The Digital Villages Research Network » Community survey

Thank you Moorsholm and Stanghow

Carrie Singleton — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:36:48 +0000

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.

Results of the Survey Prize Draw – Update 27th Nov 2009

Paul Davies — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 11:11:36 +0000

The Prize Draw for Moorsholm has taken place today and the winning Survey Number is…….

MH 53

The results of the prize draw for those who have submitted surveys will be placed here and also on the page here

Survey news

Carrie Singleton — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 20:17:06 +0000

Saltburn researchers, Cheryl, Kathryn, Colin and John, met at Destinations on Wednesday to put the finishing touches on the strategy for the survey and are now ready to go. Following a similar approach to Redcar, we divided Saltburn into zones, and each researcher is working in one of the designated areas.

Barry was also at Destinations on Wednesday and has reported 20 completed surveys in Skinningrove and a further 50 currently being filled out by local residents.

Moorsholm and Stanghow’s survey is now closed and the prize draw takes place tomorrow. We are pleased to report that just under half of the surveys were returned by post to the team – thanks for your participation in this.

Thanks to everyone in communities across Redcar and Cleveland for your support of, and participation in, this phase of the project.

Survey plotting

Carrie Singleton — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:06:54 +0000

Whilst some were building bonfires (the Skinningrove bonfire looks amazing!), there was plotting of a different kind in Redcar yesterday. Nick, Martin and Carrie were making plans for the distribution of the survey which begins today in Dormanstown. Martin has joined Nick and Pauline in the Redcar area to assist with the survey. Questionnaires have been numbered and put in envelopes ready to go.

Back in Middlesbrough today, Lynne and Steve picked up the Skelton questionnaires and will be starting in a week’s time.

Good luck everyone!

Research news

Carrie Singleton — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:22:42 +0000

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.

Ethics workshop for Skelton researchers

Carrie Singleton — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:19:40 +0000

Lynne, Steve, Roger, Paul and myself met up today in Redcar for the ethics workshop and plans for the survey in Skelton. We have had positive feedback on the ethics workshops in the past and this workshop was another good session in which we discussed approaches to informed consent, confidentiality and anonymity. Lynne and Steve made plans for distributing the survey with the help of Carlin How’s expertise and will be starting soon. It’s great to have a new research node on board and we are looking forward to starting work in the area.

Survey begins

Carrie Singleton — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:56:58 +0000

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.

Survey workshop at Moorsholm

Carrie Singleton — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 15:17:31 +0000

We went to the Toad Hall Arms in Moorsholm today for a research workshop on the community survey. Moorsholm and Redcar researchers, Terry and Nick, planned their community strategies for distributing and collecting the questionnaires in each place. It is really interesting to see how the different urban and rural areas will require strategies which are similar in some respects and different in others, as the pictures show. As an example, personal safety is more of an issue in urban areas where researchers are less familiar with some of the streets. Each community will have their own particular approaches which reflect the local population and geographical and social landscape.

DVN research update – moving into phase 2

Carrie Singleton — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 11:02:44 +0000

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).

Survey workshop at Carlin How

Carrie Singleton — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:37:34 +0000

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.