The Community Access Program (CAP)
is a federal government initiative administered by Industry
Canada to help people in every community across Canada,
achieve the economic and social benefits that are available
through the worldwide Information Highway. CAP was first
introduced in 1994 to provide Internet access for 5,000
communities having fewer than 50,000 residents in rural and
remote areas of Canada. Recently, this target has been
increased to 10,000 CAP sites and projects in urban centres
are now being considered as suitable additions to the
national community access network. Discussions between
Industry Canada and the National Capital FreeNet suggest that
a pilot CAP project in the National Capital region would
clearly fall within the scope of the CAP program and that
such a program could be useful as a model for the roll out of
CAP projects into urban centres. The National Capital
Access Project (NatCAP) has been conceived to
accomplish this objective by providing some 75 publicly
accessible Internet access sites in the National Capital
region.
Project Summary and Goals:
The National Capital Access Project
(NatCAP) is proposed as a community-based partnership
of key organizations of the National Capital region. The
project at completion will have placed approximately 300
publicly accessible, fully equipped computer workstations,
located in approximately 75 independent sites throughout the
National Capital area. Each site will be equipped with modern
Pentium-based computer terminals, with printing facilities
and full interactive Internet access. Software for word
processing, spreadsheet, E-mail and Internet browsing will be
provided. While the main thrust of the project is to provide
affordable computer and Internet access to all citizens in
all income groups, special consideration will be given to low
income groups; to seniors; and for community organizations
within the region. The program will contribute significantly
to the economy of the region by providing citizens with
access to and high technology as well as a direct benefit to
local e-commerce.
Specific programs will vary from centre to
centre, reflecting the needs of each community, but in all
cases, introductory level computer and Internet training will
be offered. Training programs will also be developed for
basic HTML coding, Web searching, Job searching, discussion
groups and e-commerce.
The project is expected to be the principal
means of Internet access for approximately 10,000 new
Internet users.
The National Capital FreeNet will provide
technical expertise and guidance for the project. In addition,
NCF will provide typical services of an Internet Service
Provider and will host E-mail, Web pages, electronic discussion
groups, listserves, etc. Participants at each of the community
access sites will be provided with NCF membership thus enabling
them to make use of all services, features and help facilities
of the organization. In addition, NCF will make its dial-up
modem pool available for any of the participants who may choose
to access the Internet from home.
The Action Centre For Social Justice
(T.A.P.P. – The Anti-Poverty Project)
This organization serves people of low
income, particularly those who reside in public housing.
T.A.P.P. has already placed over 25 computers in 6 access
centres in the region. This project will allow T.A.P.P. to
expand on and improve computer and Internet access to community
centres for residents of public housing.
The Ottawa Boys and Girls Club has 6 centres
in the region. Each centre will house fully equipped access
centres. Programs will be tailored to youth, employment and
distance education.
The Senior Citizens Council
The Senior Citizens Council represents some
70 seniors organizations in the region. NatCAP will provide the
means to equip all participating seniors activity centres and
seniors residences with fully equipped access centres. Programs
will be tailored to seniors, with special emphasis on health,
travel and finance.
Many existing OPL branches are under-equipped
or have no Internet access at all. NatCAP will enable OPL to
ensure that all branches are properly and fully equipped with
Internet-ready workstations. Libraries are judged to be ideal
access sites because of their long hours of operation,
convenient locations and access to a volunteer-based training
system.
The Nepean Public Library has 4 locations;
all with extended hours, all with convenient locations. NatCAP
will allow the library to expand on a program already underway
at the central branch in Ben Franklin Place and expand Internet
services into all 4 branches.
OCED presence in the project will provide a
truly regional community flavour as well as looking to ensure
that the economic development needs of the community are well
served, particularly in areas on employment, technology and job
skills, tourism and e-commerce.
The City of Ottawa has some 25 community
centres, conveniently dispersed throughout the City. These
facilities publicly accessible sites are proposed as ideal
community access centres.
Similarly, The City of Nepean has some 15
community centres, conveniently dispersed throughout the City.
These publicly accessible facilities as well, are proposed as
ideal community access centre sites.
Sun Microsystems has expressed an
(unconfirmed as yet) interest in providing servers and E-mail
software for the central servers which are to be operated by
The National Capital FreeNet.
Funding Partners
Government of Canada - Industry Canada -
Community Access Program cap.unb.ca
