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.

There are four unclaimed prize draws from the survey in Redcar, Carlin How, Saltburn and Skinningrove.

Click here to see if you have won.

The survey prize draw for Carlin How has taken place today and the winning number is:

CH129

To claim your prize, please contact Paul Davies at 01287 626432 / 07597908306

or email: post@digital.village.org.uk 

Many thanks to all of those who took part in the survey. We appreciate your help.

The network continues to grow with new researchers Martin Jefferson and Cheryl Sanderson joining the project. Yesterday, Martin, Cheryl, John & Colin joined Paul and me in Redcar for an introduction to the project and an overview of research ethics.

Great news in Moorsholm – Terry has delivered all 150 surveys to households in the village and in Stanghow. We are very grateful to those who have returned completed surveys and are looking forward to finding out how people are using computers and the internet.

The prize draw for Moorsholm takes place soon – Friday 27th November. Keep a look out for the winning number…

Skelton and Redcar researchers will receive their surveys this week and we look forward to starting there. Meanwhile, Carlin How and Skinningrove are making good progress and we look forward to the results from these villages.

The surveys went out to Terry in Moorsholm, the Carlin How researchers and to Barry in Skinningrove yesterday.

We hope everything goes well for our researchers when they start distribution (including the weather!) and we are really looking forward to collecting our findings.

Thanks everyone for being supportive in this busy fieldwork stage.

We are pleased to report that the DVN project is now moving into its second phase of research – the computer and internet survey.

Phase 1, which included developing a community research network and mapping local ICT provision, has been a success. The community researchers and the DVN team have accessed a wide range of local services to find out what ICT provision is on offer. We are currently working on the analysis of this data and will report our findings in the autumn.

Our digital map of ICT provision across Redcar and Cleveland is under development with support from Prof Mike Lockyer from the School of Computing and Maths at Teesside University.

Some of the community mapping will continue into the second phase and we are currently broadening our network of community researchers. Adverts have gone out in the local press and we look forward to meeting potential researchers in the coming weeks. New researchers will join the existing network and start on phase 2 activities. They will receive initial training on the DVN project, ethics and safety and digital media for social research before going on to assist with the survey.

Our existing community researchers have evaluated their initial training sessions and we are pleased to report that the workshops have been a success.

The household survey will begin in October 2009. Community researchers have taken part in workshops 4 and 5 and are currently preparing their survey distribution strategies. The survey will take place in Moorsholm, Redcar, Skinningrove, Carlin How and Saltburn. It aims to generate information on computer and internet use within these communities. We aim to answer questions such as, ‘How many people currently have broadband access in the home?’, ‘How often do people use the internet at home?’ and ‘What are people using the internet for?’.

We would like to thank everyone who has taken part so far in phase 1 of the research and community researchers for helping us to successfully deliver the first part of the project. We look forward to starting phase 2 in the autumn (2009).

Yesterday we had an excellent workshop with the Carlin How researchers at Carlin How Community Centre.

Things are moving fast on the project and the Carlin How team have come up with a strategy for distributing the survey around the village.

Roger, Amanda and Marion developed a tailor-made approach for this research node including an Ethics and Safety plan, an information and awareness raising strategy for local residents, and a street-by-street distribution guide (see pictures below). We plan to start the survey in early October and look forward to getting some interesting results.

Following the community mapping exercise, the research is now moving into the second stage – the community survey. Workshops are now taking place in Carlin How and Saltburn and the team is busy piloting the questionnaire.

Last week the Carlin How group took part in the first of two linked workshops – ‘designing a community survey’. They then filled in the questionnaire themselves to spot any glitches and give their views on the content of the questionnaire. This week’s workshop – ‘distributing a community survey’ – is dedicated to developing community-based strategies for distributing the questionnaire. Meanwhile, the first cohort of researchers will start their workshops this week.

We would like to thank everyone who has taken part in the community survey so far and also the community researchers for doing a great job working with our participants. We are also currently working on developing our digital map which will be ready to view in the autumn.

The Carlin How researchers met with Paul and Carrie yesterday for the workshop on digital media. ICT connectivity was not available so the group discussed ways of using the research blog and will follow this up with blogging activities with Steve at the school over the summer.

The group also used the workshop space to plan the community mapping in Carlin How and Brotton. The researchers are about to start visiting service providers and organisations in their mapping zone.

The group also talked about the recent job losses in Carlin How and how this impacts on the local community. Stories about the impact of the recession on local livelihoods can be found in the Gazette.

The second Carlin How workshop took place yesterday at the local community centre. The workshop focused on research ethics and safety in the field. We had some really interesting discussions about confidentiality and anonymity in small communities where many people know each other. We also discussed ways of keeping safe when out and about doing research. This research group will soon be able to join the first research group at Margrove Park for the next phase of workshops (4 and onwards) and the survey phase of the research.

The Carlin How group are starting their own research soon by mapping local organisations and access to ICTs in the village. This will provide us with more information about village needs. Meanwhile, researchers from cohort 1 are continuing to collect their datasheets in neighbouring areas.