Wired for Social Innovation

David Mejia-Canales | September 8, 2009

The WIRED Community @ Collingwood project is the largest digital inclusion project in the whole of Australia. So far the project has delivered 330 free computers to low income public household residents and provided  the residents with the appropriate training needed to operate and maintain the new technology. The helpdesk and the administration services have been staffed by residents further providing employment and training benefits for the estate residents.

 

Residents have been instrumental with providing their input and feedback through every stage of the project and two residents have been employed full time for administration and technical support.

 

Training and delivering computers to residents that have no intimate knowledge of technology brings up unique challenges. Some residents have never even attended formal education in their own language, let alone any structured training conducted in English on a computer.

 

There have been many residents who had never had any real connection with information and communication technology who have left the training empowered and excited about the new way they will be able to communicate with friends and family that in many instances reside very far away. 

 

In one memorable instance, a client contacted us after completing her training to complain that her mouse was not working. After issuing two or three replacements she continued to encounter the same problem. Upon investigation there was nothing wrong with the devices, apart from the fact she wasn’t aware she had to physically plug it in to the computer…she thought they worked magically! Now however, she frequents our office almost daily and is instructing us on what the best sites are for other residents to use look for work, improve their typing and English.

 

Issues like these are a regular, daily and only a small hurdle that the project perseveres through, as we celebrate our one year anniversary we can’t afford to rest on our laurels.

 

To enable the simple and constant exchange of ideas the relevant technology must be available to all Australians, and we can’t rest until everyone who wants access to these means of communication has it; whenever they need it, wherever they are, whoever they are.

 

One of the most refreshing and rewarding outcomes was seeing a trainee whom I remembered leaving the first session looking slightly overwhelmed by the scope of the internet upon their return two months later when they advised us they had written to the Prime Minister of Australia and the President of The United States of America with issues they felt should be raised in a global public forum. As our first year now becomes recent history and our next year is upon us, we hope to hear more of these stories.

 

The WIRED project is managed by Infoxchange Australia with support from the Victorian Government and our corporate sponsors: NAB, ANZ, Telstra, Helping Hand Initiative, Schweppes  Australia , Thoughtworks,  AT Kearney and  Microsoft.