Supporting Sustainable Development in Rural Areas by Encouraging Local Cooperation and Neighborhood Effects using ICT

Abstract

The following paper presents an approach how information and communication technology (ICT) can be used to support local cooperation and neighborhood effects. The presented approach maps typical real-world processes in the area of local cooperation between stakeholders from schools, universities and companies to an Internet platform with the motivation to support the communication between the aforementioned audiences and thereby reduces demographic problems in the model area in a sustainable, long-time perspective. The paper describes the process from the conceptual application of the idea as well as the prototypical realization of the technical prototype vitaminBIR. This encompasses, from the conceptual perspective, the definition of the main goals of the platform supported by a survey collecting needs and preferences of all addressed audiences and the conceptual phase of the platform itself. Furthermore, from the implementation perspective, the prototypical implementation supported by different software libraries, a concept for data selfmanagement, and an iterative usability study to also check against the prior evaluated needs and preferences of the audiences, is addressed.