news from UK (related to community networking)

[Doug Schuler]

Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 10:16:35 -0700
From: "amyb" <amyb at seorf.ohiou.edu>
To: "Afcn-Members at Lists. Edu" <afcn-members at lists.colorado.edu>
Subject: FW: [CTC] Update on UK and European community networking

Check this out--interesting news from David Wilcox (see his manifesto, 
below) and plans for Global 2000 event...

The latest Internet Intelligence Bulletin provides news from the recent UK
Communities Online and European Association Conferences and other
developments in the field, including the a cyberspace manifesto a group of
us are developing.

Regards
David


****************************************
INTERNET INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN
The Email Newsletter On Electronic Government,
UK And Worldwide.

ISSUE 79, SEPTEMBER 1999


**********************************************
SECTION TWO: NEWS FOCUS -
COMMUNITY NETWORKING COMES OF AGE?
**********************************************

NEW MEMBERSHIP BODY FOR COMMUNITIES ONLINE

UK Communities Online (http://www.communities.org.uk), the lobby
group launched in 1997 to support online networking initiatives for local
communities, is to transform itself into a formal membership association
in the next six months.

UKCO has been struggling with funding problems after an £87,000 grant
obtained last year from the Department of Trade and Industry, and earlier
backing from private sector firms including IBM, ran out recently, before
other sponsors could be found to sustain its original three-year
campaign plan.

To put the body on a more secure financial footing, and to make it more
representative of the community projects it champions, support has been
gathering for the change to a membership body and at its annual
conference in Sheffield last week a working group was set up to plan for
the conversion. The aim is to form the new body by February 2000 at the
latest. Membership is likely to be open to the whole local networking
community, as well as interested private sector partner bodies and public
sector agencies. The membership would then elect a new board of
directors to run UKCO.

The organisation is also making new moves to broaden its involvement
with ethnic minority communities. Last week's conference featured its
first workshop on networking issues for the black community, in which
five projects were examined including London's Brixton Online and three
Cardiff-based projects including a Muslim women's network. UKCO is
also planning to reactivate links it has nurtured in the past with BLINK,
the Black Information Link (http://www.blink.co.uk)

David Miller, a member of the UKCO board and one of the original
driving forces behind its creation, told Internet Intelligence Bulletin
this
week that the organisation feels it is now large enough to survive as a
membership body. Although no decisions have been taken yet on
exactly how it would be funded - that will be up to the working group to
decide - he confirmed this could mean funding its work partly or entirely
>from membership fees, with less reliance on sponsorship.

Miller said an impressive range of community networking practitioners
had attended the UKCO conference this year - around 100 people
working on projects of all different sizes. There was also an increasing
interest in government in the possible uses of community networking for
regeneration, he said, and the new body would try to capitalise on that to
gather support.

Meanwhile another former founding director of UKCO, David Wilcox, is
developing further community networking promotional work on behalf of
his UKCO spin-off group Partnerships Online.

Partnerships Online was set up as a more operational body that would
offer assistance and become involved in networking projects alongside
local public-private partnerships, while UKCO remained a policy-focused
campaign group. How far this separation of activity continues under the
new plans for the UKCO remains to be seen, particularly if its
membership includes private companies.

This month Wilcox is promoting a manifesto for local online communities
(http://www.partnerships.org.uk/cyber/), a work in progress which
suggests action to develop online networks which benefit local
communities.

The manifesto includes the suggestion that every community should
have a public digital services centre and a online community channel,
with technical support for users. The centres would provide help 'on the
ground', and the channels would be well-designed 'virtual spaces' for
online communities related to localities.

Centres and channels should be easy to find - signposted locally, and
through a national gateway, the manifesto says. Public funding should
be available to ensure universal provision.

Wilcox says the next few months will be crucial for the development of
community networking policy in government, with the government's
Policy Action Team 15, which is considering action to combat social
exclusion in the Information Society, due to finish taking evidence by
mid-October and then draft a report for the Prime Minister by the end of
the year.

He suggest the government should create a task force to drive forward
community networking issues, including the creation of a central virtual
resource centre and a network for local champions and pilot projects. "If
government is slow to respond, perhaps we could set up a shadow or
'virtual' Task Force that could at least develop these ideas in more
detail", he says.

Wilcox also points to the imminent involvement of the BBC in an
increasing number of community networking projects. The recent Davies
report on the funding of the BBC suggested that alongside an increased
digital licence fee the BBC should reinvest more money in community
projects, including local Internet access.

Next month BBC Online will hold a major online debate on local
communities online, and is also looking to create a 'Community hub web
guide' to act as a gateway to community projects.

Meanwhile the first Europe-wide community networking body was
launched last week, alongside the UKCO gathering in Sheffield.

The European Association of Community Networking, known as { HYPERLINK
mailto:e at cn }e at cn,
has been set up as an international non-profit association under Belgian
law. Plans for the body were first hatched at a meeting in Milan two years
ago, followed by a conference in Barcelona last year when a 'promoters
group' of eight individuals from different countries was formed to drive
the process forward. The group included two UK representatives: Claire
Shearer of UKCO and Michael Mulquin of IS Communications.

The { HYPERLINK mailto:e at cn's }e at cn's initial work programme includes
ambitious plans for a global
online festival of community projects between May and September next
year, 'Global 2000'. This will link up with a series of conferences held
around the world in Europe, Africa and Asia to champion 'a people's
perspective' of the Internet.

The association will also look to link up community networking projects
across Europe, lobby for EU funding for projects and liaise with
international bodies such as the Internet Society (h{ HYPERLINK
http://www.isoc.org) }ttp://www.isoc.org/).
It is currently discussing funding for its activities with the European
Commission and other potential public and private sector sponsors.

The { HYPERLINK mailto:e at cn }e at cn web site is at:
http://www.eacn.org/

********************************
Copyright 1999 Internet Intelligence Bulletin
The Bulletin may be reproduced in full as long as all parts
including this copyright notice are included. Sections of the
report may be quoted as long as they are clearly sourced and
our web site address ({ HYPERLINK http://www.iib.com }www.iib.com) is also
cited.
*******************************

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
David Wilcox, david at communities.org.uk. +44 (0) 1273 677377
Partnerships Online http://www.partnerships.org.uk
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  From the Listowner  * * * * * * * * * * * *
.	To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to:
majordomo at scn.org		In the body of the message, type:
unsubscribe scn
==== Messages posted on this list are also available on the web at: ====
* * * * * * *     http://www.scn.org/volunteers/scn-l/     * * * * * * *