Dinnington.net Connecting the Dinnington Community

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Dinnington.netConnecting the Dinnington Community

• Action for ICT Based Learning in Rotherham
• 22 February 2006
• Bob Holland
• Trustee Past Chair
• Dinnington Area Regeneration Trust
• Member of consultancy team to RLLP ICT Sub-Group

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Dinnington.netConnecting the Dinnington Community

• Project overview
• What is Dinnington.net?
• What are its aims?
• Who can benefit?
• What does it offer?
• Dinnington.net hot-spots
• Dinnington.net FLOSS
• Dinnington.net services
• A Community pilot for RCCP

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What is Dinnington.net?

• Physical level
• Open-access, community-wide wireless network with
  robust infrastructure
• Server 'small-holding'
• Bonded ADSL Internet back-haul
• Community level
• A Community Action Plan project supported by O1,
  Big Lottery Fund the Dinnington people
• A tool to bridge the Digital Divide

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What is Dinnington.net?
Server 'small-holding'
Community portal
Open-access wireless
O1 Big Lottery Funding
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What are its aims?

• Provide anywhere/anytime access
• Learning outside education system
• In a social environment
• At home, community venue, outdoors
• Digital life-style experiences
• Engage those with low ICT skills
• Reduce social and economic exclusion
• Improve access to information society

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Who can benefit?

• Dinnington community
• Local residents
• O1-P4a and community venues priority
• Best-effort coverage within budget
• Nearby villages
• Visitors (economic benefit)
• Focus on community organisations
• E-Champions technical skills

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What does it offer?

• Participating VOLCOM groups
• A recycled computer with Wi-Fi
• Broadband Internet access
• Micro-site on community portal
• Free use of applications servers
• Everyone
• Free access to community intranet
• Freedom to subscribe for full service
• Support from DART staff e-Champions
• Freedom to Get Involved

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Dinnington.net 'Hot-Spots'

• Currently
• The Middleton (Barleycroft Lane - 0km)
• New Life Church (Silverdales - 0.5km)
• Lorden's Hotel (Lorden's Hill - 1km)
• Throapham (evaluation site - 1.5km)
• Imminent
• The Resource Centre (0.5km)
• The Lyric Theatre (0.5km)
• High Nook Community Centre (1km)
• Laughton (tested at 2.5km)

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Laughton
Lorden's Hotel
Throapham
New Life Church
The Middleton
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Dinnington.net and FLOSS

• Why use FLOSS?
• Socially economically inclusive
• Reliable built for use in 'the wild'
• No license fee legacy after funding
• Freedom to 'scratch an itch'
• ICT should be fun!
• Commercial software can be used

Anyone with a PC retrieved from a skip and a bit
of time on their hands can now become a web
designer, programmer, musician, graphic artist...
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Dinnington.net Services

• Available now...
• Internet access, email, virtual desktop
  applications server, web portal, thin client
  connectivity
• In development...
• CCTV (wireless), VLE (Moodle), Community radio,
  Wiki collaborative tools
• Future plans...
• Video conferencing, VoIP, Virtual classroom,
  video on demand, gaming

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A Community Pilot for RCCP

• Benefit to RCCP
• Easily extends RGFL reach into a substantial
  local community
• Evaluation of new value added services
• A model for other communities

• Benefit to Dinnington
• Link to RGFL and related e-learning resource
• Access to/from a wider area community
• Collaboration with greater Rotherham beyond

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Dinnington.netConnecting the Dinnington Community

• Questions?
• Contact details
• phone [phone]
• email bobholland_at_bradwell.net
• DART contact Jamie Kirkpatrick
• phone [phone]
• email jamie_at_dinnington.org