e Innovations seeing the DiViDe

1
e- Innovations - seeing the DiViDe

• Lorraine Surridge
• Chiltern District Council

2
Chiltern District Council

• The Council is situated just 30 miles from London
  in the County of Buckinghamshire
• It has approx. 89,000 residents in 38,000 homes
  plus approx. 1,500 businesses
• Chiltern District Council employees about 200
  people

3
Seeing the DiViDe

• What is this project about?
• By making use of an old technology, the TV, to
  introduce a new technology, the Internet
• We produced a short film in the form of a
  docu-soap where a family find out about council
  services when they move into their new home.

4
The key objectives of this project

• To encourage more residents to use the Councils
  online services
• To engage with more residents in the annual
  consultation process.

FOR MORE INFO...
www.chiltern.gov.uk/digitaldivide
5
Aims threading throughout the project

• Be Innovative
• Bridge the Digital Divide
• Be inclusive

6
Who were in the divide?

• Young?
• Old?
• Blue collar worker?
• Physically disabled?
• Non-English speakers?
• Those who arent aware that a council would have
  a website?

7
Why a DVD

• Its visual a picture paints a 1000 words
• Its versatile
• A DVD can be played
• On a DVD player, a Playstation2, an Xbox or a PC
  (with DVD drive)
• Inclusivity with
• Audio description
• Foreign language translation
• Additional material can be included as bonus
  material

8
DVD survey

• Fastest growing electronic consumer good of all
  time (source Office for National Statistics)
• Over 54 of Chiltern District residents owned one
  back in Feb 04.(But same survey exposed that 53
  of residents didnt know we had a web site).
• DVD ownership forecasted to be over 70 by Xmas
  2004
• Local libraries film rentals shops now loan
  more DVDs than video

9
Aims thread throughout the project

• Be Innovative
• A docu-soap of this kind had not been done
  before. For the 1st time our Council was
  consulting with all of its residents at a time
  and place that suited them

10
Aims thread throughout the project

• Bridge the Digital Divide
• By delivering to every home we were ensuring that
  every possibility was covered

11
Aims thread throughout the project

• Be inclusive
• Soap family spanning 3 generations.
• DVDs versatility gave opportunities for language
  translations as well as meeting some physical
  disability issues
• Include partner service areas
• Such as those from County, Town and Parishes,
  Voluntary sector, Health service, Fire services

12
Promotion of many Services

• Council Tax
• Recycling including bulky waste collections
• Fire and Rescue Service
• Potholes Highways online
• Parish Councils Allotments
• Concessionary Tokens
• Exercise classes Health Promotion
• Register to vote
• Bucks Car Share Green Travel
• CCTV cameras
• Learning to swim
• Parking on double yellow lines

13
Project Schedule

• High level schedule milestones

Approval and planning
Design Development
Implementation Roll out
FOR MORE INFO...
www.chiltern.gov.uk/digitaldivide
14
Main issues to get right

• Do your research first
• Use existing data and then check it against your
  particular area
• Use a local supplier
• They know the end customer and are nearby for
  quality progress checks
• Keep to the original scope
• Creativity can often lead to scope creep which
  leads to overrun on time and budget!

15
Communication Before, during after

• Be inclusive
• Involve others by asking for their input
• Partners
• Members
• Staff
• Focus groups
• Local media
• Be open and realistic
• Anticipate issues and have the answers ready
  before they arise

16
Promotion of DVD

• A publicity campaign ran throughout the Summer.
• Posters, local press articles, local radio
  interviews, Chiltern Chronicle

17
Team/Resources

• Resources allocated to this project
• People from every service area
• E-champions made up the project board
• Equipment provided by supplier
• Locations internal external
• Incl. Council offices
• Support outside services
• External Commercial Sponsorship
• ODPM e-Innovations plus matched fund

18
Technology

• New technology for the Council
• Audio and visual media
• Web Streaming of video footage on our website
  (hosted externally costing 50 per month)

19
Outputs from the Project

• Tender document
• Script
• Project Plan
• Publicity Material

FOR MORE INFO...
www.chiltern.gov.uk/digitaldivide
20
Budget

• Budget of 104,000 breakdown
• DVD production - 50,000
• Resourcing - 30,000
• Distribution - 12,000
• Marketing - 12,000
• incl. 20,000 for 40,000 DVDs

21
Clip for film
22
Post distribution analysis

• 16 of homes i.e.6,080 have watched the DVD
  (source External phone survey 01/2005)
• In 1st 5 months (1.11.04 31.3.05)
• nearly 18,000 pages viewed from DVD dedicated web
  page
• Over 600 new unique visitors
• Main web site stats grown from 7,500 to 11,000
  unique visitors per month since DVD issued
• The main reason given for not having watched the
  DVD was lack of time

23
Lessons Learnt

• Lessons Learnt
• Mindset to watch must be right
• New residents were more receptive to learning
  about their area
• Project contingencies for unexpected delays or
  issues
• A typical British Summer .it rained!
• Foreign language subtitles took longer than
  expected

24
Questions and Feedback
?