The Role of Place: Tasmanian Insights on ICT and Regional Development

Abstract

Despite continued rhetoric that information and communication technologies (ICTs) make ‘place’ irrelevant in a global networked economy, insights from regional areas suggest a different and more complex experience. This chapter examines the issues surrounding the concepts of place in regional areas and ICT-based regional development, as a vehicle to dispel some prevalent ICT-related themes that permeate discussions in this sphere. These issues open up a broader debate on what is meant by ICT-supported development in a regional context, how it can best be achieved and what insights have been developed from past experiences in Tasmania, Australia.