Federal and Provincial Perspectives on Freenet Development By Natalie Roth Realtime Online Ottawa, 1:30pm Tuesday August 16, 1994. Speakers included on this panel were Gareth Shearman - British Columbia Freenet Committee, Angela Vassos - Libraries and Community Information Branch of Ministry of Culture Tourism and Recreation, Andrew Siman - Industry Canada, and Michael Gillespie - Manitoba - Blue Sky Freenet. Mr. Shearman, representing the BC Freenet which was created in January of this year, spoke about the importance of a provincial body to link all the existing freenets and the new ones under construction. A provincial committee is useful to lobby on behalf of the different freenet organizations and also to help new freenets get started. He cautioned people against dictating to or comparing the different freenets. Each freenet reflects their own community so no one approach is correct. Victoria freenet, for example cannot be used as a model for BC freenets because it was the first in Canada; this gives it unique advantages and some disadvantages. Ms Vassos, presented a legislation proposal for Ontario to create an Electronic Library. Such a library would make all library materials in the province available on-line, as well as create interactive, multi-media research and informational data. Universal, equitable and affordable access would be guaranteed to all Ontarians. Mr. Siman, discussing the role of the federal government, introduced a number of questions including: - Should we rely on market forces? - Should we rely on volunteers to staff the freenets? - To what extent should the federal government be involved? - What will the super information highway ultimately be used for? He expressed the need for these issues to be explored now and he also disputed the notion that there is no money available (in both private and public sector) for Canada's freenets. Mr. Gillespie, from Blue Sky Freenet, listed the three primary objectives of the Winnipeg based freenet as: job creation, support of culture, and equity of access He reiterated the thoughts of many conference speakers that freenets are, in fact, literacy projects, both in the real and technological sense. Mr. Gillespie discussed how the structure of Blue Sky will be influenced by Manitoba in several ways. The existing telecommunications structure will guide the project, as will the population demographics of the province. Cuurently they are working in cooperation with First Nations, MBnet, Creative Retirement Manitoba and the Manitoba Department of Education and Training. -- Realtime Online - Professional Conference Reporting Team Rosaleen Dickson, Ottawa ac174@freenet.carleton.ca. Pierre Bourque, Michel Careau, Shady Kanfi, Charles King, Andrea Kujala, Jules Lafrance, Bruce MacDonald, Robt Rattey, Natalie Roth, Michael Silvestrini, Stephen Toy.