Rural Lincolnshire gets connected
By Clive Redshaw,
NKDC@nkdcuucp.dircon.co.uk
Stumbling forward
If you know where Lincolnshire is then North Kesteven is the bit in the
middle just south of Lincoln. It is attractive but sparsely populated with
less than one person per hectre. Its strength is the communities which make
up the whole. There is a clear sense of local identity, of people working
together. The pressures are, however, real and familiar, local shops and
services are closing, public transport is very limited, youth unemployment
is high, there are few cultural opportunities and local firms feel physically
isolated.
Enter ODEN (The Open District Electronic Network)
The system, developed through a feasibility study undertaken by the National
Enterprise Centre at Stoneleigh, offers a District Internet. Employing FirstClass
client software the system runs on servers based at one centre with
local call charge access from any part of the area.
It sets out to offer simplicity low costs, easy access, accountable local
control and be fun!
The theory is not that the system will solve all the problems of the area
but that it will give access to information in a way that makes location
irrelevant and draw on the skills and talents of those living here to support
one another.
The system is now quietly live, with emphasis initially on getting parish
councils on board. Supported by grant aid for computer purchase, for some
this is a leap into new technology everyone is, however, facing some gritty
issues in working out how to abandon paper technology. The real benefits
will start as the local councils start to use bulletin boards to share problems
and find solutions, they do not yet realise how powerful and resouceful
they will be as a collective group.
The success of the system will depend on it being inclusive, different users
will come onto the system for different reasons but the strength will be
in the depth of the community and the unexpected links.
As well as promoting other user groups the aim next year will be to promote
simple practical database applications, a system to search to establish
who else is planning flower festivals on your chosen June weekend and to
then chose an alternative date, a joint marketing campaign or sabotage would
be a typical local application.
While some of this database development will be done professionally, schools
will also be involved in the process encouraging them to develop databases
on behalf of others as well as creating short live systems of their own.
Not everyone in the district will have access to computers, so provision
of public access points is a key part of the system. The aim is to test
a range of models. These will vary from a full blown Rural Technology Centre,
already opened, a sharing arrangement with a parish council office to a
shop within a village shop idea.
It is early days, and everyone is still tolerant and enthusiastic, there
is a sense for the team involved that we need to do everything at once to
ensure that the new users find a system that reqards their involvement in
it. There is also a need to try to think laterally about the way the system
can be used, a football fixture list for village clubs is a hot favourite.
The next steps will be to explore ways in which the system can be structured
to support media applications particulary to promote use by young people
and the use of the system for shopping.
Clive Redshaw
Head of Economic and Community Development
North Kesteven District Council
FirstClass software, used on bulletin board
systems, is produced by SoftArc Inc