A ground-breaking electronic commerce awareness program in rural Victoria will change the way rural communities do business.

Associate Professor Bob Bignall, acting director of Monash University's Gippsland-based Centre for Electronic Commerce (CEC), believes that e-commerce and communication networks will "level the playing field" for small business operators.

"They will enable regional businesses to get up to speed and compete with their urban counterparts by placing the same technology as is employed by the nation's major corporations at their fingertips," Dr Bignall says.

"Electronic commerce will allow small companies to trade in a global marketplace as if they were much larger corporations, and enable regional businesses and communities to participate in cul-tural, social and commercial networks in a seamless and borderless way."

To ensure regional small businesses are best positioned to take advantage of the new technologies, Monash's CEC has teamed with the La Trobe Shire Council to launch a groundbreaking program titled E-Comm-AWARE!

"The potential of e-commerce as a business method will not be realised unless the community fully understands its capabilities," says Dr Bignall. "Our challenge is to maximise the acceptance and uptake of e-commerce in regional communities."

The program aims to raise awareness about e-commerce and encourage the development of a regional electronic community in Victoria's La Trobe Valley. The partners are seeking to establish a network of e-commerce-aware businesses and citizens as a model community that may then be transposed into similar regional communities Australia-wide.

"E-Comm-AWARE! will prepare the La Trobe regional community to understand the possibilities, to use the technologies and to then participate in local, state-based and federal government electronic communications and commerce initiatives," Dr Bignall says.

These initiatives include the Victorian Government's Electronic Service Delivery Project, the VicNet range of services, the Federal Government's elec-tronic procurement service Transigo, and the international electronic trading opportunities database TradePoint.

According to Dr Bignall, although many government-sponsored electronic communications and commerce initiatives are already being promoted to regional Victorians, awareness remains relatively low and the potential benefits of the systems are neither widely understood nor welcomed by the community. There are also relatively few genuine efforts being made to develop generic training and awareness programs in electronic technologies for individuals and businesses.

"If we are really serious about getting regional communities to embrace telecommunications and inter-networking, then it is vital to impart a fundamental appreciation of the 'art of the possible' and the know-how to develop the necessary information infrastructure," he says.

The E-Comm-AWARE! project, valued at $850,000, is supported by $415,000 in federal government grants from the Regional Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund and a cash and
in-kind contribution from the La Trobe Shire Council. Monash University will provide an in-kind contribution in the form of intellectual property. Monash 's CEC, regarded as a leader in the field of e-commerce and the application of networking technologies, will manage the project.

Program participants, including individuals and small-to-medium sized businesses, will have access to a series of 12 training seminars as well as tool kits and self-help materials. The CEC will offer instruction in specific electronic commerce and communications applications, technical support and access to a network of communications servers.

Overcoming isolation

The La Trobe Shire Council views the development of electronic commerce and communications as the key to improving the social and economic environment of the region, which has been greatly affected by unemployment and social dislocation following the restructure of the power industry in Victoria.

Dr Bignall says the program will enhance community collaboration and development and assist the community to move towards inter-networking within the region, both throughout Australia and internationally.

"E-Comm-AWARE! is about providing equality of access and opportunities for La Trobe businesses and citizens and mitigating the region's traditional isolation. We expect it to become a generic blueprint for similar regional communities across the nation," he said.