the
Kidney Foundation and the Brain Injury
Association. As you may be aware, at this point, there are eleven Health
related organizations on Chebucto and
another eleven to which we link. We are hoping that all major
organizations - Heart, Cancer, Red Cross. etc will move
to our site.
Case Statement:
Chebuto is arguing it is to the benefit of organizations, large and small
to locate their information on the same site,Chebucto.(Does not apply to
e-mail accounts)
Why Chebucto:
The services Chebucto offers - such as low cost/free access, opportunity to
use low-end equipment, training and ongoing support - are essential if all
members of the community are to be able to benefit from electronic
communications. By having a large number of organizations providing minimal
financial support for a service they require, there is the opportunity to
share the benefits with a significant sector of the community who would
otherwise be denied access.
Ease of Access and User Support
What are the benefits an organization derives or might derive by having its
site on Chebucto? If most organizations join with us, the number of people
in the community coming to Chebucto as their first step, increases. This
means that the chance of a person finding an organization's site increases
as well. This may be the result of chance or it can be carefully
orchestrated using mutually agreed upon procedures and entry page
arrangements. Another major advantage of this collectivity is the
opportunity for organizations to benefit from Chebucto's search features.
People using search procedures for information have access to all
information located on the site. My sense is that our search procedures
can be made even more powerful. I have spoken to Marion Pape, Provincial
Librarian, about the possibility of having the Community Nets in the
Province work with the Provincial Library to develop information management
and information search techniques to make our information as rich and
useable as possible. This initiative can be so much more productive if it
becomes an effort of a large team.
With the necessary ?critical mass? Help Desk features can be improved thus
offering assistance beyond that normally offered.
New Opportunities for Collective Action to Improve Information
Management/Arrangement
A third argument relates to opportunity to design new ways of looking at
information. For example, at present the information provided by the
Kidney Foundation, Brain Injury, Heart and Stroke and the Lung Society is
kept quite separate. My sense is that we must begin to look at unifying
arrangements. Although our heart, kidney and lungs are separate organs,
they are all in our one body. The same argument can be made about social
services, environmental advocates, etc. Can we provide the forum through
which there can be some unification of information at least the provision
of a unified base? This is perhaps an extension of the second issue above.
However, I think it is a step beyond this. In the case of this third issue
it seems to me this is a matter which has national significance and may be
explored with other community nets across the Country.
Provincial Organizations With Local Chapters
Lastly there are the benefits which a provincial organization can derive.
For instance it is possible through the use of community nets and CAP sites
for a provincial organizations with regional/community chapters to manage
their operation much more effectively if they have the communication and
administrative services which are available. The Kidney Foundation is
willing to work with us in exploring this.
Ability to Search for Individuals
Chebucto allows one to search the profiles of people to discover their
interests and their capabilities for volunteer work, etc. This is another
reason for people to join with Chebucto to build a rich information base
available to all. We could be a model for the Country.
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