MINUTES OF THE CARPENTERS ESTATE WIRED UP COMMUNITIES PROJECT MEETING OF MONDAY 21ST OCTOBER 2002.

 

Apologies

 

Richard Steel
 
 


In attendance

 

Richard Stubbs

Richard Overton

Paul Whiteman.

John Defoe

Rick Smith

Linda Salim.

Annie Keane

Tee Fabikun.

 

 

In the absence of Richard Steel, John Defoe chaired the meeting.

 

  1. Minutes and Matters Arising.

Copies of the minutes of the last meeting were circulated, read and adopted.

 

Access to the rooftop: The situation is still the same but hopefully things would be worked out soon.

 

Heating system is going to be connected to the flat that will be used by the installers, which will make working there bearable for staff during winter. Licence with Newham.net to be signed.

 

Richard Overton reported that the school would be giving him a laptop later today to enable him test the system on it.

 

  1. Technical Progress.

Richard Overton talked us through a demonstration of how the portal, the email look like now. Games like quiz are already installed and yes/no-polling is also available.

 

Estate TV is being investigated to see if it could be broadcast through the Borough with or without set top boxes.

 

Video Door entry via TV. It is likely that this can be achieved but not available at launch.

 

Rick Smith then pointed out the need of the portal having a connection to a pc since Dfes has a link with all the WUC programmes. It was then suggested that the Richard Steel’s application for the Community Initiative of the year be put up on the site with a note explaining that the system would only work on a TV. Richard Stubbs agreed to do this,

 

The need for branding the set top boxes was also discussed. Richard Overton said that although Residents would be informed that the box would only work in the designated flat, chemical type of branding would be looked into so as to deter would be thieves. Meanwhile Richard Stubbs would see to the insurance for the set top boxes whilst stored in the flat but it would not be possible to insure the individual boxes in peoples’ homes.

 

Residents would be able to register for the installation of the boxes during the launch on Thursday 14th Nov.

 

The Carpenters Connect email is now working.

 

There are plans to have a small event after Christmas to encourage more Residents to sign up.

 

3.      Installation of Set top boxes & Training.

 

A two-day open day is being planned for after the launch so as to encourage more people to register their names. There would also be a one-week end refresher course aimed at teaching the Residents how to use the set top boxes. Thereafter, further training will be handled by the Learndirect Centre.

 

 

4. Media Trust Promotion & content.

 

Annie Keane reported that Media Trust is still producing films and the current one is the various views on  “Tower Blocks – What Future?” It is hoped that this will generate a lot of interest/chats on the Web.

 

The Film group is still very active so also is the History group. MT is trying to get people involve and eventually work on the Web.

 

Rick Smith said that the DfES were funding the production of two CDs by the Media Trust one targeting the Community and the other opinion makers. These would set out what had been learned through the WuC programme. The content would be available for use at Carpenters.

 

5.      Launch and PR

 

About 300 invitations would be sent by emails but there is a need for a contingency plan so that things could run smoothly. At the moment 5 people are doing the overall coordination.

 

 

6. User Involvement.

 

Maybe a group of virtual volunteers would be able to do this. Coordinate and facilitate discussions on the Web by Residents.

 

 

 

 

7. Sustainability.

 

As it is now, Carpenters Connect is not sustainable but with some money from LDA and ERDF it could become sustainable in the medium terms.  Egovernment agenda looks like we might be able to get some funding from that source by December. Rick Smith mentioned the Community Cohesion fund and it was agreed that a bid focussing on extending the range of languages that the servce could be used on would be very helpful.

 

At the moment all services would be provided free. In future commercial videos will be made available on a pay per view basis similarly faster Internet connections will be available on a paid for basis. After the first 6 months trial games may also be charged for. Charging should be made in such a way as to sure people are not put into debt. Richard Stubbs said that Splash Plastic would be the preferred approach.

 

The question of what to do with people that would rather access the Internet via the computer. Various suggestions were made but maybe a charge could be made for such service.

 

We agreed that we should consider making a charge for demonstrating the system to people from other areas e.g. there is a likelihood of an Estate in Glasgow coming down to the Estate to have a look around.

 

 

8. Project Management.

 

Richard Overton promised to set up a system that will be used to login and save the information of residents registering on the launch date. Hopefully the system will be able to allocate time slots for fixing the set top boxes.

 

Project Budget – Most project monies have been spent.  Richard Stubbs promised to send a reminder to Rick Smith on Dfes’ contribution to the launch so as to get the money out on time.

 

 

9. Linked Project.

 

Unfortunately Jan Bless was unable to give us a detailed report of what is going on at the   school. Richard Overton would be collecting the laptop later in the day for the necessary tests.

 

 

 

 

Next meeting:

3.00pm on Monday 18th Nov 2002.