John O’Hara set up the South Bristol Learning Network, based at South Bristol College in September 1993 as the result of a ú750,000 government grant from the Department of Employment’s TEC Challenge scheme. O’Hara, a native Canadian who has spent the last 20 years in England, became exasperated with the British education system after watching his kids grind their way through school. His attempts to try and change, or at least influence the system from the bottom up with his independent, not-for-profit company have had far reaching effects. In partnership with ICL Plc, who provided the business know-how, the Learning Network has marketed its model around the world. In the US the Morino Institute and the Washington-based Centre for Civic Networking have been briefed by O’Hara’s team, as have the G7 Conference on the Information Superhighway Society in Brussels, the Finnish Information Superhighway team in Helsinki, the Parliamentary Information Technology Committee conference along with many other groups around the UK and Europe. The Learning Network has established itself as a leading international model for encouraging community-driven development of the Information Superhighway. The project aimed to support lifelong learning by creating opportunities to access and shape the emerging information highway for the benefit of individuals and businesses in the local community. So far, through Cyberskills Workshops, 2,250 people, many of whom were previously unemployed, have been shown how to use the Internet, electronic mail, the World Wide Web, videoconferencing and CD-based interactive multimedia material. O’Hara’s vision is to educate those at the bottom of the social scale to raise the skills in an economically deprived area. Over the last 50 years he believes all attempts to rejuvenate South Bristol, an area that boasts the highest rates of unemployment in the South West of England, have failed. Although the case isn’t proven that technology can rejuvenate societies, said O’Hara, You have got to start somewhere. Most people don’t give a damn, so it’s a constant struggle. We may also fail, but at least we’re trying.
Model of excellence
Additional training was also offered at the centre in business planning, research, marketing and presentation skills. By assessing the local information technology needs of the area, the South Bristol team worked with local groups to organise a local strategy for accessing and shaping the emerging information society. The network now provides consultancy services for local, UK and European government and has been cited as a model of excellence in published reports including the Citizen’s Charter for improving service through information technology and the UK government’s Competitiveness White Paper. It reads like a success story, but things in South Bristol are running anything but smoothly. The firm has an annual turnover of ú400,000, but the initial government funding has long since run out and O’Hara is the first to admit the company may disappear tomorrow. Now focus is moving away from community-based projects in favour of the commercial sector, and the money it can provide. Over ú500,000 has already been raised by SBLN activities in partnership with ICL Plc, CompuServe Inc, British Telecommunications Plc and Future Publishing Ltd. The Network plans to open a cyberskills business centre to enable small businesses to drop in for training as and when new skills are needed. Although the Learning Network says it will try to give one day a week to teaching community-based groups, it is now dependent on private sector funding. A one-day training session costs ú250 for an individual, ú1,000 for a group of 10 to 12 people. And so long as the business community continues to attend, the local community will benefit.
