Community Networking "In" In the United Kingdom: Government Backing, A National Campaign, and a
Europe-wide Conference

by Charlotte Gerstein,
Community Connector Staff

A front page article in November 12's New York Times declared,

"It's the new and improved Britain!

Britain, the spin doctors in Prime Minister Tony Blair's government say, is being 'rebranded.'

Out are scenes of village cricket, tea and scones, baronial castles, Beefeaters.... In are images of pulsing telecommunications, global business transactions, information technologies, buccaneering entrepreneurs, a sensitized monarchy... The government tourist agency has supplanted 'Rule, Britannia!' with 'Cool Britannia.' The adjective 'royal' increasingly makes way for the cozier 'people's,' a word Blair recently used 27 times in a single newspaper interview."

Likewise, community networking in the UK has a raised profile, in line with that of high technology and the "people's" information. For example, United Kingdom Communities Online (UKCO), self-defined as "a new initiative to develop and support online networking in ways which will enhance and sustain local communities," received £87,000 start up funding from the Department of Trade and Industry, and a three-year program of support by IBM. The UK is still the only European country with a national community networking organization.

The Communities Online Forum Web site announces UKCO's three-year campaign to promote community networking, due to be launched early in 1998; "These pages, with associated discussion lists, provide news of progess and ways for you to join in."

UKCO ran a workshop December 16-17 in York for practitioners UK-wide to participate in shaping the campaign. Coinciding with AFCN's incorporation here in the U.S., the UK group has chosen a campaign rather than a national association, because, according to Michael Mulquin, Director of the UKCO Campaign, "We have no large community networking movement in the UK. What we have is a wide range of initiatives coming out of the community, academic and local government sectors. We felt that it would be such a headache trying to work out who would be eligible to be members of any association that it would be better to concentrate on some key goals and principles that we could all unite around."

According to an announcement posted by David Wilcox, Development Director of UKCO, campaign proposals at this point include:

• An online database and map of projects throughout the UK, providing a showcase for their plans and achievements. The campaign aims to help "fill in" the map over three years
• A community networking charter, setting out facilities which citizens might reasonably expect in their area
• A toolkit of technical and other materials, on the Internet and in print, for anyone starting a local project
• An Anywhere Online demonstration
• A communications system for practitioners to share experience more
• A program of workshops and seminars and an annual conference
• A design game which will help different interests in an area plan their online community

The game, according to Mulquin, "provides a structure by which key local players can identify the relevant characteristics of their local community and strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, etc., and identify the role that the new media technologies could play and what the role of each of their organizations should be in carrying things forward."

The focus of the meeting in York was on the development of the campaign tools and priority areas, in "a practical and intensive discussion."

Other Developments Among the Civic-minded
and Wired in the UK and Europe

This meeting followed other recent and significant developments in the civic-minded wired sector in the UK. For example, the Secretary of State, Chris Smith, addressed the Public Libraries Authorities Conference (like the Public Library Association of the ALA here in the U.S.), and supported a Library & Information Commission paper entitled "New Library: the People's Network." Smith said the report puts forth a case for the "library of the future as a catalyst for enabling people to involve themselves more fully with the democratic process, and to give them many more opportunities to participate in the decision-making processes that affect their lives." The main recommendations of the Public Library Networking Plan include a single UK-managed network service to provide core services, a standard connection to existing library networks, and a central fund to encourage library authorities to upgrade their networks.

On October 25, members of community-based radio, television, cable, and on-line services from throughout the UK gathered at the annual conference of the Community Radio Association. They voted to change the name of the organization to "Community Media Association." and approved a ten-point Community Media Charter.

A close affiliate of UKCO is a group called UK Citizens Online Democracy (UKCOD), which is also enjoying the spotlight these days. Both groups participated in an October 28th conference to discuss "Public Information, Interactive Politics and the New Media" which was held at The House of Commons. According to a UKCOD press release, this was the first conference in the UK exclusively devoted to an examination of the effects of new media technologies, from the Internet to digital TV, on the democratic process, and had the support of MPs from all of the main political parties. In the keynote speech, Graham Allen MP and Government Whip endorsed the opening remarks and said he saw exciting opportunities for Government to use new technologies to make national and local decision-making more relevant to people in their homes. The Minister made special reference to the recent decision by the Cabinet Office to give its support to the UKCOD consultation initiative, in which, for the first time ever, citizens would be invited to respond to a White Paper (on Freedom of Information), allowing meaningful citizen-input to the pre-legislative deliberation process.

Networking Europe-Wide

On the heels of the upcoming York conference, the UK contingent will be meeting with other European community networkers in Brussels in January. According to Michael Mulquin, this meeting will be used to "play through the results of our York conference with practitioners in the rest of Europe...(which) will enable us to further refine our criteria, take on board their experience, and hopefully enable us to work with them to develop a map of how community networks are developing across Europe." Expected are representatives from Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Holland and Finland.

For more information on UKCO's campaign or the York conference, contact David Wilcox or Michael Mulquin.

To join a mailing list about UKCO's campaign development, include the message: subscribe conet.