The decline of regional communities in Australian as in the rest of the world has motivated both research and political enquiry into methods of arresting it. A popular and persuasive philosophy is New Regionalism which envisions regions as potential economic powerhouses given a degree of self governance and the necessary resources. In a world where efficient telecommunications is a prerequisite to participation in the global economy a modern and effective telecommunications system is a crucial resource. Australia has adopted a position of partial privatisation of the telecommunications industry which poses questions of updating telecommunications in regions where the density of population does not justify commercial operations. In 1997 the Australian Federal Government devoted in excess of $A460 million to a grant award scheme called the Regional Telecommunication Infrastructure Fund (RTIF) or Networking the Nation (NTN) in which communities identified local telecommunication problems and applied for funds to correct them. / No formal analysis has been conducted of this scheme until recently and no evaluation has been undertaken to assess the 'fit' or alignment of Federal Government policy and community goals. The primary purpose of this thesis is to develop and test a conceptual framework designed to assess the effectiveness of the mechanism of this and similar schemes. Indeed the motivation for this research is the lack of a suitable framework. The conceptual framework which we have designed for this purpose is informed by Strategic Information Systems Planning (SISP) which has competitive advantage through the use of Information Technology (IT) as its basic premise. From the community perspective, community 'thrivingness' is the equivalent of competitive advantage and our objective is to investigate its feasibility in this novel context. / The conceptual framework was first tested on King Island which had gained an NTN grant to update its telecommunications system. Thereafter we conducted three case studies in Ballarat, Shepparton and Tasmania. Each of these was viewed through the lens afforded by the SISP based conceptual framework and a cross case analysis compared and contrasted the shifting status of alignment between Federal Government and community before and during the NTN projects. We conclude that the perceptions of large grant award schemes are assisted by a suitable framework or lens and that the set of SISP principles that comprise the conceptual framework, is useful in community preparation in applying for awards and in managing the projects when the award is made. / Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2006.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/267337 |
| Creators | Wilde, W. D. |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | copyright under review |
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