Social Media Connects Rural Women in Australia

In this brief but telling article from Australia the new head of Australian Women in Agriculture uses the ease of connection with social media to stay in touch with other members. These new connections are hoped to foster more conversations across expansive geographies to provide support for women in rural areas.

RuralTube

Poor connectivity and population decline in rural Ontario present challenges to those who reside there as well as governments and other stakeholders. Before we can consider using social network technologies and mobile phone technologies to bridge the rural/urban or rural/global divide it would be prudent to discuss what it is that makes rural Ontario rural? Is it a lifestyle that is idealized or is it opportunity for economic growth? As reported on the Canadian Rural Research Network’s blog current affairs show, The Agenda, looked at these themes through interviews and a Google+ Hangout. 

Read the article and watch the videos here.

Connecting Locally Across the Web in Rural Manitoba

In rural Manitoba Eric Boisjoli and his team created a Facebook-like social media networking tool using community pages to connect those in rural areas to the events and organizations close to home. As reported on CBC when Boisjoli moved to Ile des Chênes, Manitoba he found it difficult to find out what was happening in his rural community. This lead him to create Community-info with the goal of solving this issue.

Community-info lets its users freely browse the site to find events that are happening in their respective communities. On Facebook and Twitter a user has to be a friend or follower of someone or an organization to hear about their events, but on Community-info the user can browse the events in their communities themselves.

New Online Tool to Track Agroclimate

As reported in Ag Annex, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) has developed an online app for tracking agroclimate. The Agroclimate Impact Reporter (AIR) collects data from a network of people and media across Canada. The participatory model provides active updates that are timely and regionally specific. This data will be valuable in the ongoing monitoring and assessment activities by the AAFC.