Based on its experience with the Mediaforest.net portal, the Mimizan "Communauté de Communes" believes that the new technologies will make it possible to develop new services for businesses in the timber sector. These services may require a communications hub with broadband access to make their implementation easier.

The idea is to connect the Mimizan Multimedia Centre directly to the main line information highways and also create an IT environment allowing a maximum amount of information on the maritime pine business to be placed on-line via the Internet, for the attention of the general public, and also on extranet (with access codes) for timber professionals (digital journal, on-line forums, shopping gallery, image bank, employment information for the sector, technological monitoring, etc).

…not forgetting remote location training,

The Mimizan "Communauté de Communes" has already invested in the use of ICT for training at the Athena Multimedia Centre opened in 1994. The centre has all the equipment required for remote location training

(computer network, Internet connection, satellite reception).
Based on the success of the centre and in the context of development of the timber sector, the "Communauté de Communes" is looking to develop an on-going remote location training centre on forestry, timber and the environment, making use of ICT as is the case in Canada, for example. Computer simulations, virtual imaging or video accessible on-line allow educational themes such as timber construction work, forest management and fire fighting to be dealt with, to mention just three, very different fields.

The idea is not to take the place of software producers but to gather all these training resources in one place and make them accessible to the public. This remote location training operation will need to be run in close collaboration with the industry's own training organisations. The main target public are silviculturists, forestry companies, forestry workers and individuals who wish to complete their professional CV by means of on-going remote location training, notably via Internet, in a rural geographical area some distance away from traditional training sites.

For more information on www.sitepilote-bois.com