Comparative Study of Public e-Service Centres in - ePractice.eu

PUBLIC E-SERVICE CENTRES IN EUROPE
- Design of the Digiroom with necessary equipment;
- Use of the appropriate methodologies, software (in license) and tools;
- Secure data environment on central server.
After that the implementation starts with PR campaigns in the neighbourhood and training.
The national organisation helps with the implementation in the first three years of the initiative.
During this period the sustainability of the project is examined. This starts with securing
commitment. If possible the project is integrated within an already existing organisation and
infrastructure. This assures that operational costs are kept to a minimum. Only the payment of
a part time staff member has to be financed.
WiN is researching the possibilities of starting similar projects abroad in cooperation with
other organisations. It would welcome the establishment of a practice community with similar
organisations to exchange tools, methodologies software and start projects together. WiN
already has contacts in Italy, Spain, Sweden, England, and Latvia. It founded Vit@l Society 17 ,
a consortium which made a declaration on the new social use of the internet. This was
supported e.g. the Nordic Council and the Baltic IT&T Conference 2006.
In 2008 WiN will publish a book on the methodologies developed and used. The niche of the
WiN project is not so much the software it uses but the methodology of training, educating
and communicating using the Internet as a tool for empowerment and community building.
E. Financial
WiN has received financing from a variety of sources. Primarily from:
- the EQUAL programme of the European Commission which made local pilots
possible in six neighbourhoods;
- Housing corporations;
- Municipalities;
- Private funding including the National VSB fund and the Oranjefonds.
All funding of the WiN foundation has been project finance. So far, no structural subsidies
have been granted. This makes the sustainability of many of the projects insecure. All local
projects plus the national WiN foundation, rely on a small amount funding. Operational costs
are now relatively low with less than 50k per year per project.
For the sustainability of WiN and the local projects, a solid business plan is necessary. WiN is
therefore working on a strategic business plan for future activities. The business plan focuses
on:
- Training of staff
- Software licenses
- Consultancy on implementation
- Consultancy on methodology
F. Recipes for success
WiN shows that educating people is at the core of projects on the social use of ICT. Education
is not only focused on the users, but starts with the people employed at the centres. This
assures a quality standard and stimulates the empowerment of people. The animators can
support people in using the internet as a tool to facilitate their activities.
As Kuiper explains: “On the popular video platform YouTube around one percent of visitors
really contribute to the community. WiN is built on the idea that there is a continuing
interaction possible between the physical and virtual world if you bring Internet to attractive
social places in the neighbourhood. The actual building and updating of users websites can
easily be done by the person him/herself. The result of using this software for the design of
websites and web applications is that people are no longer thinking: I'm developing a website
in the technical sense, but more what am I going to use it for, what can I do with it and how
can I use it to reach out to other people. Then the eagerness for some professional advice
starts"
17 See: New social use of ICT: http://peabody.org.uk/Filestore/AboutUs/Downloads/NewSocialUseOfICT.pdf
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