Other comments - NOT [Conet] Would you help with informal survey!

[Deborah Hart]

I had more responses to the comments I made about the role (or lack of it) 
of UK Online Centres in providing access to e-government for local 
communities than I did from people with older computers.

At the time I wrote it I knew somewhere in the back of mind that the 
People's Network had won this role but have just come across a reference to 
source of this (Help is at Hand mailing).  So am sending it round.

New e-government access role for libraries

Local libraries are to be given a key role in delivering government 
services online. In a major new government "Master Plan" released last 
week, Resource (the Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries) set out 
how libraries would increase access to ICT and encourage take-up of online 
services among excluded groups.

The three-year plan promises to bring "Framework for the Future", the 
government's long-term strategic vision for public libraries, into action. 
Under the plans, libraries are to be established as a main access point for 
e-government services, which will see every library provide what is 
described as an "e-government presence".

A number of pilot sites should be rolling out new e-services from next March.

For the full report, go to http://www.egovmonitor.com/egw?96c or check out 
the Resource website, http://www.resource.gov.uk/

A sad reflection on the status / influence of communities?  Lists like this?

Deborah




At 13:10 21/10/03 +0100, Deborah Hart wrote:
>Informal survey - community e-democracy and digital divide
>
>I am wondering if any of you on the list would have time to help with an 
>informal survey?
>
>We (microsyster) have been looking at how ICT is being used by CENs 
>(Community Empowerment Networks) in London.
>
>But the other side of the equation is that quite a few groups, 
>particularly smaller community groups, are getting by on older donated 
>computers - and some of 'e' solutions being implemented seem to ignore 
>this 'digital divide' issue**.
>
>So - does anyone on the list still have access to or use of an older 
>computer, say a Pentium I or II, which has NOT had its original memory 
>upgraded and is using Windows 95/98 and particularly if the browser is 
>Netscape 4?  (And yes, people are still using it, we have web stats that 
>show this.)
>
>If you do - and you have the time - would you use this equipment to see 
>how accessible / user friendly the web sites are for:
>
>- your local authority
>- your local CVS
>- your CEN - if you have one
>- and any other site that claims to be representative of / responsive to 
>the local community
>
>And ...  if you have even more time, can you check what happens if you set 
>your browser to NOT display images if the site does not provide a text 
>only alternative^^^^.
>
>Please add which borough / metropolitan area etc..  (Not just London info 
>sort.)
>
>This obviously wont be a comprehensive survey, but would be a useful snap 
>shot (as useful as quoting YouGov which is inaccessible to anyone using 
>older, slower equipment but is frequently quoted by the media).
>
>We don't intend to 'name and shame' - but would say something like out of 
>20 (10?) tested 75% enabled access for users of older equipment.
>
>Many thanks
>
>Deborah
>
>**
>The other digital divide issue, ie those without computer equipment / dial 
>up connection which was to be solved if we were to have e-government and 
>more importantly e-democracy by 2005, by the proposal that UK Online 
>Centres would be a place of internet access seems to be have been quietly 
>accepted as a failure.
>
>Many of the Centres that opened under the original funding (dfes and nof?) 
>2 to 3 years ago and are still open are now either Learn Direct Centres 
>(of which there are no statistics to say how effective this form of 
>training is)  or some other fund chasing training centre rather than 
>points of internet access for the community.
>
>With typcial New Labour (non) spin the UK Online Centres site says the 
>governments target for opening centres was been met in November last year 
>- but has not been updated since.  This avoids having to take into account 
>that three months later the Audit Commission reported that most UK Online 
>Centres would have to close as there were no plans for core funding to be 
>made available to keep them open as points of internet access for communities.
>
>Still I bet a lot of consultants made money out of this!
>
>
>^^^^
>I'm not asking this in terms of addressing disability access, but again if 
>you have older, slower equipment turning off images / graphics can make 
>what is a dreadfully slow site slightly more usable.
>
>
>
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