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Digital Communities Final Report

D Digital infrastructure

Physical Infrastructure

D.1 Half (48%) of all households in North Argyll and 43% in Bellsmyre had experienced problems with the computers at the time of the interim survey ( Figure D-1). By the final survey ( Figure D-2), these figures had not fallen in North Argyll although slightly fewer households in Bellsmyre appeared to be still experiencing problems (33%).

D.2 The most common types of problems at both stages and in both areas were the computer crashing or freezing; inability to get on to the internet and a slow internet connection ( Table D-1). Fewer households in the final survey had problems sending e-mails, which may suggest that early problems in this respect were a result of lack of confidence/knowledge rather than problems with the equipment.

D.3 Overall, around half of respondents in both areas who had experienced any problems at the Interim stage had problems with the internet or e-mail.

D.4 In North Argyll, this may be connected with the fact that the NAIDC project encountered problems early on with the presence of DAX lines, where one phone line is split between several households, on the islands. While adequate for telephone calls, DAX lines lead to very slow internet access speeds. They are also expensive to replace.

D.5 While Bellsmyre did not encounter similar problems relating to the quality of phonelines in the area, there were issues surrounding (a) the proportion of participants who had Telewest rather than BT phone accounts (which created some problems around the type of internet account that could be provided) and (b) the proportion of households with no active landline.

D.6 The Digital Bellsmyre project discovered that roughly 1 in 10 of the households that had signed up to participate in the project did not have active landlines. The project arranged for phonelines to be installed or re-activated for these households, but again this led to delays in the roll-out of the computers and contractual complications in terms of both needing to negotiate with BT to arrange this process and revisions to the contract between the project and these households to ensure that the project did not become liable for paying their phone bills.

Support for Problems

D.7 Participants in each community had various options if they needed help with their computer. In both areas, they could contact the Freeserve helpline for help with internet access problems, the PC World helpline for problems with their equipment, "Digital champions" or community support workers trained by the project to give help in the community, and finally the projects themselves. In North Argyll, a website was set up by a local resident which also provided help and advice for participants (the 2000 Friends website), while in Bellsmyre some participants also contacted Telewest for help.

D.8 The most common source of help accessed in both areas was friends and family members, rather than any formal source (43% of households in North Argyll and 39% in Bellsmyre reported contacting family or friends for advice or help about a problem at the Interim survey stage - Table D-2).

D.9 Households in North Argyll, but not Bellsmyre, appeared to be more likely to contact formal sources of advice and help at the time of the final survey compared with the Interim survey. Given that the proportions of households reporting problems with their computers in the Interim and Final surveys were very similar, this may indicate increased awareness of the help available or increased willingness to use it.

D.10 At the interim survey, respondents in North Argyll were most satisfied with the length of time taken by, and the quality of advice received from, Digital Champions or community support workers and the 2000 Friends website to deal with their queries or problems. They were significantly less satisfied with the length of time taken by North Argyll Council/NAIDC and by the Freeserve helpline and were less satisfied with the quality of the help or advice received from North Argyll Council/NAIDC.

D.11 Respondents in Bellsmyre were most satisfied with the length of time taken by, and quality of advice received from, Digital Champions or community support workers and from West Dunbartonshire Council/Digital Bellsmyre.

D.12 The main reasons given for being dissatisfied with the quality of the advice received was that it did not help, or that the problem was still unresolved, that it took too long to resolve problems and that they had experienced difficulties getting help in the first place (e.g. because the phone line was always busy).

D.13 The findings on satisfaction should be treated with some caution, as they are based on the small numbers of respondents who had actually contacted each organisation at the Interim stage. However, they suggest that accessibility is a key factor affecting whether support offered adequately meets user needs. The local based services (e.g. Digital Champions, West Dunbartonshire Council) tended to produce higher satisfaction by respondents.

Training Provision

D.14 The Digital Communities projects were required to ensure training was provided to increase the level of ICT and web skills in the two communities.

D.15 Just over 40% of respondents in Bellsmyre and 48% of respondents in North Argyll had already taken part in some computer training in the past before taking part in the Digital Communities projects. Most of this training did not lead to any qualification.

D.16 The final survey asked respondents whether they had been offered any training and learning opportunities to help them get the best use out of their new computers. Around a third of respondents in each area said they had not been offered any training or learning opportunities ( Table D-3).

D.17 Further, 30% of respondents in North Argyll and 23% in Bellsmyre agreed or strongly agreed with the statement "There was not enough training or learning on offer to help me use the new computer", suggesting that there was some mismatch between the supply of training or learning and participants' needs (See Table G-4).

D.18 The most common type of training people did recall being offered was training on basic computer use, such as using the mouse or the keyboard, followed by training on using Windows and using e-mail.

D.19 Take-up of training in both areas appeared to be fairly low based on the survey results. Although around two-thirds of respondents in each area did recall being offered training or learning to help them use their new computers, of these three-quarters had not taken part in any ( Table D-4). Overall, 84% of respondents in Bellsmyre and 83% in North Argyll either did not recall being offered any training or had not taken-up the opportunities on offer.

D.20 In North Argyll, the main reason for not taking-up offers of training was that respondents did not feel they needed any (47% of respondents who did not take-up offers of training), probably reflecting the higher levels of prior computer training and computer ownership in North Argyll. In Bellsmyre, while a quarter of respondents said they did not need any training (24%), 1 in 5 said the times for training were not suitable for them, suggesting that perhaps the practical arrangements for training did not always meet the needs of the community in Bellsmyre ( Table D-5).

D.21 Overall, 33% of respondents in Bellsmyre and 40% in North Argyll were 'very' or 'fairly satisfied' with the training and learning opportunities offered to them to help them use their new computers ( Figure D-3). Fifteen per cent in Bellsmyre and 16% in North Argyll were 'very' or 'fairly dissatisfied', while 52% and 42% respectively did not know how to answer this question, probably because they had decided not to take these offers up and therefore did not feel able to comment on the quality of what was offered.

D.22 In Bellsmyre, 64% of those who were dissatisfied said this was because they were not offered any training or did not hear about any. In North Argyll, 28% of those who were dissatisfied said this was because they were offered training too long after getting their computer while 16% said the courses were not suitable or were too basic. This suggests a need to ensure that training is in place and ready to start before providing computers to individuals who may be unfamiliar with them.

D.23 Findings from both the Interim and Final surveys suggest a relatively wide range of topics that participants in the Digital Communities projects wanted to learn about to help them use their new computer ( Table D-6). Older respondents and respondents who had not taken part in computer training before were more likely to identify a fairly narrow and specific range of training needs based around basic tasks, like using e-mail and the internet. However, other respondents expressed interest in training on topics such as using spreadsheets and databases, web design, using graphics packages or digital photography, etc. Interest in these types of topics was higher among respondents at Wave 3 compared with respondents at Wave 2, while interest in training on using e-mail or the internet fell between these Waves.

D.24 At the Interim survey, a relatively high proportion of respondents in Bellsmyre said they did not know what they would like training on (15%). This may suggest that at the time there was a need to highlight the types of things computers can be used for and the types of training available, since people "don't know what they don't know".

Community Portals

D.25 The Digital Communities projects were required to develop community-based web-portals with local content relevant to each community, including relevant on-line public and commercial services. The two community portals were Bellsmyre.com and Argyll.com. The final survey assessed attitudes towards these portals among participants in the Digital Communities.

D.26 The Bellsmyre portal appears to be more successful in terms of the proportion of respondents accessing it and the frequency with which they have accessed it. Sixty-seven per cent of respondents in Bellsmyre reported having looked at Bellsmyre.com compared with the 44% of North Argyll respondents reporting having looked at Argyll.com. Further, half (49%) of the respondents in Bellsmyre who had accessed Bellsmyre.com had looked at it 10 or more times, compared with 38% of respondents in North Argyll who had accessed Argyll.com this often ( Figure D-4).

D.27 Just 11% of respondents who had accessed Bellsmyre.com and 8% who had accessed Argyll.com reported using the websites to look for information on computer problems, suggesting they have both taken on a broader role in providing information for and about the two communities, rather than remaining narrowly focused on the Digital Communities projects ( Table D-7). However, Bellsmyre.com appears to have been somewhat more successful in providing content of interest to residents, based on the range of items respondents reported looking at on each website. Around half of all respondents who had looked at either Bellsmyre.com or Argyll.com reported using the sites for information about local events or local news. However, over a third of respondents who had looked at Bellsmyre.com had logged on to on-line discussion forums on Bellsmyre.com (compared with 4% of North Argyll participants who accessed Argyll.com); 15% had looked at information on local health services (compared with 3% for Argyll.com); and 13% had looked at on-line competitions.

D.28 Bellsmyre residents who had accessed Bellsmyre.com were more likely than North Argyll residents who had accessed Argyll.com to state there was nothing that could be improved about the website (65% compared with 38%). A variety of suggestions for improving the websites were given by relatively small proportions of respondents in both areas ( Table D-8), including the following:

• more about the community or community events, or including a community notice board (7% North Argyll, 2% Bellsmyre)
• more community input (4% North Argyll, 1% Bellsmyre)
• the websites should have been running earlier (some suggested before the computers were delivered) (3% North Argyll, 1% Bellsmyre).

D.29 Thirty-one per cent of all respondents in Bellsmyre and 28% in North Argyll said they were 'very likely' to use their community portal in the future. A further 30% in Bellsmyre and 33% in North Argyll said they were 'fairly likely' to access them in the future. In combination with findings on the relatively high proportion of respondents, particularly in Bellsmyre, who had accessed the sites, this suggests that the community portals are valued by participants in the Digital Communities projects.

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