Stephen Hilton & Speakers from Next Gen Roadshow in Bristol
If you missed the Next Gen Roadshow in Bristol then you can watch Stephen Hilton from Connecting Bristol earlier today http://vimeo.com/3940606
The entire event was streamed live and watched across the country and followed on Twitter … http://twitter.com/ConnectBristol use the search #cbnnga to bring up information from all the recent roadshow events.
You can also watch and read about all the various speakers and read presentations on the excellent Bristol City Council webcasting site: http://www.bristol.public-i.tv/site/webcasts.php?l=en_GB
Watch the action – Next Gen from Bristol
The series of Next Gen Roadshows continues around the country – today in Bristol and from 10am you can watch it streamed live from the Watershed online on the Bristol City Council live channel
http://www.bristol.public-i.tv/site/player/pl_compact.php?a=23770&t=&m=wm&l=en_GB#the_data_area
Here is the Agenda for the Day
| 09.30 | Registration and refreshments |
| 10.00 | Welcome by David Bishop – Director of City Development, Bristol City Council – ‘Vision for Bristol as a Connected City’. |
| 10.15 | Can we Do it? Yes we Can! Brian Condon – Community Broadband Network. CBN, the national picture and local responses. What are the ambitions and drivers behind projects around the UK? |
| 10.45 | From Copper to Fibre – Presentation by Adrian Wooster CTO CBN – what is NGA, what can fibre deliver and how does it work? |
| 11.15 | ‘NGA in the South West’ – presentations by Jon Baker from Devon County Council (TBC), Dave Cornish from Connecting Somerset and Stephen Hilton from Connecting Bristol. |
| 11.45 | Refreshments |
| 12.00 | ‘Benefits and Uses’ – an exploration of the applications, services and content that will drive the need for better connectivity? A Creative Digital Perspective from Clare Reddington, Bristol Pervasive Media Lab and a Local Education Authority Perspective from Ayleen Driver, Building Schools for the Future. |
| 12.30 | Open Access or Closed Networks? Presentation by Houston Spencer – Vice President, Solutions & Marketing Alcatel-Lucent, North Europe including a presentation by Liz Reid from Gateshead Council – a case study: bringing NGA to the Baltic Business Quarter. |
| 13.15 | Lunch |
| 14.15 | A series of 3 Local Case Studies, ‘Interconnectivity and Community Cohesion’, Pete Ferne from Bristol Wireless, ‘Knowle West Web’ Chris Pickering from Future Learning CIC, ‘Bristol Broadband Media Exchange’ Matt Hamilton from Netsight. |
| 14.45 | Fibrespeed Wales – presentation by Chris Smith from Geo – a practical solution to public investment when market forces fail. |
| 14.55 | How to make a business case for NGA projects – presentation by Steve Sheppard and Alex Roy from Adroit Economics followed by a panel discussion on the case for connectivity with Dick Penny, Director of Watershed, Houston Spencer, Andy Kinear, Head of Avon IM&T Consortium (Health), Michael Dunn, SW Regional Manager BT (TBC) and David Trussler, BCC Director of Business Transformation. |
| 15.45 | Questions from the Audience and Response to Issues Raised During the Day – Dick Penny and Brian Condon |
| 16.15 | Refreshments and networking |
Manchester a wake up call for BT – Carter for knighthood?
These are just some of the responses to the launch of the Corridor Manchster scheme yesterday. The project will connect homes and businesses in the Oxford Road area of the city using fibre optic cabling.
Dave Carter (MDDA) announced, “For Manchester to keep its competitive edge on the national and global stage, we need an effective high speed broadband infrastructure.
“We cannot wait for the market providers to do this for us – it’s a bit like public transport, private operators don’t build new train lines or tram tracks – we need to provide the core infrastructure on which they can build. This will be an open access network available to all service providers.”
FTTH verteran Kees Rovers who was recognised by the Dutch Royal Family for his (similar) achievements in Holland particularly the town of Nuenen says, “I hope that Dave once will be knighted for his effort”
When Iasked for his reaction to call Dave replied, “I couldn’t possibly comment”
DC10plus network congratulates Dave and all his colleagues at MDDA with this project and look forward to others (and BT) aiming this high.
Carbon Makeover …
A big day in Bristol today – Ambassadors from 3 European countries will be finding out more about the Carbon Makeover project and it’s exciting web outputs.
Green Homes
www.green-homes.org.uk This newly launched site is the concept of a Carbon Makeover campaigner called Prakash (with digital media training and on-going support) he saw being a Carbon Makeover campaigner as an opportunity to get involved in community action and improve his social skills. His project Green Homes almost came to an abrupt end when he moved out of the area but Knowle West Media Centre were there to continue the legacy. They helped to move this website forward and trained local people to become Carbon Champions – where they can offer advice to households on how to save money by being more energy efficient. Working in partnership with the Avon fire brigade – using their thermal image cameras to illustrate how much heat can be lost inside and outside homes through poor insulation. Much of the content and services on the website about increasing energy efficiency in Knowle West (eg personal action plans, energy saving tips) was written by the user, facilitated by the Media Centre. This is a great example of community collaboration.
Green Footprints
www.green-footprints.org.uk is a website that was conceived by Carbon Makeover campaigner Mil. Mil is a single mother of two who has lived in Knowle West for twenty years. Mil offered her commitment to Carbon Makeover in return for support in developing her social or economic circumstances. The website has enabled her to develop and manage her social enterprise whilst providing the community with innovative solutions to issues of health, food and waste. All Carbon Makeover campaigners like Mil attended a Digital Media workshop run by Knowle West Media Centre which was followed up by ‘one-to-one’ sessions to help shape their ideas.
Team Fab
Sue was house bound for 20 years and had low levels of literacy. What struck us most about Sue was that after a digital media workshop run by Digital Media Innovator Robert Woolf, she and her husband bought a laptop enabling her to reconnect where previously she had felt isolated. Sue now leads a campaign called Team FAB, aiming to rid Knowle West of plastic bags. Such has been their impact locally that they inspired a team of young people to make an award-winning digital campaign about plastic bags. This is another great example of how, through Carbon Makeover, participants and projects have been allowed to connect and develop exponentially.
Green Medicine
Akilah is a gardener who has, over the years, built up an in depth knowledge of the healing properties of plants. Akilah wanted to share her knowledge and interests with others and so we introduced her to the power of Web 2.0 technology. Like all of the Carbon Makeover campaigns, Akilah’s website www.green-medicine.org.uk needs additional funding to be promoted. It is hoped that this web 2.0 ecommerce website will eventually turn Green Medicine into a revenue generating business for Akilah through the sale of plants and other gardening maintenance services.
South Bristol Car Share
Responding to one of Carbon Makeover’s six themes of travel (the other 5 themes are energy, health, nature, food and waste), this simple website was recently created by Knowle West Media Centre in response to the urgent needs of the community. Having lost the bus route than runs through the neighbourhood, resulting in a packed auditorium at Knowle West Media Centre of concerned and angry residents who for example could no longer get to work or visit the City Centre, the Carbon Makeover team produced a South Bristol car share website. It is due to go live imminently – but here is a sneak preview – http://www.southbristol-carshare.org.uk/hidden/ . This is an example of why Carbon Makeover was described by EU officials In March’s EU Conference on Social Fairness in Sustainable Development as a “win-win project and the most interesting example we saw of community work that demonstrates environmental sustainability and social cohesion.”
About the use of Digital Media in Carbon Makeover:
Digital media has been a way for Knowle West Media Centre to engage with the community and a way for the community to find out what’s going on and participate. All of these projects were created by and for the Knowle West community. Possibly the greatest achievement of Carbon Makeover has been to inspire people like Prakash, Mil, Akilah and Sue and that’s been because Knowle West Media Centre has adopted a person centred approach. They have helped raise peoples’ literacy, self-esteem and confidence – taken an interest in them and their daily challenges. Most importantly these successes come from gaining mututal trust and respect.
http://www.connectingbristol.org/
http://www.kwmc.org.uk/
Manchester to pilot Next Generation Broadband
DC10plus network welcomes this exciting week for Manchester with two key events taking place:
1 – the BT announcement that Manchester areas will make up 6 of the 29 new trial areas for it’s 60mbps broadband trials … the exchanges due for “fibre to the cabinet” upgrade to go live from 2010.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/mar/23/btgroup-broadband#
2 – Tuesday 24 March 2009 will see Corridor Manchester become the first area in the UK to pilot next generation broadband as it launches a £500,000 project funded by the Northwest Regional Development Agency. The project will open up a whole new range of opportunities for digital communications across business, social and healthcare sectors.
The project is the first phase in the realisation of a new digital infrastructure for the city, it will directly connect 500 businesses and 1000 homes in the Oxford Road area with fibre optic lines which will increase broadband speeds by up to 100 times than they are now.
Find out more on DC!0plus network founding member Manchester Digital Development Agency (MDDA) website
http://www.manchesterdda.com/2009/03/23/manchester-to-pilot-next-generation-broadband/
Hello, new Twitter-er!
Had an email today:
Hello, new Twitter-er!
Using Twitter is going to change the way you think about staying in touch with friends and family. Did you know you can send and receive Twitter updates via mobile texting or the web?
If you go to http://www.twitter.com/DC10plusnetwork you can sign up to ‘follow’ the DC10 plus twitter alerts – and you can also allow yourself (or your organisation) to be followed – so far we have 3 followers and are following 19 …
Communities UK (CLG) have 2.051 followers on Twitter Liverpool FC have 1,865 – so we’re all at it …
I have found DigiBrum and signed up to follow them, Stephen Dodson is at a social networking conference this morning and DC10plus network is following the conference speakers via their various Tweets (check out watfordgap and podnosh)…
Twitter has been widely debated as a time wasting contentious tool – indeed it does have the capacity to help idle away time but also is an incredible aggregator of information – quickly and simply.
During the American Inauguration speech many followers Twittered and Tweeted their way though the time alerting their followers to the ‘hot off the press’ news of what President Obama was announcing to the world.
So – to current and future twitters – please follow us at
http://www.twitter.com/DC10plusnetwork
DC10plus network joins the Convergence Conversation
There is now a DC10plus network entry on the new Convergence Conversation website. If you are a member of that site do please link to the DC10plus network page – and if you aren’t yet you might find it an interesting site to register for to promote what you are doing locally and to raise the profile of the wealth of work that is happening across the country. It is easy to import blogs and export data from the site to other social networking sites.
This site is growing in user numbers and already has some interesting Blog entries from a huge range of individuals and groups.
Please click here to view our network page
DC10plus Network Response to the interim Digital Britain Report.
DC10plus Network Response to the interim Digital Britain Report.
The DC10plus network welcomes the positive statements the interim Digital Britain Report has made with regard to addressing the Digital Inclusion agenda. The DC10plus network believes that the social, economic and environmental benefits of a truly Digital Britain should be available to all, and that gaps are closed rather than widened. We are also concerned that Digital Britain provides the same boldness in vision and action with respect to digital planning and infrastructure that previous generations did with utilities and transport. We have provided comment on the report specifically in relation to the proposed actions and the following key issues which we feel could be significantly strengthened in the final report;
- The benefits of investing in next generation infrastructure and the role of places
- The opportunity to include a return path in DSO
- The importance of digital in a low carbon society and economy
- The value of digital planning and the need for digital masterplans/blueprints
- The development of a relative rather than absolute measure for USO.
To read the full response made by DC10plus please click here