CARPENTERS
ESTATE WIRED COMMUNITies PARTNERSHIP
STEERING GROUP
MINUTES OF THE
FIRST MEETING HELD AT THE HOUSING
OFFICE
ON 23RD
MARCH 2001
PRESENT WERE: Richard Steel,( Newham Council) Chairman
David Bill (past chairman Carpenters TMO)
Linda Salim (Housing Manager, Carpenters Estate)
Helen Kaczmarek (Dfee)
Pallavi Malhotra (Newham College)
Jan Bless (headteacher, Carpenters primary school)
Richard Stubbs( Newham Online/Newham.net.) Project Coordinator
Steve Tyler ( Technical oversight/Mase)
Tee Fabikun (Chairperson Carpenters TMO) Secretary
Apologies: Jan Bless would be late.
The Chairman, Richard Steel, called the meeting to order at about 2.10pm. Congratulated everyone most esp. the TMO & Richard Stubbs for winning the award. Since it was the first meeting everyone introduced themselves and the relationship to the project.
The Wired Communities Programme:
Ms Helen Kaczmarek of the DfEE office gave the background history of the programme, which had come out of the work carried out by PAT 15 on social exclusion, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and the Gov’s expectations. The programme is aimed to learn about the effects that saturation use of ICT could have on a community and in particular evaluation would be carried out on education, employment, skills and attainment. According to her, the success and feedback which will be collected from users 6months after installation, via questionnaires, but by March 2002; will be used to know if the programme is viable or not.
It was noted that this meant the time scale for the project delivery were tight.
Role of the Media Trust:
This is an organization that develops communities’ content sites and Helen advised we work with the Media Trust. Richard Stubbs opined that this would be useful as there is no partner focusing on the production of local video based content and this was an area of expertise the Trust could bring to the Partnership.
Helen clarified that the DfEE would pay for the Trusts’ contribution to our work separately. It was agreed that we would like the Media Trust to be represented on the Steering Group and Helen undertook to arrange an introduction.
v Steering Group and finance arrangements.
It was agreed that David Bill, Jan Bless, Tee Fabikun, Linda Salim, Pallavi Malhotra, Richard Steel, Richard Stubbs, Steve Tyler and a representative of the Media Trust would constitute the Steering Group. Others from the wider partnership group could be invited to meetings for specific purposes.
v It was agreed that Richard Steel would be Chair and Tee volunteered to be the secretary of the Steering Group.
As Richard Steel also Chairs the Council’s ICT in the Community Group, this will act as the as the main channel of communication between the Partnership and Council Department.
v It was agreed that David Bill would represent the Estate User group.
v The Steering Group would meet on the 4th Monday of every month at the Carpenters Road TMO offices and the meeting to be between 3.00pm – 5.00pm.
v Financial approval for the spending of Project fund will be managed according to an agreed budget. Cheque requisitions will be raised by Richard Stubbs and authorised by Richard Steel. Richard Steel then promised to ensure that a separate Council cost code is set up for the project.
It was agreed that Richard Stubbs, as the Project Co-ordinator, should liase with all the parties involved to develop the Project plan. Richard Steel said that the Council would offer assistance with this. The plan will need to be approved by the Steering Group, the ICT in the Community Group and the DfEE.
Richard Stubbs (Project Co-ordinator) will report progress to Richard Steel ( Project Manager ) and to the Steering Group on a monthly basis. Richard Steel will then be able to report to the ICT in the Community Group, which meet on the first week of each month.
v
Connectivity
Steve Tyler said he saw little difficulty in establishing appropriate connectivity for the services involved. In order to minimise disruption to tenants, connections to tenants’ flat would be made along side the installation of the new digital TV Integrated Reception System. The wiring of the estate will become part of the Councils’ existing contract to install an “Integrated Reception System” (IRS). IRS technology can handle all systems including digital/sky and terrestrial. Newham is intending to use a smart card system that will work like a credit card i.e. to order a service you need to insert the card and enter a password. Fortunately the council has recently won funds to develop a Newham smart card and Richard Steel strongly suspect that Carpenters will be an early test site.
Linda Salim raised the issue of CCTV installation and Richard Steel agreed to check out how plans for this could be integrated with the Wired Project. It was agreed that in addition to the two points in each flat, installation of some points in communal areas should also be explored.
v Computers & set top boxes.
Richard Stubbs pointed out that the DfEE press release had indicated that residents on the estate were to be given computers. According to Richard Stubbs the project has not included provision of PCs as the main means of service delivery. This led to a discussion on what to do.
Helen then mentioned the Digital Learning Ring an organization set up by the Peabody Trust who is selling reconditioned Computers at very minimal price (about £60 each). Helen also mentioned the £5m grant awarded to E- Learning foundation to provide ICT in wired community areas. It is the Govts’. objective to ensure that every child in the country has access to a PC.
Richard Stubbs and Steve had a meeting with Pace to discuss the set top boxes that would be provided. As Pace provided set top boxes for Sky, it was hoped that the same set top boxes could deliver both Sky and Wired Community content.
v
Content
A number of partners will be involved in this. Some are:
DkTV – Interactive LG Services.
Media Trust - Community TV
Education – Newham College, TAG – Plato
Home Page e.g. Camden Council.
Wired Community URL – Helen undertook to provide the portal of a wired Community but is unsure if it would work on TV.
v
Staff
Linda said that application for staffing should be put in before the 31st March but as application forms were unavailable she wondered what could be done. Richard Stubbs said that the Stratford development Partnership had delegated appraisal of the bid to its Chair, which meant that things could proceed quickly once this hurdle had been cleared. Richard Stubbs agreed to contact the SDP about this.
Helen to confirm and send the draft to Richard Steel, who would check to see if he could sign on behalf of the council. It was agreed that the earlier the contract is signed the better for the project. Latest by 6th April the contract ought to be signed.
Richard Stubbs then noted that since there is now a 2 months delay from DfEE, he hopes that an extension would be given to cover the time loss and also the evaluation period so as to be a realistic one.
Helen again repeated her explanation on eLearning foundation. Negotiations between DfEE and the Foundation are going on. It is envisaged that local eLearning Foundations would be set up in each Wired Community area and she hoped that Jan Bless would play an active role. The benefits were aimed at children in the Wired Communities.
Jan said that some children in the school come from outside of the Estate; promised to provide the details. He also voiced out his concern that achievement of particular targets might suffer as a result of the effort that would be needed to be spent on integrating PCs into the teaching environment. Helen undertook to locate the appropriate person with whom Jan could discuss this concern.
Staff Training, insurance and maintenance were also
mentioned but Helen said that the primary fund is for equipment
and needed to be spent by 31st March 2002. It was anticipated that
other sources of funds might be available to contribute to such costs. But the
future of the whole programme depends on the feedback.
A.O.B.
Richard Stubbs had created a private mailing list at steerwired@in.newham.net for sharing
matters that were confidential to the Steering Group and to continue work
between meetings, this was additional to wired@in.newham.net
which was for all involved.
Meanwhile the names,
addresses and Tel no of members:
David Bill david.bill@gts.com 020 8534 2273
Linda Salim Linda.salim@newham.gov.uk. 020 8430 5273
Helen Kaczmarek Helen.macamarek@dfee.gov.uk 0114 259 4755
Pallavi
Malhotra
pallavi.malhotra@newham.ac.uk
Richard Steel Richard.steel@newham.gov.uk
Jan Bless
020 8534 4759
Steve Tyler steve@mase.co.uk 0208 665 7577
Tee Fabikun teefabikun@hotmail.com 07932 661 089
The meeting came to
an end about 4.30pm
NEXT MEETING IS
ON 23RD APRIL 2001
VENUE: CARPENTERS
HOUSING OFFICE
DORAN WALK
STRATFORD
TIME: 3.00PM –
5.00PM