Citizen, Content, Connect
Published Monday, June 12, 2006 - 14:02
Martine Tommiss, discusses the "Citizen, Content, Connect" report that presents an innovative way to look at the role of ICT in addressing social exclusion and highlights the work of InfoBank a successful project in Finland.
A recent report from the URBACT Information Society Network (ISN)* entitled Citizen, Content, Connect suggests that the issue of ICT and social exclusion needs to be looked at in a different light.
The report stresses that the provision of compelling content is critical when it comes to combatting the digital divide and social exclusion.
Talk about ICT and social exclusion tends to focus on access and cost. Those on low incomes are seen as being particularly vulnerable and the problem is often worse those living in rural areas. Their geographical isolation is compounded by digital isolation. This is the conventional wisdom. Across Europe the solutions tend to be local variations on a theme of cheap connectivity and the provision of cheap or subsidised hardware.
The ISN report does not deny the validity of this type of provision. The emphasis for us, though, is on content and the two case studies that I’ve highlighted here reflect that. This is just a taster. There are many more equally good examples in the ISN report and on the website.
All the cities in ISN have heterogeneous populations. This multicultural diversity is both a source of economic and social dynamism and a social fact that highlights the need for policies that promote social inclusion effectively.
One of the most innovative uses of ICT to do this that ISN came across is Infobank.
What is it?
Katja Kaila, the Webmaster at the International Cultural Centre, Caisa put it in a nutshell, “it tells people how Finland works”.
“And it does this in Finnish, Swedish, English, French, Russian, Estonian, Somali, Serb Croat, Turkish, Farsi, Arabic and Chinese,” said her colleague Edmon Dolaian,the IT-planner at Caisa. “these being the most common languages in Helsinki and other major cities.”
Katia continued, “The idea is to help the user to find the answers in his/her own language both to questions that he/she has on mind and also to the ones that he/she doesn’t know how to pose. The goal is to give the people living in Finland tools to find information when they need it and thus help them to find information on the alternatives.”
Info Bank is a website that contains information on the functioning of society and opportunities in Finland. The links take the user to information on services of authorities and organisations. The website is based on the experience gained in advisory services organized by Open Learning Centre project (2001-2003).
The questions of the clients as well as the personal experience of the multucultural team was the basis on which the themes were chosen and the structure was designed. The information can be found divided by themes, and concrete titles which refer to different life situations help the user to find also information on services that might not be familiar to them beforehand.
The website was constructed in 2002-2003 by a multicultural team of 13 persons from different cultural background and in co-operation with different authorities and organizations. Professional translators translated the contents into 11 different languages besides Finnish.
It was published in October 2003. During the year 2004 the City of Helsinki negotiated with different ministries and cities in Finland, and in the future Info Bank will contain information also on the local services of the cities of Turku and Tampere. It is currently being financed by the three cities involved and two ministries, the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Education.
Edmon monitors progress very carefully, “ we know that there had been over 700,000 hits on the website by Spring 2005, which is about 1500 per day. The user questionnaire in the Spring 2005 showed that 78% of the users found it useful or fairly useful, and 77% had found at least partly what they were looking for. The interest of the other cities to join in the service has also been a positive sign of the importance of Info Bank.”
The project started as a pilot with financial assistance from the European Social Fund and has developed into a successful mainstream national service.
Very different in many ways but still with a very deliberate stress on content is Manchester’s Wythit.com. It sets out to harness ICT as both a tool for urban regeneration and as a way of community engagement in one of Manchester’s most deprived areas.
“It’s an ambitious programme,” says Frank Connell, the ICT Regeneration Coordinator, who’s been living and breathing Wythit.com for the last three years.
The project originated from the development of a local strategy designed to take full account of the contribution that ICT can make to regeneration and education objectives as well as some emphasis through the theme of the digital divide promoting access.
The Wythit community portal builds on a commitment to ICT centres in the city and the belief that ICT is a key driver in achieving regeneration. The Wythit website has come into being as a response to extensive community consultations which have demonstrated the strong interest in undertaking computer skills training and obtaining free internet access wherever possible.
Frank is particularly excited by the relevance of the local content. “We started off with mainly secondary sources,” he said. “but look at it now. More and more is being produced by local residents who’ve been trained as on-line journalists and editors. They find out they can do it and that’s great for their confidence.”
So what is Frank’s advice for those who want to do something similar?
“Easy really, a website is only as good as the commitment and engagement of the people who give to time to publish captivating and useful content. If you haven’t got that you might as well give up. You’ve got to get the technology right, but once you’ve done that it’s all about people.” Frank added, “you mustn’t forget that whilst you need people to drive the content, you must have somebody in the moderating seat.”
Could Frank point to anything in particular that grabbed people’s imagination? “Oh it has to be the talent contest to find the best local singer. We recorded extracts of digital video of each of the contestants and put them on the website and got people to vote for the best. The response was amazing. We had so many hits, it almost took out the server!”
The two key recommendations of the report are:
1) Future policy initiatives dealing with e-inclusion need to take into account the fact that the digital divide is multi dimensional. The increasing take up rate of broadband disguises the fact that the gap between users and non-users of ICTs is becoming greater. Those familiar with the technology treat it as a vital part of their everyday life and embrace the digital future. Consequently a small, but nevertheless significant percentage, of the population is then left further behind to form a digital underclass. Programmes that aim to reach this group need to concentrate on involving citizens in the production and use of compelling content. It also needs to be recognised that sector specific programmes aimed at this group are likely to need financial support in the medium to long term rather than just the short term.
2) It is vital for all cities to have a coherent, evidence based ICT strategy which prioritises policy options against the achievement of key strategic goals. The ICT strategy needs to be regularly updated and monitored against changes in user needs and available technology platforms as they emerge and develop. If this is not done there is a danger that ICT programmes, regardless of their strategic significance, will be funding driven and will cease to exist at the end of the funding programme. Projects which fall into this category, regardless of their inherent quality, often have major problems towards the end of the programme as staff become demoralised, key individuals leave and survival becomes an end in itself rather than the creative provision of services to citizens.
* URBACT is an EU initiative aimed at sharing best practice in the economic and social regeneration of cities.
The full report in English is available to download from www.urbact.org/isn. Extended executive summaries are available in the 8 languages of the network – Dutch, Estonian, French, Finnish, German, Italian, Polish and Spanish.
