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Conclusions
Reaching those parts...
Positively promoting the
part that ICT can play in regeneration activities does not mean that
it is a magic wand to cure all social ills. ICT supports and enhances
- and modernises - other regeneration activities.
ICT can be used to deliver
benefits to disadvantaged and socially excluded groups - such as the
unemployed, the disaffected or discouraged, people with low skills,
with caring responsibilities, with disabilities, or with transport
difficulties. It does this essentially by being able to overcome
distance and even institutional barriers in delivering services and
promoting dialogue.
But perhaps most
importantly, the uses of the ICT and the services on offer have to be
relevant to the community. Involvement of the community from planning
stage is essential.
And it is very important
to have clear aims. In this article I have tried to indicate what the
choices are. Too many projects suffer from trying to do to many
things, or having unrealistic expectations about what the budget can
do.
Adapting to maximise
the benefits
The experience of
regeneration projects should feed back into the organisations
supporting the activities. The partners involved need to go up the ICT
learning curve, and to see how their internal processes, their working
practices and their communications need to evolve to get maximum
value.
Questions need to be asked
like:
-
Should we be
eliminating paper processes?
-
How do we manage our
information up to the point of its online publication? Can we
improve on it?
-
Do people still have
to work in the same places? Can we trade off some central property
to support a facility on the front line?
-
Can people travel less
for meetings and to access resources?
In the end it's all about
improved service delivery, and the benefits should be felt both
internally and externally.
Intro
| Employment | Business
| Learning | Community-building
| Conclusions
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