Trevor, Alota, Stephen, Ivano, Yvonne, Grandall and Peter in Ipswich.
On a cold and windy Wednesday night in Ipswich, Team Connectivity members Ivano, Stephen and Kristie finally got to share the Connectivity Compass project directly with some of the people they hope will one day benefit from it.
A few dedicated community members braved the cold to share their experience with the team, bringing diverse lived experience of connectivity through backgrounds in education, community support, disability and even the original NBN roll-out.
Through the generous contributions of those attendees, Team Connectivity was able to validate some of their preconceived ideas and assumptions about the value of connectivity to communities. More importantly however, the team learned more about the extent of the challenges that poor connectivity presents to communities, even in relatively metro areas of Ipswich.
Some of the many key challenges that the group shared, through their lived experience, included:
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Social |
Economic |
Education |
Resilience |
Health |
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People with disability and the elderly are consistently left behind as their needs are not considered in design and delivery e.g. how to use the cloud, recognising scams. Cyber security tools are not always inclusive e.g. voice ID is not accessible for people whose diction is different. Pace of change is so fast that there is an increasing dependence on others with digital skills, which creates vulnerabilities e.g. elder abuse.
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In older areas there may be power to the street but not to the house, which can cost >$30,000. Modern cyber security requires a level of hard and software not accessible to everyone. Community support organisations have limited funding to support connectivity. Transition to cashless won’t work until connectivity issues are resolved everywhere in Australia.
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Incorrect assumption that all students are IT-literate. Many students don’t have laptops at home, only mobile phones. Inequity of being outside the capital city i.e. less teachers, poorer equipment. Naplan and other critical assessments rely on connectivity. Focus on digital education creates barrier for people returning to study at a mature age, especially those who left before the most recent digital revolution. |
Being able to contact loved ones during disasters is paramount. In disasters, if tech doesn’t work the first time, peoples’ fight or flight response may cause them to give up. Many disaster communications now rely on connectivity e.g. disaster dashboards, BOM app, but will require more traditional methods to continue until connectivity issues are resolved or people will be left behind or worse, in danger. |
Telehealth is great, but relies on good connectivity as a baseline, including for individuals to have credit/data on their phones. My Health Record must/should have a hard copy backup because connectivity is not reliable enough. GPS/mobile blackspots prevent navigation even locally, creating a barrier to attending health appointments.
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Despite the many challenges that were shared, this was not a group content with presenting only problems; this group was more than willing to impart their wisdom about how things can and should be improved collaboratively into the future. The standout solution was for more education on tech/digital literacy, but it’s in how this is designed and delivered that matters most:
Overall, while the challenges are many, the group was optimistic, painting a vision of a future where connectivity enables everyone and creates equity for every resident and their neighbours near and far.
The invaluable insights shared by this group have been captured by Team Connectivity and will be included in their report to Advance Queensland advocating for ongoing support of the Connectivity Compass. While Team Connectivity might have the academic and technical expertise to outline the problems and work towards solutions, these lived experiences add gravitas and help illustrate the true purpose of the Connectivity Compass.