In an economic and social system dominated by urban, industrial capitalism, mountain areas have been seen as peripheral to the process of growth and development. But today, as the service sector and the global economy are becoming increasingly more important than the industrial sector, a new world of opportunity is opening up for mountain areas. Today's global economy is increasingly focused on broadly diversified products and services. In this context, knowledge and skills are the winning element in global competition, just as brute force once was in agricultural society, and money in industrial society. And where knowledge or skills are concerned, there is no difference between mountain and lowland areas.
Mountain development projects should therefore aim primarily at enabling mountain areas to maximize their capacities and resources and apply them to different settings. This would foster the ideal climate in which to network with productive sectors located elsewhere, a sine qua non for bringing mountain communities into the mainstream. And what better tool than broadband Internet connections to hook up mountain economies with other production systems and bring them into the global economy?
Reducing the digital divide and connecting mountain people
The first notion of the ‘Information Age’ can be traced back to the early 1980s, when the advent of increasingly refined technological applications for information processing, alongside social transformation, gave rise to the idea that a completely new world was about to be born. Some authors have introduced the concept of an “interconnected world,” to depict a scenario where distances are nullified by the existence of digital technologies. Among the information-based industries, the telecommunications industry is widely recognized as one of the most important in the global economy. The way of doing business in highly developed societies, and our lifestyle in general, would not be the same without digital telecommunication technologies—and in fact, the “Information Society” itself would not exist.
Broadband, the new communications tool which today makes it possible to send increasingly greater content at ever greater speeds, is fundamental to the development of mountain areas. By contrast with the costs of other infrastructure such as roads and railways, and thanks to the quantum quality leap of broadband Internet navigation, we can now use an increasingly efficient system of communication to narrow the gap between mountain and valley. And there is more. What broadband mainly offers is vast access to new sources of information and knowledge and new forms of economic activity. A whole array of business models has been reshaped by the introduction of digital communication technologies. In fact, access to faster, accurate, and effective communication channels allows sharing of information and knowledge among economic actors, thus easing the development of business activities.
Broadband communication has positive impacts on information-based industries as well as on several other economic sectors. In the agricultural sector, for instance, where typical products are now being heavily promoted, the new information and communication technologies are assuming an increasingly strategic role, thanks to their ability to favor the recovery of costs linked to the on-demand delivery of services. They are also equally important in the promotion of rural areas and the implementation of agricultural policies.
For the tourism sector, broadband telecommunications can play a fundamental role in a context in which there is widespread demand, given the current prestige of unique cultural, historic, and natural settings. Whereas telecommunications technologies have so far focused on doing business more efficiently, they can now be harnessed to create new ways of doing business and to provide a diverse and integrated source of supply. Similarly, in the food processing sector, local agricultural products can become global products thanks to broadband communication. The exact opposite occurs in the tourism sector, as the global becomes local with the arrival of tourists on the local scene, bearing in their wallets new economic opportunities for local people.
In the management field, networks are used to depict the provision of a typical service, where many components are required. Given clients' demands for services composed of different components, network elements are complementary. Broadening the spectrum of economic actors that are linked together would enlarge the network and positively alter business dynamics.
Using broadband to strengthen civil society
Reducing the digital divide that has so far excluded mountain areas is therefore an essential step in achieving competitiveness and in social and economic advancement in developed and developing countries alike. Mountain people are clearly aware of the opportunity to catch up that is afforded them by the “Information Society:” their best (and perhaps their last) chance to overcome the social and economic marginalization of their mountain homes.
However, there is more at stake. In the new and increasingly information- and service-oriented global economy, the role of telecommunications is of fundamental and growing importance, especially for mountain people. The evolution of this sector impacts directly and indirectly on much in the productive and social sectors. The many applications that broadband communication has today have made it possible for some mountain people to enjoy health, work, and educational services that were once much harder for them to access. In terms of management of the public domain, and thanks to the availability of on-line government services and programs, both citizens and businesses now have enhanced access to their local and national administrations, with all the relative benefits in terms of administrative efficiency.
Conclusion
The availability of networked information and communication technologies proved to be effective in supporting national development, both from a sociological and from an economic perspective. This seems to be confirmed by the less advanced degree of development in regions where such technologies are not available. In fact, due to morphological and geographical characteristics, rural and mountain regions lag behind in the diffusion of the most advanced technological infrastructure. On the other hand, the European Union has strongly advocated academic research and efforts based on practice to help bridge this divide. As stated in the “eEurope 2005” work program, broadband access among EU regions is considered a priority for the development of the Information Society.
The digital divide therefore confronts local policy-makers with a decisive choice: should they encourage the building of a digital community, supported by public administration and business? As emphasized, broadband is a must-have tool for enabling the transformation of the cultural, economic, social, and productive systems needed to foster the development of areas that have, up to now, been sidelined by economic progress.
