Jury report on SCOAP Award for the DCA - June 2002

2002 SCOAP Award for Innovative Prosperity in Turbulent Times goes to the Dutch Canadian Association (DCA) for implementing of communication technology to rebuild the community.

The association was confronted with an aging local Dutch Canadian population and a steady membership. With minimum resources and without outside help, the DCA used their web site to build a fresh image and revamped the newspaper. The website started bringing Dutch news from the region and news on immigration, passport regulations, movies etc. and building on networking and job search tips for freshly arrived immigrants.

A special email for the DCA was set up and personalized emails now arrive in more than 250 mailboxes at Dutch people in the region. The website has evolved into a portal and news source for Dutch looking for information on Ottawa and Canada, but more important, it became the first virtual Dutch newspaper in North America. Currently, there is no website or email database in the world, that has such an extensive communication among Dutch in a region outside the Netherlands.

The social fabric among Dutch is rapidly improving again; events see major increases of visitors again, memberships increased with 50%. A new sense of pride has arisen among the Dutch in Ottawa, due to implementation of relatively simple existing technology. The DCA is now consulted by journalists from Canada and the Netherlands and has become an important source of perceptions.

This indeed is survival in turbulent times – and IT made it possible.

SCOAP

"Exploring the management, use and impact of information in the knowledge-based society"