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Statement of Purpose for MySouthWest.com.au
COMMUNITY All community, not for profit organisations are encouraged to participate in the web portal. This is an excellent opportunity for them to promote their services to the wider community. This can be achieved by:
GOVERNMENT Mysouthwest.com.au works with Government agencies to ensure that up to date government information is available to people of the south west. This is achieved in a similar way to the services offered to community groups. In addition, mysouthwest.com.au also “spiders” Local, State and Federal government sites to “pull” current information to the site. This allows someone to search for a topic without having any understanding of the structure of government. An example is if someone searches for water conservation, they would receive results from Local (their policy and by-laws), State (Waters and Rivers, water boards, conservation etc) and Federal Government (Federal programs). These results would link directly to the appropriate page within the agencies web page. This therefore is always up to date and easy to find. BUSINESS Mysouthwest.com.au is committed to being an IT enabler for business. Many businesses in the South West are sceptical regarding e-commerce and are unlikely to invest in IT/e-commerce infrastructure. To encourage local businesses to “give it a go” we offer the following:
The aim is to demonstrate to businesses that e-commerce can work for them in a low cost/low risk environment. When the limited exposure is successful, through our IT advisor we would encourage businesses to expand their e-commerce involvement though local suppliers. History of MySouthWest.com.au In late 1999, it was identified by the Bunbury Chamber of Commerce & Industries Inc., the Leschenault Business Enterprise Centre and the South West Development Commission that the Internet was a medium that individuals and organisations were increasingly using to purchase or find information on goods and services. Before Mysouthwest, it was very difficult to search for organisations and groups that were only in the South West Region of Western Australia. A group came together to take this further and hence the South West Internet Committee was set up as a committee of the Bunbury Chamber of Commerce & Industries. The concept of Mysouthwest initially was a business, community and government directory system where every organisation in the South West was listed for no cost. Banner advertising was also introduced to obtain income for the Portal, in order to assist the Portal to become financially self-sustaining. In the very beginning of Mysouthwest the Management of the Portal was undertaken by the Bunbury Chamber of Commerce & Industries through a voluntary committee, the South West Internet Committee. This was made up of over fifty members of the IT and business communities throughout the South West region. Due to it's size, a smaller Management Committee handles the major decisions and day-to-day management of Mysouthwest. All members of the Management Committee also give their time on a volunteer basis. The State Labour Government in its 2001 election policy commitments made it a matter of priority to initiate a program known as South West Online and committed $2.2 million to implement this program. The purpose of this program is to encourage households, businesses, government agencies and community groups to embrace technology. In March 2003 Connect South West was formed to implement this program. The Board of Management consisting of the South West Regional College of TAFE, Edith Cowan University, The City of Bunbury, Leschenault Business Enterprise Centre, South West Chambers of Commerce, South West Development Commission, Regional Representatives and Industry developed strategies to see this program come to fruition. |
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