Social experiments in telecommunications networking: Rural communities online in 21st Century Australia

This article reports on the findings of a research project designed to capture some of the social or consumer knowledge being generated in the process of rural communities moving online. The project explored how communities are getting online in rural Australia, what strategies they are using, and how they are successful or otherwise. Emerging telecommunications and online services in three representative but diverse small rural areas: Wondai (South-Eastern Queensland), Surat (South-Western Queensland), and Mullumbimby (Northern New South Wales) were Investigated. The article describes how a range of stakeholders in these communities - telecommunications, Internet and new media companies, local businesses, consumer and community organisations, local government, educational Institutions, and others - are organising in rural Australia to provide the missing link: the connection between consumers and the services and technologies they need