Engaging the Community through ICT
Engaging the Community through ICT
1. Introduction and Background
Blackpool is a unique town with a population as diverse as anywhere in the country. It is a good town to live in, but we are looking to make it a better, more varied, more creative, more affluent and a fun place to live and stay. Throughout the majority of the last 150 years tourism has been the bedrock of the town and its inhabitants, and the community has grown up around this. Tourism is also the future however there are many other opportunities to explore to develop a creative and innovative approach in the town. Blackpool has it own very distinctive brand and image that makes it different from other seaside resorts. This needs to be captured, bottled and digitised to show why Blackpool is the place to live, work and play.
“Changing Times”
The tourism and entertainment market is continuously changing through fashion, demand, choice and lifestyles. The availability of low cost transport and peoples expectations of good quality and affordable accommodation has fundamentally challenged the products on offer in Blackpool.
The town has shown significant signs of decline over recent years and needs to re-invent itself, while at the same time identifying and consolidating its heritage, its spirit and hence its appeal to residents as well as visitors. Tourism and leisure industries need to offer the widest and best-value choice for our visitors. This strategy shows that in some key areas, the benefits of the inherent skill sets in the town, and high quality education delivered is often lost because employment opportunities are far from diverse and high-tech enough to retain them. Providing robust learning and business frameworks for our emerging talents is key to inward investment.
Blackpool’s business community is dominated by small to medium enterprises, with over 90% of those being companies with less than 10 employees. The strongest emphasis is on tourism with over 3000 providers. Employment levels and wage rates are below the national average and seasonal employment is a way of life to some people in the town. While diverse, high-tech businesses do exist in Blackpool and certainly around Blackpool they are often the exception.
2. The need for an e-Community Strategy
Quite “uniquely”, interested parties have already formed an electronic community partnership with common interests, shared values, vision, and it is the community driving the strategy forward. The e-Community’s partnership focus is on the development of the potential of Blackpool’s residents, the skill level of all citizens and businesses in the Borough by considering the community as a whole. The strategy is inclusive, accessible, adaptable and flexible to change. There are numerous organisations that provide community support across the town, and many are represented within the e-Community partnership. This strategy aims to consolidate and develop the means by which a shared vision is created and communicated.
3. Sharing a Vision
“The vision is for a Blackpool that is a vibrant, healthy, inclusive, safe and prosperous town where technology acts as the catalyst to people from all walks of life, enabling involvement, creativity, innovation, inspiration, knowledge, and a community spirit”
The e-Community provides the vehicle by which we want to utilise new and evolving methods of information service, of communication, of participation, though the introduction of technologies that enable new ways of interacting, engaging, learning, exploring and experiencing our surroundings, friends, family and colleagues. These new ways should extend an individual or groups abilities, to enable people to do things differently, more easily, in a place and at a time that suits them. They need to be accessible, our number one priority, and to represent the best and simplest solutions in order to maximise opportunities, ensure low reoccurring cost and importantly be a pleasure to use.
Electronic community is the conduit to enable key priorities to be delivered and a platform to build new Blackpool, quality services and community engagement.
4. Current Progress
• All schools and libraries connected to the Blackpool Interactive Grid by fast broadband connections
• A number of community sites connected to the Blackpool Interactive Grid by fast broadband connections e.g. Age Concern, St Christopher’s Parish Centre and the Seasider’s Centre.
• e-Community Partnership formed
• Blackpool Libraries and the Blackpool Community Network provide free internet access including basic training and awareness
• A number of successful bids for community ICT projects e.g. Libraries, CLC, Kiosks, CRM and Community Portal (CommunityWise).
• The PC recycler run by CVS has been expanded
• Blackpool has developed a joined-up approach to e-Government
• Two members on the newly formed Lancashire Digital Development Agency
• Various contacts have now been established with the view to putting Blackpool firmly on the map for innovation, creative and joined-up thinking and delivery
• Partnership between the Council and Blackpool and the Fylde College to deliver European Certificate Driving Licence (ECDL) as the standard for Council and some school staff
5. Developing the Opportunity
In order to develop the vision, Blackpool has to look at the broader economic and social developments of the North West region, Central Government and the European Union.
The North West’s Regional ICT strategy known as – Englandsnorthwestconnected – is based around three areas of access, user and content. This strategy is part of the Regional’s Economic Strategy and provides the direction for collaboration, aggregation and integration through the Lancashire Digital Development Agency and the proposed Regional Aggregation Boards.
ACCESS
It is vital that a robust, flexible, low cost and extensible infrastructure connects the entire town and surrounding area – Blackpool Interactive Grid - (Blackpool think BIG Concept). The potential use of the Cumbria and Lancashire network managed by Lancaster University through a not-for-profit company known as LANS will be thoroughly explored. The Lancashire Digital Development Agency will be the catalyst for initially funding a number of initiatives working with LANS, Blackpool Interactive Grid and the private sector.
A resident’s and businesses access to opportunities depends greatly on affordability. Cost and language is the great disenfranchising factor in preventing participation. The e-Community partnership has the opportunity to create a means of access for all of Blackpool’s residents and businesses. This will be achieved via facilities such as Libraries, Schools, Colleges, ICT Learning Centres, City Learning Centre (CLC), Kiosks and public buildings. Choice of access is important and the question “where do the community members want access?” is a key requirement to answer. The solution is to provide affordable access where bandwidth is virtually unlimited. Typically if people are unaware of what benefits a new technology can actually deliver for them, they are unlikely to request it. The focus is to demystify the ‘e’ in e-Community in new and innovative ways, and to help to show what the options are. The aim is for an access model that offers more than one way to gain high speed access anytime and without compromise, so that the future bodes well as actual costs will continue to fall through a the public driven model driving to a demand driven model.
CONTENT CREATION AND STORAGE
The e-community partnership between Blackpool Schools, Lifelong Learning, Libraries, Blackpool and the Fylde College, Granada Learning, Lancaster University and Blackpool Council’s new Access to Services programme has been established to develop one single point of access for a Blackpool Community Portal known as CommunityWise. This will be the vehicle by which the community can find information and common interests, share information and experiences, interact, debate, exchange and develop ideas, and create a presence both within and also reaching outside of Blackpool. This will be the content store for Blackpool.
Blackpool’s Excellence in Cities programme and the Blackpool Interactive Grid – BIG - are already making a major contributions in the town, with the strategy of bringing unified teaching and learning services into the Borough’s schools through the landmark City Learning Centre (CLC) project. The CLC offers shared accommodation for community, Library, schools, as well as a range of creative ICT facilities for developing innovative rich digital. Included in this facility will be a professional studio to cater for production and broadcast media that will be available to the community through unbundling the local exchanges to provide high local bandwidth and business quality of service – 8mb lines as the standard.
PEOPLE
Anyone who feels that technology can bring something to their lives will be tempted to take the first steps, provided it is accessible. The barriers will be removed to enable the community to express themselves. It is important to show what the gains are for people adopting e-community and to dispel the question “What is in it for me?” by making the gains tangible for them. This is not about computers, but about any technology that can offer a ‘means to an end’ involvement in community. Some may have no experience of computers at all, and indeed this route may not be appropriate for them for reasons beyond their control or desire – or some might be quite competent and be looking at new and innovative ways to do things. Change requires investment of that most precious of commodities, people’s time, and in a more economically aware society, we should accept this is a tangible value.
The strategy will focus on the need – the desire to be engaged, and to explore the technologies that can actually deliver. Blackpool’s Community Development Unit has had success in engaging the ‘hard to each’ community. Their ‘person-to-person’ network is of tremendous value in catering for a varied audience that might want to work in different ways almost anywhere, as groups or as individuals.
Whether people have their own tools and means to access the web and hence public and voluntary services, or they use the ones supplied through community organisations, the real focus should be on the things people want to actually do, and in what interests them. Resources and facilities, including those that sit on the networks must be accessible, simple to use and manage, intelligent, logical meaningful and fun.
ICT will never replace person-to-person interaction – people need guidance and comradeship. The essence of Community is the sharing of interests.
6. Ambitions
• Appoint an e-Community Manager and develop the e-Community Strategy
• Develop an action plan bringing all the key projects together
• Audit of all public ICT facilities in Blackpool and market these through a leaflet and Council’s web site
• Develop and implement CommunityWise linked to the Council’s CRM system
• Provide the framework to develop a creative content production team
• Assist schools, libraries, Blackpool and the Fylde College, City Learning Centre and other learning environments to engage the community using ICT as the conduit
• Increase the funds available and ICT access points in Blackpool
• Increase the ICT and creativity skill levels within Blackpool
• Development of the CVS PC Re-cycle project to cover a wider remit
• Assist high-tech companies to develop their businesses
• Provide support and encourage for small businesses working with NWL Businesslink
• Work with the CLC to develop a community radio and TV digital channel
7. Managing the Strategy
The strategy will be managed by the e-Community partnership and the e-Community Manager.
8. Delivering the Strategy
The strategy will be delivered by the identification of specific projects and these will be project managed using the Council’s standard methods and co-ordinated by the e-Community Manager.