Following several months of close development work with a major West London Borough, we are now able to deliver a focused starter pack that will help local authorities meet the "Priority Area 2 - Community Information, element G2" of the e-Government 'Priority Outcomes' for 2005.

To re-cap:

Priority Area 2: Community information - "To deliver integrated information about services for the community, delivered by local & regional partnerships where appropriate, and connected to a national infrastructure."

Shared Service / National Priority:

Element G2 - "Good" e-Government Outcomes" - Empowering and supporting local organisations, community groups and clubs to create and maintain their own information online, including the promotion of job vacancies and events.

So what does this mean?

To the experienced user of the Internet it is sometime difficult to remember that Internet users are the minority group within the community. The objective of "Priority Outcomes - Area 2" is to provide community information, to strengthen relationships within community groups and to allow those groups to interact with other communities, organisations, businesses and local government using the same medium, the Internet. By bridging the technology gap between business, local government and local community groups, the backbone of the community is strengthened through a level playing field of active communication and involvement.

Local authorities must recognise that some modest investment into community groups is essential to ensure that they do not get left behind in delivering the e-Government Priority 2 Outcomes. They need to look to the future and to how groups will communicate, not only amongst themselves but with the wider community and how they will utilise local and national e-Government. Services like e-mail, online mailing lists, discussion forums, and websites will become standard and will empower members, from rural areas to inner cities, to attend virtual community meetings, share information, news & ideas and stay involved with the community and their local authority as a whole.

The London Borough of Hillingdon is an example of a forward-looking Council who have recognised that there is a need to assist local community groups to bridge the 'Digital Divide' and in turn meet central Government requirements for the e-Government Priority Outcomes in 2005. Through a partnership with i.communities.co.uk, Hillingdon Council now offers local community groups the facilities to communicate on-line without causing a stress onto their internal IT infrastructure. By committing to and meeting the "Good" e-government outcomes, the council will be in a better position to qualify for further IEG funding in 2005/06.

The i-communities.co.uk "Local Authority starter pack"

For a time limited period i-communities.co.uk will provide free of charge to local authorities, a starter-pack of 3 fully featured community hosting packages which they can then allocate to community groups within their area. Each community hosting pack allows a community group to quickly and easily provide to their members the basic building blocks for interacting with others on the Internet. Thus meeting, in part, the "Priority Area 2 - Community Information" G2 element of the e-Government Priority Outcomes for 2005. To fully meet the G2 element, additional community hosting packages can be purchased in bulk at discounted rates.

As well as the community hosting packages, i-communities.co.uk can also provide advice and content for promoting the initiative either internally within the local authority of externally via the authority's website or at computer access points provided by the authority, e.g. as part of the library service.

The community hosting pack is not just a free e-mail service where the thisbit.co.uk of the address is totally meaningless e.g. someone_457_uk@lotsofspam_notnice.co.uk, but a complete on-line service designed specifically for community groups.

This means each community group will be become part of an on-line community group under their own, individual, suitable domain name. They get to choose the "thisbit.co.uk" so that it means something to them. This will give community members a sense of belonging when communicating across the internet, e.g A_member@your_thisbit.co.uk. This belonging can also inspire some members of the community group who have concerns about the Internet to take the step over the digital divide and join the rest of the group online.

Each community hosting package includes the following:
1. The registration of a suitable available .co.uk domain address.
2. Unlimited (POP3) email accounts (browser based web access included as a free addition to community groups).
3. Anti Virus scanning at server level on all incoming e-mails to the
domain address for your added protection.
4. SPAM protection at server level to reduce the amount of unwanted
e-mails.
5. Generous amounts of web-space for hosting a website.
6. Full unlimited FTP access to update and maintain the website.
7. An online control panel is made available on each domain account so that ftp details and mail accounts etc can be set up by the community - comprehensive online help support is provided within the control panel and on the holding page.
8. Low cost dial up is also available to all community members if required (1p per min on BT lines)

Depending on the needs and the ability of the community group, the domain package can either be used as an e-mail service only or it can be developed to include a website about their community group. Websites once built can include message boards, promotion of events and meetings as well as document sharing facilities and feedback forms. The community group can utilise as much or as little as they feel comfortable with.

~ENDS~

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