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Valérie
AILLAUD
Puyo Consultant Paris,
Université Paris VIII, and CITIDEP France.
E-mail: anitayo@club-internet.fr
ABSTRACT
Two Case Studies will be presented: the project "Independance" of a French NGO which aimed to develop an educational program of young people in new technologies using the subjects of drug abuse and drug prevention; the project of a regional government which aimed to implement methodologies for evaluating Websites in French created for the elderly and handicapped persons, transferred to unemployed young people. The characteristics of these projects are similar They are both financed by the European Union in furtherance of its youth employment policies They involve disfavored people: young people from a youth residence house who are in difficult social situations (for the first project), other young people who are unemployed (second project), isolated elderly person and handicapped persons (second project). They intend to develop a cooperation of different partners, including private and public sector, private association, NGO, and private company, local government. They are designed to encourage inter-generational contact and contacts between professionals and unemployed young people. They all try to introduce the targeted persons to new technologies, and set out methods and approaches of access to the new technologies (training program, motivation transmitted by the professional environment). They intend to introduce young people to the job market. They employ the Internet in reducing the isolation of the people targeted (elderly, handicapped, young) . The issues and the needs in the French context to encourage increased public participation with disfavorised people will be addressed. The impact of these projects will be discribed and analysed. Different issues will be discussed for example the necessity to evaluate the impact of these experimental actions in order to transfer or to create a new activity under better conditions, the difficult cooperation between private and public sector in this field, the role of the NGO, the role of the local government and the educational system, the way of stimulate the targeted population.
As a consultant specialized in New Technologies and Public Social Policies for a private company which provides advises to the French local government I have a practical overview of what happens within the local public administration. My interest also focuses on the ONG action in this field. My presentation aims to give a pragmatical approach concerning the Public Participation and Information Technology through two French projects managed by a local government and by an ONG. The both projects involve and target disfavored population.
The public participation in this context is a goal, which requires (from the government) the necessity to empower the disadvantaged persons in order to overcome the use of NTIC.
In France we use to say that the implementation and the spread of New Information Technology and particularly Internet increase a social gap between the people who knows and the others. The people who knows are generally well educated, knows how to use Internet, how to access the information, where to find it. The others are the excluded people.
Among this category of excluded people, some of them are simply not aware of the existence of Internet, or they just don't know how to use it because they never have the opportunity to use it. They are not interested in the issues raised by these technologies as the changes NTIC provide to the social life development or to the labor market. This kind of cleavage particularly produces an exclusion from the knowledge offered by Internet.
The third category of potential users is the persons that are excluded from the social life, because of their isolation: they are old, or they are handicapped persons, or they are unemployed, and they are disfavored people.
Which is obvious if you analyze the French debate on this subject, it's that the debate is really simplistic. Why could we assert that? Because some people just advocates Internet and others don't, which is a very simplified way to handle the question. In other terms, do we have to fear something from Internet (like the widespread English language...)?
We could notice a lack of deep discussion about how to improve the technology in order to favor the access of different group of people, about the advantages, the drawbacks and the stakes of using the NTIC.
In one hand, the web gives the opportunity to the governments to make them known at low cost. In the other hand it offers the access to the biggest library of the world to the connected individuals, which is not, by the way, the argument that could convince any local government to lead a project of public participation.
This situation is caused by different reasons: we are only in France at the beginning of the development process of Internet and new technologies; the expensive price of the computers avoids a wide diffusion of the technology. The other reason related to the second one is that NTIC are not well integrated in the common life, in the educational system, in the public services despite the fact that France was a length ahead concerning the technology of << Minitel >>... The last reason is probably a cultural reason that I also noticed when I studied the French approach of computer use and privacy at the city of Paris. The citizen initiative is not spontaneous and we live in a society where the State is very strong since the period of the Welfare State, which provides a urge assistance to the citizen and induces until now a dependant behavior of the citizen towards the State.
In conclusion, we have to specify that these two case studies are experimentation's which are not widespread in France...
What are the characteristics of these projects?
- The Project of the NGO First
Ten young people were urged to participate to this educational program which took place one time a week during 4 months in a private multimedia company. They were managed and trained by a team of social workers and a NTIC trainer. At the end of the project a party was scheduled in a "cybercafe". The young people show their work (the web page they created) to their friends and to the other partners. They also invite the European youngsters to attend this event.
The project was developed with the cooperation of different partners, including a private company, a youth residence house and the NGO First
It was financed by the European Union in furtherance of its youth employment policies
The project involved ten young people in difficult social situations who was living in a social "foyer"
This education program for these young people in new technologies used the subjects of drug abuse and drug prevention
A specific evaluation of the impact of the project on the young participants as well as the partners was implemented
The objective of the evaluation was to develop improved methods of access to the new technologies based upon the results obtained in the evaluation of the project
- The Methodology developed by a regional government
The educational programs was designed for use by unemployed students
The main activity was to develop methodologies for evaluating Websites in French created for the elderly and handicapped persons
The project aim to assist the elderly and handicapped persons by creating improved Websites and easier access to them
The project was also designed to encourage inter-generation contact
The project was financed by the European Union in furtherance of its policies towards youth employment, and organized by regional government agencies
The Internet was employed for reducing the isolation of the elderly and handicapped persons
Intended to introduce young people to the job market
It's important to point out that the both projects resulted from a strong individual willingness to implement an innovative action. One person of each organization without a strong support of the internal political staff inspired each project. In this sense it's not surprising that both projects got a European support because despite of the difficulties to get the European funding, the European financial caution is often a mean to gain an internal credibility and recognition.
One of the limits of these actions is that combining all the interests of the partners is not easy. Especially if they come from different sectors (public/private) and if they don't have the same jobs (association of elderly person, Multimedia Company...). In this case, it's strongly recommended to elaborate a charter where the partners indicates their roles in the project and the schedule (in concrete terms the social workers never understood for example what was their rules in the project of FIRST, even if it was explained orally). This difficulty is huge in the social policy field because the necessity of methodology is still important and generally does not exist. In practice going beyond the resistance could seem impossible.
Educational program in the field of NTIC is always lived as a game for the young people. Making them create web page have also permitted to develop the creative skills and to ensure themselves. But we have noticed that it was also true among the elderly people which discovered << another dimension of their world >>. However the learning of the computer seemed more complicated for the elderly person especially if the usefulness of the Internet is not obvious and integrated in their life. The improvement of the tools in order to simplify their use is a great issue to facilitate or to strengthen their participation.
Among the young people, new professional vocations were born. We have observed a real change front of the computer. The training have generated a constructive approach among the young people regarding the use of the tools, the modality to access to the information, and a interesting criticism against the nature of the information provided by certain web site.
Advertising a project is also a basic mean to make it known and to reinforce its credibility. One of the main drawbacks of both projects was the lack of advertising. The event organized to present the result of the young's work was not enough advertised. None of the partners have decided to come which was really disappointing for the promoter of the project. On the other hand, one of the objectives was achieved because the participation of young people was important.
In conclusion, the French government and the politician are not really sensitive to this issue of Public Participation and only few of them consider that the public participation is a strategic priority. In practice, the public participation of the disfavored person is a big concern because NTIC represent a way to reinsert the young people in the society in an original and pleasant way. The elderly person shows a great interest in NTIC and feel often that being connected to Internet and having an e-mail is a mean to be connected with the society.
In practice, the awareness of other citizen about the significance of NTIC is increasing step by step generally when the citizen are obliged to use the NTIC in a professional context.