CAP Success Stories - October   Prepared by Jo Mrozewski, Industry Canada Vancouver

Bringing Seniors Online with the Wider Community

Osoyoos - Osoyoos Chamber of Commerce

Through the vision of Chamber of Commerce manager Bonnie Dancey, this agricultural and tourist town has succeeded in bringing CAP Internet access to as wide a cross-section of the population as possible. The Seniors' Computer Club, which started with a CAP terminal and keen volunteers, helps people from the large seniors community, some into their 80s, get on line at home and at the Seniors' Centre. At the InfoCentre, the many tourists to the area use the CAP site's travel bookmarks and email. The terminals also connect the hundreds of young seasonal fruit pickers to their homes in other parts of Canada. Local business people, fledgling entrepreneurs, and people needing personal access make heavy use of the CAP terminals at the Economic Development office and the library. At the Sidewalk School/Learning Centre, teens and adults who don't fit into mainstream schools use the CAP terminal and other computer facilities for learning and job skills development.
http://www.town.osoyoos.bc.ca

Creating Buffers to Job Loss

Tumbler Ridge - Tumbler Ridge Public Library

Through CAP, the local librarians brought the Internet to this isolated mining town in northeastern B.C. With it, they changed daily life in the town. It's now estimated that half the residents are on the net, most of them trained at library sessions -- evenings for teens and adults, days for school classes. Now the demand for introductory sessions is replaced by demand for more specialized courses, such as web-based geneology and web design. CAP terminals are used for e-mail and recreation, academic research, homework, and listservs (set up for people with medical problems.) The biggest use came in early 1998, when both local coal mines announced massive layoffs. For months job searchers were lining up at the terminals throughout library hours. On-line connections helped people find work as far away as Australia. Some believe that the effects of layoffs were less devastating than feared because people had access to ARS, a local on-line counselling service.
http://www.district.tumbler-ridge.bc.ca

Building Telecommunications Infrastructure

Tatlayoko Lake - Tatlayoko Think Tank (TTT)

Before the Chilcotin region could get internet service, it needed modern phone service. Activist-turned-ISP, John Kerr, says the CAP grant to the Tatlayoko Think Tank was the initial leverage for getting major telecommunication improvements: before the grant, party lines and radio phones were the norm for the few thousand people along the 500 kilometres of Hwy 20; it's illegal to use party lines for fax or Internet; small calling districts make almost every call long distance; satellite service is not affordable. In 1995 TTT got a CAP grant to set up community computer training, and telecommunications and Internet access for residents in the three phone exchanges in the West Chilcotin. School District #27 provided technical advice and sites in two schools, the Alexis Creek Indian Band provided a third site at the Tsi Del Del School. BC TEL provides data lines, and the B.C. government provided access to its backbone network through the Provincial Learning Network. BC Hydro has provided backup power, an essential given the area's extreme weather and the huge distances that separate the three server sites. TTT provides a server, community access equipment and administers the project. Among TTT's most active users are businesses aimed at tourists and film makers. The operators rely on the Web and email to get clients, though some have to drive to the nearest CAP site to pick up email. As a participant in CRTC High-Cost Service Area hearings, Kerr continues to lobby for upgrades.
http://www.chilcotin.bc.ca