Simon’s Blog (the official one)

It is inconceivable to think now that just 5 years ago rural Britain faced the prospect of no access to broadband. The visionaries of the time, who mostly ended up playing an active part in the Community Broadband Network (established by ruralnet|uk and The Phone Co-op) and the Access to Broadband Campaign (ABC), could see that this would be a complete disaster for rural areas. They were right weren’t they? Anyone disagree? I thought not.

With the internet becoming a major delivery channel for nearly everything, including Government and other public services, how would the Government have coped with a group of people equivalent in size to a major city who were excluded from such services?

But it’s OK now. Virtually everyone has access to broadband. Or do they?

The trouble with broadband is that it is a rapidly evolving technology. It’s not like electricity or gas. Supply people with that and they’ve got it for life. With broadband, today’s broadband is tomorrow’s narrowband.

When I was project manager of the WREN Telecottage in the early 90s we were a trial site for ISDN and when the internet arrived and we hooked up an ISDN router, we thought we’d died and gone to heaven! Web pages loaded in an instant, just as fast, it seemed, as the stuff from our own server located 6 feet away. But you try ISDN today. You’d be VERY disappointed. Things have moved on.

We have a situation a bit like the deadly tryst that exists between hardware and software producers – faster machines beget more demanding software which demands faster hardware and so it goes on. In the same way, as ‘broadband’ gets faster so online service providers produce services which demand faster broadband speeds.

So what should happen in rural areas when the ADSL systems they have been provided with prove totally inadequate? Should organisations like the Regional Development Agencies meddle in the market again and fill in with whatever the next generation of broadband is? I don’t think so.

The trouble with ‘market meddling’ is that is screws things up. All those rural communities who have been provided with ADSL in places where there was market failure are probably stuck with it for sometime as those who have invested will need to see a return on their investment, and that takes time.

So, should we just leave these rural communities to miss out the THE economic and social development driver of our time? No we shouldn’t and we should meddle in the market again but this time we need to do it properly and give these communities a lot more than the market is prepared to deliver at the time.

I think I am right in saying that a system of ‘fibre to the street’ (or village centre) and very very high speed wireless links from there is about as good as it can get, as far as broad band is concerned, for the foreseeable future.

So next time we meddle in the market let’s not do it reluctantly. Let’s do it with real enthusiasm and properly.

Related information:

• I have written about rural broad band before here: my 2004 posting.
• The book pictured, written by one of the rural broadband warriors, Lindsey Annison, can be purchased here as a paperback or download.
• Read more about South Witham Broadband and the Community Broadband Network.

See also:

• BBC: Broadband digital divide looms.

Here’s a very interesting job opportunity for someone like me. The Carnegie UK Trust are looking to appoint a Facilitator to develop a UK and Ireland wide rural Community of Practice.

Carnegie say:

This is an exciting opportunity for experienced facilitators and would ideally suit individuals looking for a significant career challenge.

Full details can be downloaded in PDF

and DOC

formats.

  Crudwell Post Office 
  Originally uploaded by S1m0nB3rry

This is the Executive Summary of an original vision created to inform the work of the Labour Group of Rural MPs in 1998. The vision was updated and presented at the ruralnet|2004 conference. It has been presented at many conferences since.

Executive Summary
Access to services is crucial to reduce rural deprivation and increase social inclusion. However, access to services for rural people has been declining for many years and will continue to do so unless we inject new thinking and start doing things differently. We need new paradigms for rural service delivery that focus more on the integrated needs of service users and less on the ‘needs’ of service suppliers.

The idea of ‘multi-purpose village centres’ was first published in 1981. Since then there are many more post offices in shops but true multi-service outlets (MSOs) are so rare that they still make the headlines.

It is argued that a sole focus on location for the delivery of services is not helpful and that the current way of measuring access in terms of the distance from locations needs to be reviewed. The focus should be on ‘Integrated Service Provision’ and not on ‘Multi-Service Outlets’.

At the heart of the vision presented is the notion that successful service integration needs to be preceded by an analysis of the component parts of each service. Then services can be re-engineered and integrated. This can be done by considering the functions a service performs under the following headings:

1. information function
2. expert function
3. social function
4. physical function

Examples of this analysis are given in the full paper and applied to a whole range of services.
Analysing services in this way before integration, enables us to identify two things:

1. The elements of the service that need LOCAL physical space (the physical elements and some of the social elements);
2. The elements of the service that can be delivered without a local physical presence using the telephone and ICT (ie the expert and information elements and some of the social elements).

Only the physical and some of the social elements of a service need a local venue. The expert and information elements can be delivered remotely (to the local venue or to the home or business) using ICT. In simple terms, experts can sit anywhere on the end of a phone and information can be delivered using internet-based technology. A local advocate operating from a local venue could act as an intermediary to such services where required.
NHS Direct and the way the delivery of library services has changed over recent years are used in the full paper to demonstrate these principles in practice.

The paper emphasises, that despite the fact that ICT is influencing service delivery, local, physical locations are still required and will always be required to deliver the physical elements of the various services. For financial reasons and for the benefit of service users, these should be co-located in multi-service outlets.

Various forms of co-location are considered in the full paper.

A remaining significant challenge is the integration of services for the benefit of end users. NHS Direct, innovative though it is, has still to be integrated with the rest of the NHS let alone services from other sectors.

The rare examples of true service integration are generally driven by those who need the services and not by those who supply them. They require true partnership working across sectors and this, more often than not, is managed by the voluntary and community sector (VCS). The VCS has a key role in the integration of services for the benefit of service users in rural areas.

Download the full version of this paper (PDF Format, 2.15 MB).

Download the slides used in the presentation (PPT Format, 4.33 MB).