.net October 2000
"Look there's someone who got their car nicked the other day, and they're asking if anyone's seen it or has any information."
"Someone else has sent out a Shout inviting everyone to their 30th birthday party and there's even someone trying to get their hands on a pair of size-5 wellies. The Internet is bringing a real sense of community hack to the area," explains Nigel Stewart, the man behind one of the most original uses of the Web in the UK.
Nigel lives in a flat on the Bentley estate (known locally as Redbricks) in Hulme, an inner city area of Manchester renowned for problems with drugs and crime. He established the Redbricks Online Community toward the end of 1998 as an experiment to see whether it would he possible to get an entire housing estate hooked up to an Intranet (the community) and the Internet (the rest of the Web).
In an area where substance abuse is commonplace Nigel tells .net how this small area of Manchester is getting wired on something the local dealers can't peddle on street corners, and the remnants of which don't litter children's playgrounds.
"People that would never have met each other a few years ago arc now discussing issues affecting the area. "Take our local kids' playground. The council is considering building on the ground and there's a debate on Redbricks over whether it should he preserved for the kids or whether it's just a druggies' hang-out littered with needles which should be bulldozed. It's just great that people are taking an interest."
The idea was to set up a 64K leased line which could provide 30 concurrent users with connections to the Web and an Intranet which would require hundreds of metres of ethernet cables and some imaginative wiring techniques hut would eventually provide speeds of up to 10Mb per second.
Investing a few thousand pounds of his own money, and taking a big gamble in the process, Stewart got the idea off the floor and managed to get around 30 residents from the Bentley estate to agree to pay the running costs of £3 each week. Old P75 and P100 computers, rendered obsolete by the business community, were purchased with help from the local credit union for around £100 each. There are now 90 residents on-line.
"We can get up to 10 Meg on the Intranet with the use of ethernet cables and this means we can stream video, games and audio over the network," Nigel continues. "This provides us with a lot of scope for development."
Despite all the work put in by Nigel and a few other dedicated volunteers, Redbricks has always had the feel of a co-operative. "Nobody is in absolute charge. I take a lot of responsibility, but even so, you never have the power of a company that dictates to users what they can and can't do. All we have is an invitation to introduce things to the service. If they work, they stay. If they don't, we bin them."
One of the main problems initially was helping people to understand the technology behind what Redbricks was trying to achieve and taking the 'technofear' factor out of thc scheme. "We designed a computer incorporating a beer handle because people were frightened of the Internet and the technology," Nigel recalls. "So Ged, one of the guys who's been heavily involved in Redbricks, designed this machine. And if you can be frightened by a disemboweled beer pump nailed to the wall then there's not much hope for you~"
One of the real successes at Redbricks Online has been the Shout mailing list, which enables Redbricks members to send out a community-wide e-mail concerning anything from local crimes to street parties. "The off-line equivalent of the newsletter is literally standing in the middle of the road shouting to a neighbourhood, which most people wouldn't do," says Nigel. "But because the technology allows some anonymity, it's okay and people use it.
"It's the same with the Neighbourhood Watch Webcams. It's Big Brother if the cameras link hack to police central headquarters but within the community it's completely different. There's an element of trust people on this estate just don't have toward groups like the police and the council."
The relationship between the Redbricks community and Manchester Council has been largely confrontational since the scheme's launch. Redhricks was undertaken without any consultation with the council - "they just wouldn't have got it," utters Nigel - and when they recently tried to get the local pub hooked up, the council stepped in.
"The council has really shot itself in the foot as far as Redbricks is concerned. We decided it would be nice to extend the Intranet to the local pub so people could get on-line from there, and we thought we could install a Webcam so you could see if your mates were about," says Nigel. "The night we strung the wire across to the pub, it was cut by the council. There was no consultation and people in his area don't need an excuse to have a pop at the council."
However, more recently the council has been much more co-operative following increased media interest in the scheme and has even taken time out to come and look at Redhricks in action. "It seems like a terrifically entrepreneurial scheme based it the community, but we need to make sure every thing is done properly on council property," a council officer comments.
Nigel concedes that although there is no safety risk from the current setup, it is definitely an unorthodox solution to wiring up the buildings. "A network expert would choke if they saw how the whole thing is planned out," he jokes. "We have ethernet cables slung between the flats and hanging from trees and they're exposed to all the elements. But it works for us and it's not interfering with any other cables, and that's what counts."
The main problem has arisen from concerns over the wiring of Redbricks and whether it contravenes health and safety regulations, but the introduction of a radio LAN will all but solve this problem. Although a radio LAN has a maximum transmission distances and needs 'line of sight', it could produce similar communities within Hulme, supplying bandwidths of 2Mbps, 34Mpbs or larger.
"We've chosen the radio LAN to work across the Hulme area so we can connect people who already connect through their family, work or social life, and who all share a common interest of living in Hulme," explains Nigel. "If we fix an antenna to the roof of their housing block, they can have a high-speed link to everyone else on the network in Hulme, and access to the rest of the Net."
For inner city areas with high population density, the use of radio LAN is ideal. However, convincing politicians that 'wired Britain' should extend beyond the confines of education and employed homeowners is another matter
"The government talks about getting the nation connected but that's all it is - talk," Nigel stresses. "It would be so easy to put a central spine through high-rise blocks, then run connections into all the flats. Unfortunately this government seems more interested in making huge deals with the likes of Microsoft than doing something to help those people that can really benefit from this kind of technology"
This is something Nigel is keen to impress on community groups and councils. There has been excellent feedback from some unlikely sources and this is spurring Nigel on to try to get more schemes such as Redbricks up and running. "I've spoken to a few of the local lads that base been in gangs in the area, and one of them was associated with the Quality Street gang [one of Manchester's most notorious and brutal]," he explains. "He has seen many of his friends shot and killed and he is really keen to get the kids in the area involved in the project because the Web can show them there's more to the world than the end of a street."
One of the main problems in expanding the Redbricks model to other areas is the fact that, to date, it is still a one-off and until another working example is established, councils and community groups will remain cautious.
"We think it's really important for others to follow our lead because until there is another working example of what communities can achieve, people will just see us as a one-off and not something that can be emulated."
"At first, it was an experiment but it has become a working example of how a community can make a success if they pool together their skills and enthusiasm," Nigel concludes.
Click here to visit the Web site of Redbricks Online Community
http://www.redbricks.org.uk/
Building on a modelThere has been continued interest in how Redbricks is progressing from groups in the UK and further afield. Several people in other estates in Hulme, who are familiar with Redbricks, have expressed an interest and there are advanced talks with Lewisham Council and other groups in London.
There's even been interest from housing representatives in Melbourne, who recently met up with Stewart to discuss how this kind of scheme could be achieved in Australia.
If you are interested in getting more information on this scheme or want to get your community on-line then e-mail sysop@redbricks.org.uk
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