Bristol Named Region's Leading Digital City
July 13, 2006 Posted by Clare in : Digital Challenge, Bristol City Council , trackback
In case you didn’t hear the news yesterday either through the webcast or at the Momentum Group meeting, Bristol is through to the next round of the Digital Challenge. This is from the press release that was issued yesterday below:
+++ Bristol Named Region’s Leading Digital City…And One of UK’s Top Ten +++
Bristol has today been named the region’s top digital city after being named amongst the ten national finalists in the government’s Digital Challenge.
Angela Smith MP announced all the winners and finalists at a ceremony broadcast live on the web today (Wednesday, July 12th 2006)
A successful and wide-ranging partnership of Bristol businesses, community groups and city council representatives called ‘Connecting Bristol’ have worked together to bid for the final £7 million prize. Winning the regional stage will mean a prize of £120,000 enable the partnership to continue to the final stage of the challenge.
The Digital Challenge seeks bids which develop digital access to services, breaks down barriers to the use of IT and widens the use of IT among all groups of the community.
Leader of Bristol City Council, Cllr Barbara Janke, says: “We are delighted that our bid has been recognised as the best vision for the region.
“The £120,000 prize will enable us to develop our bid further; to look at new ways of using new and existing technologies and connections to improve services and opportunities for our local communities, particularly the most disadvantaged.
“We want to bridge the digital divide in the region and ensure that we improve the use of IT by people with limited access. We also want to improve the take-up of online services by people with little IT knowledge.”
Bristol is already one of the top European locations for wi-fi network provision, digital technology research and development, creative industries and online service delivery, public consultation and democratic engagement.
The city has been awarded Science City status by the government and has been named European City of eDemocracy. Bristol’s City Learning Centres are at the forefront of national developments in digital resources for learning.
Comments»
Great news, sorry I missed the event last night.
Look forward to further developing the bid into the full submission!
:)
John
Well done to all concerned - a great effort to date.
As a resident of the Lawrence Hill ward for the last 30 years, I shall be watching with interest proposals for disadvantaged areas and bridging the digital divide.
Best of luck with the final bid.
Woodsy