Cities rise to the £7m digital challenge

Ten councils are battling it out to win a £7m prize for showcasing how IT can get local communities interacting more.

The Digital Challenge initiative is a competition aimed at UK councils to encourage them to think about issues of social and digital exclusion within communities.

Out of 80 entrants, 10 finalists have been shortlisted, including Birmingham (as lead authority), Bristol City, Ealing, Kingston upon Hull, Manchester City, Milton Keynes, Norfolk County, Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire County Councils, Shropshire County, Stratford-on-Avon District and Sunderland City.

The winner will be announced in April 2007.

Entrants have taken very different approaches to the project.

For example Sunderland's people-based approach, dubbed 'Where People Matter' focuses on social inclusion, whereas 'Connected Nottingham' is aiming its efforts at an interactive computer game festival called GameCity.

Sunderland's bid promotes social inclusion to groups that might feel excluded or isolated from the local community, through IT training initiatives and getting people to try out new gadgets.

Diane Downey, assistant head of ICT at Sunderland City Council told silicon.com the council is "trying not to target one particular group".

Among the technologies being demoed are modified mobiles with panic buttons and local tracking, to help elderly and disabled people live more independently from carers.

In addition, the Digisize training programme will see individuals receive free IT training, ranging from basic skills courses to certified Microsoft qualifications.

The people who receive training then commit to training others in their newly developed tech skills.

Sunderland also plans to build on its current e-Champions project, where 95 volunteer workers are armed with laptops and sent out to communities considered difficult to reach, to encourage the take up of ICT.

Nottingham's bid is using a mobile e-studio touring local libraries, enabling citizens to contribute knowledge and testimonies of past and present city life.

The city's international GameCity festival - held in the last week of October - was also part of the bid to engage digitally excluded families and communities.

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GameCity used public spaces in the city to showcase the developments and potential of interactive gaming - including the projection of games onto the side of buildings, live music events, talks, demos and a look back at 'retro' gaming.

Michael Edwards, deputy leader of Nottingham City Council, told silicon.com GameCity's aim was to "get beyond the internal perception of what people involved in gaming are like".

Both bids plan to reach people at home, with IPTV being pushed by Sunderland - to get people following anything from exercise classes to IT training online - and Nottingham helping economically inactive people to start homeworking.

Anthony Walker, director of strategy at Intellect, told silicon.com the competition format had generated a lot of responses and added: "Councils weren't really thinking about these [technology] issues until the competition came along."