The Network serves more than 70, mostly volunteer, rural development agencies in the province. The Network provides business information (libraries, CD-ROM products, customized databases, etc.) along with e-mail, file transfer and other data communications services.
The Network is also extending services to the general public. "We have established 6 rural Tele centres which offer electronic information services and business planning capabilities to rural business people and wannabe entrepreneurs, says Richard Fuchs, CEO and Chair of the Enterprise Network.
The Internet solves the problem of dispersed communities quite nicely. "We are trying to overcome the whole issue of geography and distance from markets by providing an easy to use network and, most importantly, by developing the skills of rural people so they can find ways to navigate the information economy, " says Richard.
Theresa Pittman manages one of these Tele-Centres in Clarenville, a community of about 5,000 people. "We help find information on particular types of businesses, including market trends," notes Theresa. "We are starting to use the Internet for that; for example, putting out queries for information and searching library indexes."
A new service of the Tele-Centre includes Internet training within a classroom. "We are trying to teach the students how to search for information, since that will be the key to the information age," notes Theresa. Yet, the training will not be limited to a classroom setting; the organization is beginning to offer training to users via the Internet...
...Internet access extends the reach of remote Newfoundland to the world, a point which Theresa stresses: "I think the rest of Canada, and probably the world, have the view that things in Newfoundland are very backward. However that is far from the truth. Newfoundland has about 700 communities and most of them are very small, population wise. Yet we have computer links in many of these communities, and people in communities of over 100 are using e-mail, libraries and databases.
Richard Fuchs notes, "Most of our users have never touched a computer before we introduced them to the network, and most of them have never seen the inside of a university."
The Enterprise Network, using the Internet, is certainly out to change that fact.