What about older people?
November 20, 2006 Posted by Clare in : Digital Challenge, Mentoring, Skills, Connecting Bristol , 2 commentsLast week’s visit from Stephen Dodson and Bert Provan (Chair of the Digital Challenge judges), seemed to highlight the need for us to look carefully at what we are offering older people. There are some fantastic and diverse projects going on already:
Mobile Bristol and CLASS
Members of CLASS, a self-directed group of older people, have recorded and edited their wartime childhood memories based in Southville, Bedminster and Redcliffe to create a landscape of digital stories using mobile technology. The software for the project was provided by Mobile Bristol, a project that enables people to augment their neighbourhood with sounds and stories.
Home help in Knowle West
November 13, 2006 Posted by Woodsy in : Education, Bristol, South Bristol, e-society, Mentoring, Learning, Skills , 1 comment so farInnovative developments just seem to keep happening south of the Avon with news that Knowle West Web and Future Learning have succeeded in securing funding to employ a part-time tutor to teach Knowle West Web users and residents in their own homes how to surf the internet and use email, as well as answering any technical queries they may have.
The scheme’s promoters are also keen to know what other things Knowle West Webbers want to learn, since plenty of courses are available locally, along with information, advice and guidance that may be of use to potential learners.
Anyone interested in tuition is asked to get in touch by calling free on 08000 24 24 00 or filling in the Knowle West Web contact form.
Correspondence with Ronnie Corbett
October 31, 2006 Posted by Woodsy in : Digital Challenge, Wireless, Bristol, Regeneration, e-society, Mentoring, Learning, Skills , 3 commentsBristol Wireless has recently received an email from Ronnie Corbett, warden of Princess Royal Gardens in Redfield, where they installed an LTSP suite of allegedly ‘redundant’ computers in the residents’ common room. Ronnie now wishes to reach out to the local community and invite them in, where the resident mentoring team of silver surfers will be on hand to assist. The text of Ronnie’s email is reproduced below:
“I am writing on behalf of a group of elderly people in sheltered housing seeking education through lifelong learning, who have been assisted by Bristol Wireless and the Bristol Quartet to set up computer suites in several sheltered housing schemes that enable us to seek out information on any subject and in addition to obtain and have access to the same information as everyone else.
“Our wish is to share our use of the internet service and computer suite with the wider community and also to use the computers to connect and contact our neighbouring communities across Bristol and the world so as to enhance our lives and the lives of our fellow elderly people, regardless of their colour, creed, political persuasion or sexual preference.
“Much has already been achieved, but before we can invite those members of the wider community into Princess Royal Gardens, it will be necessary to make safe and hide all the wiring behind trunking and all the work that entails. We need funding to do this, which forms the next part of this worthwhile project. Bristol Quartet has already kindly provided grant aid to train 16 elderly people in the use of computers. Those 16 people have in turn acted as mentors, passing on what they have learnt to some thirty others and brought people together in a contented atmosphere of integration.
“The people who will benefit are the elderly, i.e. over 55s, plus anyone who may need help or who is lonely and isolated, any who are referred to us and who would wish to join us at times and dates to be arranged. This would also include anyone who fits the criterion of over 55 and who just wishes to be somewhere with people of their own age. We have no barrier to grandchildren. In fact, we welcome and encourage the children to help Gran or Granddad to use the computers effectively.
“Trusting that you feel our plea for funding is a worthy one, we thank you in anticipation and say thank you for all your previous help.
Yours sincerely
Ronald Corbett
Scheme Manager, Princess Royal Gardens”
If you feel you can help Ronnie, please feel free to call him on 07769882803 or email him.
Straight outta Easton - DIY digital inclusion
September 27, 2006 Posted by Woodsy in : Digital Challenge, e-democracy, Bristol, Community Media, Regeneration, e-society, Mentoring , 2 commentsIn the spring I was fortunate to meet Tim Erickson of e-democracy during his Bristol visit. One thing he said about building online communities stuck in my mind, namely the momentum has to come from the bottom up, not be imposed from outside or the top down.
This bottom up approach is happening already in Bristol, if you know where to look.
One place you could have looked was the Chelsea Inn in Easton one evening in the spring of 2002. You may have spotted 4 ageing hippies having an animated discussion over their beers. What they were plotting was an online forum for Easton and, of all the alternatives available, setting up a Yahoo Group seemed the best: so that’s what we did. It’s still going. Amazingly it’s thriving and membership is approaching 110. Indeed it’s now the second largest Bristol-based Yahoo group. Local campaigns (e.g. the planned Elizabeth Shaw chocolate factory redevelopment) have admittedly helped to swell membership, but nevertheless the forum has for 4 years provided a means of maintaining interest in or sounding off about local matters. And it has served as a way of staying in touch and advertising local events, not to mention sharing expertise and information on a wide range of subjects, including dealing with local and national government (e.g. reporting flytipping to the council or lobbying the local MP). Any problems have been few and far between: trolls are an extinct species, while the life expectancy of spammers can be measured in minutes, despite our moderator now working mostly in China.
The other local example concerns the Elizabeth Shaw chocolate factory redevelopment in Greenbank mentioned above that is currently out to public consultation. Needless to say, local residents were alarmed when plans were announced for 100+ new homes from a volume housebuilder on their doorsteps. Their reaction was twofold: firstly, to use the Easton Yahoo Group to stay in touch, circulate correspondence, plan meetings and float ideas and secondly to collate all their expertise and resources on their own website using wiki technology and webspace donated by Bristol Wireless. The resulting site is now a valuable resource for other communities facing similar unwelcome changes, while in return Greenbank residents have learnt valuable skills in editing and producing web content using wikis, with the more technically gifted willingly passing on their skills, time and expertise. While the outcome of the planning application is still undecided, the local Greenbank community has definitely achieved some ‘planning gain’.
Given that being a deprived inner city area, Easton is generally regarded as a basket case by most official criteria, it’s very encouraging to see the community taking the initiative in this way. What’s next from BS5? It definitely promises to be interesting.
