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Community networking projects

Latest pages about the game are now at Making the Net Work and Useful Games The game provides a range of examples of projects for community networking, some to develop content and applications, some to provide access and support for users. Game players are dealt seven cards and asked to use them to develop an overall community networking strategy which meets their community aims with the scenario they are given. The full set of projects is: Projects for content and applications Electronic newsletters Individuals and organisations can send one-way email newsletters to their different interest groups, with archives on the Web. Community conferencing Public and private email discussion groups are available to promote democracy and debate on local issues. Online learning A local college develops online courses available to fee-paying participants, with facilities for student discussions and tutor mentoring. Broadcasting The local community media project develops real audio and video broadcasts to enable local groups to develop programmes. Video facilities The academic and council broadband network is available on a limited low-cost basis for local groups to video conference. A commercial bureau offers fully costed facilities. Local e-commerce An Internet Service Provider creates facilities for local businesses to offer goods and services from the Web, with linked delivery to homes. Email for all All residents and businesses have a free email address. Messages can be retrieved privately or through pubic access points. Public Information Web site A Web site contains pages of content provided by public or voluntary sector agencies, maintained by non-commercial staff and volunteers under tight guidelines with one feedback list. Commercial Web A privately-maintained gateway, supported by ads, provides access to pages from all sector of the communty, with free space for community groups. Classified ads and events can be searched online. Collaborative working system A sophisticated conferencing system enables paying subscribers to operate as work groups, develop conferences, file libraries and real time chat. Some elements are open on the Web to non-subscribers. Local media content Local multimedia companies promote development of news, entertainment and education channels which will be available through cable and digital TV. Projects for access and support Community resource centres Public funding has enable several community centres to provide free public access and basic low-cost training for unemployed people and local groups through dial up connections. Supermarket cyber suites A town centre supermarket offers high speed access and training for customers willing to test new models for online shopping and banking, with free CD-roms and Saturday clubs for children. School cyber clubs Schools on the council's highbandwidth intranet offer out of hours access and training to parents and others in their area. Internet access is limited to 'vetted' sites. Web TV A consortium of entertainment and telecoms companies trials local channels of entertainment, shopping and community information through new home Web TV systems. Home Pages Club Web design specialists and techies volunteer to create a Home Pages Club which uses the college's flexible learning centre to enable anyone interested to create their own Web site. Access packages The local Community Internet Project develops a computer and access package with the local ISP to encourage pubs, shops, cafes to provide public access points using the commercial gateway as a starting point. Community training A training project works with local community and voluntary organisations to get them connected and integrate online working into their operations. Cyber training A specialist training programme provides high quality courses aimed at developing marketable IT skills, though costs to sponsoring organisations are high. Public library access Public libraries reallocated resources to create supervised low-cost computer suites for users. Flexible learning centre The local college develops a drop in learning centre for local businesses which is also available at lower cost in the evening to community groups. Council broadband The council wires up its offices, schools, and libraries but does not provide easy access to others ouside this system. View the project game cards. Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Back to instructions