Connecting Villages

More news of sustainable communities... two new initiatives to better connect the people of the Ouse Valley villages:

COMMUNITY INTERACTION

Village Connections have recently been contacted by Action in Rural Sussex who are looking for more imaginative ways of encouraging better interaction between people living in local rural villages. A free ten week computer course for older people will be starting soon in the new Kingston village Hall, there will also be a Photography course. Details are posted in all the noticeboards along the Ouse valley, I've suggestsed that AIRS could post details on line and will be meeting the project co-ordinator next week and hope to post more information then. In the meantime it would be very interesting to hear about existing or new or potential projects or ideas for greater community connections which may need a helping hand... please post in the discussion forum?

COMMUNITY INTERNET

Iana is progressing well with the community internet project and has arranged a meeting with local residents, ESCC councillors and Inkspot WIFI which I also hope to attend... please let us know if you'd like to get involved or come along to hear more? This is our chance to find a real solution... I've asked Iana, who has great enthusiasm for making this happen, to keep us updated and she has just forwarded the following details about her idea and about this potential solution...

Idea

The project is to create high powered, cheap, reliable internet connection along the Ouse Valley region running from Lewes to Newhaven. At present the internet connection in these villages is poor to non-existent. Many people in these villages are retired, elderly and some are very isolated. They have few amenities that we in town take for granted. Many people also run small enterprises such as B&Bs or farm shops. I have heard from many residents that initiatives have been started in the past, but as the big companies involved saw little commercial value in the projects they were abandoned. I saw the success of the Oyster Project's Community Internet scheme in Lewes and asked its founder for advice, which led me to the Inkspot.wifi company who specialise in connecting rural locations and engaging with the community

About Inkspot Wi-Fi

Inkspot Wi-Fi is a relatively young company though with a number of old heads running it. Our tag line is “Intelligent Network Solutions” which is very apt in describing what we do. Unlike most companies that operate in our space, we do not rely on a single product for our solutions but rather figure out the best combination of technologies for a given situation. The products we use include Wimax, Meraki wifi gateways and access points, Broadband over Power Line, Satellite and Ethernet First Mile.

Initially the company was set up to tackle solving connectivity issues in areas that have poor or no broadband access. We have tendered for a number of projects for communities in Kent and Hampshire. To date it appears that the majority of the communities do not understand the technologies on offer or have not got themselves organised quickly enough to take advantage of the various grants available. The Councils then offer other communities that grant money by way of another laborious tender process. As a result of all this, we have decided that the way forward is to engage directly with communities like yours so that we can explain how the technologies work, the financial implications and various deployment options.

Our wifi product in particular is amazingly sophisticated as well as being incredibly good value. This means that, in some instances, if there is no installation grant available and there is sufficient interest from local homes and businesses in the area, we may install the equipment required at our own cost. It is important to note that because we are deploying our own networks from a dedicated connection, contention rates are very low which in turn leads to high speeds allowing video streaming etc

Out with the ‘rural not-spot’ sector we have deployments using the same technology in caravan and holiday parks on pay-as-you-go networks where the use of PDA’s seems to be growing at an exponential rate. In the next few weeks we are putting a network in Skegness, where the Council have allowed us to use their lampposts for our access points. We will be able to offer connectivity to the vast majority of the 30,000 + caravans in Skegness as well as a community that receives very poor broadband speeds.

Other interesting projects on the go include a network over a race horse gallops so that the owner can monitor his horse’s blood pressure and heart beat whilst exercising primarily powered by solar panels!

We would welcome the opportunity to come and talk to the communities in the Ouse Valley to explain and demonstrate the technology we have on offer and discuss the various options available.