Connemara online: how the cloud can help the most isolated economies - Main contents
Tomorrow’s St Patrick’s Day. So today, a tale of how one man is implementing his own “Local Digital Economy” in Ireland - showing how cheap ICT tools can give new life to all parts of the economy.
Connemara is a pretty quiet part of Ireland - with fewer than 29,000 permanent residents and a sparser population than Finland - and yet its “savage beauty” (in the words of one famous countryman) makes it the home to around 200,000 visitors each year.
So one man had a great idea - what if you could use ICT to promote all those local businesses around the world, giving them the Internet and social media tools to compete and brand globally? After all, if each of those 200,000 visitors got to know the local businesses before they travel, and then just spend a few euros more each in local shops and services, then that would make a big difference to the economy. And thanks to cloud-based services, these tools are not only very cheap to run - but incredibly quick to set up, and easy to use and adapt even for those who aren’t hugely familiar with the Internet.
This is a great idea. It shows how the digital agenda can come from the bottom up. And when you think of the many places around Europe that are so reliant on tourism - not just Ireland but places like Italy, Spain and Greece— it’s easy to see how ICT-based tools could help really lift the European economy. The crisis isn’t a reason to delay this investment - rather, crisis makes the investment all the more urgent.
And to all those you celebrating tomorrow - Beannachtai na Feile Padraig!