Seil Chat

At least those people did register, but it was probably with more than one Broadband provider.

I had foreseen a few duplicates - so many providers are offering such good deals that people want to be registered with them for when the system is available. You can bet that they will be inundating us with offers when our activation date is announced.

I've been hearing that some people have had difficulty registering, especially on the BT site.

One of the easiest sites is "Samknows" where the registration form is easily accessed by clicking on the menu item on the top left of the page. This site is also very informative about the status of registrations for lots of areas, including Balvicar. Just click on the following link, or paste it into your browser address line

http://www.samknows.co.uk/broadband

99!!!!

One more to go, and I sent another 20 flyers out today. Yeeeeeeeeeeees!

Pat

Good work Pat . . .

I've updated the Home Page to reflect this. Time to find and fill in that grant form, perhaps . . .

- Nick

It wasn't just me, Mary played a big part, too, by putting leaflets in Balvicar Stores.

Girl power!

Pat

PS Where do we get that Grant form from?

Well done Pat,

I'm sure that "ONE" will be appearing very soon now, thanks to your heroic mailshot effort.

I hope the editor of the "Seileachan" newsletter takes note of your work and makes at least a mention of it in the next issue. The notable absence of any reference to the Broadband project by this issue of our, so-called, community newsletter was very dissappointing.

Again, Pat - !!! Well done that woman !!!

Yeah, I was disappointed that the Broadband issue wasn't mentioned, too. At least they put the Seil site in.

Pat

Three Cheers 100 at 1PM today. Hip Hip Hooray


All we need now is our activation date - Come on BT !!

yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Three cheers for Seil!

Pat

We have a ready-for-service date - 27.7.05. Gordon Bennett, we could all be dead by then!

Pat

Well, this IS BT we are having to deal with!

Their management, etc... are all too busy spending their big bonuses to worry about our impatience

We will just have to live in the vain hope that the date will be brought forward - it has happened before.

Suddenly, mysteriously, small communities all over Scotland are reaching their trigger point - then they are given dates up to 15 months in the future for the service actually being available.

I don't believe all these registrations actually happened - I think it's just a big scam to kid us that Tony Blah has fulfilled at least one of his election pledges before we are asked to mark the spot with our X again.

- Nick

Well, Nick - You know where NOT to put your X next time round.

I admit that I am not only bitterly disappointed with our RFS date, I am just a wee bit FURIOUS

After all the work Pat put in with her mailshots and my wee effort with my leaflets in Balvicar PO I think we had all expected a better response from BT. I agree that, yet again, they were pressured by Tony bLIAR (my preferred spelling) into setting up the biggest CON yet. I tell you this, when we do get upgraded, guess what broadband provider I WILL NOT be using I used to be with BT Anytime until they changed the "anytime" to up to 150 hours per month only.

I am with Freeserve and I will stay with them. I hope that everyone else will boycott BT Broadband and stay with the Freeserve service we got with our free PC's.

Yep, I've ditched BT - since they amalgamated with yahoo I was unable to use my primary mail box. There are thousands of people in the same position, apparently. Whenever I used the help line I was taken through the same old stuff time and time again - at 50p a minute. Everyone was very polite and helpful, but that's no good if the information is useless. After looking on the broadband forums for a reliable provider, PlusNet came out on top. I've got a dial up account with them now, and will upgrade to broadband if I'm still alive when we are enabled I know you guys like Freeserve, but I never got on with them too well. Each to his own, you stick with what you know.
BT say they are going to try to bring our RFS date forward - it'll probably be before the next election, don't you think

Pat

Our RFS date for Broadband has been updated to 16 March 2005
Pat

I suggest you go and sow your spam seeds elsewhere.
Preferably where the sun don't shine.

Pat

I've deleted the post Pat was referring to plus another one following it.

Got all excited for a minute because I thought someone was actually using the site, but no . . . so much for the Digital Communities project. The conclusions of the Scottish Executive are reproduced below:

Digital Communities Final Report

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
-------------------------------------
Digital exclusion continues to be important and needs to be addressed;
-------------------------------------
The initiative did increase use of the internet and e-mail in the participating communities, especially in Bellsmyre where information and communications technology (ICT) usage was relatively low before the pilot;
-------------------------------------
While people who did not use computers to start with used them less and for a more limited range of functions than those already using computers at the start of the project, it did provide an entry into ICT usage for new users;
-------------------------------------
Most participants did clearly perceive benefits from taking part;
However, there is a clear need to appraise new policies in detail to avoid deadweight, incentive compatibility and implementation problems;
-------------------------------------
There was very significant dead-weight in this project. Targeted interventions are likely to be more cost-effective unless there is a priori evidence of low deadweight (e.g. new /uncommon technology);
-------------------------------------
Programmes need to be tailored to the needs of participants, and in this it is essential to decide what specific benefits the technology can provide;
-------------------------------------
Appropriate outcome objectives (e.g. achievement of a labour market qualification or access to particular services) can serve as a useful centre around which to build interventions;
-------------------------------------
There is still a very significant group of people that do not take up the opportunity of ICT even if free access is provided. A completely different angle to reach these groups might need to be developed;
-------------------------------------
The focus of future digital inclusion interventions should be more on 'intangibles' (such as training and education and community portals) rather than 'tangibles' (such as computers).
-------------------------------------

Quite interesting reading . . . overall they seem to have decided it was a waste of money.

(Source: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/finance/dcfr-00.asp )

- Nick

I'm a bit surprised that they might think it was a waste of money. How could they possibly know that?

When we received our invites to take part we were told that we could expect to receive questionnaires and the like to assess our use of the free PC's and internet access. I have never received any such communication. If anyone else has, I'd like to know why I didn't.

I used to be a professional contract MS Access developer with many years experience using computers. I even offered my services as a Digital Champion. I never even got a reply to that.

I thought it was a brilliant idea and I believe lots of people have got a lot out of it. Maybe they should have asked all of us.

There was absolutely no support at all. My Mum, who is over 80, was just left with the computer - she hadn't a clue how to turn it off, even. As she finds it difficult to get about, she was unable to get to any of the things down at the village hall (I assume there were things on down at the village hall?) I wonder if any of the other communities have become closer together?

Pat