Day 6 – 9 January 2014
It is not often that we get a chance to make a direct impact upon the good people of the county. ICT is usually in the background (or in the basement in most cases) but it is different with the Digital Durham programme. Our aim is to provide, or at least have provided superfast broadband to every single business, home and community across the county.
When we started four years ago, access to effective broadband was in the low 20%. It is now around 60% but by September 2016 it will achieve 98%. This still leaves us with 2% to go for but will be a fantastic achievement and will place Durham squarely in the 21st century. Access to broadband will be amongst the best in the world and will be good for jobs, educational attainment, access to services and the competitiveness of the county in a global market.
Digital Durham’s world headquarters is in the Education Development Centre near Spennymoor and I’ve spent the whole day there. I say world headquarters partially as a joke, to inflate our importance, but also because we are dealing with this problem at a regional level. We are helping deliver broadband to our colleagues in Gateshead, Sunderland and the five Tees Valley authorities. Getting eight authorities to sign a single contract was an achievement in itself but the deployment plan is underway now and it is all very exciting.
We started off with an hour long demand stimulation and digital inclusion meeting which lasted 3 hours. There was so much to talk about and Janine blinded us with the power of her maps. We are restricted by commercial confidentially and Ofcom regulations as to what we can divulge before the event so all I can say is watch this space. You can get all the latest on Twitter @DigtialDurham.
After lunch I had a one-to-one meeting with Tony, the Programme Director. We try and meet weekly but in truth we speak to each other every day just before 8 o’clock and so there is a degree of repetition. Never mind, it’s always a pleasure to meet up with all of the team.
Learning points for today: I love working with the Digital Durham team, nothing is too much of a problem; Making a difference to the people of Durham is what I come into work for; This is the age of maps, they are very powerful story tellers.
Today’s enjoyment rating 9/10 – stuck in an accident on the A1 on the way down.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 