INTERNET: IT wizards wire locals to web
By Sheila Jones

A housing estate in one of Manchester's most depressed inner-city districts has wired itself up to help prepare residents for the digital age.

The Bentley House community in Hulme, known locally as the Redbricks estate, has created its own neighbourhood network and a web site on the internet. The Redbricks local area network, set up by a handful of digitally minded residents, gives the community of 260 council flats access to electronic shopping, neighbourhood notice boards, global trading networks and electronic training online.

Residents can stroll through the north side of their estate in a digitally produced map on the Redbricks web site. A Crisis Response page allows subscribers to alert the community to any problems on the estate.

The project was created by Nigel Stewart, an internet technician, and handful of fellow locals. "We think it is the first network of its kind, funded entirely within the neighbourhood," he says. "We have tried to make it as easy as possible because people here don't necessarily know how computers and the internet work."

In a cramped back room in one of the Redbricks flats, the walls are stacked high with old personal computers being revamped for use by the residents. Mr Stewart, and Cae Gests, an unemployed neighbour helping to run the scheme, buy recycled computers at about £50 a time from the RecycleIT charity, a national project for the recycling of IT equipment.

So far, about 60 people have signed up to the project, which was launched a year ago. Mr Stewart and other residents got together £6,000 between them to kick-start the project with IT equipment and a telecoms line leased from British Telecommunications.

Subscribers pay £12 a month for unlimited access to the internet and web site facilities, including community and council information. They can use either a secondhand PC wired to the local network in their own home or one of the PCs in the two flats where the project is based.

Residents learn how the internet works as they use the system, says Mr Stewart, and users exchange information on the web site notice boards.

Mr Gests, who is hoping to secure support to expand the scheme from the European Union's urban development fund, has rigged up a user-friendly system in his flat on the estate. He pulls a beer pump on the wall to switch on the computer. "All it does is link to the on-off switch. But it makes it a bit of fun."

The residents hope to wire up the whole estate although the project has recently run into a wrangle with the council, which says it is concerned about possible health and safety implications of wiring up the neighbourhood.

"It seems like a terrifically entrepreneurial scheme based in the community but we need to make sure everything is done properly on council property," said a council officer.

Government plans to put tower block tenants online
By Jim Kelly,
Education Correspondent

One of the country's deprived inner-city tower blocks is set to be "hot-wired" to the Internet as the government tries to find ways to bridge the growing "digital divide" between the rich and the poor.

Talks are under way between government officials, led by the Department of Education and Employment, and leading software and hardware providers to form a partnership that would install computers in the homes of 2,000-3,000 people.

Redbricks Online Community is based on the Bentley House Estate, Hulme, Manchester M15 - a generally low-income, area with a high degree of social exclusion.
The technologies and approaches employed at Redbricks are suited to situations of high density housing with relatively low levels of employment amongst the residents, anywhere in the "IP-world". (Internet Protocol)

Monitoring systems have been in place or development at Redbricks Online from the beginning.
These include: user number growth, server access statistics, local and Internet bandwidth use, sterling and LETSystem accounting of project development costs and trading.
Environmental monitoring and mapping systems are also planned.

Redbricks Online began nearly 18 months ago - see the online accounts, and the growth in the number of users.

All costs to date of Redbricks Online have been borne by participants. Many participants are on low incomes or unemployed. See the online accounts.

Many of the participants at Redbricks Online strongly agree with this statement by Gordon Brown.
That is not the case with all of Gordon Brown's statements.

Redbricks Online is registered with the OCR as Centre Number 33007 to provide courses.
Several participants at Redbricks who wish to develop online learning resources and mentoring systems are developing Learning Circles at Redbricks Online.

"If the heating system fails, or the lifts don't work, then residents would have immediate access to engineers and maintenance staff online," said the official.

Redbricks Online includes links, in this case from the INFORMATION link, to Manchester City Council services, and other useful information found on the Internet by participants.

Several participants are involved with making old computers and telecommunications resources available for re-use at Redbricks Online and in similar situations.
Some of those involved are likely to start new businesses as a result. Other participants are beginning to instigate systems which may develop into sustainable local businesses. Others, in business or in work, are reducing their costs while increasing the quality of their information resources.
The proposed European Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) amending Directive 76/769/EEC, makes the development of economically sustainable systems for the re-use and recycling of these resources essential.
Further information on the directive is available from ICER: Industry Council for Electronic Equipment Recycling.
Several participants at Redbricks find it unnecessary to have any transport to their work, since they can do it online.
Other participants are making significant savings on office costs and Internet access costs by working online, but from their homes.
The ability to work, with others online, but from their homes has additional obvious advantages for many with disabilities, working mothers and those who have retired but who remain active.
Amongst others, Emerge, a community recycling business in Manchester, has been collecting at Redbricks for some time.
Participants at Redbricks Online who work in this and other local businesses are beginning to plan how to best use the Internet and intranets in, and between, their businesses.

Individuals and organisations throughout the UK have visited Redbricks Online, both virtually and physically.
Many are discussing replicating systems similar to Redbricks Online within their own neighbourhoods.
Redbricks Online was planned and has been developed to be replicable throughout the European Union and the IP-world, largely through community self-funding [ using small and micro credit from Credit Unions (ABCUL - The Association of British Credit Unions Ltd), Grameen-style banking, etc ] and the use of "virtual trading networks" (LETSystems), such as theFEW.Net.