Nick Flittner, Heather Brookes and Ian Smith work on the development of Meander Valley Online.

Meander Valley is about to join the cyber world and become a dot.com.

The Meander Valley Online Project aims to set up an online portal to the Meander Valley district. With world-wide use of the Internet growing exponentially, the proponents of the project believe it is essential that Meander Valley has an effective web presence to attract and inform visitors. Meander Valley Online, a partnership between the Online Access Centres in Deloraine, Meander and Bracknell and the Mole Creek Progress Association, won a $60,000 grant from the Commonwealth funded Regional Online Tourism Project co-ordinated through the Department of Industry, Science and Resources.

The three OAC Coordinators involved in the project, Heather Brookes from Deloraine, Nick Flittner from Meander, and Ian Smith from Bracknell, each bring particular skills and backgrounds, and with the support from their respective Management Committees have formed a very effective team.
Nick Flittner, Heather Brookes and Ian Smith work on the development of Meander Valley Online. "It made a lot of sense joining forces, as we are all here to serve the interests of the Meander Valley communities," said Nick Flittner. "I have always felt that local communities could promote themselves better than a distant bureaucracy. Online Access Centres are ideally positioned to take this role on," he said. "They have contact with their communities, IT expertise, and have awakened the interest of Tasmania's rural and regional communities to the potential benefits of using information technologies to enhance the social and economic well-being of all Tasmanians."
Tourism is the first in a series of Meander Valley community sectors planning to go on-line. "In the future you will be able to find out all about the municipality on the Internet - tourism, primary industry, business, community events, sport, natural attractions, as well as be able to go on a virtual tour of the district," said Heather .

Meander Valley Online will be live in January 2001.

Gary Grey pauses during his run in the Olympic relay outside Wynyard Online

The spirit of the Olympic Games came close to the Wynyard Online Access Centre when one of the Centre's most avid computer users brought the torch right to the door.

Ben Morphett, Woodbridge Online volunteer, entertains guests at the Quiz night to celebrate the Centre's name change.

- and a brilliant time was had by all!

D'Entrecasteaux Online recently took the hard decision to change from the original name, based on the name of the Frenchman who discovered the Channel between Bruny Island and southern Tasmania, to the name of the town where the OAC is situated. The name was such a tongue twister, and had led to some confusion. (Rumour has it that one letter arrived at the Centre addressed to Mr Don Castro! Ed.) To aid this change a logo competition was held and the entries were displayed and the winners announced at our inaugural Quiz Night fundraiser held on 29th July at West Winds Community Centre (our home). The Quiz Night was a terrific success with everyone having a brilliant time… the music and food were both superb and the wine just went down wonderfully!

With the added excitement of the fire alarm being set off by a wayward sparkler, the night surely went off with a bang (or was that just an ear-piercing siren?)

Phil the Quiz Master kept the night rolling along with thirteen tables competing for the title of Quiz Wizards. Jean's Giants were the winners of the perpetual trophy, which I'm sure they'll be back to defend. The quiz was interspersed with fun and games and great prizes, the most original one being the lovely leopard skin purse complete with tin of sardines. All in all it was outstanding success. I promise we won't change our name again but we'll definitely be back for another Quiz Night! Trina Blazely Coordinator, Woodbridge Online anded knowledge and skills and of the generosity of the participating businesses in providing their time and skills.

Completing a major progress report to the Networking the Nation (NTN) Secretariat recently, has provided me with the opportunity to reflect on the achievements of the Centre Coordinators, volunteers and Management Committees. The Project has and continues to attain some truly remarkable achievements.

There are currently over 25,000 registered users, with approximately 57% of Tasmanians outside of the Hobart metropolitan area having access to a Centre in their local community. Almost 10,000 new email accounts have been created, and 2,455 training courses offered on basic computing and use of the Internet. The Centres have published a total of 6,926 web pages for community organisations and local businesses, and logged over 700,000 hits on community web sites.
Behind these impressive statistics, are some excellent stories of innovation and ingenuity in providing services to the Tasmanian community and promoting our way of life to the world. Many of these will be highlighted in the next issue of the newsletter.

The success of the Centres is underpinned by the dedication and professionalism of the coordinators, and support from almost 800 volunteers who have contributed over 68,000 hours to assist in the day to day operations. The strategic direction and policy support is provided by the community management committees. Many Centres are grappling with the changes that come with the transition from the Year 1 establishment funding, to partial funding of subsequent years, and the expectation that the Centres will become more self sustaining. There have been success stories here too with Smithton OAC in partnership with Circular Head Council and the Tasmanian Electronic Commerce Centre (TECC) developing an online presence for the dairy industry, and a consortium of Centres (St Helens, St Marys and Fingal) gaining a contract from the Break O'Day Council. Also this issue announces a new partnership to further expand the Project's Web Hosting initiative.
Recent months have seen new developments and emerging trends. Further funding from the NTN Program for both TCO and the Online Access Centre Association of Tasmania (OACAT) has provided more options for central support after 30 September 2000. A joint business plan to be submitted to the NTN Secretariat will outline the future responsibilities and tasks of the TCO Project Team and OACAT. As the Project has matured, many communities are exploring possible alternative arrangements that better utilise available resources, for example, a single regional Management Committee for a number of Centres in close proximity.

This is an exciting and challenging time for the Project as it moves from implementation into a consolidation phase. I look forward to continuing to work with the Centres and congratulate the people who have contributed so much to make them the success that they are.

Andy Norris, Acting Project Manager

Online Access Centre Association of Tasmania

New Board Members
There have been some recent changes to the Board of Management with the departure of Andrew Jones, John Gaffey and Russell Matthews. Their places have been filled by Brenda Williams (Winnaleah), Tracey O'Malley, (Yolla) and Maureen Webberley (Latrobe.)

OACAT Sub Committees
The OACAT Board of Management has set up a number of sub committees to deal more effectively with the large number of issues facing OACAT and the network. They include the Technical, Coordinators Professional Development, Sponsorship, OAC Conference and RTIF Funding subcommittees. The subcommittees meet on a regular basis and report their findings back to the Board of Management.

Recent Activities
OACAT and its board members have been involved in a number of initiatives to promote and support the OAC network. A logo competition is being run to find a suitable logo for OACAT, and planning is under way for a display stand at next years Agfest. An OAC conference on the East Coast is planned for early November. The subcommittee is working hard to ensure that this year's conference is at least as enjoyable and worthwhile as the previous conferences in Deloraine and Launceston.

Board Meetings
OACAT Board of Management meetings, held on the first Friday of every month, have discussed many issues of relevance to OACs, including sponsorship and funding proposals, Coordinator professional development, the planned Conference, Commonwealth Bank sponsorship and guidelines for employment of coordinators.

Membership Applications
There has been a good response to invitations to join OACAT and to date 30 applications for membership and have been received, with at least another 25 centres indicating an intention to join.

Strategic Alliance
TCO and MILE (the Midlands Initiative for Local Enterprise) have formed a "strategic alliance" to combine web hosting initiatives. MILE, a consortium of the Northern Midlands, Southern Midlands and Central Highlands councils, is responsible for the Tasmanian Central Portal. The portal is the first of several planned for Tasmania, and it is likely that new portals will establish similar partnerships with TCO and Online Access Centres within their jurisdiction.

The alliance between TCO and MILE has the aim of reducing confusion for small businesses by simplifying the marketplace and merging similar product offerings. The arrangement with Tasmania Central Portal also formalises the referral of web development work to the nearest Online Access Centre, and provides for a central merchant "clearing house" account for secure online processing of credit card payments. Credit card processing services are available to any small business anywhere in Tasmania, not just those located within the Tasmania Central Portal's jurisdiction.

Business Listings
The Tasmania Central Portal offers a range of listings to businesses located within its three municipalities, however these are "simple' listings which lack much of the functionality (such as CGI scripts and e-mail response) that an Online Access Centre can offer. Under the alliance Tasmania Central retains exclusive rights to market and host these listings within their jurisdiction (while still relying on their local Online Access Centres to do the web development). Outside the portal's jurisdiction, an Online Access Centre can, in addition to TCO's regular web hosting products, offer these "simple" business listings for a fee. Once a new portal is established in their region, the business listings will have to be migrated to the new portal along with the associated revenue stream.

Secure Online Credit Card Processing
Through Tasmania Central Portal, credit card processing can be enabled on any business web site, not just online catalogue "shopping basket" sites. Even simple business listings can have a credit card "bill payment" facility added, to allow consumers to pay for goods or services online. While it is expected most businesses will choose to work through the portal for online payment processing, the system will also support arrangements made directly with Westpac, although this option is likely to be considerably more expensive to set up and operate.

Web hosting documentation, price lists and order forms have been updated and are now available for downloading from the TCO Centre Administration web site.

The portal can be found at www.tasmaniacentral.tas.gov.au

Many Centres, celebrating their first or second birthdays in the past few weeks, have organised special events to mark the occasion.

Exeter held a web page design competition with a digital camera as the first prize. From many excellent entries the judging panel selected the design of Richard Shelton of Trevallyn, whose page entitled "A Bird's Eye View, showed the possibilities of remote controlled aerial photography. You can see the winning entry at www.exeter.tco.asn.au/competition/exet5/comp.htm

At Bridport an open day was held (with birthday cake and all the trimmings) and special prizes donated by local computer supplier Tuckers Retravision at Scottsdale. Tuckers is now offering special discounts to Centre members.

Ringarooma took the opportunity of the completion of two years in operation to reassess community perceptions of the role of the Centre. A telephone survey of fifty registered users revealed wide satisfaction with the Centre, that many would be prepared to pay for advanced training, and that 70% of respondents now own a home computer. The Ringarooma Committee is now busy organising courses for small business owners in Mind Your Own Business (MYOB) and Quicken accounting software applications.

At Rosebery the end of the second year of operation was celebrated with a party, and management committee chairperson "Lizard" Cannell announcing the purchase of two new computers and an upgrade of older equipment, made possible by a grant from the Regional Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund (RTIF).

Smithton welcomed the 1000th member at second birthday celebrations. When Denise Marrable walked into the Centre, with the intention of joining up, she had no idea that she would become the centre of attention as the 1000th member, being presented with a gold card membership and a certificate by Coordinator Dale Marthick.

Ridgley Online celebrated the 200th user with an open evening - and it was so successful that another 60 members were signed up! The end of the first year of operation was marked in a very special way by the participation of two of the Centre's long serving volunteers in the Olympic Torch relay. Jamie Elphinstone and Sue King both carried the torch through the local area.