Lead Partner: Cybermoor Services Ltd and Ruralnet/UK
Description
The Cybermoor project is located in the community of Alston Moor high up in the North Pennines. Cybermoor was established in 2002 as part of a Government “Wired up Communities” initiative to try and overcome the “digital divide” in disadvantaged communities. Alston Moor was one of seven communities chosen to take part in the programme and was selected because of its remoteness and the distance that people had to travel to access basic services (25 miles to the nearest town). Cybermoor Ltd, the UK’s first broadband community co-op, was set up in January 2003 as the project became a business. We aim to promote social inclusion through ICT. 14 jobs have been created and at least 5 businesses have been attracted into the area because of the project. Improving the level of skills among residents has been one of our key successes. 72% of residents have used a PC to learn from home and we have the highest penetration of broadband in any rural area in England (over a 3rd of households). The Cybermoor website is one of the most actively used community sites in the UK with an average of 40,000 visitors per month. We train residents in web publishing so they can contribute directly to the website.
The Websites to Influence Service Delivery programme will examine the ways in which rural community members and public sector service providers can be encouraged to contribute content to community websites. It will explore opportunities for public sector agencies to use community websites as a means of engagement and assessment of rural needs and to influence delivery. It will assess the benefits and risks for service providers in using websites.
Community activists have been identified in four different communities with community websites. A programme of workshops will be organised on the following topics: web publishing, raising revenue from your website, journalism skills, legal issues. A baseline survey of website users will be undertaken.
Public sector service providers will be invited to a seminar to introduce the opportunities provided by websites, using existing advocates such as ‘cybercop’. This will be followed up by one-to-one sessions to identify agencies willing to participate in trial online experiments.
These will be evaluated by website users and success stories publicised. A successful outcome of this work will be the mainstreaming of online services by public sector agencies and improved accessibility for all members of the rural community to those services.Contact Details
Daniel HeeryCybermoor Services LtdUnit 9Station Yard WorkshopsAlstonCumbriaCA9 3HN Tel: 01434 382808 Email: Daniel.heery@cmsl.org.ukWebsite: http://www.cybermoor.org