Sheffield's Open
Information Project doesn't
claim to be a community network. Its aim is establish an electronic
information network which will be cheap, easy to use and of direct
benefit to the work of "third sector" - voluntary and social economy
- organisations in Sheffield.
From the start the project has set out to meet the defined needs of
participating organisations. One need has come from changes in the
nature and sources of funds for work in the voluntary and social
economy sector in recent years. These have multiplied in recent years
but their nature has also changed.
They are often less transparent and accountable in their decision
making, more focused on short term output rather than institutional
development and may require the development of new partnerships -
local or transnational - as a condition of funding.
Such demands increase the importance of regular access to up to date
information but also - because funds for core staff are cut - lessen
organisational capacity to get that information through traditional
means such as attending conferences and meetings.
Organisations need rapid access to information about funding sources
and the ability to share experience and ideas in order to make
appropriate responses.
Although Sheffield does have a number of high quality paper based
directories and newsletters there are a number of reasons why it was
felt appropriate to develop an electronic network.
Previous efforts to create electronic
information systems in Sheffield suffered for lack of high level
supporters or from being so technically led that others had
difficulty in comprehending let alone following.
Open Information Project, by contrast, grew out of the experience of
one organisation, Sheffield Co-operative Development Group (SCDG), of
the difficulty of keeping up to date with all the potential changes
affecting its area of work. Discussions with other organisations
showed that this was a common feeling and this shared with a belief
that there should be technology available to help us led to the start
of this project. The first step was to send a questionairre to
organisations in the sector. Of some forty positive
responses:-
SCDG appointed its development worker
Mike Powell, to work on the project. His job has been to develop
options which have then been discussed at a series of five seminars,
attended on average by representatives from ten different
participating organisations, each of which have guided the next stage
of the project.
The project has been funded by the European Regional Development Fund
and also received repeated help, both officially and voluntarily from
staff, from the University of Sheffield and from Sheffield Hallam
University.
The existence of the project on one directory will make it possible to download all the information contained to other systems, such as those operated by the local libraries and possibly cable television, which do not offer external Internet access. Training sessions introducing the World Wide Web and teaching basic HTML have also played a vital part in raising awareness and skills.
The project went on line in April
1996. This represents only one stage in its development. During early
months only eleven of the project's members have put their pages up.
More are likely to follow very soon but it is expected that it will
take many months for the information posted to gradually build up
into a useful resource.
It is also taking time to develop the communications potential of the
project which is probably its most important single element. Early
ideas to use Newsgroups or On Line Conferencing Software have proved
too ambitious. Busy organisations taking their first steps into
telematic communication are not going to look for messages in
different places. Thus the project is starting with an internal
mailing list which will enable members to post messages to the
members as a whole.
A third component of the project will involve regular monitoring of
network usage and attempts to develop and use appropriate methodology
to evaluate the impact the network has on the sector.
The most important sign of progress is however in the project itself.
Twenty five organisations participated in the early stages of the
project and are receiving grants to help cover their modem and
service provider costs. A further nine have joined the association of
local, not for profit organisations which the Open Information
Project has become. Many others are associate members or have asked
to be kept on the project mailing list and the last progress meeting
was the best attended of all. The lead role taken by SCDG has been
subsumed by a democratically based steering committee.
The Open Information Project has met all its official targets but it
is far too early to call it a success. The level of participation of
its members does however offer encouragement both for the
sustainability of the existing project and for its further
development.
Open
Information Project Web site
http://www.shef.ac.uk/~oip
www.partnerships.org.uk/articles/oip1.html