28
Jan

Technology puts the Cape in Touch

Cape York Peninsula is moving into the digital age and the benefits it brings with the continuing roll out of cydn Information Communication Technology (ICT) centres into its remote communities. Facilities such as high speed videoconferencing are able to dramatically reduce the disadvantages of isolation, as demonstrated by today’s meeting between Minister Paul Lucas in Brisbane and Cooktown.

“One of the biggest problems we have in Cape York is a lack of access to government representatives and specialists”, says Sue Connolly, Community Manager with Cape York Digital Network. “The videoconference unit allows us to have face to face meetings with people without leaving home, for a fraction of the cost of having to travel”.

Videoconferencing is being used to hold job interviews, conduct meetings, consult with specialists and to catch up with family members. The traffic is steadily increasing as government agencies and local people come to realise the potential of the technology.

Minister Lucas said the new technology would help people in Far North Queensland to access many of the services that people in the South East took for granted.

“This project is all about connecting Cape communities with each other, and with the rest of the world,” he said.

With now 14 cydn centres in Cape York going back to the cydn hub in Cairns, each centre has a videoconference unit, computers with internet access, and wireless access to the network in each community. Further, cydn actively filters all internet traffic to ensure undesirable content does not reach remote computer users.

“We’re at the beginning of a significant change here in the Cape”, says Ms. Connolly. “People who wouldn’t have dared touch a keyboard 12 months ago, and had never heard of a videoconference, are now quite comfortable with the technology”.

For more information visit www.cydn.com.au

Contacts:
Sue Connolly: Community Manager,
Cape York Digital Network: 0427 755 738

Background:

CYDN is a project under Balkanu Cape York Development Corporation funded by the Federal Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts through the Networking the Nation fund. It is part of the Outback Digital Network, a federation of indigenous communications organisations. www.odn.net.au



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