The Digital Villages Research Network

Thanks to Lynne and Steve for developing our page which lists community websites in the Redcar and Cleveland area. Thanks also to those who helped us to generate this information.

Do check out websites in your local neighbourhood and contact the project if you know of any others that we should include.

The research team has been busy reading the interview transcripts and analysing the data. What better way to spend your time in the snowy conditions! I have to say we have some great data so many thanks to our participants for their time and support of the research.

There are some really interesting themes emerging. In this blog I’m going to focus on place and community. On the whole, people speak very positively about their local communities. Sometimes they wish they could be more involved but often don’t have the time to do so, because of the demands of employment and looking after family.

Sense of belonging is strong in many of the places where we have done the research. People feel attached to the local area and say that community members are friendly. Many people talk about the benefits of being near the sea and living in a picturesque area. There are some downsides though – not enough local services in some places, people moving in and out of villages without investing in the local community, the pains of poor rural access to Broadband, and in urban areas like Redcar, a sense that more regeneration urgently needs to take place.

There are some really interesting local activities and community websites. Many people have told us that they like looking at community websites, in particular the photographs and information about local history. They would like to see more about their local communities on the internet – more information on events, transport and services. It is about sharing local knowledge and information; social networking and community connectivity; and showcasing local communities and their unique characters and activities.

Paul, Eileen and I attended and presented at the Niace conference on Digital skills and inclusion in London yesterday. See the conference website for lots of information on the day.

Our workshop focused on rural broadband access, digital exclusion and non-use and the value of digital village websites. We used data from our research to faciliate discussion. The document can be found here. All names have been changed.

I was pleased to hear that the rural issue is on the radar, though there seems to be much more work to be done. There is also a suggestion on the Niace website that plans for superfast broadband rollout will exacerbate the urban-rural divide. Our data supports this view, with Moorsholm residents reporting difficulties in accessing websites, especially with new media features and with potentially serious implications for rural businesses. Suggestions were made that more outreach is needed in rural communities, for example, internet access points in pubs and community venues, or greater use of dongles and 3G. Whilst these ideas are excellent for rural residents, they do still bypass the core problem of inequitable access and connectivity across geographical areas. 

There is an increasing push to get non-users online, with a concerning suggestion that there will be much less choice about use in the future. See slide 6 of this presentation. Although it is recognised that digital exclusion maps onto social exclusion and poverty, it seems that action to combat digital exclusion will focus on the necessity of internet use, rather than the underlying factors which shape access and skills development.

There is a strong case to be made for encouraging greater development of digital villages for local communities, not least because of the connectivity it affords community members. Comments from our workshop suggest that digital villages need good organisation and leadership. They can also be a way of getting people involved in community both on the ground and online. A nice example of different digital villages can be seen here.

We have successfully carried out interviews with over 60 people from across Redcar and Cleveland. I’m sure the researchers will agree that everyone has really enjoyed interviewing and hearing people’s different stories about ICT use. We are very grateful for people’s participation in the project and would like to say thank you for sharing your stories with us.

Our next phase involves writing up our extensive research findings. We are looking forward to sharing these with the wider community by the end of the project.

Interesting findings from the Joseph Rowntree Fund about how computers and the internet are no longer seen as luxuries but are vital to working-age households for full participation in society. This is set in the context of the Minimum Income Standard which asks for public views on what is essential to everyday life for a ’socially acceptable’ standard of living. Read more on the article in the Guardian or the full report at JRF.

The DVN project has begun the interview phase of the project. We have successfully conducted over 10 pilot interviews. Researchers agreed that these were invaluable for getting a feel for interviewing and testing out our interview questions. We now move on to interviewing over 70 people based in Redcar and East Cleveland. Interviews will take place on a one-to-one basis in community venues and homes, with both men and women of a range of ages.

In line with current national figures for use of ICTs, three quarters of the sample, will use computers and the internet in the home and around 25% of our interviewees will be non- or early ICT users. This will give us a rich picture of contemporary internet usage and the reasons why some people don’t currently have or want access to computers in the home.

We are also exploring the ways in which ICTs are integrated into our everyday lives and households, focusing in on the benefits of internet use, as well as on potential challenges, including, online security and changes in the way that we access services. Our interviews will additionally explore the usefulness of local community websites for supporting social and digital inclusion, asking questions, such as, ‘How can we use digital tools to share local information?’ and ‘In what ways can online social networking support community activity?’. As our interviewing continues, we would like to thank those who have already taken part, and we look forward to meeting new people to discuss their views.

I went to Moorsholm last night for the second digital postcard evening arranged by Lynne and Steve. It was a great evening. Lots of people came to the village hall to look at the pictures and add their stories to the postcards. Some people brought old photographs of Moorsholm. The ways that the village has changed over the years are so interesting. Steve’s pictures of Moorsholm are fantastic and really capture the different places, activities, histories and memories that even a small village can have. Well done to both for organising these successful events. I look forward to developing this further for new areas of East Cleveland and online.

The research network has been busy preparing for interviewing in the third phase. We are currently finalising our interview materials and conducting pilot interviews with network members. Pilots are going well and the interview questions are working to generate the rich stories about ICT use that we had hoped to get. We really appreciate all of the work that CRs have put in to date on this and look forward to interviewing in local communities.

We have also prepared our interim report which is available to download in the document library filed under research report. Many thanks to Kathryn S for her brilliant work on the design. All comments on the report are welcome and do disseminate widely.

It’s an important day for the country with the general election, so it will be interesting to keep an eye on ICT and digital inclusion policy in the coming months.

We’ve had some really successful workshops on interviewing over the past month both in Carlin How and Saltburn. The research network training has covered interview skills, ethics, creating an interview schedule and thinking about who to interview. We have consumed around 10 packets of biscuits and in excess of 60 cups of tea and coffee by my calculations, all much needed by researchers starting a new phase of research. They have been great sessions, full of discussion and fantastic ideas. I’m looking forward to putting these into practice.

I have personally really enjoyed collaborating on developing the questions we are going to ask and thinking in depth about the different things people do with ICTs and the meanings they have for us in our daily lives. I’m really grateful too for all the hard work put in by the researchers on this.

We are starting soon with the pilot interviews with research network members and then we can look forward to starting work in the research areas.

Just to say thanks from the DVN team to all of the survey participants in Moorsholm and Stanghow and to Terry for his hard work on survey distribution.

There was a 43% response rate, which is an excellent postal survey result. We are really grateful to everyone who took the time to fill in the questionnaires.

We also look forward to sharing our findings with you.